Books

Spotlighting books that tell important feminist stories.

Supporting the Freedom to Read: The Ms. Q&A with Amanda Jones, Author of ‘That Librarian’

PUBLISHED 8/22/2024 by

When Louisiana middle school librarian Amanda Jones spoke before the Livingston Parish Public Library board in July 2022, she knew some of her neighbors and friends would disagree with her anti-censorship and anti-book-ban testimony.

Nonetheless, Jones reported that she was blindsided by the well-organized campaign that followed her presentation and was shocked by the barrage of hateful comments that she’s received for more than two years. Among other things, Jones has been called a pedophile, pervert, pornographer and groomer, an experience she details in her newly-released memoir, That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America .

In ‘One Way Back,’ Christine Blasey Ford Describes Life in the Aftermath

PUBLISHED 8/9/2024 by

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.

What if We Were All Witches?: The Ms. Q&A With YA Author Jill Baguchinsky

PUBLISHED 8/2/2024 by

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.

Our Abortion Stories: ‘Instead of an Immediate Dilation and Curettage, I Was Sent Home to Wait for Nature to Take Its Course’

PUBLISHED 7/8/2024 by

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.

Flipping the Script on True Crime: The Ms. Q&A With Author Kristine S. Ervin

PUBLISHED 6/25/2024 by

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.”