Here are books that About-Face staff and volunteers have read that we recommend! If you click the Buy Now links on this page, you’ll go to Amazon.com. Then, Amazon will share a percentage of the sales price with us!

Books on Media Literacy and Media Effects

See larger image Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel (Paperback) By (author) Jean Kilbourne List Price: $17.00 USD New From: $3.48 In Stock Used from: $0.07 In Stock Release date November 2, 2000.

Kilbourne paints a gripping portrait of how the barrage of advertising drastically affects young people, especially girls, by offering false promises of rebellion, connection, and control.

See larger image Branded: The Buying And Selling Of Teenagers (Paperback) By (author) Alissa Quart List Price: $15.95 USD New From: $3.35 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date February 17, 2004.

Alissa Quart illuminates the unsettling new reality of marketing to teenagers, as well as the quieter but no less worrisome forms of teen branding.

See larger image Who's Raising Your Child?: Battling the Marketers for Your Child's Heart and Soul (Paperback) By (author) Laura J. Buddenberg, Kathleen M. McGee List Price: $12.95 USD New From: $3.47 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

This book explores today’s hyper-commercialized society and the damage it is doing to our children as they grow from toddlers to teens…The authors offer timely advice to parents on how to mitigate the effects of a materialistic, poisonous culture, and to raise kids who care less about things and more about people.

See larger image The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media's Effect on Our Children (Paperback) By (author) James P. Steyer List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $2.48 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date April 29, 2003.

A widely acclaimed, behind-the-scenes look at the media reality that children face, The Other Parent is a groundbreaking book that will change the way all Americans use and view the media.

See larger image No Logo. (Paperback) By (author) Naomi Klein Used from: $24.64 In Stock

No Logo employs journalistic savvy and personal testament to detail the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing—and the powerful potential of a growing activist sect that will surely alter the course of the 21st century.

See larger image FAILURE TO CONNECT: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds -- and What We Can Do About It (Paperback) By (author) Jane M. Healy List Price: $22.95 USD New From: $1.97 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date October 15, 1999.

In this comprehensive and practical guide to kids and computers, Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. examines the advantages and drawbacks of computer use for kids at home and school, exploring its effects on their health, mental development, and creativity.

See larger image No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits Making Women Hate Their Bodies-How to Fight Back (Hardcover) By (author) Terry Poulton List Price: $21.95 USD New From: $9.99 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

Terry Poulton explores exactly how big business glorifies emaciation–and why women have become willing to pursue the mirage of the “perfect” body, even at the cost of their lives.

See larger image Changing the World through Media Education (Developing Minds) (Paperback) By (author) Arli Paulin Quesada, Elana Yonah Rosen, Sue Lockwood Summers List Price: $27.95 USD New From: $8.10 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

Inspired by research on media’s influence on young people, this complete curriculum helps individuals understand, analyze, and create powerful media messages.

Critical Analyses of Eating Disorders/Body Image and Research

See larger image The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women (Paperback) By (author) Naomi Wolf List Price: $14.99 USD New From: $7.95 In Stock Used from: $2.94 In Stock Release date September 24, 2002.

Explores the phenomenon of the violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement.

See larger image Femininity (Hardcover) By (author) Susan Brownmiller List Price: $16.95 USD New From: $6.99 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

Susan Brownmiller draws on the many manifestations of femininity through the ages, and demonstrates in beautiful and telling detail the many powerful nuances of that one word.

See larger image Losing It: America's Obsession with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It (Hardcover) By (author) Laura Fraser List Price: $24.95 USD New From: $4.99 In Stock Used from: $0.06 In Stock

Journeys into the past to investigate America’s obsession with weight and interviews today’s weight-loss profiteers, coming to the conclusion that, far from helping people lose weight, diet gurus contribute to Americans’ weight obsession and obesity.

See larger image Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders (Paperback) List Price: $48.75 USD New From: $30.00 In Stock Used from: $2.71 In Stock

Using the feminist perspective to illuminate and explore the relationship between the anguish of those who suffer from eating disorders and the problems of ordinary women.

