I am deep into reading for my next review (The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated: People Power and Legal Power in the 21st Century, edited by Katie Redford, review out in September), but since it’s summer I wanted to share some of my favorite books and book reviews from the past year.
You just might find your next big read. Below are book reviews, articles and papers, and my favorite recent science fiction & fantasy books. There’s something for everyone!
RECENT BOOK REVIEWS:
More Than the Sum of Our Parts: An agitation for artists and organizers
Grossinger, Ken. Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together. New Press: 2023.
Cassedy, Ellen. Working 9 to 5: A Women’s Movement, a Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie. Chicago Review Press, 2022.
Mondros, Jacqueline B. and Joan Minieri. Organizing for Power and Empowerment: The Fight for Democracy. 2nd edition. Columbia University Press, 2023.
Shiller, Helen. Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win: Five Decades of Resistance in Chicago’s Uptown Community. Haymarket Books, 2022.
Hiding In Plain Sight: The key to transforming the Democratic Party and America
Giridharadas, Anand. The Persuaders: At the Frontlines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy. Knopf, 2022.
Kleeb, Jane. Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America. Harper Collins, 2020.
Maxmin, Chloe and Canyon Woodward. Dirt Road Revival: How To Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It. Beacon Press, 2022.
Kazin, Michael. What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.
PAPERS AND ARTICLES:
Toward a People-Powered Democracy (with Scot Nakagawa)
The Antidote to Authoritarianism: How an Organizing Revival Can Build a Multiracial Pluralistic Democracy and Inclusive Economy (with Beth Howard)
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY:
My favorite science fiction & fantasy from the past year include Black Sun and Fevered Star, the first two books in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy by Rebecca Roanhorse. Roanhorse’s fantastic alternate pre-colonial stories are vivid and absorbing, with fantastic characters.
I also loved Children of Memory, the third book in the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The three books in this series explore sentience and relationship in profound ways.
If necromancers in space are your jam (of course they are, duh), check out Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series. Each book features unforgettable characters and whiplash shifts in writing style and setting. By the end of the third book we get a glimpse that perhaps this is a story of the 99% vs. the 1% but then the 99% become the 1%? They are bananas and well worth the wild trip across space and time. I am dying (or rather undying as per Muir) for the 4th and final book in the series to come out.
Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland is a special book, rife with embedded politics and beautiful writing. You will not be able to put it down, and once you do you will be haunted in the best possible way.
I would be remiss if I didn’t lift up former organizer and currently award-winning SF&F author Sam Miller’s terrific collection Boys, Beasts, & Men. Sam’s work often imagines better worlds (after a bit of hardship first), just like a great organizer.
You can find all the books I have read and am reading over on Goodreads.
no suggestions on shredding metal albums? Hope all is well James!