
The Feminist Know-It-All: You know her. You can’t stand her. Good thing she’s not here! Instead, this column by gender and women’s studies librarian Karla Strand will amplify stories of the creation, access, use and preservation of knowledge by women and girls around the world; share innovative projects and initiatives that focus on information, literacies, libraries and more; and, of course, talk about all of the books.
Hello, feminist reader friends! Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. The aims of these lists are threefold:
- I want to do my part in the disruption of what has been the acceptable “norm” in the book world for far too long—white, cis, heterosexual, male;
- I want to amplify indie publishers and amazing works by writers who are women, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, APIA/AAPI, international, queer, trans, nonbinary, disabled, fat, immigrant, Muslim, neurodivergent, sex-positive or of other historically marginalized identities—you know, the rest of us; and
- I want to challenge and encourage you all to buy, borrow and read them!
Welcome to the first monthly Reads for the Rest of Us of 2025!
It’s late, but it’s here. Apologies, but it takes me a while to do the work necessary to create the 2024 Best of the Rest and the 2025 Most Anticipated Feminist Reads lists. And with that in mind, you will see some minor changes to my lists this year because I have to find a way to make the process a bit more manageable.
First, I’ll be capping my lists to fewer titles than in the past—at least the ones I read and write about a bit. Think of this as a top 20, perhaps. Then, I will include additional titles at the end of the list each month that are within the scope of books I cover, that I know readers will be interested in, and that I cannot cover in more depth.
Second, I’ve stopped including social media handles for authors. It may seem like a small thing, but it does take time to locate the information and, to no one’s surprise, people’s participation on different platforms is changing, and many of you just aren’t on socials as much as you used to be! So that is one more timesaver for me.
Those are the changes for now, but more may be coming as I further hone the process. I appreciate your continued support of my work.
I wish I could read and include all the books I want to, but it’s simply impossible. So, instead of only providing a longer list of titles I’m unable to write about, I’d like to dive deeper into some, even if that list needs to be shorter. I’m still excited about the ones at the end, and I hope you will be, too!
I also want to give special shout-outs to my UW colleague Dr. Kate Phelps on her new book Digital Girlhoods, out Jan. 31 from Temple University Press, and to Jodi Bondi Norgaard, contributor to Ms., whose book More Than a Doll (excerpt here), is out now from Post Hill Press. Congratulations to you and all the writers who published books in January!
As we tread uncertain waters, it’s nice to have something to depend on that provides a sense of grounding, respite and normalcy. For me, books are that something. So, while life is unpredictable and scary and precarious, I hope you can gain something from the books on this list.
We’re in this together. And together, we’ll rise. We’ll rest and read and write and resist. Start wherever you like and help however you can.
Which one of these books will be the catalyst you’re looking for?

An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence
By Zeinab Badawi. Mariner Books. 544 pages.
From Sudan herself, Zeinab Badawi visited over thirty African countries to write this sweeping and accessible new history of the continent. Engaging and enlightening, this volume highlights stories, events and figures previously misrepresented or neglected, making it this month’s #RequiredReading.
*
Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins
By Mary Frances Phillips. NYU Press. 320 pages.
This groundbreaking volume is more than the first book-length treatment of Ericka Huggins; it is a revelation. While she covers so much more, Phillips’ most poignant contribution here is focused on Huggins as a spiritual seeker and leader.
*
Call Her Freedom: A Novel
By Tara Dorabji. Simon & Schuster.
This powerful and beautifully written debut spans decades of life, love and family in the village of Poshkarbal at the foot of the Himalayas. There, Aisha reckons with tradition, loss and secrets to find her place and purpose in the violent military occupation of her homeland.
*
Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis
By Tao Leigh Goffe. Doubleday. 384 pages.
This is a long-overdue examination of the history, mythology, significance and legacy of the Caribbean. In no uncertain terms, Tao Leigh Goffe provides the critical foundation on which to (re)learn the past, grow and evolve in the present, and, yes, change our future.
*
Death of the Author: A Novel
By Nnedi Okorafor. William Morrow. 448 pages.
We already know of Nnedi Okorafor’s brilliant futuristic storytelling, but even she has outdone herself with her latest, a “book-within-a-book,” in which a disabled Nigerian American writer crafts a novel that will change her life forever.
*
Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes
By Dr. Sunita Sah. One World. 320 pages.
I didn’t know how much I needed this book. Through storytelling and examples, psychologist Sunita Sah explains compliance and what compels us to comply, as well as defiance and why saying “no” is of vital importance to our values, agency, authenticity and autonomy.
*
An Efficient Womanhood: Women and the Making of the Universal Negro Improvement Association
By Natanya Duncan. University of North Carolina Press. 360 pages.
This collective biography by distinguished historian Natanya Duncan explores the imperative role of women in the creation and growth of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, a Pan-African social justice organization founded in Jamaica in 1914. Brilliantly researched and written, this account is long overdue.
*
The Gloomy Girl Variety Show: A Memoir
By Freda Epum. Feminist Press. 224 pages.
Throughout her life, Freda Epum’s feelings of displacement and otherness were heightened by her Nigerian-American background, mental illness and search for home. In this utterly original debut memoir, she tackles identity, self-acceptance and belonging with candor, curiosity and lyricism.
*
In Defense of Barbarism: Non-Whites Against the Empire
Written by Louisa Yousfi. Translated by Andy Bliss. Verso.
To say this may be one of those essays that marks a turning point in my life would not be overstating its influence. First published in France as Rester barbare, this powerful piece builds on Algerian writer Kateb Yacine’s call to “retain a certain barbarism” in the face of violent domestication, imperial conditioning and forced assimilation.
