Steph Auteri is a journalist who has written for the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Pacific Standard, VICE, and elsewhere. Her more creative work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, under the gum tree, Poets & Writers, and other publications, and she is the Essays Editor for Hippocampus Magazine. Her essay, "The Fear That Lives Next to My Heart," published in Southwest Review, was listed as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2021. She also writes bookish stuff here and at the Feminist Book Club, is the author of A Dirty Word, and is the founder of Guerrilla Sex Ed. When not working, she enjoys yoga, embroidery, singing, cat snuggling, and staring at the birds in her backyard feeder. You can learn more at stephauteri.com and follow her on Insta/Threads at @stephauteri.
Female friendships aren't hyped nearly as much as they should be, so here are a few books that display these vital relationships, like Heavy Vinyl by Carly Usdin.
True crime often focuses on only one kind of "ideal victim," typically a white woman. These books, including Savage Appetites by Rachel Monroe, dig deeper into the genre and its failings.
From runaway moms in fiction to essays about maternal ambivalence and regret, these books break the taboo around regretting motherhood.
So you've inhaled the TV show and now you want more: fill that alien-shaped hole with these books and stories like Resident Alien, including The Humans by Matt Haig.
Reflecting on the power of messy genre classifications, horror, and why books where the supernatural is in the background are powerful.
One reader explores two years of reading pandemic fiction during a pandemic, and the different roles this genre has played for her.
These dark humor books, including Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour, tackle difficult subject manner with jokes that will leave you laughing despite yourself.
When you can't get to Artist Alley, buy these comic artists' work through their online stores, carrying prints, pins, clothing, and more.
Horror's great for exploring gluttony. But if you crave something you can really sink your teeth into, here's a list of horror for foodies, including Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
Reading can be harder during stressful times. But is there really such thing as "reader's block"? Here's what the neuroscience has to say.