Books with category ✊🏽 Activism
Displaying 34 books

Yr Dead

2024

by Sam Sax

Yr Dead is a queer, Jewish, diasporic bildungsroman told in lyric fragments through the eyes of the character Ezra. The world of the book unfolds as Ezra's life flashes across time and geography during their final act of protest. The novel leaps from memories of childhood, gender identity formation, and political revelation to the inherited memory and historical movements of Ezra's family. This book explores how historical memory shapes our political and emotional present as it exists at the intersections of protest, religion, and desire.

Counting Feminicide

Why grassroots data activists in Latin America count feminicide—and how this vital social justice work challenges mainstream data science. What isn’t counted doesn’t count. And mainstream institutions systematically fail to account for feminicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, including cisgender and transgender women.

Against this failure, Counting Feminicide brings to the fore the work of data activists across the Americas who are documenting such murders—and challenging the reigning logic of data science by centering care, memory, and justice in their work. Drawing on Data Against Feminicide, a large-scale collaborative research project, Catherine D’Ignazio describes the creative, intellectual, and emotional labor of feminicide data activists who are at the forefront of a data ethics that rigorously and consistently takes power and people into account.

Individuals, researchers, and journalists—these data activists scour news sources to assemble spreadsheets and databases of women killed by gender-related violence, then circulate those data in a variety of creative and political forms. Their work reveals the potential of restorative/transformative data science—the use of systematic information to, first, heal communities from the violence and trauma produced by structural inequality and, second, envision and work toward the world in which such violence has been eliminated.

Specifically, D’Ignazio explores the possibilities and limitations of counting and quantification—reducing complex social phenomena to convenient, sortable, aggregable forms—when the goal is nothing short of the elimination of gender-related violence. Counting Feminicide showcases the incredible power of data feminism in practice, in which each murdered woman or girl counts, and, in being counted, joins a collective demand for the restoration of rights and a transformation of the gendered order of the world.

Counting Feminicide

Why grassroots data activists in Latin America count feminicide—and how this vital social justice work challenges mainstream data science. What isn’t counted doesn’t count. And mainstream institutions systematically fail to account for feminicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, including cisgender and transgender women. Against this failure, Counting Feminicide brings to the fore the work of data activists across the Americas who are documenting such murders—and challenging the reigning logic of data science by centering care, memory, and justice in their work.

Drawing on Data Against Feminicide, a large-scale collaborative research project, Catherine D’Ignazio describes the creative, intellectual, and emotional labor of feminicide data activists who are at the forefront of a data ethics that rigorously and consistently takes power and people into account. Individuals, researchers, and journalists—these data activists scour news sources to assemble spreadsheets and databases of women killed by gender-related violence, then circulate those data in a variety of creative and political forms. Their work reveals the potential of restorative/transformative data science—the use of systematic information to, first, heal communities from the violence and trauma produced by structural inequality and, second, envision and work toward the world in which such violence has been eliminated.

Specifically, D’Ignazio explores the possibilities and limitations of counting and quantification—reducing complex social phenomena to convenient, sortable, aggregable forms—when the goal is nothing short of the elimination of gender-related violence. Counting Feminicide showcases the incredible power of data feminism in practice, in which each murdered woman or girl counts, and, in being counted, joins a collective demand for the restoration of rights and a transformation of the gendered order of the world.

There's Going to Be Trouble

2024

by Jen Silverman

A woman is pulled into a love affair with a radical activist, unknowingly echoing her family's dangerous past and risking the foundations of her future in this electrifying novel. The course of your life can change with one split-second decision.

Minnow has always tried to lead the life her single father modeled—private, quiet, hardworking, apolitical. So she is rocked when an instinctive decision to help a student makes her the extremely public face of a scandal in the small town where she teaches. As tensions rise, vandalism and death threats follow, and an overwhelmed Minnow flees to a teaching position in Paris.

There, Minnow falls into an exhilarating and all-consuming relationship with Charles, a young Frenchman whose activism has placed him at odds with his powerful family. As Minnow is pulled into the daring protest Charles and his friends are planning, she unknowingly draws close to repeating a secret tragedy from her family's past. For her father wasn’t always the restrained, conservative man he appears today. There are things he has taken great pains to bury from his family and from the world.

