Reviews of the Month: March 2026

Spotlighting four book reviews for their relevance or pure reading pleasure

Posted on March 19, 2026 in Reviews of the Month

We begin this month’s reviews with Texas’s Radiophonic Feminisms: Latina Voices in the Digital Age of Broadcasting in honor of Women’s History Month. Considered the “first book-length analysis of Spanish-language and bilingual radio and podcast programs produced and delivered by Latinas,” this title delves into the contributions of Latina radio/podcast hosts to media and sound studies. Next, we commemorate the Oscars with Rutgers’s Monsters Vs. Patriarchy: Toxic Imagination in Global Horror Cinema—an excellent companion to actress Amy Madigan’s recent Academy Award win for best supporting actress in the 2025 horror film Weapons.

March isn’t just for awards, but changing seasons! We spotlight Washington’s The Trees Are Speaking to mark the Spring Equinox. An exploration of Pacific Northwest and northern New England forests, the book examines forestry practices through interviews and author observations. Last, we look at women’s basketball with Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball. The revised edition of this North Carolina title points to Women’s History Month and, of course, March Madness. Happy Spring!

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Radiophonic Feminisms: Latina Voices in the Digital Age of Broadcasting

Díaz Martín, Esther. Texas, 2025
272p bibl index, 9781477331736 $34.95, 9781477331750 $34.95

Díaz Martín (Univ. of Illinois) provides a monumental contribution to Latinx studies, the first book-length analysis of Spanish-language and bilingual radio and podcast programs produced and delivered by Latinas. The introduction eloquently offers historical context, situating radio in the vast field of sound studies as well as integrating the sonic spaces of coexistence and live testimony created by Latina radio/podcast hosts. Díaz Martín arranges subsequent chapters into case studies in which “nepantlera listening” illuminates the intangible labor that women like Alicia Alarcón and Marlene Quinto have contributed through standard airwaves. The final chapter examines the podcasts Super Mamás, Chicana M(other)work, and Locatora Radio to argue that the strategic use of digital platforms continues the legacy of radiophonic feminisms and reaches today’s youngest Latina listeners. To sum up, Radiophonic Feminisms is a timely critical analysis of sound and reception that makes a tremendous contribution to media studies.

Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.
Reviewer: J. Gomez Menjivar, University of North Texas
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Latin American & Latina/o Studies, Women’s & Gender Studies
Subject: Humanities – Communication
Choice Issue: Jan 2026

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Monsters Vs. Patriarchy: Toxic Imagination in Global Horror Cinema

Saldarriaga, Patricia. by Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini Rutgers, 2025
256p bibl index, 9781978838109 $130.00, 9781978838093 $34.95, 9781978838116 $34.95

This important contribution to monster studies explores how movie monsters, especially those manifesting female tropes like pregnancy and emotional fragility, disrupt and sometimes break the structural patriarchies that promote monstrous stereotypes of women. By analyzing a massive catalog of monster cinema produced from the 1920s to the present, the authors show how the monstrification of women in global cinema expresses feminine empowerment that not only resists and subverts patriarchal power but also obliterates it. Female monstrification does not simply replace patriarchal systems, however. Monstrosity frees women to express the power of their own bodies and thought rather than leverage power to control others. Monster cinema demonstrates this idea by depicting monstrous women, whether ghosts, cannibals, or witches, as beings that radically resist the limits enforced by male hegemony. In lucid prose, the authors pursue this idea in multiple cinematic contexts, and convincingly advance the importance of feminine criticism of all media. A title in Rutgers University Press’s “Global Media and Race” series, this study is both an essential piece of criticism and a useful source book for researchers.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.
Reviewer: J. G. Matthews, Washington State University
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Women’s & Gender Studies
Subject: Humanities – Performing Arts – Film
Choice Issue: Feb 2026

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The Trees Are Speaking: Dispatches from the Salmon Forests

Mapes, Lynda V. Washington, 2025
272p bibl index, 9780295753676 $29.95

Mapes, a journalist who has studied forests and forestry practices, invites readers to explore the forests of the Pacific Northwest and northern New England. Through her observations and interviews with researchers, Indigenous peoples, and others who work and depend on these forests, she delves into how forests are perceived, how their products are used and exploited, and how forestry practices have changed over time. The salmon forests of both coasts refer to the intricate interactions that tie salmon to the forests, the forests to salmon, and the contributions of both to the vanishing old-growth forests. Mapes travels across the landscape, recording her observations in vivid detail. These observations are informed by experts. Economics, ecology, human health, pollution, and cultural traditions are part of the landscape Mapes explores. The “Selected References” section guides readers in clear prose to important literature that supports and expands the text. In an era of vanishing flora, fauna, and fungi, Mapes leads readers to an understanding that all things are connected.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.
Reviewer: D. H. Pfister, Harvard University
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Environmental Studies
Subject: Science & Technology – Biology – Botany
Choice Issue: Feb 2026

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Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball Revised Ed

Grundy, Pamela. North Carolina, 2025
272p bibl index, 9781469674773 $99.00, 9781469674780 $25.00, 9781469674797 $19.99

In this newly expanded edition of the 2005 original, the authors continue their accessible historical review of women’s basketball, updating it to include the impact of recent events. Organized roughly by decade, grounded in extensive historical research, and colored through interviews and biographies, Shattering the Glass uses the history of women’s basketball as a lens by which to examine broader American history and the gender ideology in each of those cultural eras at the high school, college, and professional levels. The authors detail how women’s basketball has been and continues to be a site to contest the gender, racial, and sexual cultural norms of the times, in both basketball and broader equity issues. They explain the progress and setbacks of different individual women, groups, and teams who had a significant impact on the game at different points and places in history. A particularly important contribution is the racial history of the game and the resulting cultural impact, which also highlights the struggles of other groups, such as LGBTQ+. This book will be of interest to women’s basketball fans and burgeoning academics in sport history, sociology, and gender studies.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through graduate students.
Reviewer: A. Curtis, Lake Erie College
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Women’s & Gender Studies
Subject: Science & Technology – Sports & Recreation
Choice Issue: Aug 2025

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