Malala Yousafzai’s Reading List for Budding Activists

Malala Yousafzai is an activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate known for advocating for girls’ education. Malala was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan, the largest town in the Swat Valley region. Growing up, she loved going to school but found that her ambitions conflicted with the norms that granted boys greater privileges in her society.

When she was eleven, Malala and her family fled their home to nearby Shangla, Pakistan, as the Taliban took over Mingora. Malala began blogging under a pseudonym for a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) blog, where she expressed her fears and anxieties about the toll of the ongoing war in Pakistan. Months later, she and her family returned to Swat Valley.

Malala’s unabashed critiques caught the attention of the Taliban. Malala heard rumors that she might become a target. In the fall of 2012, a gunman jumped onto a school bus, which was transporting Malala, and shot her in the head. She survived the attack, but her road to recovery was harrowing; she had to relearn how to walk and talk, and she underwent numerous surgeries to restore nerve function to her face and repair her fractured skull. Still, with the unflinching support of her family and friends, Malala thrived.

A reading list is an optimal way to organize the books you want to read. You can either make a list that includes every book you want to read or build a more specific reading list. For example, you can create a list to group books of short stories, young adult novels, or the best books of a particular year. You can even categorize your reading list by genre or topic, like activism or texts that explore human nature.

Regardless of how you sort a list of books, a reading list helps you keep track of what you want to read later or the great books that made an impression on you. It can also help you figure out what you need to check out from a library or buy at a bookstore.

A good book can change your life or serve as a useful tool. For aspiring activists, books can give you an understanding of how other groups have fought for justice or even help you master the art of public speaking. The reading list that follows features Malala’s must-read books for budding activists:

• Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies by John Kingdon: This theoretical text offers insight into how policy decisions happen in real life and how different key players influence the process.
• Feminism Is for Everybody by bell hooks: This introduction to feminist theory helps readers understand the importance of feminism as a political movement. hooks touches on various topics, including reproductive rights, sexual violence, race, class, and work.
• How Change Happens by Duncan Green: With case studies from informal settlements to global decision-making forums, Green shows how change happens through interacting with power and institutions.
• How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking by Viv Groskop: This is a guide to public speaking, with tips and reflections on different speaking styles from influential women such as Virginia Woolf, Michelle Obama, and Oprah Winfrey.
• How to Win Campaigns: Communications for Change by Chris Rose: This practical guide brings Rose’s vast campaigning experience together to provide the tools for anyone to build a winning campaign.
• Kennedy and King: The President, the Pastor, and the Battle Over Civil Rights by Steven Levingston: An examination of the speeches, marches, and relationship between advocate and politician, and how one can move the other toward progress.
• The Political Brain by Drew Westen: This book looks at the psychology behind campaigns and explains why some win and some fail.
• Words That Win by Lewis Iwu: This thoughtful and practical tool kit aims to help people of all public-speaking abilities craft and deliver powerful messages to win arguments and change minds.

You don’t need a big platform to make a difference. Gain access to the MasterClass Annual Membership for exclusive lessons from Malala Yousafzai and learn how your small actions can help build a movement.