In 1968, Keen is avoiding the Vietnam draft by pursuing a PhD at Harvard. He lives his life in the basement chemistry lab, studiously avoiding the news. But when he unexpectedly falls in love with Olya, a fiery community organizer, he is consumed by her world and loses sight of his own. Learning that his deferment has ended and he’s been drafted, Keen agrees to participate in the latest action that Olya is organizing—one with more dangerous and far-reaching consequences than he could have imagined.

Minnow’s and Keen's intertwining stories take us through the turmoil of the late sixties student movements and into the chaos of the modern world. Exploding with suspense, heart, and intelligence, There's Going to Be Trouble is a story about revolution, legacy, passionate love, and how we live with the consequences of our darkest secrets.

Who's Afraid Of Gender?

2024

by Judith Butler

From a global icon, a bold, essential account of how a fear of gender is fueling reactionary politics around the world.

Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker whose iconic book Gender Trouble redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on “gender” that have become central to right-wing movements today.

The aim of Who’s Afraid of Gender? is not to offer a new theory of gender but to examine how “gender” has become a phantasm for emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations, and transexclusionary feminists. In their vital, courageous new book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways that this phantasm of “gender” collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction. Operating in tandem with deceptive accounts of “critical race theory” and xenophobic panics about migration, the anti-gender movement demonizes struggles for equality, fuels aggressive nationalism, and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation.

An essential intervention into one of the most fraught issues of our moment, Who’s Afraid of Gender? is a bold call to refuse the alliance with authoritarian movements and to make a broad coalition with all those whose struggle for equality is linked with fighting injustice. Imagining new possibilities for both freedom and solidarity, Butler offers us a hopeful work of social and political analysis that is both timely and timeless.

The Hammer

2024

by Hamilton Nolan

A timely, in-depth, and vital exploration of the American labor movement and its critical place in our society and politics by acclaimed labor reporter Hamilton Nolan. Nolan is an expert who has covered labor and politics for more than a decade, and has helped to unionize his own industry.

The thesis is simple: Inequality is America's biggest problem. Unions are the single strongest tool that working people have to fix this problem. But the labor movement of today has failed to enable enough individuals to join unions. Thus, organized labor's powerful potential is being wielded incompetently. And what is happening inside of organized labor will—far more than most people realize—determine the economic and social course of American life for years to come.

In deeply reported chapters that span the country, Nolan shows readers how organized labor can and does wield power effectively—in spots—but also why it has long been unable to build itself into the powerful institution that the working class needs. These narratives both inspire by example and motivate by counter-example. Whether it's a union that has succeeded in a single city, and is trying to scale that effectiveness nationally, or the ins and outs of a historically large and transformative union campaign, or the human face of a strike, or a profile of the most anti-union state in America, Nolan highlights the actual mechanisms that connect labor to politics to real change. Throughout, Nolan follows Sara Nelson, the powerful and charismatic head of the flight attendants union, as she struggles with how (and whether) to assert herself as a national leader of the labor movement, to try to fix what is broken about it. The Hammer draws the line from forgotten workplaces to Washington's halls of power, and shows how labor can utterly transform American politics—if it can first transform itself.

Be A Revolution

2024

by Ijeoma Oluo

Be A Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World--And How You Can, Too is an eye-opening and galvanizing look at the current state of anti-racist activism across America by Ijeoma Oluo, the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want To Talk About Race and Mediocre.

In this book, Oluo examines the impact of white male supremacy on our systems, culture, and lives throughout American history and presents a compelling argument for understanding these systems of oppression. More importantly, it addresses the critical question: What can we do about them?

Be A Revolution showcases the efforts of people across America working to create real positive change in our structures. It covers various powerful systems such as education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more, highlighting the actions taken to create change for intersectional racial equity.

Moreover, it provides readers with insights into how they can find entryways into change in these areas or contribute to the important work being done elsewhere. Oluo's goal is to educate, inspire action, and shift conversations on race and racism from a place of pain and trauma to a place of loving action. This book is not only an urgent chronicle of an important moment in history but also an inspiring and restorative call for action.

