Editors Reads

Topic

Social Justice

10 reading guides and book lists curated by the Editors Reads team.

10 posts

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Where to Start with Michelle Alexander: A Reading Guide

Where to start with Michelle Alexander — how to approach The New Jim Crow, her essential book on mass incarceration and racial caste. A complete reading guide.

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Where to Start with Sonya Renee Taylor: A Reading Guide

Where to start with Sonya Renee Taylor — how to approach The Body Is Not an Apology, her radical self-love manifesto that connects personal body shame to systemic oppression. A complete reading guide.

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Best Books About Civil Rights and Activism: Essential Reading

The best books about civil rights and activism — from The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Long Walk to Freedom to Between the World and Me and The New Jim Crow.

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Best Books About Class and Inequality: Essential Reading List

The best books about class and inequality — from The Grapes of Wrath and Les Misérables to Hillbilly Elegy and Normal People. Literature on poverty, privilege, and social mobility.

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Best Books About Criminal Justice: Essential Reading on Law and Incarceration

The best books about criminal justice — from The New Jim Crow and In Cold Blood to Caste and Between the World and Me. Race, law, and the American justice system.

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Best Books About Gender and Feminism: Essential Reading

The best books about gender and feminism — from A Room of One's Own and The Handmaid's Tale to Bad Feminist and We Should All Be Feminists. Essential reading.

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Best Books About Poverty and Inequality: Essential Non-Fiction and Fiction

The best books about poverty and inequality — from The Grapes of Wrath and Shuggie Bain to The Warmth of Other Suns and The New Jim Crow. Essential reading.

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Best Feminist Books: Essential Reading List

The best feminist books — from A Room of One's Own and The Second Sex to Bad Feminist and We Should All Be Feminists. Essential reading on gender, power, and equality.

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Where to Start with Angie Thomas: A Reading Guide

Where to start with Angie Thomas — whether to begin with The Hate U Give, On the Come Up, or Concrete Rose. A complete reading guide to the YA author.

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Books Like Les Misérables: Epic Justice, Redemption, and the Struggle of the Dispossessed

Victor Hugo's vast novel of Jean Valjean's flight from Inspector Javert — and the society that made both men what they are — is social fiction on the grandest scale. These books share its moral urgency and its belief that the world could be otherwise.

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