My only books were women's looks

Kuroshoubi (Black Rose) was originally published as what would nowadays be called a Zine, after Yoshiya got fed up with the censorship and sale mentality of the mainstream publishers. It's an amazingly feminist book, especially considering that it was written in the 1920s. It is a love story, but more than that it deals with what it meant to be a woman (and a teacher) in Japan. (For example, there's a long treatise on how men aren't qualified to teach girls because they know nothing about what girl's actually need.) Those points and the heroine's struggle with her love for another woman and the cycle of denial and acceptance she goes through are something that modern day readers can still identify with. It's definitely one of those books that makes you think about just how things have changed and how much things haven't.