More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Spotlighting books that tell important feminist stories.
On Sept. 27, 2018, Christine Blasey Ford testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in 1982. In a beautifully-written and searing new memoir, One Way Back, Blasey Ford recounts her life before, during and after the 1982 sexual assault and her 2018 testimony.
Blasey Ford’s memoir corrects the record, and explains what happened after her testimony.
Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
Here’s this month’s list of 16 releases we’re excited about!
So Witches We Became, a YA horror novel by Jill Baguchinsky, combines the supernatural, a queer romance and suppressed trauma to tell a fast-paced and cathartic feminist story about collective healing and reclaiming power.
Ms. spoke with Baguchinsky about what inspired her to tell a story about witches, friendship and recovery from sexual assault and rape.
Abortions are sought by a wide range of people for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls. (Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.)
Author Anne Shaw Heinrich reflects on her abortion story, motherhood and how it connects to the characters in her book, God Bless the Child.
Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
The 18 books below may just give you some respite, order, distraction or—dare I say—hope.
Kristine S. Ervin was 8 when her mother was abducted from a mall parking lot, murdered and abandoned in an Oklahoma oil field. In her debut memoir Rabbit Heart, Ervin resists the true crime trope of exploiting and glorifying femicide and instead delves into the emotional toll her mother’s death took on her and her family. We sat down recently to talk about her book, growing up motherless, how this informed her life’s gender power dynamics and her evolution from being a feminist-skeptic to writing what is undeniably a deeply feminist memoir.
“I see this as a grief memoir, a motherless daughter memoir, a memoir that is meant to show what 25 years of unrelenting, brutal grief looks like when you are the loved one of a victim and you don’t have answers.”
In her new memoir, The Women’s Revolution: How We Changed Your Life, Muriel Fox, one of the co-founders of the National Organization for Women, offers firsthand stories of NOW’s fight to pass and enforce laws prohibiting discrimination in employment, education, housing, credit and more.
Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
These 21 books stood out to me for various reasons—ranging from strange and spell-binding fiction, to nurturing and necessary nonfiction.
A new, modern menopause movement is underway, mobilized by a diverse coalition of doctors, journalists, and social and racial justice activists.
In particular, we recommend: The New Menopause: Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change With Purpose, Power, and Facts by Dr. Mary Claire Haver; Grown Woman Talk: Your Guide to Getting and Staying Healthy by Dr. Sharon Malone; and The Menopause Brain: New Science Empowers Women to Navigate the Pivotal Transition with Knowledge and Confidence by Dr. Lisa Mosconi.
(This article originally appears in the Summer 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)
Banning books is deeply harmful to children. Censorship not only removes books from library shelves; it erases identities. Bans suggest that the very existence of some human beings is controversial. Make no mistake, book banning is an anathema to liberty. It is a tool of oppression, and if we really want to protect our children, if we want to ensure our democracy, we all need to be raising our voices to stop it.
“How can I be brave?” That’s the question that planted the seed for my novel, This Book Won’t Burn.