🎶I’m a Barbie Girl, In the Barbie World🎶

The Story of Art Without Men is an inspired rebalancing of the chronicle of art history, spotlighting the women who have influenced and defined art for generations. Katy Hessel joined us on our Poured Over podcast to talk about why she started this project and the women that inspire her. 

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is both a timely and honest look about the morality of separating the art from the artist. Claire Dederer (Love and Trouble) puts us right at the center in this bold inquiry into culture and the role of the critic. 

Unlikeable Female Characters chronicles the way memorable women in movies and television have evolved over time in a fresh and feminist look at pop culture canon. Smart and witty, Anna Bogutskaya (cofounder of The Final Girls) takes a nuanced look at female representation and whether society is ready to embrace complex women on the big screen.  

Writer and activist Florence Given takes her unmistakable artistry — and empowering message — to the page with Women Don’t Owe You Pretty. A visual primer on modern feminism, this book takes on toxicity in women’s relationships with each other, men and themselves, reminding us that we don’t owe anyone anything. 

Actress/model/entrepreneur and writer Emily Ratajkowski ruminates on what it means to be a woman in a culture that objectifies the female body. A memoir that scrutinizes the male gaze, internalized misogyny and social media’s impact on women, My Body is thought-provoking and deeply personal book, told with nuance and bravery.  

Joan Didion’s now iconic essay collection, The White Album captures the turmoil of the decade through key events, figures and more. Joan Didion expertly records moments when before snaps into after with sharp observations of American culture. 

Travel back in time to LA in the ‘60s and ‘70s with Eve Babitz for sex, drugs, stardom — and gorgeous prose in ten perceptive and evocative anecdotes that immerse you in a sizzling appreciation of the city. 

It’s a timeless story for a reason: Determined to live her life to the fullest, an American woman travels to Paris in the 1950s. The Dud Avocado will make you laugh until your sides hurt and charm you with reckless intimacy and a sharp eye for the ridiculous.    

This campus satire about art and identity is a remarkably tender and revelatory debut. Elaine Hsieh Chou stopped by our Poured Over podcast to talk about how writing the book changed her and more.   

A witty and wise Pulitzer Prize winning novel about a young woman’s freshman year at Harvard, The Idiot is a razor-sharp story of firsts. Selin’s college (mis)adventures continue with her Sophomore year in Either/Or, and you can listen to Elif Batuman on our Poured Over podcast as she talks about the way her life influences her writing, analyzing literature and more. 

Your Driver is Waiting pays homage to the 1970s film Taxi Driver with a queer feminist spin. Damani is drowning in debt and driving for a ride-share app to make ends meet, when her crush sets off an explosive chain of events. Fasten your seatbelts for a wild ride of darkly comic prose that takes on performative allyship, racism and classicism.