Feminist History & Theory
"Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there." -- Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?
A New York Times Bestseller
Best Book of the Year: NPR - Boston Globe - Newsweek - Time Out New York - Oprah.com - Miami Herald - Book Riot - Buzz Feed - Globe and Mail (Toronto) - The Root - Shelf Awareness
A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched cultural observers of her generation
In these funny and insightful essays, Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.
Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better, coming from one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.
"Rebecca Solnit is essential feminist reading." --The New Republic
"Solnit's exquisite essays move between the political and the personal, the intellectual and the earthy." --Elle
Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including the international bestseller Men Explain Things to Me. Called "the voice of the resistance" by the New York Times, she has emerged as an essential guide to our times, through her incisive commentary on feminism, violence, ecology, hope, and everything in between.
In this powerful and wide-ranging collection, Solnit turns her attention to battles over meaning, place, language, and belonging at the heart of the defining crises of our time. She explores the way emotions shape political life, electoral politics, police shootings and gentrification, the life of an extraordinary man on death row, the pipeline protest at Standing Rock, and the existential threat posed by climate change.
The work of changing the world sometimes requires changing the story, the names, and inventing or popularizing new names and terms and phrases. Calling things by their true names can also cut through the lies that excuse, disguise, avoid, or encourage inaction, indifference, obliviousness in the face of injustice and violence.
Adapt and thrive--this is the way of the Chameleon.
With a less than idyllic childhood shrouded behind her, Nora Horvath finds confidence and strength in the life she's created for herself. Needs, not names, are what interests this self-possessed woman, and that's exactly the way she likes it. Between her hobbies, her work, and her intimate circle of confidants, there is literally nothing Nora desires from the outside world--let alone a long forgotten one.
As a firefighter, Nora knows better than most that heat rises. After a terrifying rescue jostles free the memories of a traumatic and abusive past, Nora is forced to pursue the demons who beckon her back into the shadowy realm of this new trauma. As she ascends into the inferno of her past, she begins to discover just how much heat she can handle.
Feverishly, Nora attempts to maintain her tight grip on the things she holds dear, and considers everything else to be... trivial. After all, a chameleon only changes color when it's frightened, and nothing can rattle the likes of Nora Horvath. Not even the truth.
Stunning, powerful, and complex, Chameleon Girl is a novel so big it occupies dual worlds. Igniting passion and intrigue, this psychological thriller transcends the genre as a champion of emotional intelligence and feminist narrative. Journey into the darkest and most complex aspects of the human experience as you witness this incredible cast of characters change, adapt, and show their true colors in Liz Ferro's bewitching debut novel. Grab your copy today!
ESSENTIAL LABOR: MOTHERING AS SOCIAL CHANGE
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
From the acclaimed author of Like a Mother comes a reflection on the state of caregiving in America, and an exploration of mothering as a means of social change.
The Covid-19 pandemic shed fresh light on a long-overlooked truth: mothering is among the only essential work humans do. In response to the increasing weight placed on mothers and caregivers--and the lack of a social safety net to support them--writer Angela Garbes found herself pondering a vital question: How, under our current circumstances that leave us lonely, exhausted, and financially strained, might we demand more from American family life?
In Essential Labor, Garbes explores assumptions about care, work, and deservedness, offering a deeply personal and rigorously reported look at what mothering is, and can be. A first-generation Filipino-American, Garbes shares the perspective of her family's complicated relationship to care work, placing mothering in a global context--the invisible economic engine that has been historically demanded of women of color.
Garbes contends that while the labor of raising children is devalued in America, the act of mothering offers the radical potential to create a more equitable society. In Essential Labor, Garbes reframes the physically and mentally draining work of meeting a child's bodily and emotional needs as opportunities to find meaning, to nurture a deeper sense of self, pleasure, and belonging. This is highly skilled labor, work that impacts society at its most foundational level.
Part galvanizing manifesto, part poignant narrative, Essential Labor is a beautifully rendered reflection on care that reminds us of the irrefutable power and beauty of mothering.
HOW WE SHOW UP: RECLAIMING FAMILY, FRIENDSHIP, AND COMMUNITY
After almost every presentation activist and writer Mia Birdsong gives to executives, think tanks, and policy makers, one of those leaders quietly confesses how much they long for the profound community she describes. They have family, friends, and colleagues, yet they still feel like they're standing alone. They're "winning" at the American Dream, but they're lonely, disconnected, and unsatisfied.
It seems counterintuitive that living the "good life"--the well-paying job, the nuclear family, the upward mobility--can make us feel isolated and unhappy. But in a divided America, where only a quarter of us know our neighbors and everyone is either a winner or a loser, we've forgotten the key element that helped us make progress in the first place: community. In this provocative, groundbreaking work, Mia Birdsong shows that what separates us isn't only the ever-present injustices built around race, class, gender, values, and beliefs, but also our denial of our interdependence and need for belonging. In response to the fear and discomfort we feel, we've built walls, and instead of leaning on each other, we find ourselves leaning on concrete.
Through research, interviews, and stories of lived experience, How We Show Up returns us to our inherent connectedness where we find strength, safety, and support in vulnerability and generosity, in asking for help, and in being accountable. Showing up--literally and figuratively--points us toward the promise of our collective vitality and leads us to the liberated well-being we all want.
--Washington Post Universally acclaimed, rapturously reviewed, and an instant New York Times bestseller, Chanel Miller's breathtaking memoir "gives readers the privilege of knowing her not just as Emily Doe, but as Chanel Miller the writer, the artist, the survivor, the fighter." (The Wrap). Her story of trauma and transcendence illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicting a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shining with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life. Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.
For all who inhabit a body and wonder about its place in the universe.
In Loving What Doesn't Last: An Adoration of the Body, Christina Kukuk reminds us that what matters most are things don't last forever. We find faith, hope, and love in and the string of endings and beginnings that make a life: a mother who plants an orchard in her son's memory, a girl's struggle with food scarcity, an adolescent awakening to infatuation at summer camp, and a woman waiting hours for her lover's recovery on a hospital's transplant floor. In every fleeting moment from the first pangs of birth to our last breath, God is in all of it.