See larger image Body Traps: Breaking the Binds That Keep You from Feeling Good About Your Body (Paperback) By (author) Judith Rodin List Price: $12.00 USD New From: $9.39 In Stock Used from: $0.97 In Stock

Judith Rodin, the founder of the Eating Disorders Clinic at Yale University, examines why we fall into self-defeating, health-damaging obsessions, and how to escape them.

See larger image Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (Paperback) By (author) Susan J. Douglas List Price: $16.00 USD New From: $5.28 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date March 28, 1995.

Media critic Douglas deconstructs the ambiguous messages sent to American women via TV programs, popular music, advertising, and nightly news reporting over the last 40 years, and fathoms their influence on her own life and the lives of her contemporaries.

See larger image Fat Is a Feminist Issue (Paperback) By (author) Susie Orbach List Price: $13.50 USD New From: $9.71 In Stock Used from: $7.79 In Stock

Originally published in two volumes, this ground-breaking program shows women how to avoid the dieting/binging cycle and learn practical and effective techniques to understand why they use food to fill emotional and psychological needs.

Hunger Strike: The Anorexic's Struggle As a Metaphor for Our Age (Paperback) By (author) Susie Orbach List Price: $4.50 USD Used from: $1.24 In Stock

Asserting that social forces have contributed to the epidemic of anorexia nervosa during the last 20 years, Orbach argues that eating habits should be modified voluntarily, and only after the negative outside pressures have been understood by the anorectic.

See larger image Real Gorgeous: The Truth about Body and Beauty (Paperback) By (author) Kaz Cooke List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $2.00 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

Real Gorgeous is a big, funny, reassuring read about fashion fibs and diet myths—and the truth about, among other things, push-ups, push-up bras, and the great cellulite scam. 

See larger image Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, Tenth Anniversary Edition (Paperback) By (author) Susan Bordo, Leslie Heywood List Price: $26.95 USD New From: $17.54 In Stock Used from: $4.89 In Stock

Susan Bordo explores our tortured fascination with food, hunger, desire, and control, and its effects on women’s lives.

See larger image The Invisible Woman: Confronting Weight Prejudice in America (Paperback) By (author) W. Charisse Goodman List Price: $17.95 USD New From: $9.35 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

This intelligent, political, feminist treatise explores the all-pervasive prejudice against fat women. It is about shattering the stereotypes, raising awareness about harassment, and asserting the truth that no one has the right to discriminate against anyone based on their size!

See larger image Consuming Passions: Feminist Approaches to Weight Preoccupation and Eating Disorders (Paperback) List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $12.96 In Stock Used from: $0.03 In Stock

Twenty-two experts share their extensive knowledge on women’s preoccupation with body size by considering eating behaviors ranging from dieting and exercise, to anorexia and bulimia, and explore the disputed links made between weight and health.

Case Herstories: women’s struggles with body image and eating disorders

See larger image Hunger So Wide And So Deep: A Multiracial View of Women's Eating Problems (Paperback) By (author) Becky Thompson List Price: $19.50 USD New From: $13.47 In Stock Used from: $1.88 In Stock

 

Thompson examines the motives behind eating disorders and draws on interviews with women from a wide range of backgrounds.

See larger image Am I Thin Enough Yet?: The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity (Hardcover) By (author) Sharlene Hesse-Biber List Price: $30.00 USD New From: $9.99 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

 

Am I Thin Enough Yet? goes beyond traditional psychological explanations of eating disorders to level a powerful indictment against the social, political, and economic pressures women face in a weight-obsessed society.

See larger image Feeding the Hungry Heart: The Experience of Compulsive Eating (Paperback) By (author) Geneen Roth List Price: $15.00 USD New From: $5.82 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date September 1, 1993.

 

Geneen Roth was an emotional overeater and self-starver who finally broke free from the destructive cycle of bingeing and purging. She has gone on to help others do the same through her lectures and workshops, as well as gather real-life stories of inspiration for this book.

See larger image The Hungry Self: Women, Eating and Identity (Paperback) By (author) Kim Chernin List Price: $13.99 USD New From: $4.00 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date April 13, 1994.

