My introduction to books about grief happened a few weeks after my mother died. It was 1996, the weekly support group I’d been attending had just ended, and the counselor invited me back to his office to give me a book that I “had to read.” It was new, he cheered, so very confident in his recommendation. The book was Hope Edelman’s Motherless Daughters, and as the counselor predicted, it changed the trajectory of my post-loss life. In its 283 pages, I learned how other women,...

The Fortunes of a Jaded Woman  By Carolyn Huynh  (Simon and Schuster) At its heart, Carolyn Huynh’s debut novel is a love story—because love is the reason the entire Duong family is cursed. Long ago, their ancestor Oanh left her marriage for true love, a brave and unconventional decision that her mother-in-law wasn’t going to let her get away with. And so she sought the aid of a fearsome witch to ensure that Oanh suffered for her shameful choice. The curse? That no Duong ever experience true love...

Women in Politics’ Little Lawmakers: How to Turn a Bill Into Law teaches kids that no matter how young you are or where you come from, if you believe in yourself (and maybe the power of a crustacean pin), you can use your voice to advocate for your beliefs. Filled with fascinating historical facts and comprehensible concepts, Little Lawmakers is a funny and compelling children’s book for kids of all ages.         View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Women In Politics (@womeninpolitics_) The children’s book follows best...

Imagine finally securing your dream career, only to find out that, in this field, marriage, weight gain and aging are firable offenses. This was the reality of a flight attendant’s workplace in the early to mid-20th century, where humiliation was commonplace, weigh-ins were routine and sexual harassment was encouraged.   Airlines all over the world branded flight attendants as sexual objects since the origin of the job, requiring them to work in sexy outfits that were severely impractical for life-saving situations and establishing rules to make sure...

  Hotbed: Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club that Sparked Modern Feminism By Joanna Scutts (Seal Press)   Among the stories left untold from the women’s rights movement is the history of Heterodoxy, a secret club that helped shape first-wave feminism. Marie Jenney Howe, a Unitarian minister, formed Heterodoxy in 1912 when she came to Greenwich Village, in N.Y.C., as part of her suffrage activism. Most of the club’s members were involved in the suffrage movement but believed that achieving the right to vote would not be enough liberation for...

Mika in Real Life: A Novel By Emiko Jean (William Morrow) At 35, Mika Suzuki is nowhere near where her younger self had hoped she would be. Single, recently fired, living with her best friend slash possible hoarder, and an ongoing disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents, Mika can’t seem to put out one fire before another begins. When Penny, the daughter she placed for adoption 16 years ago, reaches out, Mika believes that the only path forward is a semi-fictionalized one, giving the facade of her life...

   L.A.-based novelist Ottessa Moshfegh made a grand entrance into the literary world in 2015 when her debut, Eileen, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her avid readership has grown exponentially since then thanks to the popularity of her subsequent books including My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Death in Her Hands, and her latest, Lapvona, out June 23. Here, Moshfegh spills the tea on how her imaginary worlds come to be.  Your new novel, Lapvona,...

 "There is so much more to drag than what you see on television."–LA drag queen Psycadella Facade.  If the scope of your drag knowledge starts and ends with RuPaul's Drag Race,, a few drag brunches, and bachelorette parties, you're doing yourself a disservice. TV shows like RuPaul's Drag Race helped bring drag from the underground to the cultural mainstream, but have also drawn criticism from queer and drag communities into what drag is, was, and could be. From Brooklyn based artist and lifelong drag performer Harry James Hanson...

This is a big year for legendary painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, teacher, and MacArthur “genius” fellow Lynda Barry. Drawn & Quarterly is re-releasing three collections of her serialized coming-of-age strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek in 2022—Come Over Come Over (out now), My Perfect Life (June 14), and It’s So Magic (September 20). Centering on the life of tortured junior-high misfit Maybonne Mullen and her little sister Marlys, Barry’s “Comeek” was an underground sensation that was syndicated in over 70 alternative papers between 1979 and 2008. Salty, sweet, and a little offkilter,...

I KISSED SHARA WHEELER: A Novel  By Casey McQuiston  (Wednesday Books) I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a love letter to all of us queer kids who were high schoolers in the ‘90s. Especially those of us who lived in small towns and whose social scenes revolved around Friday night football games and church on Sunday. Shara Wheeler mysteriously disappears weeks before she is set to become her school valedictorian–seemingly without a trace. But the last night she is seen, she kisses three people: her quarterback boyfriend, her broody musician...