"For many, the stigma around mental illness is decreasing; we’re opening up more, sharing resources, and rejecting shame. But that's not the case for everyone, and there's still a lot of work to do. Below are some of my favorite books which offer a refreshing perspective on mental health conditions, breaking through the cultural, social, and political barriers that can keep people from speaking openly. A mix of fiction and non-fiction, these books show what it's like when your brain seems to be working against you.

1. Gorilla and the Bird by Zack McDermott …

2. Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful by Stephanie Wittels Wachs …

3. Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li …

4. The Incantations of Daniel Johnston by Ricardo Cavolo and Scott McClanahan …

5. Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert …

6. Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles …

7. Chemistry by Weike Wan …

8. Johnny Ruin by Dan Dalton …

9. The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan"

[via: https://kottke.org/18/04/a-list-of-must-read-books-you-dont-have-to-read ]

"Studies show that children are better at identifying Pokémon characters than real animals and plants. Robert Macfarlane on his quest to reconnect young readers with the natural world"

"Full Circle Literary is a full-service literary agency, offering a full circle approach to literary representation. Our team has diverse experience in book publishing including editorial, marketing, publicity, legal and rights, which we use collectively to build careers book by book.

We work with both award-winning veteran and debut writers and illustrators, and our team has a knack for finding and developing new and diverse talent. We work with writers and illustrators from development of concepts and proposals for submission to championing a book into the hands of readers. Our titles have received awards and honors from the American Library Association, National Book Critics’ Circle, Children’s Book Council, Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, National Council of Teachers of English, International Reading Association, and many more.

Visit our Who We Represent pages to learn more about our amazing Illustrators, Picture Book, Middle Grade/Young Adult and Adult Fiction/Nonfiction writers. Please visit Our Agents to learn more about our team and Submit to Us page for submission guidelines. Keep up with news, writing tips and our latest releases on our Twitter and News.

A SELECTION OF OUR LATEST DEAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Mexican author-illustrator Tania de Regil’s picture book debut, A NEW HOME, which tells the story of a boy’s move from New York City to Mexico City and a girl’s simultaneous move from Mexico City to New York City, to Carter Hasegawa at Candlewick, in a two-book deal at auction for publication in 2019, by Adriana Dominguez.

Emma Otheguy’s SILVER MEADOWS SUMMER, in which an eleven-year-old moves with her family from Puerto Rico to upstate New York so her father can find work; in their new home, her parents encourage her to assimilate by sending her to summer camp, to Jenny Brown at Knopf Children’s, for publication in Spring 2019, by Adriana Dominguez.

Sylvia Acevedo’s THE SKY’S THE LIMIT, a middle grade memoir by Latina rocket scientist and CEO of Girls Scouts of the USA, whose early life was transformed by the Girl Scouts and Head Start, to Anne Hoppe at Clarion, for publication in English and Spanish in Fall 2018, by Adriana Dominguez.

New from 2017 Stonewall Honor Author! Anna-Marie McLemore’s BLANCA & ROJA, a magical realist Snow-White & Rose-Red meets Swan Lake, in which two sisters become rivals in a game that will turn the losing girl into a swan, to Kat Brzozowski at Feiwel and Friends by Taylor Martindale Kean.

Rafael López to illustrate WE’VE GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN OUR HANDS, a picture book celebration of what connects us all, with text adapted from the original song lyrics, to Ken Geist at Scholastic by Adriana Dominguez and Stefanie Von Borstel.

Diana Lopez’s middle grade book COCO inspired by Disney*Pixar’s forthcoming film, Coco, featuring original content, to Brittany Rubiano at Disney, for publication in October 2017, by Stefanie Von Borstel.

West coast chef Isabel Cruz’s ISABEL’S CANTINA, featuring brand new recipes in her signature style of easy but flavorful Latin meals, as well as the secrets to her cocktails and the most popular dishes at her restaurants, with photography by Southern California/Baja photographer Jaime Frisch, to Nicole Frail at Skyhorse,for publication in Spring 2018, by Lilly Ghahremani.

Author-Illustrator Tony Piedra’s debut picture book, THE GREATEST ADVENTURE, about a boy and his grandfather who find adventure in unexpected ways, to Arthur Levine at Scholastic’s Arthur A. Levine Books, in a preempt, by Adriana Dominguez.

