MADE Maven Special Women's Issue April 2018 | Page 48

The Bluest Eye B Y T O N I M O R R I S O N
AUTHOR: Toni Morrison is an African American novelist, essayist,
editor, teacher, and professor. She has been awarded the Pulitzer
Prize, American Book Award, Nobel Prize in Literature, Jefferson
Lecture, National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished
Contribution to American Letters, Presidential Medal of Freedom,
and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American
Fiction.
PLOT: The fictional story centers on a young black girl who des-
perately wants to be beautiful. Mocked by other children for the
dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes, she yearns for the normalcy
of her peers who have blond hair and blue eyes. It is an examina-
tion of society’s obsessi on with beauty and conformity and how
they relate to race, class, and gender.
READER: This story is for the fiction lover who is also seeking a
compelling and inspiring narrative that address real issues.
Reading Lolita
in Tehran: A
Memoir in
Books
BY AZAR NAFISI
AUTHOR: Azar
Nafisi is a professor
at John Hopkins
University. In
addition to being an
acclaimed Iranian American author, she is
a published journalist and has won several
literary awards, including Non-Fiction
Book of the Year.
PLOT: Every Thursday morning for two
years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azar
Nafisi as a teacher secretly gathered seven
of her female students to read forbidden
Western classics. As Islamic morality squads
staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamen-
talists seized hold of the universities and a
blind censor stifled artistic expression, the
women in Nafisi’s living room spoke of the
books they read and about themselves, their
dreams and disappointments.
READER: This non-fiction narrative is for
the reader seeking empowerment and
inspiration.
AUTHOR: Roxane Gay is an African
American writer known for her mystery
writing and short stories. In addition to being
an author, she is a professor, editor and com-
mentator known for addressing feminist and
racial issues through the lens of her personal
experiences with race, gender identity, and
sexuality.
Bad Feminist: Essays
B Y R O X A N E G AY
PLOT: A collection of essays spanning pol-
itics, criticism and feminism, this humorous
yet insightful book takes readers through
the author’s evolution as a woman of color
while taking a look at culture with an inspiring
call-to-arms of all the ways society needs to
do better.
READER: This book is for the invigorated
reader looking for intriguing political and
social analysis.
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