Sex in the Women’s Library: Suggested Reading

At Glasgow Women’s Library we celebrate and uncover women’s historical and contemporary lives and experiences in all their diversity and complexity. Our Sexology Season reading list compiled from the suggestions of staff, volunteers and sessional workers reflects this ethos.

Sex Between the Covers Further Reading lending library

The library collections include a wide array of texts, reflecting the diverse tastes, interests and reading of our users and supporters. It includes a wealth of material on sex, sexuality, sexology and gender identity from young adult fiction, formally banned books, poetry, classic feminist novels, pulp fiction, and academic texts on queer theory. Below is a sample of the suggested reading from our team for this programme. It is a flavour of thousands of texts that can be accessed for free by our borrowers.

  • The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Penguin (1984) (This book was read by the GWL Book Group as part of this season.)
  • Fear of Flying by Erica Jong, Vintage (1994)
  • Sex and the Citadel by Shereen El Feki, Vintage (2014)
  • Everyday Feminism website
  • Any Other Mouth by Annalise McIntosh, Freight Books (2014)
  • The Quilt and Other Stories by Ismat Chughtai, The Women’s Press (1991)
  • 5 Books Written by Queer and Trans Women That Set Me Free (Everyday Feminism blog post, 2015)
  • My Secret Garden: Women’s Sexual Fantasies by Nancy Friday, Quartet (1982)
  • Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, Virago (2002)
  • Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Square Fish (2011)
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Vintage (1996)
  • The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Bloomsbury (1991)
  • Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence by Adrienne Rich, Norton (1994)
  • Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf, Vintage (1992)
  • Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith, Canongate (2007)
  • Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Picador (2014)
  • Stolen Glances: Lesbians Take Photographs edited by Jean Fraser and Tessa Boffin, Pandora (1991)
  • The Proof of the Honey by Salwa al-Neimi, Europa Editions (2009) (This book was read aloud in a Story Café special as part of the season.)

Search our book catalogue for these and other titles on sex, sexuality and sexology.