Celia C. Pérez’s illustrated middle grade debut THE FIRST RULE OF PUNK, in which a girl named Malú causes a bit of anarchy at Posada Middle School when she starts a punk band, to Joanna Cardenas at Viking at auction, in a two-book deal, by Stefanie Von Borstel.

Sylvie Frank at Simon & Schuster has bought world rights to a picture book biography about a little-known journalist by Lisa Cline-Ransome, with 2016 SCBWI Golden Kite winner John Parra illustrating, by Adriana Dominguez and Stefanie Von Borstel representing the artist.

Artist Lisa Congdon to illustrate Emily Trunko’s DEAR MY BLANK, a curated collection of anonymous letters that people never intend to or don’t have the courage to send, from the wildly popular Tumblr of the same name, to Emily Easton at Crown Children’s, for publication in fall 2016, by Stefanie Von Borstel.

2016 William C. Morris Award Finalist THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS author Anna-Marie McLemore‘s newest novel of magical realism WILD BEAUTY, in which the women of a family tend the lush estate gardens they’ve grown for generations, until the reemergence of a family curse that makes the men they love disappear, again to Kat Brzozowski at Macmillan, by Taylor Martindale Kean.

Shauna LaVoy Reynolds‘ POETREE, about a little girl who writes poems for a tree and thinks that the tree is responding, only to discover that another child in her class is actually the one writing back, to Namrata Tripathi at Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin, at auction, by Adriana Dominguez.

Toni Buzzeo‘s FINDER, a picture book biography of Sue Hendrickson, the explorer who discovered the largest and best-preserved T.rex ever found, to be illustrated by Diana Sudyka, who volunteers at the Chicago Field Museum, where Sue the T.rex is housed, to Tamar Brazis at Abrams by Stefanie Von Borstel.

Jennifer Ward’s MAMA DUG A LITTLE DEN, illustrated by Caldecott Honor recipient Steve Jenkins, a companion to MAMA BUILT A LITTLE NEST, featuring the many kinds of dens and burrows animals make for their little ones, for publication in spring 2018, to Andrea Welch at Beach Lane Books by Stefanie Von Borstel.

Dawn Dais‘s THE SH!T NO ONE TELLS YOU ABOUT BABY #2: A Guide to Surviving Your Growing Family and BEING A WORKING MOM: A Guide to Sucking at Everything, in THE SH!T NO ONE TELLS YOU parenting series, to Laura Mazer at Seal Press, in a two-book deal, by Lilly Ghahremani.

Beth Terrill at NorthSouth Books has acquired Monica Brown’s FRIDA AND HER ANIMALITOS, to be illustrated by Pura Belpré Honor winner John Parra, about Frida Kahlo and her animal muses. Publication is planned for fall 2017 in simultaneous English-language, Spanish-language and German editions; Stefanie Von Borstel brokered the deal for world rights, representing both the author and illustrator. Monica Brown and John Parra’s last collaboration, WAITING FOR THE BIBLIOBURRO, was awarded The Christopher Award and will be published in a bilingual English-and Spanish-language edition by Random House in November 2016.

Juana Martinez-Neal‘s debut picture book, ALMA, to Mary Lee Donovan at Candlewick Press, in a two-book, six-figure deal, in a seven-publisher auction, by Stefanie Von Borstel. Candlewick will publish both a hardcover English- and Spanish-language edition in 2018; a second untitled picture book will follow.

DARKROOM author Lila Quintero Weaver‘s THAT YEAR IN THE MIDDLE ROW, set in Alabama in 1970 against the backdrop of school integration and the Wallace/Brewer gubernatorial primary, in which a girl who is the school’s only Latina student discovers a love for running and figures out who she wants to be — and what kind of friends she wants to have –during one tumultuous school year, to Andrea Tompa at Candlewick, for publication in spring 2018, by Adriana Dominguez.

Traci Todd at Abrams has bought the first two picture books both written and illustrated by boygirlparty artist Susie Ghahremani. Inspired by her bestselling “cat pile” clothing line, STACK THE CATS is a playful introduction to early math concepts using cats. The second picture book features other popular characters from boygirlparty apparel, stationery and gifts. Publication is set for spring 2017 and spring 2018; Stefanie Von Borstel negotiated the deal for world rights.

Diana Rodriguez Wallach‘s new Anastasia Phoenix series, in which a girl goes on an international hunt for her missing sister who everyone says is dead, and finds that everything she knows about her family is not only a lie, but embroiled in criminal espionage, to Alycia Tornetta at Entangled Teen, in a three-book deal, by Taylor Martindale Kean.

