As a girl, I walked to and from school every day with my nose stuck in a book. Reading and walking is still one of my favorite ways to spend time, so when the pandemic began I was glad to suddenly have more time to read. Below is a list of what I’ve been reading these last few years.
Home Body, Rupi Kaur
Lessons in Liberation, AK Press
NOTES: (Still reading. The book says it’s an abolitionist toolkit for educators, but I think it should say it’s an abolitionist toolkit for everyone.)
Plants have so much to offer us, all we have to do is ask. Mary Siisip Geniusz NOTES: Beautiful Indigenous stories about plants, what they have to offer us, how we care for them and the earth; how we all exist in reciprocity and are here to care for each other. Also includes recipes for plant medicine. The Weight of the Stars, Augustin Comotto (DNF)
A Country of Ghosts, Margaret Killjoy NOTES: nonhierarchical, anarchist society defending their land, their lives, their way of being. Working together, making decisions together. Resisting together.
Tarot for Change, Jessica Dore
NOTES: Ongoing. Healing.
Exhalation, Ted ChiangNOTES: futuristic short stories; explores the impact of technology on socialization / psychology / human development.
All We Can Save, edited by Ayana Johnson & Katharine Wilkinson
Pollution is Colonialism, Max Liboiron (still reading)
Wintering, Katherine May (DNF)
How We Show Up, Mia Birdsong
Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Yet-to-be-named Network Action Guide (from DA course) NOTES: A detailed how-to guide for anyone wanting to create functional groups to deploy direct action in support of social change and climate justice.
Decolonising the Mind, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Abolishing the Police Koshka Duff (AK Press)
Undrowned, Alexis Pauline Gumbs
How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, Erik Olin Wright
Holding Change, adrienne maree brown
Why We Can’t Wait, Martin Luther King Jr.
Spiritual Ecology (collected essays)
We Will Not Cancel Us, adrienne maree brown
Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler
Cassandra Speaks, Elizabeth Lesser
The Apology: V
How to do Nothing, Jenny Odell
Voices in the Air, NYE
The Carrying, Ada Limon NOTES: Soul-crushing beauty. Love. Death. Family.
A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle NOTES: Shifting consciousness, becoming aware of the difference between self / ego / identity / being. Learning to understand and accept reality / presence / inner spaciousness, and not be disturbed by thoughts and ideas the ego creates (which inevitably leave us unhappy and forever wanting more).
Mutual Aid, Dean Spade NOTES: Learning to work together, how to shape collective leadership, how to shape inclusive decision-making, how to avoid falling into the patterns of capitalist leadership structures that we are conditioned to believe is the only way organizations and communities can function.
How to Be an Anti-racist, Ibram X. Kendi
On Death & Dying, Elizabeth Kubler Ross NOTES: Stages / acceptance. Learning to think & talk about your own mortality is crucial to being able to sit with someone else in facing their own death. Denial is common. Some people cannot comprehend their own death and sit with denial for a very long time (until the end).
On Living, Kubler Ross
Familiars, Holly Wren Spaulding NOTES: Pay attention to the details. Listen to nature. Less is more. Be concise.
Jericho Brown, The Tradition
Averno, Gluck
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron
A Room of One’s Own (DNF)
Bowling Alone, (DNF)
Emergent Strategy, amb
The Hologram, Cassie Thornton
Are.na Annual (on care)
You Were Born for This, Chani Nicholas
NOTES: Swoon.
Braiding the Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
2022:
Time is a Mother, Ocean VuongHome Body, Rupi Kaur
Lessons in Liberation, AK Press
NOTES: (Still reading. The book says it’s an abolitionist toolkit for educators, but I think it should say it’s an abolitionist toolkit for everyone.)
Plants have so much to offer us, all we have to do is ask. Mary Siisip Geniusz NOTES: Beautiful Indigenous stories about plants, what they have to offer us, how we care for them and the earth; how we all exist in reciprocity and are here to care for each other. Also includes recipes for plant medicine. The Weight of the Stars, Augustin Comotto (DNF)
A Country of Ghosts, Margaret Killjoy NOTES: nonhierarchical, anarchist society defending their land, their lives, their way of being. Working together, making decisions together. Resisting together.
Tarot for Change, Jessica Dore
NOTES: Ongoing. Healing.
Exhalation, Ted ChiangNOTES: futuristic short stories; explores the impact of technology on socialization / psychology / human development.
All We Can Save, edited by Ayana Johnson & Katharine Wilkinson
2021:
The Grievers, adrienne maree brownPollution is Colonialism, Max Liboiron (still reading)
Wintering, Katherine May (DNF)
How We Show Up, Mia Birdsong
Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Yet-to-be-named Network Action Guide (from DA course) NOTES: A detailed how-to guide for anyone wanting to create functional groups to deploy direct action in support of social change and climate justice.
Decolonising the Mind, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Abolishing the Police Koshka Duff (AK Press)
Undrowned, Alexis Pauline Gumbs
How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, Erik Olin Wright
Holding Change, adrienne maree brown
Why We Can’t Wait, Martin Luther King Jr.
Spiritual Ecology (collected essays)
We Will Not Cancel Us, adrienne maree brown
Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler
Cassandra Speaks, Elizabeth Lesser
2020:
On Tyranny, Timothy SnyderThe Apology: V
How to do Nothing, Jenny Odell
Voices in the Air, NYE
The Carrying, Ada Limon NOTES: Soul-crushing beauty. Love. Death. Family.
A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle NOTES: Shifting consciousness, becoming aware of the difference between self / ego / identity / being. Learning to understand and accept reality / presence / inner spaciousness, and not be disturbed by thoughts and ideas the ego creates (which inevitably leave us unhappy and forever wanting more).
Mutual Aid, Dean Spade NOTES: Learning to work together, how to shape collective leadership, how to shape inclusive decision-making, how to avoid falling into the patterns of capitalist leadership structures that we are conditioned to believe is the only way organizations and communities can function.
How to Be an Anti-racist, Ibram X. Kendi
On Death & Dying, Elizabeth Kubler Ross NOTES: Stages / acceptance. Learning to think & talk about your own mortality is crucial to being able to sit with someone else in facing their own death. Denial is common. Some people cannot comprehend their own death and sit with denial for a very long time (until the end).
On Living, Kubler Ross
Familiars, Holly Wren Spaulding NOTES: Pay attention to the details. Listen to nature. Less is more. Be concise.
Jericho Brown, The Tradition
Averno, Gluck
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron
A Room of One’s Own (DNF)
Bowling Alone, (DNF)
Emergent Strategy, amb
The Hologram, Cassie Thornton
Are.na Annual (on care)
You Were Born for This, Chani Nicholas
NOTES: Swoon.
Braiding the Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer