12 Books for the Moment We’re In
Reading recommendations for taking care and digging into the work
Like so many of us, the election has left me with wide-ranging emotions along with a strong desire to strengthen my engagement with community. Writing and reading are how I tend to process feelings, so as I gradually move from immersing myself in escapist sci-fi and fantasy to reconnecting with the real world, I thought I’d put together a list that might help you do the same. I have books in three categories important to our moment: books to take care and connect, books to remind you what’s at stake worth fighting for, and books to help you remember why we should be listening to Black women.
Books to Take Care and Connect
I’ll continue to recommend approachable poetry/essay collections A Bit Much by Lindsay Rush and The Book of Delights by Ross Gay as the perfect comfort, encouragement, and salve for most things. Real Self-Care by Pooja Lakshmin (also see her Substack) is a helpful guide to doing the internal work of truly taking care of yourself with an emphasis on using power and privilege to then advocate for others. The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker is a guide to setting intentions around bringing people together and creating meaningful, memorable experiences.
Books to Remind You What’s at Stake Worth Fighting For
A recent release, Undue Burden by Shefali Luthra is a powerful look at what reproductive health looks like on the ground today throughout the country. I also recently read A Map is Only One Story, a collection of immigrants’ stories of belonging and the meaning of home. Erika Lee’s America for Americans traces our country’s history of xenophobia and explains how and why it persists. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder is a very short guide of 20 principles for resisting tyranny based on the lessons of the past. The quotation on the title page reminds us “In politics, being deceived is no excuse.”
Books for Listening to Black Women
Thick by Tessie McMillan Cottom pulls no punches in her essays about race, pop culture, and capitalism. Mikki Kendall’s Hood Feminism argues powerfully for a refocus on meeting basic needs as the most important feminist issue. I love everything Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written. Her short book Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions is a letter to a friend about raising her infant daughter with thoughts plainly stated like the quote below.
Teach her that if you criticize X in women but do not criticize X in men, then you do not have a problem with X, you have a problem with women.
Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Marie Brown is both about advocating for pleasure, and finding pleasure in all activism. The collection of essays, poems, art, and interviews is truly radical and unique.
The kittens would like to encourage you to hold your loved ones close this season, preferably on a heated bathroom floor.
How are you taking care, in your reading or outside of it? What books would you add to any of these categories? Need recs for pure escapism before you have the energy for all that’s next?