MAMA BUILT A LITTLE NEST author Jennifer Ward‘s HOW TO FIND A BIRD, celebrating the joy in finding and observing the many types of birds in nature, to Andrea Welch at Beach Lane Books, by Stefanie Von Borstel at Full Circle Literary.

Susan Verde’s HEY, WALL, in which a boy brings his community together to create a mural in this celebration of urban art, illustrated by Pura Belpre Honor and Golden Kite Award winner John Parra, to Sylvie Frank at Paula Wiseman Books, for publication in Spring 2018, by Erica Rand Silverman for the author and Stefanie Von Borstel and Adriana Dominguez at Full Circle Literary for the illustrator.

James Beard nominee chef Rob Connoley‘s ACORNS & CATTAILS: A MODERN COOKBOOK OF FOREST, FIELD & FARM, offering a vibrant palate of modern recipes for the home cook featuring foraged plants, hunted animals, and farmed vegetables, to Nicole Frail at Skyhorse, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2016, by Lilly Ghahremani.

Sally Pla‘s debut SOMEDAY BIRDS, in which AN OCD/Aspergian, bird-loving boy reluctantly travels cross-country with his siblings to see his dad, hospitalized after a brain injury; he bargains with the universe that if he can spot along the way all the rare birds that the two had been hoping to see someday, then everything might just turn out okay, to Annie Berger at Harper Children’s, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, in a good deal, by Taylor Martindale Kean."

"Next Tuesday, we celebrate our country. A country that seems to be imploding with every passing presidential tweet. A country that has failed to care for the most vulnerable while those in power grow richer. Celebrating the Fourth this year feels a bit like going out for dinner with a cheating spouse.

But it’s important to remember that America is not our leaders, America is us. In that vein, here are some books that help remind us what actually makes America great (hint: it’s not tax cuts). Some of these books are problematic; others contain racism (looking at you Ma and Pa Ingalls); still more are jubilant, triumphant, and full of hope. But each highlights a real aspect of America, good or bad, and hopefully can remind us that what makes America great are the voices of the people who call this messy place home.

***

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov:
As Rumpus Senior Features Editor Julie Greicius pointed out, “Lolita, oddly enough, is a brilliant foreigner’s felonious road trip across America, with Lolita herself as metaphor of a country too young to understand what crime is being committed against her.”

The Federalist Papers by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton
A collection of eight-five articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Go check out what two of our Founding Fathers hoped America might be.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The American dream, sans happy ending. So, real life?

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
A Newbery Medal-winning book about racism in America during the Great Depression. Taylor explores life in southern Mississippi, when racism was still common in the South and many were persecuted for the color of their skin.

Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Rankine recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person’s ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named “post-race” society.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Uprooted from their family home in the Dominican Republic, the four Garcia sisters arrive in New York City in 1960 to find a life far different from the genteel existence of maids, manicures, and extended family they left behind. What they have lost—and what they find—is revealed in fifteen interconnected stories that span over thirty years.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous—this is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.

Snopes: A Trilogy by William Faulkner
A saga that stands as perhaps the greatest feat of Faulkner’s imagination. “For all his concerns with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man,” noted Ralph Ellison. “Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics.”

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
A series of American children’s novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder based on her childhood in the northern Midwestern United States during the 1870s and 1880s. Eight were completed by Wilder, and published by Harper & Brothers from 1932 and 1943. The first draft of a ninth novel was published posthumously in 1971 and is commonly included in the Little House series.

The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez
Lyrical and gritty, this authentic coming-of-age story about a border-town family in Brownsville, Texas insightfully illuminates a little-understood corner of America.

Native Guard by Natasha Tretheway
Through elegiac verse that honors her mother and tells of her own fraught childhood, Trethewey confronts the racial legacy of her native Deep South, where one of the first black regiments, the Louisiana Native Guards, was called into service during the Civil War. Trethewey’s resonant and beguiling collection is a haunting conversation between personal experience and national history.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henríquez
Peopled with deeply sympathetic characters, this poignant yet unsentimental tale of young love tells a riveting story of unflinching honesty and humanity that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be an American

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.

The Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson
This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing “second American Revolution” we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.

