Sarah Weinman
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sarahweinman.com
Sarah Weinman
@sarahweinman.com
26K followers 520 following 10K posts
Crime Lady. NYT Crime & Mystery columnist. Latest Book: WITHOUT CONSENT (November 11, 2025). Author, SCOUNDREL, THE REAL LOLITA. Editor, UNSPEAKABLE ACTS and EVIDENCE OF THINGS SEEN.

http://www.linktr.ee/sarahweinman
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Will post the link when it’s live but was very happy to be asked by @theweek.com to pick six books that explore critical women’s issues:
Screenshot of p.23 of the December 5, 2025 issue of The Week including my six book recs that explore critical women’s issues: Against Our Will by Susan Brownmiller (1975 — problematic af but enormously influential) Down Girl by Kate Manne (2017 — also everything else she has published since) No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder (2019 — I filed this before I saw her rave review of my book, I swear) The Sewing Girl’s Tale by John Wood Sweet (2022 — outstanding treatment of the first major American rape trial) Undue Burden by Shefali Luthra (2024 — amazing reporting on abortions and life post-Roe) The Secret History of the Rape Kit by Pagan Kennedy (2025 — a book I wished had existed while I was writing WITHOUT CONSENT but am so glad exists now)
November 28, 2025 at 7:30 PM
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Happy to see WITHOUT CONSENT as part of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's holiday gift guide: www.jsonline.com/story/life/2...
Several covers of books included in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's holiday gift guide
November 24, 2025 at 2:08 PM
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It wouldn’t surprise me if Andrews doesn’t know this; she isn’t all that smart
Careers that some women, bafflingly, believe we are not entitled to. Last month, Helen Andrews, a recent guest on Ross Douthat’s “Interesting Times” podcast, wrote an essay in Compact magazine that claimed that the feminization of workplaces led to the rise of cancel culture and “wokeness.” This development, she said, signaled the downfall of many institutions, including our system of law. Evidence she cites was that almost 60 percent of law students were women last year. She writes this knowing, I assume, that the United States still has no federal law against marital rape, so if women are somehow ruining our legal system with all our messy emotion, we’ve been pretty slow to act. Apparently our very presence signals imminent systemic collapse.
November 23, 2025 at 9:53 PM
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So many good things about tonight’s event at @splitrockbks.bsky.social but was especially thrilled to meet the bookstore cat
Split Rock Books’ cat, Baxter, totallly in his element on the counter among the books
November 23, 2025 at 5:20 AM
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Absolutely adored this novel and there better be more Rosalyn Drexler reissues soon
Cover of TO SMITHEREENS by Rosalyn Drexler (1926-2025) her 1972 novel which was reissued earlier this year by Hagfish Books
November 21, 2025 at 5:07 PM
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Good morning especially to these puppies I met in the coffee shop
Adorable French bulldog puppies named Bella (pink scarf) and Chaos (purple scarf) visiting a coffee shop in Adams Morgan
November 21, 2025 at 1:36 PM
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Thanks to everyone who came to my @politicsprose.bsky.social event tonight! So great to see @beijingpalmer.bsky.social @yourombudsmom.bsky.social @eclamb.bsky.social @gonebabygone.bsky.social and many more friends (and family!) old and new.
Me (r) in conversation with Molly O’Toole at Politics & Prose tonight
November 21, 2025 at 3:39 AM
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Farewell, Portland, after a truly lovely event at the Literary Arts bookstore, where at least 4 people I talked to for the book were in attendance and was expertly moderated by the great @yourewrongabout.bsky.social. Next up, DC!
Pile of hardcovers of WITHOUT CONSENT at the front cash register of Literary Arts bookstore Sarah Marshall with a copy of my book and VANNA SPEAKS by Vanna White
November 19, 2025 at 2:45 PM
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This was so weird and so good
Cover of Find Him! (1977, reissued earlier this month) by Elaine Kraf
November 17, 2025 at 9:32 PM
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Seeing your book reviewed in print still rules
Print edition of the Boston Globe review of WITHOUT CONSENT
November 16, 2025 at 6:50 PM
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Yeah, I know.
A few hardcovers of WITHOUT CONSENT
November 16, 2025 at 2:57 AM
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🚨Kennedy LOA volume alert🚨
He is still jotting notes into small notebooks. He is still dressed to the nines. He is still writing fiction. And he is still being celebrated, most recently by the Library of America, which will be publishing a volume in the spring that includes three of his Albany novels (“Legs,” “Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game” and “Ironweed”) with a foreword by the novelist Colum McCann, who called Kennedy’s eight-novel Albany Cycle “among the most exuberant literary feats of the past half-century.” He joins a handful of other literary giants — Bellow, Didion and DeLillo, among them — to be so honored while still upright.
November 16, 2025 at 1:36 AM
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Very happy @theweek.com included WITHOUT CONSENT as one of November's featured books, in particularly excellent company with Margaret Atwood and Oyinkan Braithwaite theweek.com/culture-life...
