August 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us

Note: This article was originally published by Ms. magazine on Aug. 1, 2025.

Hello, feminist reader friends! Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. The aims of these lists are threefold:

1. I want to do my part in the disruption of what has been the acceptable “norm” in the book world for far too long—white, cis, heterosexual, male;
2. I want to amplify indie publishers and amazing works by writers who are women, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, APIA/AAPI, international, queer, trans, nonbinary, disabled, fat, immigrant, Muslim, neurodivergent, sex-positive or of other historically marginalized identities—you know, the rest of us; and
3. I want to challenge and encourage you all to buy, borrow and read them! 

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The Afghans: Three Lives through War, Love and Revolt

By Åsne Seierstad. Bloomsbury Publishing. Out Aug. 5.

Through sharing the stories of three Afghan individuals, Åsne Seierstad explores the effects the Soviet occupation, the US “War on Terror” and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 had on the people of Afghanistan. Deeply researched and empathetically reported, this volume is a monumental modern history of a country about which most Westerners know little.

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Escape from Kabul: The Afghan Women Judges Who Fled the Taliban and Those They Left Behind

By Karen Bartlett. The New Press. Out Aug. 5.

Pair the latest work by journalist Karen Bartlett with The Afghans (by Åsne Seierstad, featured above), and you will gain a firm understanding of the lives of women in modern Afghanistan. Dramatic and compelling, Escape from Kabul focuses on the women judges who spent 20 years fighting on behalf of women’s rights and, almost overnight, became the targets of the Taliban after their return to power in 2021. 

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Essential Soldiers: Women Activists and Black Power Movement Leadership

By Kenja McCray. NYU Press. Out Aug. 5.

In this in-depth examination, historian Kenja McCray sheds new light on women’s participation in the Black Power Movement while they faced classism, sexism, and racism. McCray intimately illustrates that far from playing secondary roles, women actively centered work, community and Pan-African values as essential activists and leaders in the movement.

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Extinction Capital of the World: Stories

By Mariah Rigg. Ecco. Out Aug. 5.

A heartbreaking and empathetic debut, this collection of stories set in contemporary Hawaii is a tribute to the beauty and fragility of the islands, and a warning against colonization and climate change.

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Indian Country: A Novel

By Shobha Rao. Crown. Out Aug. 5.

Shobha Rao has done it again! If you loved Girls Burn Brighter as I did, you are familiar with Rao’s distinctive voice and dynamic style. The landscapes and characters come alive in this story about a couple in an arranged marriage who move from India to Montana and the challenges they experience throughout. Both beautiful and brutal, Indian Country is a powerful statement on race, colonialism and tradition. 

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Solitaria: A Novel

Written by Eliana Alvez Cruz. Translated by Benjamin Brooks. Astra House. Out Aug. 5.

Afro-Brazilian writer Eliana Alvez Cruz’s latest novel is a stunner. Centering on mother and daughter live-in maids for a wealthy Brazilian family, Solitaria offers a sharp perspective on race, class and colonialism. Spacious and patient, the book is quiet yet captivating.

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Sunbirth

By An Yu. Grove Press. Out Aug. 5.

If you liked An Yu’s Ghost Music, you’ll be excited for Sunbirth, in which she tells the story of two sisters in a faraway village where the sun is shrinking, bit by bit. Unique and ethereal, this surreal dystopian story explores sisterhood, secrets, loss and wisdom.

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Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color―A Moving Anthology Celebrating Joy, Heartbreak, and Self-Discovery

Edited by Denne Michele Norris with Electric Literature. HarperOne. Out Aug. 12.

This outstanding collection includes 17 essays by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, some of whom you will be familiar with and others you’ll be grateful to get to know as they share their wisdom on love, loss, rage and joy. Among the contributors are Akwaeke Emezi, Meredith Talusan, Peppermint, Edgar Gomez, Addie Tsai and Kai Cheng Thom. 