The Rebel's Clinic

2024

by Adam Shatz

Since his death in 1961 at the age of thirty-six, Frantz Fanon has loomed ever larger. He was the intellectual activist of the postcolonial era, and his writings about race, revolution, and the psychology of power have inspired radical movements across the world. But who was Frantz Fanon? In this searching biography, Adam Shatz tells the story of Fanon's stunning journey--from a civil servant's modest home in Martinique to fighting in the French Army during World War II, practicing psychiatry in rural France and Algeria, and joining the Algerian independence struggle, where he became a spokesman, diplomat, and clandestine strategist before his death at a military hospital in Maryland.

Shatz situates Fanon's writings in the context of his close and contested relations with the French intellectuals of his era, as well as his encounters with psychiatric patients, guerrilla fighters, and the early leaders of independent African states. Today, Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth have become canonical texts of the Black and global radical imagination, comparable to James Baldwin's essays in their influence. And yet they are little understood. In The Rebel's Clinic, Shatz offers a dramatic reconstruction of Fanon's extraordinary life--and a guide to the books that underlie Black Lives Matter and other groups attempting to challenge white supremacy and racial capitalism.

Articulations

A well-known writer, activist, and disability rights advocate, Henrietta Bollinger's debut essay collection speaks to their experiences as a queer, disabled person, and as a twin. Articulations is a timely, personal, and poignant appraisal of life in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Soundtracked by the Topp Twins, Anika Moa, Woody Guthrie and more, Bollinger's essays take us on a journey from first crushes and first periods to parliamentary reform and Disability Pride. They challenge the norms of our ableist society, asking us to consider better ways of being with each other and ourselves.

Cappitalismo

Con un par de golpecitos en la pantalla, tu smartphone puede colocar delante de ti un automóvil. Esta sencilla operación pone en funcionamiento toda una maquinaria extractiva que se aprovecha de la infraestructura urbana, de los bienes y recursos de los trabajadores e incluso de los datos personales de los usuarios, para poner en contacto a un conductor marginado del mercado laboral formal y a un viajero deseoso de escapar de las penurias del transporte público. Esta plataformización del trabajo revela una nueva lógica empresarial, en la que se enhebran la innovación informática y el abuso patronal, la reinvención de los servicios urbanos y el canto de las sirenas del autoempleo. ¡Bienvenidos todos al cappitalismo!

Con las sutiles herramientas de la antropología contemporánea, tanto de gabinete como de campo, Natalia Radetich se lanzó a la jungla de concreto para conocer desde dentro la mecánica por la que Uber, quizá la más emblemática de las aplicaciones para el transporte de pasajeros, crea sus mensajes para convencer —y mantener enganchados— a conductores y usuarios, y para, con total descaro, eludir su responsabilidad fiscal y patronal. Escrito con rigor y sagacidad, ricamente documentado y nutrido de observaciones en el terreno, este libro desmenuza los elementos de un novedoso fenómeno que está ocurriendo delante de nosotros, lo mismo en la movilidad, el reparto de alimentos o la mensajería: la uberización del trabajo. En ese escenario despiadado ha surgido, sin embargo, un ánimo solidario entre quienes sufren la precarización laboral.

Este libro resultará clave para entender la actual etapa del capitalismo y los mecanismos de la apropiación empresarial.

Birnam Wood

2023

by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. It is an unflinching look at the surprising consequences of even our most well-intended actions, and an enthralling consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster has created an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira, Birnam Wood’s founder, stumbles on an answer: occupying the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. The enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira and Birnam Wood, he makes them an offer that would set them up for the long term. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?

Lessons in Chemistry

2022

by Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.

The Quiet Before

2022

by Gal Beckerman

The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas is an exploration of the formation of social movements through history and the role of technology in shaping them. Gal Beckerman, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, presents a narrative that spans from the 1600s to the present, examining how the quiet conception of revolutionary ideas in small, private groups has led to significant social changes, from the scientific revolution to the suffrage movement, and from feminism to modern-day epidemiology.

