Esquire Releases a New (and Better) List of Books Everyone Should Read

A few years ago, Esquire published a list of “80 Books Every Man Should Read.” It wasn’t received well. Now they’re back with a new and improved list called “80 Books Every Person Should Read,” and the results should be much better. “We messed up,” Esquire explains in the new piece. The original list was dominated by male authors, most of them white, and the magazine caught a lot of flack for their one-dimensional tastes. Esquire decided to right the wrongs of their old piece by turning to a panel of eight “female literary powerhouses,” including women writers and critics, to …

Stephen Lovely –
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A few years ago, Esquire published a list of “80 Books Every Man Should Read.” It wasn’t received well. Now they’re back with a new and improved list called “80 Books Every Person Should Read,” and the results should be much better.

“We messed up,” Esquire explains in the new piece. The original list was dominated by male authors, most of them white, and the magazine caught a lot of flack for their one-dimensional tastes. Esquire decided to right the wrongs of their old piece by turning to a panel of eight “female literary powerhouses,” including women writers and critics, to put together the new list.

The result is, frankly, a way better list. Check out a few representative selections below, and then head over the Esquire to check out the full list!

 

Beloved by Toni Morrison

 

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

 

Middlemarch by George Eliot

 

 

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

 

 

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

 

 

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

 

 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

 

 

Citizen by Claudia Rankine

 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

 

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

 

 

Main image: Esquire