March 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us
Note: This article was originally published by Ms. Magazine on Mar. 4, 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:
- 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;
- 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
- I want to challenge and encourage you all to buy, borrow and read them!
And so we begin a busy season for books! There are always so many new books released this time of year that it’s hard to keep up. It is even harder to narrow them all down to a list of 20, but here I am, doing the hard work, all for you. *sigh*
I jest because, of course, I love it. But wow, it’s been time-consuming this year!
There is one book in particular that I want to give special mention to this month. I haven’t included it on my list because the writer is a dear friend of mine, but I have to mention it because I’m so happy for her. I’m also just super excited about the book, and I know you will be too. It’s The Guerrilla Feminist: A Search for Belonging Online & Offline by Lachrista Greco, who you may know from her longtime creative feminist endeavor, Guerrilla Feminism. The book is described by its publisher, Iskra Books, as “a bold, unflinching, and deeply resonant memoir from one of revolutionary feminism’s most compelling and impactful contemporary voices,” and I am here for it. Congratulations, friend!
So be sure to get your copy of The Guerrilla Feminist and check out the other books on the list this month. Happy March!
Abortion Stories: American Literature Before Roe v. Wade
Edited by Karen Weingarten. Penguin Classics. Out March 4.
Prof. Karen Weingarten and Penguin Classics have collected writings about abortion before Roe v. Wade in 1973. This singular collection includes poems, stories and essays from famous writers, everyday people, providers and more.
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Broken Fields
By Marcie R. Rendon (White Earth Nation). Soho Crime. Out March 4.
Not usually one for mysteries, I am a sucker for Cash Blackbear, the reluctant Ojibwe intuitive whose interminable grit and no-nonsense know-how make her a force to be reckoned with.
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The Dream Hotel: A Novel
By Laila Lalami. Pantheon. Out March 4.
With her latest novel, Lalami examines technology and privacy and explores the slippery slope of surveillance in a not-too-unlikely scenario. Kaleidoscopic, evocative and vexing, this is a master class in riveting writing.
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Pieces You’ll Never Get Back: A Memoir of Unlikely Survival
By Samina Ali. Catapult. Out March 4.
Samina Ali has managed to write a hopeful and loving memoir about the most terrifying and challenging events in her life: the traumatic birth of her first son and the accompanying brain injury that left her a shell of the person she once was. This is an inspiring story of recovery that you won’t want to miss.
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The River Has Roots
By Amal El-Mohtar. Tordotcom. Out March 4.
In this captivating debut fairy tale, two sisters fulfill their agreement to sing to the enchanted willows in exchange for magic, but when one rejects a suitor, they may both be in mortal danger.
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They Bloom at Night
By Trang Thanh Tran. Bloomsbury YA. Out March 4.
I really enjoyed Trang Thanh Tran’s first book, She Is a Haunting, and was gagged (in all the best and worst ways) by her sophomore YA horror slash Vietnamese folktale with heavy doses of queer representation and intersectional feminism.
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The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir
By Martha S. Jones. Basic Books. Out March 4.
The latest book by one of my favorite historians, Dr. Martha S. Jones, is a memoir of her family across race, place and generations. Not only did this one scratch my genealogical and research itches, but it is also full of intriguing storytelling, profound candor and collective care.
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The Unworthy: A Novel
Written by Agustina Bazterrica. Translated by Sarah Moses. Scribner. Out March 4.
If you like horror, you’re going to love feminist horror. This one centers on a woman in a secret religious order in the midst of climate crisis, violence and extremism. I was so taken from the first page that I swallowed it down in one gulp.
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Youth Organizing for Reproductive Justice: A Guide for Liberation
By Chris Barcelos. University of California Press. Out March 4.
Professor Chris Barcelos has written The Guide about the organizing visions and practices of queer and trans youth of color, from whom we can all learn a thing or two. Give a copy to the young (and old!) people in your life, but read it for yourself first.
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Accidents Happen and Other Stories
By F.H. Batacan. Soho Crime. Out March 11.
From a knife longing to discover its purpose to an eerie harvesting operation to the return of Father Augusto Saenz (from her debut novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles), the stories in F. H. Batacan’s latest are mysterious, foreboding and downright creepy.
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Feminism in the Wild: How Human Biases Shape Our Understanding of Animal Behavior
By Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer. MIT Press. Out March 11.
Kamath and Packer explore how science has long projected human norms onto animal behavior and use feminist, queer and disability theories to challenge this oppressive practice. Well-researched and accessible, this is fascinating and necessary work.
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Luminous
By Silvia Park. Simon & Schuster. Out March 11.
In a future unified Korea, human and robot siblings are reunited when a murder investigation has them questioning memories, secrets, identity and what it means to be human. This unique debut has compelling worldbuilding, intriguing characters and captivating style.
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Hunchback: A Novel
Written by Saou Ichikawa. Translated by Polly Barton. Hogarth. Out March 18.
Another winner of Japan’s Akutagawa Prize for literature, Hunchback is a candid semi-autobiographical story of a woman seeking autonomy, meaning and respect. Necessarily uncomfortable, it shines a light on the complicated intersections between disability, class, desire and reproductive justice.
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I Am the Swarm
By Hayley Chewins. Viking Books for Young Readers. Out March 25.
I’m struggling to find the best way to describe this unique coming-of-age novel in verse, mostly because I loved it so much. Read the back of the book and just know that it’s full of emotion, rage, fear, sadness, relief, love and hope all at once. This exquisitely raw masterpiece is not only already one of my favorite reads of 2025 but one of my favorites, period.
