A collection of short pieces written (or in some cases co-written) by Mariame Kaba, an abolitionist organizer in the US. Over her many years of involvement, she has done an incredible amount of work that exemplifies that quintessential abolitionist synthesis of the radical and the practical. She has thought deeply about what she does (and …
Science fiction. Near future. A company develops technology that, when implanted in the brain, allows human beings to have much greater ability to focus on multiple things at once and to for-real multitask. This makes those with the implants considerably more productive and therefore more valued in the capitalist economy and its associated institutions (e.g. …
Historical fiction. About slavery and Scotland. Built around the actual historical case that led in 1777 to the establishment of the principle that Scots law did not uphold slavery, at least domestically. Joseph Knight is the enslaved man at the centre of this case, originally kidnapped from west Africa and brought to Jamaica, and then …
Perhaps the most famous essay by one of the twentieth century’s great essayists. About racism and the US of A, but also Baldwin’s early life and faith and pain and rage and change and freedom. Raw and lyrical. A classic for a reason. And a compelling mix of of-its-time – it was written in the …
Nonfiction. Aimed at a general audience. An engagement with the ways we see the world around us. In each chapter, the author goes on a walk with someone different. Most of these someones are experts who, because of their expertise, perceive the places through which they are walking differently than most of us would, and …
YA contemporary. Traces the experiences of two young women (and their respective best friends) at a massive music festival, and their trajectory from strangers to much more. Sweet and funny, and it certainly provides the kind of emotional journey that one reads this sort of book to have, so I’m sure it will have many …
I have a somewhat complicated relationship with John Green’s work. I discovered him not through his writing but through the YouTube channel he and his brother run, and I have read only the most recent of his novels, which I liked but which has not inspired me to go back and read the rest. What …
Memoir that sometimes reads like essays, with a heavy emphasis on linguistics. Written by a white English woman who is a literary translator between Japanese and English. Orbits around her time living in Japan when she was younger, and her complicated, ambivalent trajectory with Japanese nation, culture, and language. Reflects, through all of that, on …
Middle grade contemporary. The protagonist, Hazel, is a 13 year-old girl, an older sister, and a daughter of a single mom. Hazel is deeply traumatized from the kayaking accident two years before that killed her other mom but spared her. Since then, she and her mom and her sister have been moving a lot, living …
Science fiction. Starts fifteen minutes into the future and extends for several decades, focusing on the climate crisis at a global scale. Begins with a powerful chapter describing in an embodied way one character’s experience of a devastating heat wave that ultimately kills 20 million people – made all the more gripping and disturbing by …