This book delves into the correspondence that ignited the scientific revolution, the petitions that won voting rights in 1830s Britain, the zines that expressed women's rage in the early 1990s, and the messaging apps utilized by epidemiologists during a pandemic. Beckerman highlights the importance of secluded spaces where radical ideas can incubate before reaching a wider audience and cautions that the prevalence of social media may be undermining these productive environments. By examining the successes and failures of movements like the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter, The Quiet Before offers insights into what current social media platforms lack and proposes ways to foster the growth of radical ideas in the future.

How to Talk to a Science Denier

2021

by Lee McIntyre

Can we change the minds of science deniers? Encounters with flat earthers, anti-vaxxers, coronavirus truthers, and others who defy reason are the focus of this work. In a world where many citizens reject scientific expertise in favor of ideology and conspiracy theories, Lee McIntyre's book, How to Talk to a Science Denier, offers a poignant exploration into the culture of science denialism.

McIntyre, drawing on his own experiences, such as attending a Flat Earth convention, along with academic research, seeks to understand the common themes of science denialism. These themes are evident in misinformation campaigns that have persisted over decades, ranging from tobacco companies denying the link between smoking and lung cancer to the current day anti-vaxxer movement.

In his quest to communicate the truth and values of science, McIntyre shares personal anecdotes, such as engaging discussions with coal miners and a scientist friend about genetically modified organisms. He presents tools and techniques for effective communication, emphasizing the importance of calm, respectful conversations and face-to-face engagement with science deniers.

Through this book, McIntyre not only shares insights into the psychology of denial but also provides a hopeful message: it is possible to make a difference by standing up against science denial, which can have life-or-death consequences.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

2021

by Bill Gates

In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical, and accessible plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid an irreversible climate catastrophe. Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in various fields, he focuses on what must be done to stop the planet's slide toward environmental disaster.

Gates gathers all the information we need to understand the importance of working toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases and details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He provides a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face and describes the areas where technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where current technology can be made more effective, and where breakthrough technologies are needed.

Finally, he offers a concrete plan for achieving zero emissions, suggesting policies for governments to adopt and actions individuals can take to hold governments, employers, and themselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. Achieving zero emissions will not be simple, but Gates is optimistic that by following the guidelines he sets out, it is a goal within our reach.

The Darkness Manifesto

How much light is too much light? Satellite pictures show our planet as a brightly glowing orb, and in our era of constant illumination, light pollution has become a major issue. The world's flora and fauna have evolved to operate in the natural cycle of day and night. But in the last 150 years, we have extended our day—and in doing so have forced out the inhabitants of the night and disrupted the circadian rhythms necessary to sustain all living things, including ourselves.

The Darkness Manifesto depicts the domino effect of diminishing darkness: insects, dumbfounded by streetlamps, failing to reproduce; birds blinded and bewildered by artificial lights; and bats starving as they wait in vain for food insects that only come out in the dark of night. For humans, light-induced sleep disturbances impact our hormones and weight, and can contribute to mental health problems like chronic stress and depression. The streetlamps, floodlights, and neon signs of cities are altering entire ecosystems, and scientists are only just beginning to understand the long-term effects. The light bulb—long the symbol of progress and development—needs to be turned off.

Educational, eye-opening, and ultimately encouraging, The Darkness Manifesto outlines simple steps that we can take to benefit ourselves and the planet. In order to ensure a bright future, we must embrace the darkness.

The Once and Future Witches

2020

by Alix E. Harrow

In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in this powerful novel of magic, family, and the suffragette movement. In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when the Eastwood sisters—James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna—join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote—and perhaps not even to live—the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive. There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.

An homage to the indomitable power and persistence of women, The Once and Future Witches reimagines stories of revolution, motherhood, and women's suffrage—the lost ways are calling.

Pro Truth: A Practical Plan for Putting Truth Back Into Politics

How can we turn back the tide of post-truth politics, fake news, and misinformation that is damaging our democracy? First, by empowering citizens to recognize and resist political lies and deceptions: Using cutting-edge neuroscience research, we show you the tricks post-truth politicians use to exploit our mental blindspots and cognitive biases. We then share with you strategies to protect yourself and others from these threats.

