YA contemporary. Co-written by two fairly well known authors in the genre. A white Jewish boy and South Asian Muslim girl, both US American and both seventeen, fall for each other while volunteering on the campaign of a progressive candidate for state senate in a special election (which is what they call by-elections down there, …
Described on the jacket as “sociological science fiction.” Humanity lives in a network of cave cities deep beneath the ground, in a society organized into a rigid caste hierarchy. The ruler of the cave city in which this is set dies and a succession struggle ensues. Follows two brothers in a family of the caste …
An odd little book. My reason for reading it was not terribly well aligned with its own purpose, so my relative indifference to it should not be taken too seriously. The author is an experimental composer, seemingly fairly well known in her particular niche, who has spent a lifetime thinking about listening. I heard about …
Storytelling about a life spent at the heart of many of the major social movements in the US in the last 35 years combined with very practical lessons about how to organize. I had never heard of Lisa Fithian before, but as an organizer, a facilitator, a trainer, and an activist, she has done a …
I don’t normally post reviews or do anything beyond silently note it on Goodreads when I re-read something, but for some reason a week ago I was seized with the impulse to re-read this specific Iain M. Banks novel set in his “Culture” universe — which I originally read somewhere between 10 and 20 years …
The much-anticipated first book by journalist and activist Desmond Cole. He uses his experience of 2017 as a frame to talk about Black life and Black struggles in Canada. If you are someone who is glued to grassroots activist social media in the Canadian context, many of the incidents and struggles that Cole speaks about …
I really like Federici’s work, and was keen to get my hands on this new collection of essays touching in one way or another on the body, particularly the capitalist transformation of the body. I found it to be a bit peculiar – not bad, necessarily, but peculiar. Partly, that’s less about the book than …
Sci-fi. Late 22nd century. On an earth ravaged by nuclear war and climate change, after the richer and whiter nations have largely left for space-based colonies while retaining a neocolonial role in affairs on earth. Set during war between the newly-independent Igbo people of Biafra and the Nigeria from which they seceded. According to the …
Another collection of weird speculative literary short-stories – seemingly my go-to type for short fiction in the last year or two. It’s mostly about the characters, of course, but you’ll also find some time travel, a few fossils from sentient wolverine otter-ish things that lived millions of years before humans, the odd mildly irritating haunting …
A look at the ways in which, in Western societies, binaries organize our thinking and our lives, and at ways we can navigate and perhaps at moments move beyond them. Clever and very accessible, though not without its limitations. I’ve read two books by one of the authors (Barker) before, one focused on relationships and …