*
The Life of Herod the Great: A Novel
By Zora Neale Hurston. Amistad. 368 pages.
This is a fascinating, never-before-published historical novel by the incomparable Zora Neale Hurston. In it, she reimagines the life and complexities of Herod the Great. While the novel is unfinished, the volume concludes with three of Hurston’s letters in which she shares her findings about Herod’s life.
*
Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell, Together
By Dean Spade. Algonquin Books. 352 pages.
Dean Spade is a force, and I was psyched for his latest, which challenges us to put our money where our mouths are in relationships. Spade makes plain the importance of confronting conditioning in love, sex and romance and making way for the revolution(ary) in all our relationships.
*
No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference
By Cheryl L. Neely. Beacon Press. 264 pages.
In this urgent and necessary volume, sociologist Cheryl L. Neely examines the infuriating and terrifying impacts of racial prejudice in policing. Through meticulous research and poignant storytelling, Neely shines a spotlight on the victims of crime and demands we contend with police indifference to violence against Black women and girls.
*
Unassimilable: An Asian Diasporic Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century
By Bianca Mabute-Louie. Harper. 256 pages.
Goddess knows I love a good manifesto and this one is long-overdue. Thanks to sociologist and activist Bianca Mabute-Louie, we have this accessible, intersectional, anti-colonial, anti-assimilationist guide for Asians in Diaspora.
*
The Wind on Her Tongue: A Novel
By Anita Kopacz. Atria/Black Privilege Publishing. 224 pages.
The second book in the Daughter of Three Waters Trilogy, The Wind on Her Tongue, tells the story of magical Yemaya’s daughter, Oya, in 1870s New Orleans. With elements of history, magical realism and voodoo, this captivating continuation touches on themes of colonization, classism, racism and tradition.
*
Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People
By Imani Perry. Ecco. 256 pages.
It’s about blue, it’s about Black, it’s about how they mesh and meld, how they web and weave. Imani Perry has given us a bold and original history—again! This remarkable exploration into blue and Blackness is revelatory.
*
Dismantling the Master’s Clock: On Race, Space, and Time
By Rasheedah Phillips. AK Press. 392 pages.
Join me in going deep with this critical examination of time, space and race with the brilliant activist, creator and artist Rasheedah Phillips. Here, Phillips explains how reconceiving time, space and matter in ways that align with Blackness can liberate us all.
*
Old Soul
By Susan Barker. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 352 pages.
I love me a good paranormal literary horror, and this one scratched that itch and then some. Smart, original, creepy and lyrical, Old Soul tells the story of two strangers who meet in an airport and find they have both lost loved ones who had one strange woman in common.
*
This Beautiful, Ridiculous City: A Graphic Memoir
By Kay Sohini. Ten Speed Graphic.
This lovingly illustrated debut graphic novel is part memoir and part ode to New York City. Kay Sohini’s awe of NYC comes through vividly as she ponders whether to stay or leave the city she fought so hard to reach.
*
Too Soon: A Novel
By Betty Shamieh. Avid Reader Press. 336 pages.
In her mid-thirties and weighing her (quickly shrinking) options, Palestinian-American Arabella wants only to produce her gender-bending rendition of Hamlet, and her opportunity lies in the West Bank. This fresh and funny debut explores themes of tradition, family and freedom.
*
Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging
By Tara Roberts. National Geographic. 400 pages.
Tara Roberts is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence who documents shipwrecks from the transatlantic slave trade. Her memoir describes her journey and findings, both personal and universal.
*
Also out this month:
A Blueprint for Worker Solidarity: Class Politics and Community in Wisconsin
By Naomi R Williams. University of Illinois Press. 230 pages.
Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons
By Brittany Friedman. University of North Carolina Press. 230 pages.
Caring for Caregivers: Filipina Migrant Workers and Community Building During Crisis
By Valerie Francisco-Menchavez. University of Washington Press. 224 pages.
Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the US-Mexico Borderlands
By Lina-Maria Murillo. University of North Carolina Press. 336 pages.
The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe
By Marlene L. Daut. Knopf. 656 pages.
Immortal
By Sue Lynn Tan. Harper Voyager. 464 pages.
The Legend of Meneka
By Kritika H. Rao. Harper Voyager. 368 pages.
The Lotus Shoes: A Novel
By Jane Yang. Park Row. 368 pages.
A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics
By Juanita Tolliver. Legacy Lit. 224 pages. (Read an excerpt here.)
Reclaiming the Black Body: Nourishing the Home Within
By Alishia McCullough. The Dial Press. 352 pages.
The Scorpion Queen
By Mina Fears. Flatiron Books. 320 pages.
Slavery After Slavery: Revealing the Legacy of Forced Child Apprenticeships on Black Families, from Emancipation to the Present
By Mary Frances Berry. Beacon Press. 184 pages.
Talking About Abolition: A Police-Free World is Possible
By Sonali Kolhatkar. Seven Stories Press. 176 pages.
Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra
By Ericka Kim Verba. University of North Carolina Press. 456 pages.
Water Moon: A Novel
By Samantha Sotto Yambao. Del Rey. 384 pages.
We Do Not Part: A Novel
Written by Han Kang. Translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris. Hogarth. 272 pages.
Blob: A Love Story
By Maggie Su. Harper. 256 pages.
We Rip the World Apart: A Novel
By Charlene Carr. Sourcebooks Landmark. 464 pages.