Reading List
Pagan Kennedy
Journalist and Author
Pagan Kennedy began in the zine scene of the late 1980s and has since written novels, biography and long-form journalism, including the Innovation column for The New York Times Magazine. The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex profiled the sexologist Alex Comfort, and Inventology examined how useful ideas actually arrive. Her recent work has focused on the invention of the rape kit and the women who forced it into use, and her reading runs to books about people who refuse to accept an arrangement as permanent.
The Power Broker
Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
by Robert A. Caro · 1974 · Biography
“As an insomniac, I spend hours lying in the dark, aching to fall into an unconsciousness. And that's how a 66-hour audiobook became my best friend.” — via Article
The Handmaid’s Tale
by Margaret Atwood · 1985 · Dystopian
“The 2017 TV adaptation of this novel was excellent, but you should really hold the story in your hand and read it. After all, it portrays a dystopia in which women have lost the right to even touch a book.” — via Article
Empire of Pain
The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe · 2021 · Nonfiction
“In a blitz of brilliant reporting, Keefe reveals how the most dastardly members of the Sackler family built a Big Pharma empire and pushed opiates into doctors' offices and eventually the streets.” — via Article
Giovanni’s Room
by James Baldwin
“But if you're exploring his work, consider starting with this novel, a page-turner about queer people trying to live their truth in the 1950s.” — via Article
Tunnel 29
by Helena Merriman · 2021 · History
“That step into fascism inspired a group of students to engineer an escape route, digging a tunnel that snaked from a basement in East Berlin to freedom. Merriman has reconstructed a lost history that unfolds like a heist movie.” — via Article
Color Me Flo
My Hard Life and Good Times
by Florynce Kennedy · 1976 · Memoir
“In this delightfully shaggy book, Kennedy recounts scenes from her adventures as a civil rights lawyer, prankster, and feminist gadfly.” — via Article