Born into Hollywood royalty, Jane Fonda has enjoyed a six-decade career in the entertainment industry, including seven Academy Award nominations and a wildly successful stint making home workout videos. She’s also an outspoken political activist, focusing her efforts on anti-war movements, women’s rights, and environmental campaigns. Her books include the 2005 memoir My Life So Far; 2011’s Prime Time, a guide to aging gracefully; and last year’s What Can I Do?: My Path from Climate Despair to Action.

In a By the Book interview for the New York Times, Fonda revealed her fondness for non-fiction, and the book that sparked her infamous anti-Vietnam War activism. Find her reading list below, and complement with the bookshelves of Gloria Steinem and Dolly Parton.


Whose Water Is It, Anyway? Taking Water Protection Into Public Hands by Maude Barlow

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis (also rec’d by Noname)

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam

Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher

Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood by William S. Pollack

In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development by Carol Gilligan

I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression by Terrence Real

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Poetry by Mary Oliver & Emily Dickinson

Life Will Be the Death of Me: And You Too! by Chelsea Handler

The Apology by Eve Ensler

Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

Everything by Alice Miller

The Village of Ben Suc by Jonathan Schell

“A group of American soldiers who had fought in Vietnam gave it to me. It changed my life. I left my French husband, moved back to the United States and joined the anti-Vietnam War movement.” -JF

Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson

“Reading Green Mansions when I was 12 was the most memorable. That’s when I lost awareness of reading and became the book.” -JF

(via The New York Times)

Categories: Activists Actors