I'm gonna be honest with you, this started out as a curation of Frankenstein riffs, but it went a little off the rails. Here are some reading lists for you on creatures, shipwrecks, and bogs. 🛥️ 👹 🌿

Post a bird to support @sbworkersunited.org and warn your followers not to buy Starbucks for the duration of the strike 🪶

That's nearly a million dollars total, fyi

On the anniversary of the Haymarket martyrs' execution, we're adding a new title to our Working Classics series. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘨𝘰 𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴, back in print for the first time in decades, preserves the chilling, defiant words of the accused. www.akpress.org/famous-speec...

Foraging Friends is back in November. Foraging Friends is a monthly meet up for anyone who likes growing their own food, foraging for wild snacks, and generally looking for little treasures in the natural world.

Unearthing the hidden history of a singular trans punk zine: defector.com/unearthing-t...

You are like a lantern swathed and covered, hidden away in a dark place. Yet the light shines; they could not put out the light. They could not hide you.

My latest is a love letter to Chicago. "I see you stumbling through the stubborn, awkward rhythm of showing up, again and again. I see you fighting alongside people who sometimes frustrate and confuse you, and defending neighbors you may have never met, because you know they’re all your people."

Prepping for our final events and subscription boxes of 2025 and the line up is so good. 📚 @thenewpress.bsky.social @amandagoldblatt.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social

Thank you and hell yes to local independent bookstores for supporting our communities and neighbors! From Squeezebox Books, @skunkcabbagebooks.bsky.social, & @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social

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new: at least 26 unhoused chicagoans have been abducted since the start of "operation midway blitz." the full scope of people disappeared is likely much larger but is obscured by heavy criminalization, social stigma, and fewer eyes and phones around to bear witness. via @katieprout.bsky.social

Happy pub day to my beautiful daughter!!!!!! she is so smart and funny and weird and thoughtful and I am so excited for you to meet her!!!!

I wrote an essay on @defector.com about my archival misadventures putting together the book that is Gendertrash From Hell. Many thanks to @laurentheisen.bsky.social it was really nice to *get* edited for once. Lauren u rule!

Zohran says you’re trans now

Apparently all you needed to do to predict the NYC election results was read that one N.K. Jemisin novel.

shout out chicago.

SAY IT WITH US: GENDER! TRASH! FROM! HELL! you already know if you will like this book

Hospitals have pulled back on gender-affirming care for kids under Trump, leaving families with shrinking options. A really interesting read from Lisa Schencker @chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/31/h...

i know what i'm doing for dinner tomorrow

Airplane Mode, our subscription club for books in translation, is back in November. 🌍 More information on how to join available at skunkcabbagebooks.com.

In Illinois, juvenile detention centers are exempt from FOIA meaning the public can't access employee disciplinary records, confinement data, and policy manuals. As my editor @jonahshai.bsky.social once put it, it's much harder to get information about the youth jail than it is about the adult jail

Gary Larson dropping Cow Tools in 1982

Chicago! Weds! UIC English+the Inter Chicago Circle for Experimental Critical Theory welcome genius novelist Kashana Cauley+genius organizer Prof Jason Wozniak of @debtcollective.bsky.social to a special convo WHAT'S FUNNY ABOUT STUDENT DEBT?! @kashana.blacksky.app interccect.com/2025/09/26/w...

I'm reading this this week and all the lil fungus freaks are gonna LOVE IT.

Things your bookseller will judge you for requesting: - The Fountainhead Things your bookseller will never judge you for requesting: - Horny romance

As June Jordan said, “We are not powerless. We are indispensable despite all atrocities of state and corporate policy to the contrary... At a minimum we have the power to stop cooperating with our enemies. We have the power to stop the courtesies and to let the feelings be real.”

We're excited to welcome Miranda Mellis in conversation with Amanda Goldblatt to discuss her new novel, Crocosmia, a speculative fable that begins at the end of climate catastrophe and charts a future after The Great Turning when people begin to rebuild a new, more alive world together.

⭐New Starred Review ⭐ from @publisherswkly.bsky.social for @ravineangel.bsky.social's upcoming Persona! Full review here (spoiler warning): www.publishersweekly.com/9781964322063 Standard preorder: www.littlepuss.net/shop/p/perso... DELUXE preorder: www.littlepuss.net/shop/p/perso...

We're thrilled to share the story "Heads" from @ellomelissa.bsky.social's collection Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus Is Alive! It's weird, it's unsettling, it's a little gross...and it's one of our most anticipated reads of the year 🪓 reactormag.com/excerpts-bey...

I can't wait for the book that accompanies this exhibit to be released in the US in January.

GET RID OF YOUR RING CAMERAS www.yahoo.com/news/article...

“They literally ushered us into the street to protest and immediately after started beating the shit out of us.” This is 100% an accurate description of how this started. Broadview PD mishandled the situation from the start, then unleashed ISP to beat the protesters they’d led into the street.

Join us November 9th for a reading to celebrate the release of Girldad Press's new anthology, Sex Change and the City with editor Tuck Woodstock (Gender Reveal podcast) and author Vera Blossom (How to Fuck Like A Girl). Space is limited, RSVP via the link in our bio.

RSVP is live!!

Join us for our With Feathers book club in November to discuss The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger. We'll meet at 6 on November 19th. No RSVP required.

Join us for our last Ask A Scientist night of the year! Dr. Liz Kozik from the Chicago Botanic Garden will be here on November 12th at 6:30 to tell us all about prairie restoration ecology and art as science communication. 🌿 🌼 Tickets go on sale via the link in our bio at noon on 11/4!

Come and get em

If you don’t see the link between ICE and the IDF, you haven’t been paying attention. We are being asked to accept a world where whole communities are made disposable and marked for disappearance. If we accept that for anyone, no one is safe anywhere.

It’s been quite amazing to watch people call on CPD (of all entities) to fight on behalf of the oppressed. There is a reason why we don’t see police leading revolutions. They are a function of the state and will give deference to the feds, as required by law. youtube.com/shorts/WDHFe...

Some of what our staff have been reading lately. 📚

No War on Chicago No War Anywhere

Tonika Lewis Johnson’s artwork includes the acclaimed Folded Map Project. She’s one of 22 new MacArthur Fellows, announced on Wednesday.

There's too much to focus on here in Chicago to be on my "Amazon is even worse than you think" soapbox this week, but here's a sample of the ways that they are profiting off of genocide and occupation, both here and abroad. Kill the cop on your doorstep (your Ring camera).

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen... The building is in a 27 million dollar foreclosure filed by Wells Fargo. The next day, Wells Fargo filed an emergency motion for receivership. The fascist regime kindly emptied the building for donor Wells Fargo.

Overheard in the horror section: "I love when a gorgeous woman is in a harrowing situation"

October 5th - 11th is Banned Books Week. We're partnering with @midwestbooks2p to help get more books to incarcerated readers inside while also helping Midwest Books To Prisoners unlock matching grant funds from the Hull Foundation to support their ongoing operations.

I have a full day today, but I woke up early to put this edition of my newsletter together because I need you all to have this rundown of what we've been up against this week in Chicago as the federal assault on our city continues. To ignore these developments would be a damning mistake for us all.

And on Wednesday next week (10/8/25), Ruby Carter will be reading with Darya Foroohar at @skunkcabbagebooks.bsky.social at 6 PM!