UPenn professor of sociology and Africana studies Tukufu Zuberi says W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1899 book The Philadelphia Negro is a beautifully written, essential text. It’s out in a new edition from Penn Press. Pamela J. Forsythe reviews.

The damage of last year’s Supreme Court decision ending our right to abortion continues to unfold. T.S. Mendola speaks with local providers, and considers You or Someone You Love a sensitive new book by abortion doula Hannah Matthews.

A new biography traces the family and neighborhood life and military service of West Oak Lane native Michael Crescenz, who saved many lives during his service in Vietnam at age 19. Andrea Smith reviews.

Mike Weilbacher details the amazing nature in and around the city in Wild Philly. Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer previews.

Drexel professor and fashion journal editor Joseph H. Hancock II’s Fashion Brand Stories was originally written for students of the industry, but with its third edition, the book proves of much wider interest. Pamela J. Forsythe reviews.

Longtime Philly sports columnist Stephen A. Smith went from The Inquirer to the airwaves of ESPN, and his new memoir details a fascinating life. Stephen Silver reviews.

What makes city reform possible, and how did we achieve it in the past? A new book on the history of Philly’s political reforms explains, and argues, we’re on the cusp of another cycle of change. Pamela J. Forsythe reviews.

Lifelong Philly-area activist George Lakey takes us from his working-class Pennsylvania childhood to his career as a leading practitioner, theoretician, and teacher of nonviolent social-change activism. David W. Webber reviews.

In The Book of I.P., a poetry-and-essay chapbook collection, Philly native Chris Courtney Martin breaks from the strictures of Hollywood to craft a blazing manifesto of art on its own terms. Kiran Pandey reviews.

Philly author Isaac Blum’s debut YA novel, The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen, follows an Orthodox Jewish teen in a new town for a fully up-to-the minute story of conviction and contradiction. Anndee Hochman reviews.