Book covers for WITHOUT CONSENT by Sarah Weinman (that's me), BOOK OF LIVES by Margaret Atwood, and CURSED DAUGHTERS by Oyinkan Braithwaite ‘Without Consent’ by Sarah Weinman “Without Consent” chronicles the long legal battle to make marital rape a crime in the United States, starting with the country’s first trial of its kind back in 1978. Although women’s rights have expanded and improved in many ways over the last 50 years, Weinman’s book “points out” that “progress against a patriarchal and often misogynistic system has been agonizingly slow,” said Kate Tuttle at The Boston Globe. “I was shocked how little, overall, has been written about spousal rape and the specific case, Oregon v. Rideout, at the book’s heart — that has become all too timely today,” said Weinman on social media. There is still no federal law against marital rape, and there are “numerous exceptions and qualifications needed in many states to prove such assaults occurred,” said Rachel Louise Snyder at The New York Times. (out now, $32, Amazon; Ecco)
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
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Also I keep inverting Ice Cream and Gifts but you get the drift
Poster at Fountain Bookshop & Ice Cream & Gifts announcing my book event tonight (with remaining signed copies behind the sign, the others sold out)
November 14, 2025 at 1:38 AM
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Tonight at 6 PM I’ll be giving a talk on (and reading from) WITHOUT CONSENT at my beloved local bookstore Fountain Bookshop & Ice Cream & Gifts and they already have the sign up! Details/RSVP here: fountainbookshop.com/event/2025-1...
Sign outside Fountain Bookshop & Ice Cream & Gifts about my event tonight
November 13, 2025 at 2:11 PM
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A good night at Books Are Magic among treasured friends — that is how you launch a book. Thank you all who made it out tonight!
I’m sitting on the left in a blue striped sweater dress. Alex Mar is on the right all in black. We’re at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn Heights. Megan Abbott took the photo.
November 13, 2025 at 3:47 AM
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My first event for WITHOUT CONSENT is tonight at 7 PM, in conversation with @alex-mar.bsky.social at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn Heights! Details/RSVP here: withoutconsent.eventbrite.com
Banner image for BAM event with Alex Mar at 7 PM tonight!
November 12, 2025 at 3:22 PM
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Anyway you'll be hearing a lot from me about WITHOUT CONSENT this week and over the next little while. And if you are in Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan, Portland, and DC, please come to one of my events!
Event schedule graphic for WITHOUT CONSENT by Sarah Weinman
November 11, 2025 at 12:58 PM
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Today is the publication day for WITHOUT CONSENT, a book I am so proud to share with the world, and that the New York Times Book Review says "is years — decades — overdue."

Read more, and order in your preferred format from your favorite retailer here: www.sarahweinman.com/book/without...
Image of several physical hardcovers of WITHOUT CONSENT: A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle To Make Spousal Rape a Crime by Sarah Weinman, published by Ecco on November 11, 2025 (that's today!)
November 11, 2025 at 12:47 PM
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Got such a wonderful review of WITHOUT CONSENT in Washington Lawyer, the DC Bar's bimonthly magazine: "an excellent book that should be required reading for all law students. For the rest of us, it provides fascinating insight into forgotten legal history." washingtonlawyer.dcbar.org/novemberdece...
Full text of Diane Kiesel's review of WITHOUT CONSENT for the November/December 2025 issue of Washington Lawyer Magazine
November 10, 2025 at 7:41 PM
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COLD PIZZA for BREAKFAST (in the “Zohran for NYC” font)
November 8, 2025 at 9:50 PM
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But I was really blown away by Suzanne Zaccour’s legal theory, which she wrote about in her doctoral dissertation in 2023 and has never been widely shared until now
But a recent proposal by the feminist author and legal researcher Suzanne Zaccour offers an intriguing and radical possibility: to reframe the legal system for sexual assault primarily through the prism of repeated partner sexual violence. As Dr. Zaccour told me in a recent interview, the difference between “acute” sexual violence – what we might associate with stranger rape – and “chronic” sexual violence (involving spouses and intimate partners) requires different approaches. “We don’t know as a society what sexual violence looks like,” Dr. Zaccour said. “We spent decades trying to tweak the rules and trying to fit partner sexual violence within the [legal] framework, and we should start from scratch: what is partner sexual violence, and how does stranger rape fit within that model?” The subtext, she noted, is that “we need to be careful about partner sexual violence because what if women lie? It’s a lose-lose prospect for women because there is no good timing to disclose [a sexual assault].”
November 7, 2025 at 1:03 PM
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“Reasonable doubt” only goes so far with respect to intimate partner violence and sexual assault
Criminal convictions require juries and judges to believe the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But these two cases, and far too many others, demonstrate that “reasonable doubt” is built upon rape myths and misunderstandings. They include the idea that a woman wouldn’t have consensual sex with someone after he had sexually assaulted them, or that she would make up an accusation to help her gain custody of their children, or that getting married means always consenting to sex. Such misconceptions never take into account the complexities of abusive intimate partner relationships, where women – notably women of colour and members of Indigenous communities – may have few other socioeconomic options, making the status quo the only choice.
November 7, 2025 at 1:03 PM
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The headline rn
MAMDANI’S IMPROBABLE RUN ENDS IN VICTORY
November 5, 2025 at 2:48 AM
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lol
Category: Non-fiction: Politics/Current Affairs November 4, 2025 WHAT CONSERVATIVES BELIEVE By Mike Pence Imprint: Center Street Former vice president Mike Pence's WHAT CONSERVATIVES BELIEVE, calling on Republicans to rediscover the principles of true conservatism to deal with the challenges of tomorrow, including an urgent warning about the future of the GOP, urging the party to choose enduring conservative principles over the temptations of big-government populism, to Alex Pappas at Center Street, for publication on June 2, 2026.
November 4, 2025 at 3:27 PM