The long-delayed Canon according to Jenny, Sociology Edition:
Pop SociologyThe Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference and
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell
Although parts of Gladwell's books make general assumptions using non-related data, the books are well-written and thought-provoking. Pick up "Blink" if only for its explanation about how sometimes "hunches" are more accurate than research.
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
You'll never eat fast food again. This is the more informational side of "Super Size Me," which was filmed after Morgan Spurlock read the book.
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American CommunityA book I keep meaning to pick up. Focuses on the way communities are changing.
The Rise of the Creative Class...and how it's transforming work, leisure, community, and everyday life, Richard Florida
Unfortunately, every mayor of every major city in the US has read or is reading this book. Some of its thesis points include: how the gay community makes a city popular, how to create an artistic community, and how to attract young people. I think that most of these ideas are based on misleading data, and lead to incredibly stereotyped, results-oriented mistakes of neighborhoods. You can't force cool.
Life StagesOn Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
THE definitive book on the death process. This book totally changed the way hospitals and individuals dealt with the end of life.
Women's StudiesThe Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
This is one of those books that changed my life. All the questions I'd had since "becoming a woman" (de Beauvoir) had, unbeknownst to me, been answered in the 1930s. If you want to understand why feminism didn't "take," what being a woman is all about, and the meaning of de Beauvoir's most quoted phrase ("One is not born a woman; rather, one becomes one."), this is the book for you.
The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
The book that rocked the late 1960s and ushered in the next wave of feminism.
The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, Naomi Wolf
As if we all didn't know that images of beauty in the mass media were harmful to women and girls, here's definitive proof. See the next section about Body Politics as well.
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, Susan Faludi
Amazing book. If you don't think that women are still having a hard time in this country, think again, and read this book. Inequality is so inherent in the system that sometimes we can't even see it.
The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection, Judith Butler
I'll grant that Butler isn't the easiest author to read. But her ideas and way with language are pretty phenomenal. Give yourself time to digest each paragraph. Hell, even each word.
The Speculum of the Other Woman, Luce Irigaray
Butler pulls a lot of her ideas from Irigaray, who pulls from Lacan. Unlike the other two, she's immensely readable.
Woman's Inhumanity Toward Woman, Phyllis Chesler
I think that often, it's not men who are the problem. It's other women, and our cutthroat competitiveness.
Body PoliticsUnbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, and
The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private, Susan Bordo
Bordo's books are great, since she looks at both men and women in body politics. Don't let the first title throw you--it's also got a lot of work about the male body and its concurrent issues. One of the first books about body dysmorphia from a sociological standpoint.
Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, Marya Hornbacher
More of a biography than a sociology book, but it provides a real view of treatment centers and the life of an anorexic. Her level of desperation is palpable, and the book may be psychologically painful for some.
Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children, Sarah Grogan
'Dissatisfaction' may be the incorrect word, but this is a great book about the nexus of all things sociological that converge into body image.
The Sociology of Food: Eating, Diet and Culture, Stephen J. Mennell
I'm so upset that this is out of print. It's a great book, especially in its comparative sociological studies of food and body politics.
Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa, Joan Jacobs Brumberg
Almost a pro-ana book. Looks at the historical basis of anorexia, from fasting saints to medicalization to the advent of psychiatry and psychology in treating this phenomena.
Deviance and ControlThe Gift of Fear, Gavin de Becker
I had misgivings about placing this here, since it's nearly a pop soc book. But de Becker is a psychologist and sociologist by training and uses empirical methods to predict what stalkers or groups will become violent. At the very least, it's an interesting read.
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, David Simon and Edward Burns
An update to some of Goffman's work, looking at the making of criminals.
Happy Hours: Alcohol in a Woman's Life, Devon Jersild
Alcoholism is the example that I always use in explaining symbolic interactionism. This book is particularly interesting because of its unique, female-centered perspective.
Labeling Women Deviant: Gender, Stigma, and Social Control, Edwin M. Schur
Goes along with "Happy Hours."
RaceAin't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, bell hooks
Much like hooks's feminist theory book, with a more race-centered view.
Shifting: The Double Lifes of Black Women in America, Charisse Jones
The nexus of race, community, and gender.
Don't Play in the Sun: One Woman's Journey through the Color Complex, Marita Golden
One of the more interesting things about race, to me, is that the valuing of color differs even within individual races. Golden's book really looks into that, despite being a memoir instead of a sociology study.
No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System, David Cole
In case you missed it--the justice system is racially biased.
The Invention of the White Race: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, Theodore W. Allen
A very interesting book, focusing on how a race "becomes" white.
The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, David Roediger
Class/race study.
Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, Frank Wu
Sometimes we forget that racial studies involve more than the black/white dichotomy.
White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race, Ian Haney Lopez
Much like "The Invention of the White Race," but more focused on the legal historical developments that lead up to a race being declared white.
LGBTQMen Like That: A Southern Queer History, John Howard
Think all queer men live in Castro or the Village? Think again.
The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault
Not just for queer studies, but for another look at defining sexuality in general. There are 5 books in the series, and every one of them is worth reading.
Fags, Hags, and Queer Sisters: Gender Dissent and Heterosocial Bonds in Gay Culture, Stephen Maddison
A great book about the queer community, which isn't just gays and lesbians.
Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, Leslie Feinberg
Recently, the sociology transgender publishing market has just exploded. And it's about time, too.
The Man Who Would be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism, J. Michael Bailey
Fascinating book about the process of MTF (male to female) gender reassignment. Note: not for the squeamish, as it describes medical procedures in great detail.
How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States, Joanne Meyerowitz
Not a light read, but a great one for those who think that transsexuality popped up within the last 30 years.
Transmen and FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities, Jason Cromwell
Part body politics, part gender studies, and part queer theory. Overall well-written, with a good sociology base.
TheoryDialectics of Enlightenment, Max Horkheimer
Another less-than easy read. Good intro to recent sociological theory.
Inner Experience, Georges Bataille
Bataille is one of those writers that everyone quotes and few have read.
The Logic of Practice, Pierre Bourdieu
Bourdieu is actually easy to read, once you stop throwing the books against the wall and yelling at him to get over himself.
Introducing Modernism, Chris Rodrigues
I can't recommend all the "Introducing" theory books enough. Learn theory through cartoons? Yes, please!
The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Peter Berger
Post-Goffman symbolic interaction theory. Brilliant work.
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, Erving Goffman
My pet theorist. He developed symbolic interaction theory, which basically states that all labels and roles are negotiated within a society by its actors. Blows undergrads' minds when they first hear about it, and is the closest thing to the cliched soc theory "nothing is real" that the far-left Christians object to when you tell them you're in soc 101. Rarely ever taught in soc 101, at least not in all its complexity.
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, bell hooks
If you're going to read any feminist theory, read bell hooks. She incorporates race theory into all her work, so it was hard for me to decide where to place this. But since the book is first and foremost about feminist theory, I placed it here.