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The Dilemmas of Working Women

Written by Fumio Yamamoto. Translated by Brian Bergstrom. HarperVia. Out Aug. 12.

This witty collection was a sensation in Japan and is now available in English for the first time. A biting commentary against capitalism and the over-valuing of productivity, these five stories play with social expectations, everyday rebellions and what it means to be a working woman in a patriarchal society.

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Far Away from Here: A Novel

By Ambata Kazi. SparkPress. Out Aug. 12.

Set in post-Katrina New Orleans, this debut novel is focused on three young African American Muslims reckoning with their trauma, faith and families. Evocative and original, Ambata Kazi resoundingly centers Black Muslim women’s voices as she explores faith, friendship and loss.

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House of Monstrous Women

By Daphne Fama. Berkley. Out Aug. 12.

As an uprising brews in 1986 Philippines, Josephine finds herself playing for her life in this haunting gothic horror. Pitted against her brother and best friends in a childhood game turned deadly, her struggle for survival eerily parallels the ongoing events of the People Power Revolution.

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The Roots of the Guava Tree: Growing Up Jewish and Arab in Colombia

By Sonia Daccarett. She Writes Press. Out Aug. 12.

Sonia Daccarett grew up in Colombia with a Jewish mother and a Christian Palestinian father. As the country spirals from the drug wars of the 1980s, Daccarett is left questioning her religious beliefs, language, cultures and identities in this engaging and propulsive debut memoir. 

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These Memories Do Not Belong to Us: A Constellation Novel

By Yiming Ma. Mariner Books. Out Aug. 12.

In this strikingly reflective debut, Yiming Ma explores the power of memories and what it means when they are censored or banned by the government. A collection of these banned stories forces readers to consider why certain stories are banned, and why it is more important than ever to continue to share them.

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The New Lesbian Pulp

Edited by Sarah Fonseca and Octavia Saenz. The Feminist Press at CUNY. Out Aug. 12.

Rebellious, subversive, and sexy, reading any of the stories in this collection is like taking a refreshing breath of air. Packed full of revenge, drama, and so much lesbian love, these new and vintage tales are the perfect escape.

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What Hunger: A Novel

By Catherine Dang. Simon & Schuster. Out Aug. 12.

Full of body horror unlike any other, this tale tackles female rage and generational trauma with a Jennifer’s Body spin. Following Ronny after the death of her older brother, What Hunger ties up mother-daughter relationships, teenage growing pains and a craving for flesh, with a bright red, bloody bow.

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Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City

By Bench Ansfield. W. W. Norton & Company. Out Aug. 19.

This is a meticulously researched (but reader-friendly) history of landlord arson that occurred in large US cities (in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods) between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Ansfield explores how the rise of fire, insurance, and real estate industries intertwined with racism and the civil rights struggle to ignite the perfect storm of racial capitalism for money-hungry landlords.

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Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty

By Kaila Yu. Crown. Out Aug. 19.

Kaila Yu’s debut is a hard-hitting memoir-in-essays focused on the fetishization of Asian women. Not only does Yu explore their objectification by culture, men and media, but she candidly digs into how she sexualized herself to conform to social conditioning and unrealistic Western beauty standards.  

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How to Be Unmothered: A Trinidadian Memoir

By Camille U. Adams. Restless Books. Out Aug. 19.

This debut memoir is at once the story of Camille U. Adams’ life, an exploration into why the women in her family leave and a history of the effects of colonization on her native Trinidad and Tobago. It’s a vulnerable and radiant account of violence, escape and liberation.

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Lessons in Magic and Disaster

By Charlie Jane Anders. Tor Books. Out Aug. 19.

Jamie’s a secret witch with a mother who’s stuck. Will teaching her mother witchcraft be the answer to their problems? Or destroy both of their lives? The incomparable Charlie Jane Anders delivers another magical story of resistance, queer connection, intergenerational trauma and wisdom to light the way in a dark time.