Bear, Diamonds and Crane by Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan
In this collection, personal narratives take their place alongside group stories, “the wound” that “resists erasure and cultural amnesia. […] the image of barbed wire.” Kageyama-Ramakrishnan reflects on the life of her grandmother, who “acquiesced on impulse” to marry and move to the United States on the U.S.S. Jackson as well as on stories from Manzanar, the concentration camp where Japanese Americans were interned during World War II.

Poeta en San Francisco by Barbara Jane Reyes
Poeta en San Francisco incorporates English, Spanish, and Tagalog in a book-length poem at once lush and experimentally rigorous. From the vantage of San Francisco, Reyes looks outward to the Philippines, Vietnam, and other colonized places with violent histories.

Thomas and Beluah by Rita Dove
Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Thomas and Beulah tells the semi-fictionalized chronological story of Dove’s maternal grandparents, the focus being on her grandfather (Thomas, his name in the book as well as in real life) in the first half and her grandmother (named Beulah in the book, although her real name was Georgianna) in the second.

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy."

"One of the most comprehensive annotated book lists for children, aged infant through 16. The Committee reviews over 6,000 titles annually for accuracy and literary quality and considers their emotional impact on children. The best 600 books published each year, both fiction and nonfiction, are listed with annotations, according to age and category.

Below are the past editions that are currently available online. Reference copies of editions published in print before 2010 may be found in the Bank Street College Library."

[See also: “The Best Children's Books of the Year, 2017 Edition”
https://www.bankstreet.edu/center-childrens-literature/childrens-book-committee/best-books-year/2017-edition/

"THE CHILDREN’S BOOK COMMITTEE at Bank Street College of Education strives to guide librarians, educators, parents, grandparents, and other interested adults to the best books for children published each year.

The Best Children's Books of the Year, 2017 Edition includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2016. In choosing books for the annual list, reviewers consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.

Nonfiction titles are further evaluated for accuracy and clarity. Each book accepted for the list is read and reviewed by at least two committee members and then discussed by the committee as a whole."]

"Reading is one of the best ways for children to step outside of their own lives and gain perspective on the world. An important aspect of participatory citizenship is an openness to other people’s experiences that are different from our own. Books are an important portal into the experiences of others; reading is proven to make people more empathetic. Empathy is an important part of participatory citizenship: participation in society and community, fueled by mutual respect for others. Books can help kids gain awareness of past and present global issues, which can lead to more direct and effective participatory citizenship. Below is a short summer reading list, including different books for all ages, to encourage and foster global participatory citizenship. After each book is a discussion or activity prompt to encourage deeper thinking and action."

"Recommended reads related to civic tech, health, government, behavioral science, design and engineering

At Nava we have a living Google Doc where we link to books that help us understand the systems and architecture we use. The intention of this document is to form a baseline of readings that new employees will need and to share with other employees good resources for being productive.

Below are some of our favorites from that list:

Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences
by Susan Leigh Star and Geoffrey C. Bowker

This covers, in great detail, the astounding ways that the models we make for the world end up influencing how we interact with it. This is incredibly relevant to our work: the data models we define and the way we classify and interpret data have profound and often invisible impacts on large populations. — Sha Hwang, Co-founder and Head of Creative

Decoded
by Jay Z

Decoded is Jay Z’s autobiography and describes his experience as a black man growing up in an impoverished neighborhood in NYC. In particular, there is a passage about poor people’s relationship to the government that changed the way I think about the perception of those government services that I work to improve. This book showed me that the folks we usually want to serve most well in government, are the ones who are most likely to have had profoundly negative experiences with government. It taught me that, when I work on government services, I am rebuilding a relationship, not starting a new one. Context is so important. It’s a fun, fast read and I used to ask that our Apprentices read at least that passage, if not the whole book, before starting with our team at the NYC Mayor’s Office. — Genevieve Gaudet, Designer

Seeing like a State
by James C. Scott

A reminder that the governance of people at scale can have unintended consequences when removed from people’s daily lives and needs. You won’t think of the grid, property lines, and last names the same way again.— Shelly Ni, Designer

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
by Susan Cain

Cain uses data and real world examples of how and why introverts are overlooked in American culture and then discusses how both introverts and extroverts can play a role in ensuring introverts get a seat at the table and a word in the conversation. — Aimee Barciauskas, Software Engineer

Capital in the Twenty-First Century
by Thomas Piketty

This book analyzes the long-term fluctuations in wealth inequality across the globe, from the eighteenth century to present. He exposes an incredibly important issue in a compelling way, using references not just to data, but to history and literature to prove his point. — Mari Miyachi, Software Engineer

