Books

The Best Queer YA Novels of 2019

Close up images from three books, including an image of a white nonbinary person leaning their head on a brown boy's shoulder; a Black girl in pajamas with natural hair; a pair of queer girls standing close to each other, one's hand on the other's neck.
by Rachel Charlene Lewis
December 10, 2019 at 12:13pm
It’s been a stunning year for queer young-adult novels.
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli book cover

BitchReads: 25 Fiction Books You Must Read In 2018

by Evette Dionne
December 27, 2017 at 1:37pm
Fiction is needed now more than ever. Read more »
The Promise of Patriarchy book cover

BitchReads: The Best Black Women’s History Books of 2017

by Evette Dionne
December 19, 2017 at 11:35am
Female and nonbinary historians, scholars, and writers are pushing Black women’s stories into the canon.  Read more »
Bitch Doctrine by Laurie Penny book cover

The “Bitch Doctrine” Is the Uplifting Manifesto We Need

by Heather Seggel
December 18, 2017 at 3:18pm
Laurie Penny’s collection of essays explores the uncomfortable corset of the gender binary. Read more »

The Future is Feminist Joy

by Allison Mccarthy
December 12, 2017 at 2:31pm
The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness reveals the blueprint to happier lives. Read more »
stock photos of books

A Sexual Violence Reckoning is Coming In Publishing

by s.e. smith
December 5, 2017 at 9:55am
It’s time to take down no good, very bad literary men. Read more »
Janet Mock's Surpassing Certainty Book Cover

BitchReads: The Best Memoirs of 2017

by Evette Dionne
December 4, 2017 at 9:22am
Being able to peek into the lives of other people who are far different than us deepens our understanding of this complex life. Read more »
stock photo of person reading by the fireplace

BitchReads: 5 Books You Must Read In December

by Evette Dionne
November 28, 2017 at 10:03am
If you love the books, pass on the gift of literature to a fellow bibliophile. Read more »

Let Freedom Reign: Meet America’s First Feminists

by Katie Klabusich
November 21, 2017 at 8:46am
The beginning of the women’s rights movement was not the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Read more »
A book cover featuring the lower half of a female torso with flowers where pubic hair would be

Friday's Children: Revisiting—and Rethinking—the Sex-Positive 1970s

by Andi Zeisler
November 16, 2017 at 3:46pm
Nancy Friday’s bestselling collection of women’s erotic fantasies contradicted the staunch conviction that women lacked the rich sexual fantasy lives enjoyed by men. Read more »
Janet Mock, a transgender Hawaiian woman with curly, brown hair, smiles

7 Books To Read During Trans Awareness Week

by Evette Dionne
November 14, 2017 at 1:07pm
Trans Awareness Week has reads on reads on reads. Read more »

Pages

Best of Bitch

Black Girls Hunger for Heroes, Too: A Black Feminist Conversation on Fantasy Fiction for Teens

by Zetta Elliott
December 17, 2013 at 3:19pm
What happens when two great black women fiction writers get together to talk about race in young adult literature? That's exactly what happens... Read more »

Demanding the Impossible: Walidah Imarisha Talks About Science Fiction and Social Change

by Kristian Williams
April 13, 2015 at 2:23pm
Before she was a poet, journalist, documentary filmmaker, anti-prison activist, and college instructor, Walidah Imarisha was fascinated... Read more »

Hot Under the Bonnet: The Cooptation of Amish Culture in Mass-Market Fiction

a blue and white illustration of a woman in Amish attire standing next to a fan and a chicken
by Audrey deCoursey
Spring 2014 • Maps & Legends
Dubbed “Amish romance novels,” “Amish fiction,” or the more waggish “bonnet rippers,” these novels just one entry point into the varying images of Amish communities in U.S. popular culture. Read more »

Mock & Awe: Janet Mock on Truth-Telling, Community Building, and Writing the Story She Had Been Waiting for Her Whole Life

Janet Mock, a transgender Hawaiian woman with curly, brown hair, smiles
by Tina Vasquez
Spring 2014 • Maps & Legends
“Redefining Realness” is written with astounding honesty and heart. Read more »