The Hungry Self answers the need for help among the five million American women who suffer from eating disorders.

 

Books on Body Acceptance

See larger image Delta Style: Eve Wasn't a Size 6 and Neither Am I (Hardcover) By (author) Delta Burke, Alexis Lipsitz List Price: $24.95 USD New From: $1.26 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

 

Delta Burke is an American actress who, having had to come to terms with the fact that she will never be the slimmest of women, became a designer of clothes for the fuller figure. In this book she offers advice and anecdotes on style and positive thinking.

See larger image Appearance Obsession: Learning to Love the Way You Look (Paperback) By (author) Joni Johnstone List Price: $9.95 USD New From: $1.92 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

This well-researched book offers crucial help to men, women, and teenagers, showing how to develop and maintain positive self-esteem, social esteem, and healthy body image.

See larger image Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body (Paperback) By (author) Cheri K. Erdman List Price: $14.00 USD New From: $4.75 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

 

Featuring the latest research, practical exercises, and personal stories from dozens of women who have decided not to accept society’s “weight problem” as their own, this groundbreaking book offers all the information, support, and encouragement you need to begin accepting your body size and feeling good about yourself, starting now.

See larger image Full Lives: A Woman's Guide to Freedom from Obsession with Food and Weight (Paperback) List Price: $13.95 USD New From: $12.85 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

 

Featuring some of the best known authors and speakers on anorexia nervosa, bulimia, body image and food obsessions, Full Lives is a conversation about the lives of these remarkable women, describing the personal growth and satisfaction that recovery from eating disorders has bought them.

See larger image Shadow on a Tightrope: Writings by Women on Fat Oppression (Paperback) List Price: $14.95 USD New From: $39.99 In Stock Used from: $2.22 In Stock

Women writers shed light on the issue of “fat-oppression”. 

See larger image Overcoming Fear of Fat (Women & Therapy Series: No. 3) (Paperback) By (author) Esther D Rothblum, Laura Brown List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $17.71 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

Overcoming Fear of Fat is unique among professional work in the area of overweight women in that it does not approach size as the problem; rather it approaches prejudice against size as the problem.

See larger image When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies: Freeing Yourself from Food and Weight Obsession (Paperback) By (author) Jane R. Hirschmann List Price: $14.95 USD New From: $3.53 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date December 30, 1996.

 

In this revolutionary new book, bestselling authors Carol Munter and Jane Hirschmann explore the myriad reasons why women cling to diets despite overwhelming evidence that diets don’t work

See larger image Making Peace With Food: Freeing Yourself from the Diet/Weight Obsession (Paperback) By (author) Susan Kano List Price: $15.99 USD New From: $4.35 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date March 1, 1989.

 

The scientifically proven, step-by-step guide to overcoming repeated weight loss and gain, binge eating, guilt, and anxieties about food and body image.

See larger image Transforming Body Image: Learning to Love the Body You Have (Paperback) By (author) Marcia Germaine Hutchinson List Price: $14.95 USD New From: $8.77 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date September 1, 1985.

 

A self-help guide that helps women learn to love and accept their bodies by improving their “body-esteem”.

See larger image If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules (Hardcover) By (author) Cherie Carter-Scott List Price: $17.50 USD New From: $2.59 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date September 15, 1998.

 

This book will help individuals learn the rules of life so they may be able to conquer life’s challenges and manage its unpredictable ups and downs

Girls & Adolescent Girls: Their development and experiences (most are appropriate for teenagers)

See larger image The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (Hardcover) By (author) Joan Jacobs Brumberg List Price: $25.00 USD New From: $6.39 In Stock Used from: $0.10 In Stock Release date August 19, 1997.

 

Drawing on a vast array of lively historical sources, unpublished diaries by adolescent girls, and photographs that conjure up memories of the past, The Body Project chronicles how growing up in a female body has changed over the past century and why that experience is more difficult today than ever before.

See larger image Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture (Hardcover) By (author) Peggy Orenstein List Price: $25.99 USD New From: $7.73 In Stock Used from: $3.90 In Stock Release date January 25, 2011.