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I Didn’t Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education
By Karen G.J. Lewis and Elizabeth Todd-Breland. Haymarket Books. Out March 25.
Karen GJ Lewis’s passing in 2021 was a huge loss to Chicago educators and workers everywhere. Her memoir will be an inspiration, as Lewis was throughout her life, and her lessons will live on through this book.
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King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South
By Jeanne Theoharis. The New Press. Out March 25.
Meticulous research and feminist analysis frame this long-overdue examination of Dr. King’s work outside of the Jim Crow South, which pays special attention to the contributions of Coretta Scott King.
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Outside Women: A Novel
By Roohi Choudhry. University Press of Kentucky. Out March 25.
Roohi Choudary’s debut centers on two migrant women who are connected across time and space in their fight for autonomy, equality and justice. With themes of feminism, colonialism, migration and autonomy, Outside Women is fierce and fresh.
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The Portable Feminist Reader
Edited by Roxane Gay. Penguin Classics. 672 pages. Out March 25.
This volume includes newer feminist classics chosen by the incomparable Roxane Gay. From Anna Julia Cooper and Cherríe Moraga to Mona Eltahawy and Sara Ahmed, the pieces here expand the canon just when we need it most.
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Riding
By Pardis Mahdavi. Duke University Press. Out March 25.
What you get from this slim memoir is so much more than the beauty and empowerment of horseback riding. Lovingly articulated, Mahdavi’s absorbing message to readers centers on balance, freedom, feminism and home, even against a backdrop of tragedy and trauma.
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The Witch Studies Reader
Edited by Soma Chaudhuri and Jane Ward. Duke University Press. Out March 25.
I’m thrilled to see witch studies getting its due, and I can’t wait to read this long-overdue anthology of contributions by transnational witch-scholars sharing their feminism, diversity, wisdom, anti-colonialism and interdisciplinarity.
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Also out this month:
Black Girls Gardening: Empowering Stories and Garden Wisdom for Healing and Flourishing in Nature
By Amber Grossman. Chronicle Books. Out March 4.
Kirby’s Lessons for Falling (in Love)
By Laura Gao. HarperAlley. Out March 4.
Motherdom: Breaking Free of Bad Science and Good Mother Myths
By Alex Bollen. Verso. Out March 4.
Optional Practical Training: A Novel
By Shubha Sunder. Graywolf Press. Out March 4.
The Persians: A Novel
By Sanam Mahloudji. Scribner. Out March 4.
The Red Car to Hollywood
By Jennie Liu. Carolrhoda Lab. Out March 4.
Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning
By Vanessa Priya Daniel. Random House. Out March 4.
When the World Explodes: Essays
By Amy Lee Scott. Mad Creek Books. Out March 6.
Baby Blue
Written by Bim Eriksson. Translated by Melissa Bowers. Fantagraphics. Out March 11.
Counterattacks at Thirty: A Novel
Written by Won-pyung Sohn. Translated by Sean Lin Halbert. HarperVia. Out March 11.
Goddess Complex: A Novel
By Sanjena Sathian. Penguin Press. Out March 11.
A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19
By Edna Bonhomme. One Signal. Out March 11.
How to Survive a Slasher
By Justine Pucella Winans. Bloomsbury YA. Out March 11.
Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy
By Bridgett M. Davis. Harper. Out March 11.
Pushback: The 2,500-Year Fight to Thwart Women by Restricting Abortion
By Mary Fissell. Seal Press. Out March 11.
Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories
By Torrey Peters. Random House. Out March 11.
Unusual Fragments: Japanese Stories
Two Lines Press. Out March 11.
Vanishing Daughters: A Thriller
By Cynthia Pelayo. Thomas & Mercer. Out March 11.
Happier Far: Essays
By Diane Mehta. University of Georgia Press. Out March 15.
Beyond Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy
By Talia Mae Bettcher. University of Minnesota Press. Out March 18.
Chloe: A Novel of Secrets and Lies
By Connie Briscoe. Amistad. Out March 18.
The Haunting of Room 904: A Novel
By Erika T. Wurth (Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent). Flatiron Books. Out March 18.
Indigenous Critical Reflections on Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Edited by Lara A. Jacobs (Muscogee (Creek) Nation with Choctaw heritage). Oregon State University Press. Out March 18.
In My Remaining Years
By Jean Grae. Flatiron Books. Out March 18.
Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children
By Noliwe Rooks. Pantheon. Out March 18.
Passing Through a Prairie Country: A Novel
By Dennis E. Staples. Counterpoint. Out March 18.
The Place of Shells
Written by Mai Ishizawa. Translated by Polly Barton. New Directions. Out March 18.
Wildcat Dome: A Novel
Written by Yuko Tsushima. Translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Out March 18.
The Afrofuturist Evolution: Creative Paths to Self-Discovery
By Ytasha L. Womack. Lawrence Hill Books. Out March 25.
Bad Medicine: Settler Colonialism and the Institutionalization of American Indians
By Sarah A. Whitt (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma). Duke University Press. Out March 25.
Behind the Waterline
By Kionna Walker LeMalle. Blair. Out March 25.
The Origins of Critical Race Theory: The People and Ideas That Created a Movement
By Aja Y. Martinez and Robert O. Smith. NYU Press. Out March 25.
Poverty Rebels: Black and Brown Protest in Post–Civil Rights America
By Casey D. Nichols. University of North Carolina Press. Out March 25.
The Confines
By Anu Kandikuppa. Veliz Books. Out March 26.
