10 Essential bell hooks Books to Read This Summer
10 Essential bell hooks Books to Read In Your Lifetime
Beginning with her first poetry collection in 1978, bell hooks—renowned professor, writer, and activist—penned 34 expert works on feminism and race, challenging the way readers viewed both in our society. Like James Baldwin, Angela Davis, and Maya Angelou, she was not just one of America's greatest writers, but a necessary literary voice that brought the Black community's stories to the forefront.
After receiving her bachelor's at Stanford and going on to earn her doctorate at the University of California, hooks brought her unyielding and honest perspective to the world of feminist literature. From her first-ever book, Ain't I a Woman to the celebrated All About Love, hooks's goal has always been to enlighten. Perhaps one of her most fitting quotes? In 1999's Remembered Rapture, she wrote: "No Black woman writer in this culture can write 'too much.' Indeed, no woman writer can write 'too much'... No woman has ever written enough.”
Before her death at the age of 69 on December 15, 2021, the Hopkinsville native was a professor at Kentucky's Berea College for over 15 years. She was also the founder of the bell hooks Institute, which "celebrates, honors, and documents the life and work" of its namesake. Below we list 10 choice bell hooks books to begin with, but there are plenty more out there if you can't get enough.
She's penned expert takes on feminism and race since the late '70s.