An intelligent, candid, and often personal work, Cinderella Ate My Daughter offers an important exploration of the burgeoning girlie-girl culture and what it could mean for our daughters’ identities and their futures.

See larger image Promiscuities : The Secret Struggle for Womanhood (Hardcover) By (author) Naomi Wolf List Price: $24.00 USD New From: $0.95 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date May 27, 1997.

 

Part memoir, part exposé, Promiscuities is Naomi Wolf’s perspective on the confusion surrounding female sexuality

See larger image Growing a Girl: Seven Strategies for Raising a Strong, Spirited Daughter (Paperback) By (author) Dr. Barbara Mackoff List Price: $17.00 USD New From: $4.84 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date October 1, 1996.

 Barbara Mackoff, in Growing a Girl, stresses that, instead of focusing on gender, parents should see children in terms of their individuality, while at the same time wearing “gender glasses” and teaching their daughters to be aware of society’s gender biases.

See larger image In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development (Paperback) By (author) Carol Gilligan List Price: $19.00 USD New From: $5.74 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

 First published almost twenty years ago, In a Different Voice made women’s voices heard, in their own right and with their own integrity, for virtually the first time in social scientific theorizing about women.

See larger image Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap (Paperback) By (author) Peggy Orenstein List Price: $16.95 USD New From: $3.98 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date September 1, 1995.

 

Inspired by a study by the American Association of University Women that showed girls’ self-esteem plummeting as they reach adolescence, Peggy Orenstein spent months observing, interviewing, and getting know dozens of girls both inside and outside the classroom at two very different schools in northern California.

See larger image Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback) By (author) Mary Pipher List Price: $14.95 USD New From: $1.95 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date February 14, 1995.

 

According to Dr. Mary Pipher, a clinical psychologist who has treated girls for more than twenty years, we live in a look-obsessed, media-saturated, “girl-poisoning” culture. Here, for the first time, are girls’ unmuted voices from the front lines of adolescence, personal and painfully honest.

See larger image Surviving an Eating Disorder (Paperback) By (author) Judith Brisman List Price: $13.00 USD New From: $3.25 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date January 30, 1997.

 

An indispensable and extremely well-organized treasure map to literature by women.

See larger image 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide (Mass Market Paperback) By (author) Erica Bauermeister, Jesse Larsen, Holly Smith List Price: $16.00 USD New From: $2.65 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date January 1, 1995.

 

Acknowledges the serious dangers of eating disorders and offers effective solutions and support for family and friends of those who suffer from them.

Women’s Health

See larger image Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women (Mass Market Paperback) By (author) Michael Gross List Price: $7.50 USD New From: $9.90 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

 

Michael Gross reveals the world’s most glamorous industry in this scathingly honest portrait of fashion models.

See larger image Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing (Paperback) By (author) Christiane Northrup M.D. List Price: $18.95 USD New From: $3.00 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date March 2, 1998.

 

Powerfully demonstrates that when women change the basic conditions of their lives that lead to health problems, they heal faster, more completely, and with far fewer medical interventions.

Books for Kids

See larger image Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know (Hardcover) By (author) Shari Graydon List Price: $24.95 USD New From: $18.36 In Stock Used from: $2.00 In Stock

 

Offers an intriguing exploration of advertising’s inner workings. From the earliest roots of advertising to the guerrilla marketers of the 21st century, this revealing book shows kids where ads came from, where they’re going, and how they work.

See larger image Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14 (Paperback) By (author) Erica Bauermeister, Holly Smith List Price: $15.00 USD New From: $4.45 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date March 1, 1997.

 

The authors of 500 Great Books by Women present a list of 375 books, organized by reading level, that provide young girls with strong female role models, featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, and picture books from around the world.

See larger image Great Books for Girls (Paperback) By (author) Kathleen Odean List Price: $14.00 USD New From: $1.25 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock Release date January 28, 1997.

 

Consists of more than six hundred titles–picture books, novels, mysteries, biographies, folktales, sports books, and more–that will encourage, challenge, and ultimately nurture in girls the strong qualities our culture so often suppresses.