Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
Check out the top 22 books that we are excited about this month!
Author: Karla J. Strand
Karla J. Strand is the gender and women’s studies librarian for the University of Wisconsin. She completed her doctorate in information science via University of Pretoria in South Africa with a background in history and library science, and her research centers on the role of libraries and knowledge in empowering women and girls worldwide. Tweet her @karlajstrand.
June 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us
Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
Red Hen Press. Alice James Books. Voice of Witness. Nightboat Books. Deep Vellum. Feminist Press. These are just a few of the many indie publishers and nonprofits who recently had their National Endowment for the Arts funding cut by the federal government. An attack on art—specifically literary art—is a deliberate attempt to keep us feeling hopeless, uninspired and compliant.
Many affected publishers have been strategizing ways to lessen the impact, but there is work for us to do, too. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial for us to buy or borrow these publishers’ works, share them with our loved ones and ask our local librarians to get copies.
Reading even just one or two of the 25 books on this list is a first step towards sending the message that we will continue to support the arts and prioritize the stories being told by and about marginalized groups.
May 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us
Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
It’s finally springtime in the Midwest, the grass is turning green and flowers are beginning to bloom. The robins are back, the fawns are appearing and the coyotes are howling. For me, it couldn’t come too soon. These signs of life are a welcome distraction from our political, social and environmental realities right now. More importantly, they provide hope and a reason for joy. The fresh air and blue skies remind me to pause, to breathe and to acknowledge gratitude, even in times of pain and want.
The 26 books on this month’s list provide some of that much-needed hope and joy as well. They tell stories of strength and resilience, of relationships and love, of imagination and dreams.
Reads for the Rest of Us: The Best Poetry of 2024 and 2025
Happy April, and Happy National Poetry Month. Since my dormant love of poetry was reignited, I’ve found it so refreshing and inspiring to read beautiful collections each year and share them with you.
Here are some of the most exciting and extraordinary poetry titles I’ve read in the last year. So I hope you enjoy and find some collections below that will have you reflecting on how poetry moves you, challenges you and represents you.
April 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us
Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
I hope you find some titles among the 25 here that will provide you with what you need now so that you can continue to keep going in your corner of the world.
March 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
And so we begin a busy season for books! There are always so many new books released this time of year that it’s hard to keep up. It is even harder to narrow them all down to a list of 20.
February 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
I take comfort, inspiration and ideas from books. From the 20 here, I’ve learned about Sámi boarding schools, Mexican feminisms and new strategies for having courageous conversations. I’m even more convinced of the urgent need for educational and political reform. I’ve read stories of exclusion and violence, as well as hope and triumph. I’ve seen truth decimate fear, light scare away the dark, comfort prevail over capitalistic greed. That’s what books do: They comfort us, educate us, enrage us and inspire us. Whatever books you read this month, I hope you find what you’re looking for.
January 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
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.
Which one of these books will be the catalyst you’re looking for?
Reads for the Rest of Us: The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2025
As we enter a new year and an uncertain future, it’s clear that some of us need to read more than others, but we all need to read for relaxation, inspiration and knowledge.
I hope you’ll make it a goal to carve out some time to read, and I’m here to give you my top 100 books that I am excited about this year. I scour catalogs and websites, search my favorite authors, keep up with socials and try to get through as much email as I can to find the gems that I know Ms. readers will love and learn from. I look for feminist, queer, anti-racist, anti-colonial, original, radical and reflective books. Subversive books. Books that’ll make you think and feel. It’s a lot of work, but as a librarian and Ms. Feminist Know-It-All, it’s what I do! And it’s labor I love.
2024 ‘Best of the Rest’: Our Favorite Books of the Year
Each year, I review my monthly Reads for the Rest of Us lists and choose my favorite books of the year. It is such a wonderful challenge to narrow them down. I read so many books I enjoy, but there are always those that rise to the top, the ones I won’t—or can’t—forget.