Second, by addressing the damage caused by the spread of fake news on social media: We provide you with effective techniques for fighting digital misinformation.

Third, by exerting pressure on politicians, media, and other public figures: Doing so involves creating new incentives for telling the truth, new penalties for lying, and new ways of communicating across the partisan divide. To put this plan into action requires the rise of a Pro-Truth Movement - a movement which has already begun, and is making a tangible impact.

If you believe truth matters, and want to protect our democracy, please read this book, and join us. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky and Tim Ward have teamed up to help citizens learn to protect themselves from lies, and empower them to put truth back into politics.

The Skin We're In

2020

by Desmond Cole

The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power is a bracing, provocative, and perspective-shifting book from one of Canada's most celebrated and uncompromising writers, Desmond Cole. This work is set to spark a national conversation, influence policy, and inspire activists.

In his 2015 cover story for Toronto Life magazine, Desmond Cole exposed the racist actions of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times he had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The story quickly came to national prominence, shaking the country to its core and catapulting its author into the public sphere. Cole used his newfound profile to draw insistent, unyielding attention to the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis.

Both Cole’s activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book, The Skin We’re In. Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year—2017—in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more.

The year also witnessed the profound personal and professional ramifications of Desmond Cole’s unwavering determination to combat injustice. In April, Cole disrupted a Toronto police board meeting by calling for the destruction of all data collected through carding. Following the protest, Cole, a columnist with the Toronto Star, was summoned to a meeting with the paper’s opinions editor and informed that his activism violated company policy. Rather than limit his efforts defending Black lives, Cole chose to sever his relationship with the publication. Then in July, at another police board meeting, Cole challenged the board to respond to accusations of a police cover-up in the brutal beating of Dafonte Miller by an off-duty police officer and his brother. When Cole refused to leave the meeting until the question was publicly addressed, he was arrested. The image of Cole walking out of the meeting, handcuffed and flanked by officers, fortified the distrust between the city’s Black community and its police force.

Month-by-month, Cole creates a comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality. Urgent, controversial, and unsparingly honest, The Skin We’re In is destined to become a vital text for anti-racist and social justice movements in Canada, as well as a potent antidote to the all-too-present complacency of many white Canadians.

Feminismo 4.0

2019

by Nuria Varela

Nuria Varela nos ofrece la continuación a su best seller Feminismo para principiantes. En este libro, Varela realiza un análisis riguroso y esclarecedor de las últimas teorías, movilizaciones y propuestas del movimiento político y social que, con sus aciertos y contradicciones, está poniendo en jaque la desigualdad estructural de la sociedad.

PolĂ­ticas de la identidad, posfeminismo, feminismos poscoloniales, teorĂ­a queer, transfeminismo, interseccionalidad, biopolĂ­tica y ciberfeminismo son solo algunos de los conceptos que se tratan en este nuevo libro, indispensable para entender el momento crucial en que nos encontramos.

Humankind

Humankind: A Hopeful History challenges the belief that humans are fundamentally bad—a notion that has been a common thread uniting figures across the ideological spectrum from ancient philosophers to modern thinkers. Rutger Bregman questions this assumption and offers a new perspective on our species, arguing that we are innately kind, cooperative, and trustworthy.

Drawing on insights from evolutionary biology to historical events, such as the real-life story reminiscent of Lord of the Flies and the cooperation seen in the wake of the Blitz, Bregman presents compelling evidence of humanity's capacity for generosity. The book critically examines popular social science experiments, like the Stanford prison experiment, and historical contexts, arguing for a more optimistic view of human nature and its implications for politics and economics.

Using engaging storytelling and an accessible approach, Bregman makes the case that a belief in the better aspects of humanity can create a foundation for societal change. With a balance of wit and frankness, Humankind is not just an analysis of past behavior but a hopeful vision for the future of our species.

How to Be an Antiracist

2019

by Ibram X. Kendi

At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves.

In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism.

