With amazing new books being published every day, knowing what to read next can feel overwhelming. But there are some classics that stand the test of time, and are essential reading today just like when they were published. Here’s a tiny stack of them:

All About Love, bell hooks 

In All About Love, bell hooks breaks down how to love and be loved, explaining the steps we need to take to become more loving and nurturing as a society. Love feels like such a familiar topic – after all, many of us were raised on fairytales, rom-coms and chick lit, and even those who didn’t seek out those genres would have experienced love stories in all forms of media and observed love in familial relationships. bell hooks posits we must understand love as a verb, not just a feeling. 

The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler

Granted, we hear a lot more talk about vaginas now than we did when The Vagina Monologues premiered as an off-Broadway play in [year]. But in a post #MeToo era, this book is as important as it ever was to honour some of the complexities of sexuality for people with vaginas. 

Nevada, Imogen Binnie

Nevada is often celebrated for changing the literary landscape for trans writers. The deadpan narrator – 29-year-old Maria – lets us into her consciousness. There are so many good sentences you’ll need a sharpened pencil at the ready to underline them all. It’s about struggle, about privilege, life online, relationships, and of course, transness. 

Space Crone, Ursula K Le Guin 

Space Crone brings together 50 years worth of writings on feminism and gender. Having lived through the women’s liberation and the civil rights movement, Ursula K Le Guin is a long-time activist for a fairer and more equal world. This volume covers motherhood, aging, anti-racism and more.  

If they come in the morning… voices of resistance, edited by Angela Y Davis .

Davis’ arguments for justice will never stop being compelling. This is the story of her own incarceration, told through a series of contributions from political radicals and commentators, plus Angela Y Davis herself.