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.

A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter, a tender, inquisitive, humble, and heartbreaking new book about raising a trans kid, gets it right—in memoir and in parenting. Anndee Hochman reviews.

Feldman's new speculative novel is a haunting, magical glimpse into the very near future. Michelle Nugent profiles.

Co-creators Yolanda Wisher and Trapeta B. Mayson formed ConsenSIS, and this weekend, are bringing together Black poets for an intimate afternoon of poetry and sound. Daralyse Lyons previews.

Chef Michael Twitty, a James Beard Award-winning chef, food historian, and author of Koshersoul, serves up conversation at the Weitzman this week. Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer previews.

A new book from editor James Wolfinger explores the rise of a Black political identity in Philadelphia, from the industrial influx of World War I to the Goode, Street, and Nutter administrations. Pamela J. Forsythe reviews.