This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

Invisible Women

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez is a groundbreaking book that brings to light the gender bias that permeates our society. The book reveals how the world is largely built for and by men, leading to a systemic disregard for women's experiences. This bias manifests itself in various aspects of life, from medical research to technology, workplaces, and even urban planning.

The author compiles an array of case studies, stories, and new research from around the globe, illustrating the 'invisible' ways in which women are consistently overlooked, and the significant consequences this has on their lives. Invisible Women uncovers the 'gender data gap,' which has led to widespread and systemic discrimination against women, affecting their health, safety, and economic well-being.

Through this compelling narrative, Perez advocates for change, urging us to view the world through a more equitable lens. This book is not just an eye-opener but a call to action for a more just society where both men and women are equally considered.

Minority Leader

2018

by Stacey Abrams

Minority Leader is a guide to harnessing the strengths of being an outsider by Stacey Abrams, who has made significant strides in her political career. This book serves as a beacon for those who find themselves as the 'New American Majority'—a diverse and often underrepresented group seeking to climb the career ladder.

Stacey Abrams, with her roots in a working-poor family from Gulfport, Mississippi, shares her journey to Yale Law School and her ascent in business and politics, eventually becoming the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly and the first African American to lead in the House of Representatives.

Combining elements of memoir with actionable advice, Abrams provides insights for women and people of color to navigate spaces traditionally occupied by white men. She emphasizes the importance of leveraging one's unique perspective, finding mentors, advocating for oneself, and pursuing genuine passions.

The book applies these lessons across various scenarios, from a recent graduate with a startup idea to a Latino city councilman with mayoral aspirations, and to anyone seeking to ascend in their profession. Abrams's goal is to fill the gap in available wisdom for navigating such paths and to empower her readers to make real change.

The Overstory

2018

by Richard Powers

The Overstory, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us.

This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

Aednan

Aednan marks the American debut of Sweden's esteemed literary figure Linnea Axelsson with an epic, multigenerational novel-in-verse that delves deep into the lives of two Sámi families. This groundbreaking work explores their enduring bond through a century marked by migration, violence, and the scars of colonial trauma.

This sweeping Scandinavian epic, reminiscent of classics such as Halldór Laxness’s Independent People and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, begins in the 1910s. We follow Ristin and her family as they migrate their reindeer herd to summer pastures. Amidst this journey, a tragedy strikes, etching a path of sorrow that echoes throughout the novel.

In the 1970s, we meet Lise, a member of a new Sámi generation confronting her identity and legacy. Her reflections on a childhood marred by forced separation from her family and the loss of her ancestral language at a Nomad School paint a vivid picture of the struggles faced by her people.

The narrative then carries us to the 2010s, introducing Sandra, Lise’s daughter. Sandra stands as a symbol of Indigenous resilience, an activist demanding justice in a landmark land rights trial during a time when the Sámi language teeters on the brink of extinction.

Through the interwoven voices of characters spanning generations, Axelsson crafts a poignant family saga centered around the fallout of colonial settlement. Ædnan serves as a testament to the tenacity of language, even when adopted, to encapsulate memories of what has been lost. The verse of one character to another resonates beyond mortality: "I was the weight / in the stone you brought / back from the coast // to place on / my grave," and the haunting call, "There will be rain / there will be rain."

Utopia for Realists

2017

by Rutger Bregman

Universal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today.

After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way—and in some places it isn't. Rutger Bregman's TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. A quarter of a million views later, the subject of that video is being seriously considered by leading economists and government leaders the world over. It's just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today.

Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty, to Richard Nixon's near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history, and beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he champions ideas whose time have come.

Every progressive milestone of civilization—from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy—was once considered a utopian fantasy. Bregman's book, both challenging and bracing, demonstrates that new utopian ideas, like the elimination of poverty and the creation of the fifteen-hour workweek, can become a reality in our lifetime. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can in fact make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world.

Surviving Poverty

Surviving Poverty carefully examines the experiences of people living below the poverty level, looking in particular at the tension between social isolation and social ties among the poor. Joan Maya Mazelis draws on in-depth interviews with poor people in Philadelphia to explore how they survive and the benefits they gain by being connected to one another.

