BSR subscribers get early access to Book Week!

BSR Book Week 2025 doesn’t officially begin until Sunday, but our subscribers get a sneak peek. So this edition of BSR in the Wild is a little different than normal. Read on for a taste of our staff recommendations, and to discover books by BSR writers.

But first, FIND US!

Just a few days left to grab your Zoom ticket and join us on Wednesday, June 4 at 6:30pm ET. We’re talking with Philly authors Elise Juska (Reunion, paperback out now), John Morrison (Boyz II Men 40th Anniversary Celebration), Tre Johnson (Black Genius: Essays on an American Legacy, out July 29), Annie Liontas (Sex with a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery), and Eric Smith (With or Without You). Broad Street Review associate editor Kyle V. Hiller will moderate. Click through on the event page to learn more about the authors. Here are some fun facts: one has worked on a book with Alanis Morrissette. One has written for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and lots more. Two of them are New York Times Editors’ Choice authors. One is a DJ who writes for NPR Music. One has a rabbit named Email.

Don’t miss out on our conversation with these folks about how living and working in Philly shapes their craft and careers. And bring your questions!

Discover books by BSR writers

There are many authors in the BSR ranks, and we love to spotlight them for Book Week. Here are a few.

Everyday Acts & Small Subversions: Women Reinventing Family, Community and Home by Anndee Hochman

Interviews and personal essays about the myriad ways to make family: stories of being single (or child-free) by choice, remaining close with ex-partners and forming chosen family with friends, housemates and colleagues. Selected by Sojourner magazine as one of the 100 most important feminist books of the 20th century!

Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work: A Guidebook for Students and Those in Mental Health and Related Professions by SaraKay Smullens

Overwhelmed and anxious? That’s an understatement today. This book examines burnout as a syndrome, not an illness, as well as depression, which often is not an illness either. The faces of burnout personally, professionally, physically, relationally, and societally are discussed, with directions about setting yourself free. This book is for anyone who wishes to understand coping, healing, and resilience in a deeper and more profound way.

Letting Go by Maria Corley

Cecile is a Julliard-trained pianist. Langston dreams of being a chef. When they meet, despite Cecile living hundreds of miles away, Langston is sure that his history of being a sidekick instead of a love interest is finally over. Their connection is real and full of potential for a deeper bond, but the obstacles between them turn out to be greater than distance. Told in a witty combination of standard prose, letters, emails, and diary entries, Letting Go (in the tradition of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah) is a long-distance love story that also examines race, religion, and the difficult choices we make following our passions.

American Lit Remixed: Music in Twenty-First-Century American Literature by Melissa Strong

This book identifies a new sound in literature emerging after the digital revolution. It reads fiction, poetry, and drama through the lenses of remix theory and the music industry’s preoccupations with nostalgia and authenticity to find new literary forms and ways of connecting to self, others, and place.

A small selection from the editor's shelf. (Photo by Alaina Johns.)

Subscribers get early access to the editor’s book recs

Next week, we’re publishing a list of book recommendations from the BSR team, but since you’re a subscriber, you get a few early, right from me.

Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry

In Hersey’s manifesto, our bodies belong to ourselves, not to grind culture, capitalism, white supremacy, or any other legacy of slavery. There is so much to savor here, but one of the things that landed the deepest with me is Hersey’s insistence that we can’t achieve a better future if we can’t imagine it first, and that dream-space requires rest. I particularly recommend the audio book, which is read by the author. The whole thing is like a deeply restorative meditation. Play it in bed, in the shower, or on a long walk.

Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict
By Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan.

This isn’t just a theory or opinion. It’s a study of resistance and revolutionary movements around the world that consistently reveals the effectiveness of nonviolent protest. There’s a lot here, but what stands out the most for me is how the authors prove that nonviolent protest is more effective than the alternative because more people can participate in it, enabling a mass movement. And as more people mobilize, diversifying the crowd, they bring a greater variety of resistance tactics to the table. The authors also convincingly demonstrate that where nonviolent resistance is successful, it has a better chance of achieving sustained democratic reform than revolution through violence.

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward

Despite its provocative title, this book by a self-identified butch lesbian feminist scholar is deeply generous and hopeful. Ward (aiming particularly at cis hetero women) dives into the rampant paradoxes of heterosexual life, including the way heterosexual men are conditioned to desire women while simultaneously disdaining them. This exciting book is an essential read for anyone questioning gender norms and the marriage industrial complex.

You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself when Cooking Feels Impossible by Margaret Eby

I expected to skim through this cute little book and glean a few recipes, but I ended up absorbed, reading every page to the end, nodding along, laughing out loud, and making lists. This book is a revelation. Eby doesn’t just leave us with a whole new arsenal of tips for eating easily and well (even for broke, busy people). She kicks restrictive and elitist philosophies of eating to the curb in a way that feels hopeful and liberating for anyone who has ever stood exhausted in front of the fridge.

If you like those picks, look out for the whole list next week, alongside a great roundup from other team members. We'll also have a full slate of book reviews, to help you build your summer reading list.

Thanks for sticking with us as we expand and experiment at BSR! We hope you enjoy next week's tribute to all things Philly books.