Last Updated: April 3, 2026
Santa Cruz is one of the country’s surf meccas and a favored getaway of the Silicon Valley elite. For decades, marijuana has been cultivated, consumed, and trafficked in these mountains, one of the most important regions in the country for the crop.
Mixing archival research and new reporting involving Greta Rideout, as well as the activists battling the courts in parallel, Without Consent embodies vociferous debates about gender, sexuality, and power, while highlighting the damaging and inherent misogyny of American culture then and still now.
Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood
by William J. Mann
Using a 21st-century lens, Mann connects Elizabeth Short’s story to the anxious era after World War II, when the nation was grappling with new ideas, new demographics, new technologies, and old fears dressed up as new ones. Only by situating the Black Dahlia case within this changing world can we understand the tragedy of this young woman, whose life and death offer surprising mirrors on today
On August 21, 1992, shots rang out while federal agents were surveilling a cabin in Boundary County, Idaho as part of an operation to arrest Randy Weaver–a reclusive, mountain-dwelling survivalist–for failure to appear in court on a gun charge. When Weaver finally surrendered to the authorities eleven days later, his wife, son, and dog lay dead, as did a US Marshal. Ever since, America has been trying to make sense of what happened on Ruby Ridge.
A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides
by Gisèle Pelicot with Judith Perrignon
In 2024, Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity in her legal fight against her ex-husband and the fifty men accused of sexually assaulting her, a courageous decision that inspired millions of people around the world.
The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster
by Shelley Puhak
A work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the woman alleged to be the world’s most prolific female serial killer, but who the author believes was a widow whose large landholdings and religious beliefs made her a target for ambitious men, and who was an herbalist who used plant-based medicines, rather than a murderer.