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III
by Robert A. Caro

Our most underhanded president also brought us Medicaid, Medicare, and civil rights. Was Machiavelli so bad after all? — Alex Prokop, Software Engineer

Praying for Sheetrock
by Melissa Fay Greene

A true, close-up story of McIntosh County, Georgia, a place left behind by the greater Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. This is a story about the civil rights movement that shakes up the community in the 1970s, and this is also a story about burnout, and organizing, and intergenerational trauma. — Shelly Ni, Designer

The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care
by T. R. Reid

Reid explores different models for healthcare in nations across the globe. He’s searching for an understanding of why America’s system is comparatively so expensive and unsuccessful, leaving so many uninsured and unhealthy. There is a great chapter on Ayurvedic medicine which (spoiler alert) seemed to work for the author when he was suffering from a shoulder injury! — Aimee Barciauskas, Software Engineer

Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

A very enjoyable and inspirational read about the history of Pixar from founder Ed Catmull himself. It delves into what sets a creative company apart and teaches lessons like “people are more important than ideas” and “simple answers are seductive” without reading like a typical business book.— Lauren Peterson, Product Manager

Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman

The magnum opus of Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman is a psychologist but his Nobel is in Economics, and unlike other winners in this category, his win stands the test of time. You will be a much better decision maker after reading this book and understanding the two modes our brains work in: System 1 intuitive “fast” thinking and System 2 deliberate “slow” thinking. It is a beast of a book, but unlike the vast majority of (pop) psychology books, this book distills decades of groundbreaking research and is the basis for so many other psychology books and research that if you read this book carefully, you won’t have to read those other books. There are so many topics in this book, I’ll just link to the Wikipedia page to give you a flavor.— Alicia Liu, Software Engineer

Nudge
by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

This covers how sensible “choice architecture” can improve the decisions and behavior of people. Much of what’s covered comes from decades of research in behavioral science and economics, and has a wide range of applications — from design, user research, and policy to business and everyday life. — Sawyer Hollenshead, Designer

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
by Atul Gawande

This book is about how checklists can help even experts avoid mistakes. Experience isn’t enough. I try to apply the lessons of this book to the processes we use to operate our software.—Evan Kroske, Software Engineer

The Soul of a New Machine
by Tracy Kidder

This book details the work of a computer engineering team racing to design a computer. While the pace of work for the team is certainly unsustainable and perhaps even unhealthy at times, the highs and lows they go through as they debug their new minicomputer will be familiar to engineers and members of tight-knit groups of all varieties. The rush to finish their project, which was thought to be a dark horse at the beginning of the book, is enthralling and will keep you engaged with this book late into the night. — Samuel Keller, Software Engineer

Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software
by Michael T. Nygard

One of the best, most practical books I’ve ever read about creating resilient software on “modern” web architectures. While it may not be the most relevant with regards to cloud-based infrastructure, the patterns and processes described within are still very applicable. This is one of the few technical books I have read cover-to-cover. — Scott Smith, Software Engineer

Design for Democracy
by Marcia Lausen

From an AIGA project to improve the design of ballots— both paper and electronic— following the “hanging chad” drama of the 2000 election, comes this review of best practices for designers, election officials, and anyone interested in the intersection of design and voting.—Shelly Ni, Designer

The Design of Everyday Things
by Donald A. Norman

This is a classic for learning about design and its sometimes unintended consequences. I read it years ago and I still think about it every time I’m in an elevator. It’s a great introduction to a designer’s responsibility and designing in the real world for actual humans, who can make mistakes and surprising choices about how to use the designs you create. — Genevieve Gaudet, Designer

More recommendations from the team
• The Unexotic Underclass
• Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice
• Everybody Hurts: Content for Kindness
• Poverty Interrupted: Applying Behavioral Science to the Context of Chronic Scarcity [PDF]
• Designing for Social Change: Strategies for Community-Based Graphic Design
• Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels
• The New New Journalism: Conversations with America’s Best Nonfiction Writers on their Craft
• The Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times
• The Effective Engineer: How to Leverage Your Efforts In Software Engineering to Make a Disproportionate and Meaningful Impact
• Effective DevOps: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Affinity, and Tooling at Scale"

[see responses]

"A reading list created by a group of Black, Brown, Indigenous, Muslim, and Jewish people who are writers, organizers, teachers, anti-fascists, anti-capitalists, and radicals.

