Books

Spotlighting books that tell important feminist stories.

Russia Was Once a Revolutionary Feminist Motherland

PUBLISHED 10/22/2025 by

Russia’s hostility to feminism today stems not from its foreignness, but from memory. A century ago, it was Russian women who lit the first sparks of revolution. On International Women’s Day in 1917, factory workers filled the streets of Petrograd demanding bread, peace and equality—an uprising that toppled the Romanovs and pulled the world into modernity. Under the Bolsheviks, women won the right to vote, divorce became accessible and abortion was legalized. For a brief, radical moment, the Soviet experiment made women’s liberation a pillar of the state.

Julia Ioffe’s book, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, reminds us that today’s Russia rejects feminism precisely because it once knew what it could do: ignite revolutions, upend hierarchies and reimagine power itself.

After the War: Author and Aid Worker Claudia Krich Challenges the Myths of Vietnam

PUBLISHED 10/16/2025 by

American humanitarian worker Claudia Krich—co-director of the American Friends Service Committee medical relief program from 1973 to 1975—was one of only a handful of Americans who stayed in Vietnam past April, 30, 1975, after the war ended. (She and her husband finally left in July 1975.)

Fifty years later, in April, Krich published her full journal from those months in Vietnam. Those Who Stayed: A Vietnam Diary, now available from the University of Virginia Press, combines Krich’s 1975 diary—including sections originally published in Ms.‘ July 1976 print issue—with extra historical content and some first-person accounts by people mentioned in or relevant to the book.

To celebrate the book’s release earlier this year, Claudia Krich communicated with Ms. about her book and her experiences as an American woman living and working in Vietnam during this historic moment.

“People think the war was North versus South, but that’s not true. … I hope my book motivates more people to travel, to take risks, to be outspoken, to record what they experience.”

‘Beauty Is a Labor Issue’: The Ms. Q&A with Arabelle Sicardi

PUBLISHED 10/14/2025 by

Since the start of their career, Arabelle Sicardi has worked to carve out a niche as a beauty writer who takes the industry to task. In an industry that thrives on affiliate links, and where publications near universally get commissions for the products they recommend, it’s a hard angle to take: Critiquing the system, let alone exposing the inequality that goes on behind the scenes, can put you in a vulnerable position.

Sicardi sat down with Ms. to discuss beauty under fascism, the labor issues at play in the beauty industry, and finding community and connection in an industry that’s fraught with violence.

Five Best Books on Black Women’s Political Leadership

PUBLISHED 9/16/2025 by

While writing my new book about the contributions Black women have made in the global struggle for human rights, I was humbled to see, over and over, how many of these women did not come from rich families, or hold positions of great power, or even have all that much education. But they did the hard and dangerous work required, day in and day out, because they believed in equal rights for everyone, around the world.

Built on Magic: Black Women’s Spiritual Legacy in American History

PUBLISHED 8/5/2025 by

The “Black Feminist in Public” series continues with a feature on Lindsey Stewart, an associate professor at the University of Memphis, whose latest book, The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic, released this week. A native Southerner, born and raised in South Louisiana, Stewart draws on the literary and cultural traditions of Black women in this region, also highlighted in her first book, The Politics of Black Joy: Zora Neale Hurston and Neo-Abolitionism (2021). With our popular culture now learning to celebrate “conjure women”—from Beyoncé to HBO shows like Lovecraft Country and recent films like The Exorcist: Believer (2023) and this year’s Sinners, The Conjuring of America could not have come at a better time.

Ms.’ Janell Hobson spoke with Lindsey Stewart earlier this summer to discuss her latest book.

“So many of the things that we interact with in our daily lives have hidden origins. And Black people are not just Black people, but magic. … I’m interested in how Black women used magic, used conjure to create a sense of safety in their communities. It was a type of luck management.”

“One of the things I’m trying to do with this book is to debunk the scariness and the association with evil that comes out of conjure, because when you look at Black culture, it’s present in so many of the sayings, superstitions, and practices that we use everyday, even though it’s been rejected in these Christian spaces.”

“There’s another lineage of Negro Mammies, another story about Negro Mammies that’s powerful. They were amazing women. And one of the things I wanted to do with this book is help Black women get closer to their ancestors and release the shame about how we survived. These women were powerful.”

Forget East Coast Cool—Joan Didion Was a California Woman

PUBLISHED 7/29/2025 by

An excerpt of The World According to Joan Didion, by Evelyn McDonnell, out July 29:

In a little-known 1978 speech, Joan Didion wrestled with the meaning of womanhood, feminism and identity in her home state of California.

Didion wrote, “I realized that I have been writing about the California woman all my adult life, that what it means to be a California woman has been a great question to me—the California woman has been—if not exactly my subject—at least quite certainly my material.”

Being a woman in a long line of mothers of courage, in community with other women, and a link in a chain to future women was intrinsic to Joan Didion’s identity.