Books

Spotlighting books that tell important feminist stories.

Loretta Ross on ‘Calling In’: 25 Lessons on Change, Compassion and Cancel Culture

In Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel, activist and scholar Loretta Ross challenges us to move beyond cancel culture and embrace a more humane approach to accountability. “A call in is a call out done with love,” she explains, emphasizing that true change requires “creating the conditions for differences of opinion to be heard” rather than relying on shame and ideological rigidity. With truth and history on our side, Ross urges us to build bridges, not burn them, leading a “revolution of moral renewal” that unites rather than divides.

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?  

From Playtime to Patriarchy: The Role of Toys in Gender Inequality

This “toy problem” doesn’t end in childhood—it grows up with kids and follows them into adulthood. When toys restrict a child’s imagination about their possibilities, it stifles development and creates a ripple effect. The path to gender equality must begin at the earliest stages of life—when children first engage with toys, books and screens.

Jodi Bondi Norgaard explores this in her new book More Than a Doll: How Creating a Sports Doll Turned into a Fight to End Gender Stereotypes.

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. 

‘A Citizen’s Guide to Menopause Advocacy’: A New Digital Booklet Mobilizing Menopausal Masses

Over the past two years, menopause has become wildly popular in the public discourse.

A team of experts launched a digital booklet, A Citizen’s Guide to Menopause Advocacy. Ms. Magazine’s Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Dr. Mary Claire Haver, author of the NYT #1 bestseller The New Menopause, are joined by award-winning journalist and women’s health champion Maria Shriver in creating this timely and action-oriented roadmap.

Over the next two years, these may well be among the ideas that can transcend political gridlock.

The Legacy of Dr. Warren Hern: Abortion Provider, Women’s Health Advocate and Target of Hate

After more than 50 years of providing abortions, Dr. Warren Hern of Boulder, Colo. will retire on Jan. 22 of this year. For 50+ years, he has been one of the most high-profile—and controversial—abortion doctors in the United States. This controversy has stemmed from his work as one of only a handful of providers to perform abortions in the late second trimester and the third trimester of pregnancy.

Though only about 1.5 percent of abortions in the U.S. take place after 20 weeks’ gestation, often due to lethal or serious fetal anomalies or health emergencies of pregnant women, those who perform such abortions have been subject to an even higher level of violence and harassment than that of other providers. One of the most traumatic events of Hern’s life was the loss of his close friend and colleague, Dr. George Tiller, also a provider of later abortions, who was assassinated in his church by an antiabortion zealot after being assailed for years as “Tiller the Killer,” including by a Fox News personality. A note he received from one patient no doubt reflects the feelings of many: “I can’t put into words my gratitude for your compassion during the hardest time in my life.”

December 2024 Reads for the Rest of Us

Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

I don’t know where this year went, but it was a tough one on many fronts. For better or for worse, here we are. Enjoy these 12 titles—then keep your eyes peeled for my Best of the Rest for 2024. 

In New Book on Abortion Pills, Carrie Baker Chronicles the History of Resistance and Resilience That Changed the Abortion Landscape

“Pills have become the frontline of the battle for abortion access,” writes professor and Ms. contributor editor Carrie N. Baker in her new book Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Politics—the first to offer a comprehensive history of abortion pills in the United States.

November 2024 Reads for the Rest of Us

I hope, I hope. Until then, I read. 

Reading makes me a better, kinder, more empathetic person. It helps me not to feel so alone and so discouraged. It counteracts the desperation and uncertainty I feel more often lately.

So, friends, here’s to reading. And here’s to hope. And here are the 20 soothing, motivating, educating, loving and ass-kicking books releasing this month that I recommend.