Half of the study participants are members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, a distinctive organization that brings poor people together in the struggle to survive. The mutually supportive relationships the members create, which last for years, even decades, contrast dramatically with the experiences of participants without such affiliation.

In interviews, participants discuss their struggles and hardships, and their responses highlight the importance of cultivating relationships among people living in poverty. Surviving Poverty documents the ways in which social ties become beneficial and sustainable, allowing members to share their skills and resources and providing those living in similar situations a space to unite and speak collectively to the growing and deepening poverty in the United States.

The study concludes that productive, sustainable ties between poor people have an enduring and valuable impact. Grounding her study in current debates about the importance of alleviating poverty, Mazelis proposes new modes of improving the lives of the poor. Surviving Poverty is invested in both structural and social change and demonstrates the power support services can have to foster relationships and build sustainable social ties for those living in poverty.

Love Is Love: A Comic Book Anthology to Benefit the Survivors of the Orlando Pulse Shooting

The comic industry comes together in honor of those killed in Orlando. Co-published by two of the premiere publishers in comics—DC and IDW, this oversize comic contains moving and heartfelt material from some of the greatest talent in comics, mourning the victims, supporting the survivors, celebrating the LGBTQ community, and examining love in today's world.

All material has been kindly donated by the writers, artists, and editors with all proceeds going to victims, survivors, and their families. Be a part of an historic comics event! It doesn't matter who you love. All that matters is you love.

MĂ©xico racista

Con un afán polémico y un tono irreverente, este libro busca despertar el debate y denunciar la prevalencia de nuestras costumbres racistas y las formas de pensar que las acompañan.

A partir de ejemplos cercanos y actuales, el historiador Federico Navarrete realiza un original análisis de los vínculos entre el racismo y graves casos que han cimbrado a México desde los feminicidios en Juárez, pasando por la matanza de migrantes en San Fernando, hasta la desaparición forzada de los normalistas de Ayotzinapa.

El racismo impera en MĂ©xico. Es un hecho cotidiano que cobra forma lo mismo en una charla privada que en anuncios de tintes "aspiracionales" o en polĂ­ticas pĂşblicas excluyentes. Desafortunadamente, una gran parte de la poblaciĂłn es indiferente ante el fenĂłmeno.

Amén de ofrecer un examen de los orígenes históricos del racismo en México, vinculados con lo que llama la "leyenda del mestizaje", Federico Navarrete nos ofrece una serie de posibles caminos para liberarnos de esta lacerante situación en busca del respeto a las diferencias y la convivencia sensata. Su aviso es claro y estamos a tiempo de hacer de la pluralidad un germen de convivencia y esperanza.

The Eighth Life

Six romances, one revolution, the story of the century.

At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian Empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified- this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste... 

Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the centre of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg. Stasia's is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century. 

Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends. 

Poor Economics

Poor Economics presents an insightful and disruptive portrait of how poor people actually live, challenging the most common assumptions about economics. Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, Nobel Prize-winning economists and MIT professors, delve into the real-life decisions and dilemmas faced by the poor based on extensive field research conducted worldwide.

Poor Economics demonstrates that to create a world free of poverty, it is crucial to understand the everyday choices confronting those living on less than a dollar a day. This book offers a profound rethinking of the economics of poverty, providing readers with a closer look at life through the lens of economic decisions, and suggesting that the battle against poverty starts with proper comprehension of these daily struggles.

The Life You Can Save

2009

by Peter Singer

In The Life You Can Save, Peter Singer compellingly lays out the case for why and how we can take action to provide immense benefit to others, at minimal cost to ourselves. Using ethical arguments, illuminating examples, and case studies of charitable giving, he shows that our current response to world poverty is not only insufficient but morally indefensible. And he provides practical recommendations of charities proven to dramatically improve, and even save, the lives of children, women and men living in extreme poverty.

The Life You Can Save teaches us to be a part of the solution, helping others as we help ourselves.

Fahrenheit 451

1953

by Ray Bradbury

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

The classic dystopian novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.

Bradbury’s powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which, decades on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.

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