Some memoirs are all-encompassing, whereas other memoirs provide you with just a slice of a person’s life. This memoir is the latter. Many of us would likely run the other way if someone asked us to write a memoir of our high school years, but that’s exactly what Tegan and Sara Quin did.  The first Tegan and Sara song I ever heard was “Living Room.” That catchy melody, those clear voices, how their individual voices blended together so well – I was hooked. When I heard...

Shout Your AbortionEdited by Amelia Bonow and Emily Nokes(PM Press) With the recent anti-abortion laws passed in Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, and Alabama, now seems to be an especially crucial time for Shout Your Abortion, a book which aims to release the stigma around abortions as well as normalize them as being an essential part of women’s reproductive health. The online grassroots movement began when the U.S. Congress voted to defund Planned Parenthood and editor Amelia Bonow opted to share her experience obtaining an abortion on social...

  When Trump was elected in 2016, June Diane Raphael got angry. More than that, the hilarious 39-year-old actor—best known for the film podcast How Did This Get Made? and for her role as Jane Fonda’s snarky daughter on Grace and Frankie—was ready to push for the change she wanted to see in elected offices across America. That’s where Kate Black, the former chief of staff at the political action committee EMILY’s List, came in. Together, Raphael and Black wrote REPRESENT: The Woman’s Guide to Running for...

Cecil Castellucci has written various characters in different DC imprints, from Shade the Changing Girl to, more recently, Female Furies. And this fall, she will be writing her first title in the DC Universe with Batgirl.  Batgirl has had a long tradition with dope female writers taking the reins. Castellucci is taking her first go with the character in this summer’s Year of the Villain, Batgirl #37 Killer Infestation. Later this fall, she will take over the entire run of the series. Castellucci will pick up writing...

It's finally fall: the perfect time to head to a park or café with a book you just can't put down. Here are five new and upcoming novels, memoirs, and collections — all reviewed in our September/October issue — we're looking forward to reading the next few months.   Red at the Bone: A NovelBy Jacqueline Woodson(Riverhead Books)   Melody’s 16th birthday is a time for celebration, but like every milestone in her life, it’s also a moment full of questions. Melody has them about the mother who has always been...

Lauded as the debut novel of the season, The Other’s Gold follows four friends from their first days of college through the first decade of their adulthood – a messy time of burgeoning and becoming. The demands of family, friendship, desire, and rage shape the four friends’ identities even as they push against the bounds of loyalty, shame, institutional power, and the patriarchy. I found so much to think about in this spirited, complicated joy. From her home in Boston and mine in Seattle, Elizabeth Ames and...

Mars: Stories By Asja Bakićć, Translated by Jennifer Zoble(The Feminist Press at CUNY) Bosnian author Asja Bakić’s celebrated 2015 book, Mars, has now been translated by Jennifer Zoble for English-speaking readers to enjoy. It contains a skillfully disorienting collection of short stories that traverse the orbits of fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. These ghostly fables also dissect such matters as robot love, clone love, high school love, and cults. Sometimes the writing feels uneven—readers will frequently have no idea what’s happening until the end of a...

  Guestbook: 
Ghost StoriesBy Leanne Shapton(Riverhead Books) Artist and writer Leanne Shapton’s latest work is a quick read that packs an unexpected punch. Using black-and-white imagery and illustrations alongside sparse writing, she expertly manipulates the unsaid and unseen to evoke hauntings—both supernatural and entirely human. Some of her “ghost stories” are traditional. In “Peele House,” a dwelling’s inhabitants experience strange phenomenon linked to deaths on the property. Other stories are evocative of the way memories can haunt. “Sirena de Gali,” one of the most powerful stories,...

  Everything Inside: StoriesBy Edwidge Danticat(Knopf) In “Without Inspection,” the heart-rending, final short story of Edwidge Danticat’s collection Everything Inside, a man revisits his life as he falls five hundred feet to his death. Though the actual story—flashbacks aside—all takes place over the course of six seconds, Danticat creates a small, emotionally rich universe. Readers are sure to leave the story with a sense of bittersweet heaviness—and it is a feeling Danticat conjures in each of the eight tales in her new collection. Settings jump from Miami...

Over a decade ago, I serendipitously met my teacher and mentor Annabel Gat at a store party in the Lower East Side. In that time, she has spearheaded herself to the top of the astrology sphere through her horoscopes for Vice’s Astro Guide, her cheeky and informative Tweets, and her endless knowledge of the cosmos. And now, she has an amazing hot new compatibility book perfect for all astro fans and newbies – an undeniable “it” book of the summer.  The Astrology of Love & Sex: A Modern Compatibility Guide...