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Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler

By Susana M. Morris. Amistad. Out Aug. 19.

In her latest phenomenal work, Susan M. Morris situates the indomitable Octavia Butler within the major historical issues of the times and explores the influence they had on Butler’s life and work. Through deep archival research, Morris offers new, nuanced and sensitive insights into Butler’s life.  

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The Possession of Alba Díaz

By Isabel Cañas. Berkley. Out Aug. 19.

In lyrical and haunting language, Isabel Cañas weaves an enthralling and bloody tale of romance, tradition, family secrets and the occult. Centered on a family who takes refuge at a Mexican silver mine during a time of plague, this gothic thriller proves Cañas is at the top of her game. 

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Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance: The Forgotten Founding Mothers of the Fairy Tale and the Stories That They Spun

By Jane Harrington. Black Dog & Leventhal. Out Aug. 19.

This tantalizingly engaging and well-researched book pulls back the curtain on the rebellious women behind the fairy tales we know and love. A perfect mix of biographies and stories, Jane Harrington will have you rethinking everything you thought you knew about the princesses, fairies and happily ever after.

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Katabasis: A Novel

By R. F. Kuang. Harper Voyager. Out Aug. 26.

Everything R.F. Kuang writes is original and compelling, and Katabasis is no exception. In her most atmospheric tale yet, Kuang tells the story of two graduate students who travel to Hell to retrieve their professor. But even with magic, it proves to be a dark and treacherous journey. 

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Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories

Edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek Nation). Heartdrum. Out Aug. 26.

Selected by bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith, the stories and poems in this intertribal collection were contributed by writers such as Cheryl Isaacs, Darcie Little Badger, Kaua Mahoe Adams, and more. This outstanding volume is nuanced, funny, engaging and enlightening.

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Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City

By LaShawn Harris. Beacon Press. Out Aug. 26.

When award-winning historian LaShawn Harris was ten years old, her 66-year-old neighbor, Eleanor Bumpers, was brutally killed by police. Her assassination set off a movement against police violence, and Harris’ impeccably researched and elegantly written volume brings visibility and honor to this significant story.

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Also releasing this month:

Automatic Noodle
By Annalee Newitz. Tordotcom. Out Aug. 5.

Consent Laid Bare: Sex, Entitlement, and the Distortion of Desire
By Chanel Contos. HarperOne. Out Aug. 5.

The Golden Daughter: My Mother’s Secret Past as a Ukrainian Slave Worker in Nazi Germany
By Halina St James. House of Anansi Press. Out Aug. 5.

Mad Sisters of Esi
By Tashan Mehta. DAW. Out Aug. 5.

Moderation: A Novel
By Elaine Castillo. Viking. Out Aug. 5.

This Kind of Trouble: A Novel
By Tochi Eze. Tiny Reparations Books. Out Aug. 5.

The Darién Gap: A Reporter’s Journey Through the Deadly Crossroads of the Americas
By Belén Fernández. Rutgers University Press. Out Aug. 12.

Fat and Furious: Igniting Radical Fat Resistance
By Breanne Fahs. Beacon Press. Out Aug. 19.

From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary
By Carol Mason. University of California Press. Out Aug. 19.

Unlawful Advances: How Feminists Transformed Title IX
By Celene Reynolds. Princeton University Press. Out Aug. 19. 

What We Left Unsaid: A Novel
By Winnie M Li. Atria/Emily Bestler Books. Out Aug. 19.

Where Are You Really From: Stories
By Elaine Hsieh Chou. Penguin Press. Out Aug. 19.

Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon: A Novel
Written by Mizuki Tsujimura. Translated by Yuki Tejima. Scribner. Out Aug. 26.

A New New Me: A Novel
By Helen Oyeyemi. Riverhead Books. Out Aug. 26.

Sea, Mothers, Swallow, Tongues: A Novel
Written by Kim de l’Horizon. Translated by Jamie Lee Searle. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Out Aug. 26.