Books & Audiobooks

Inside A Modern Feminist Book Club: Every Book We’ve Read

From Brazilian literary fiction to Nigerian novels, feminist essays and contemporary global voices, explore the evolving reading list of our modern women’s book club, updated monthly since 2024

By Jess

May 8, 2026

Inside A Modern Feminist Book Club: Every Book We’ve Read — *Books we are reading in 2026: Yesteryear, 100 Days of Sunlight and Kin*

Hey there, I’m Jess ✨. On The Signature, I share reflections on beauty, routines, travel, wellness, culture, and everyday life. For those drawn to a calmer, more intentional way of living, I send a free newsletter each month on the 7th. You're welcome to join.

Since 2024, a group of girlfriends and I have met periodically to share our love for books, feminist voices and amazing storytelling. We each pick what we want to read with the commitment of actually reading and sharing our thoughts every time we have the chance to meet.

Through our choices, we gravitate towards African voices and feminist stories across the different languages we feel comfortable reading in (English, Portuguese and French), and at our own paces.

Out of the 40 books we have chosen so far, 29 were written by women, 5 were from Angola and 5 from Nigeria. How delightful is that?

Below are the books we have picked through the seasons:

(my book choices are always in bold)

Our May 2026 picks:

📖🇺🇸 100 Days of Sunlight - Abbie Emmons
📖🇺🇸 Yesteryear - Caro Claire Burke
📖🇦🇴 Espiritualidade - João Miranda
📖🇫🇷 Et La Joie de Vivre (A Hymn to Life: Shame has to change sides) - Gisèle Pelicot

Our April 2026 picks:

📖🇷🇺 Fathers and Sons - Ivan Turguenev
📖🇳🇬 The Tiny Things Are Heavier - Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo

Our March 2026 picks:

📖🇺🇸 Kin - Tayari Jones
📖🇦🇴 O Incesto Real - Júlio de Almeida
📖🇺🇸 Moving Forward - Karine Jean-Pierre
📖🇵🇹 E se eu morrer amanhã? - Filipa Fonseca Silva
📖🇺🇸 Beach Read - Emily Henry

Our September 2025 picks:

📖🇬🇧 The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

📖🇳🇬🇬🇧 Allow Me To Introduce Myself - Onyi Nwabineli

📖🇫🇷🇲🇦 Le Pays des Autres (In The Country of Others) - Leïla Slimani

Our August 2025 picks:

📖🇵🇹🇦🇴 A Tua Melanina - Stephanie Vasconcelos

📖🇵🇹 Sinais de Fumo - Alex Couto

📖🇺🇸 I Am Not Sidney Poitier - Percival Everett

📖🇺🇸 Great Black Hope - Rob Franklin

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What Goodreads says about I Am Not Sidney Poitier: Not Sidney Poitier is an amiable young man in an absurd country. The sudden death of his mother orphans him at age eleven, leaving him with an unfortunate name, an uncanny resemblance to the famous actor, and, perhaps more fortunate, a staggering number of shares in the Turner Broadcasting Corporation.

Percival Everett’s hilarious new novel follows Not Sidney’s tumultuous life, as the social hierarchy scrambles to balance his skin color with his fabulous wealth. Maturing under the less-than watchful eye of his adopted foster father, Ted Turner, Not gets arrested in rural Georgia for driving while black, sparks a dinnertable explosion at the home of his manipulative girlfriend, and sleuths a murder case in Smut Eye, Alabama, all while navigating the recurrent communication problem: “What’s your name?” a kid would ask. “Not Sidney,” I would say. “Okay, then what is it?”

Our July 2025 picks:

📖🇯🇲🇨🇦 Sweetness in the Skin – Ishi Robinson (read by one of the members in the first edition)

📖🇺🇸 A Court of Thorn and Roses - Sarah J. Maas

📖🇺🇸 Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece - Three Initiates

📖🇬🇧 The Wake-Up Call - Beth O'Leary

Our June 2025 picks:

📖🇬🇧 Cleopatra & Frankenstein - Coco Mellors

📖🇺🇸 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

Our May 2025 picks:

Exceptionally, we all read the same book in May 2025!

📖🇳🇬 Dream Count - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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What Goodreads says about Dream Count: Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until—betrayed and brokenhearted—she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America—but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

Our March/April 2025 picks:

📖🇦🇴 Manual da Angolanidade

📖🇺🇸 James - Percival Everett

📖🇵🇹 A Origem dos Dias - Miguel D'Alte

📖🇦🇴 Crónicas da nossa Terra - Fernando Pacheco

📖🇺🇸 I'm Glad my Mom Died - Jennette McCurdy

Our February 2025 picks:

📖🇳🇬 The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives – Lola Shoneyin

📖🇨🇦 We Rip the World Apart – Charlene Carr

📖🇬🇧 How to Solve your own Murder – Kristen Perrin

Our January 2025 picks:

📖🇳🇬 Nearly all the Men in Lagos are Mad – Damilare Kuku
📖🇬🇧 Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo
📖🇺🇸 Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
📖🇺🇸 Family Lore - Elizabeth Acevedo

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What Goodreads says about Sweetness in the Skin: Pumkin Patterson is a thirteen-year-old girl living in a tiny two-room house in Kingston, Jamaica with her grandmother (who wants to improve the family’s social standing); her aunt Sophie (who dreams of a new life in Paris for her and Pumkin); and her mother Paulette (who’s rarely home). When Sophie is offered the chance to move to France for work, she seizes the opportunity and promises to send for her niece in one year’s time. All Pumkin has to do is pass her French entrance exam so she can attend school there. But when Pumkin’s grandmother dies, she’s left alone with her volatile mother, and as soon as her estranged father turns up—as lazy and conniving as ever—the household’s fortunes take a turn for the worse.

Our first edition - December 2024 picks:

📖🇧🇷 Não fossem as sílabas do sábado – Mariana Salomão Carrara
📖🇺🇸 The Bookish Life of Nina Hill – Abbi Waxman
📖🇯🇲🇨🇦 Sweetness in the Skin – Ishi Robinson

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