WE studied and pursued methods for revolutionary social change before Trump came to power, and our core focus remains the same: abolishing the ever-enlarging systems of hierarchy, control, and environmental destruction necessary to sustain the growth of capital. With the ascendance of White nationalist ambition to the upper echelons of empire, we have given special attention to struggles waged and endured by marginalized people for whom the fight against capital has always been a concurrent fight against Anglo-Saxon supremacy.

Although there are bleak times ahead, we must remember that for most of us America was never paradise. Democrats and liberals will use this time to revise history. They will present themselves as the reasonable solution to Trump’s reign and advocate a return to “normalcy.” But their normal is a country where Black people are routinely killed by police and more people are imprisoned than any other place in the world. Their normal is a country where millions are exploited while a handful eat lavishly. Their normal is the opposite of a solution; it’s a threat to our lives.

We encourage everyone to use their local libraries and indiebound.org to acquire the books listed below.

ANTI-FASCISM/FASCISM HISTORY

Militant Anti-Fascism: A Hundred Years of Resistance by M. Testa (Ebook free until 11/30 from AK Press)
The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich (PDF)
Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm
Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti (PDF)
“The Shock of Recognition” (An excerpt from Confronting Fascism by J. Sakai)
Hypernormalisation by Adam Curtis (documentary)
A critical review of Hypernormalisation
Fascist Symbols (photo)
Searchable Symbol Database
Hatemap

Chile:
The Battle of Chile (Documentary): Part I, Part 2, and Part 3

Philippines:
When A Populist Demagogue Takes Power

Argentina:
Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy
Eastern Europe: In the Shadow of Hitler

Italy:
The Birth of Fascist Ideology by Zeev Sternhell (PDF)
Basta Bunga Bunga
Lessons from Italy: The Dangers of Anti-Trumpism

Greece:
How Greece Put an Anti-Austerity, Anti-Capitalist Party in Power

Russia:
Russian Fascism: Traditions, Tendencies, and Movements by Stephen Shenfield

France:
Where Have All the Fascists Gone? by Tamir Bar-On
Neither Right nor Left by Zeev Sternhell (PDF)
Gender and Fascism in Modern France edited By Melanie Hawthorne, Richard Joseph Golsan
The Manouchian Group (French Antifa who resisted the Nazis when Germany occupied France)
L’Armée du Crime/The Army of Crime (Film)
Antifa Chasseurs de Skins (Documentary)

Spain:
Fascism in Spain 1923–1977
“The Spanish Civil War” (Series on Youtube)

Germany/Hitler:
Escape Through the Pyrenees by Lisa Fittko
Male Fantasies, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by Klaus Theweleit (particularly Chapter 1)
The Nazis, Capitalism and the Working Class by Donny Gluckstein
Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt (PDF)
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada (fiction)
“Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda” by Theodor Adorno (PDF)
Fascinating Fascism
The Horrifying American Roots for Nazi’s Eugenics

United States:
Negroes with Guns by Robert F. Williams: EPUB, PDF and Audio Documentary
The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement by Lance Hill
In the Name of Eugenics by Daniel Kevles
Dixie Be Damned: 300 Years of Insurrection in the American South by Saralee Stafford and Neal Shirley
Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North by Thomas P. Slaughter
“Why We Fight” Part I & Part II
Columbus Day is the Most Important Day of Every Year
Fascism in a Pinstriped Suit by Michael Parenti (Essay in book Dirty Truths)
Southern Horrors by Ida B. Wells
Morbid Symptoms: The Rise of Trump

Alt-Right/U.S. Neo-Nazis:
‘Hail Trump!’: White Nationalists Salute the President Elect
This Is Not a Guide: Is the Alt-Right White Supremacist? (yes)
Why We Must Stop Speaking of Oppression as “Hate”
The Myth of the Bullied White Outcast Loner Is Helping Fuel a Fascist Resurgence
The New Man of 4Chan
The Dark History of Donald Trump’s Right-Wing Revolt
Dark Days at the RNC
Trump Normalization Watch
The Real Origins of ‘Lone Wolf’ White Supremacists Like Dylan Roof

Here are assorted alt-right/White nationalist propaganda videos to better understand their rhetorical pull: one, two, three (Note: these videos were made by white supremacists).

U.S. REPRESSION & MCCARTHYISM

A ‘Commission on Radical Islam’ Could Lead to a New McCarthy Era
Newt Gingrich Calls for a New House of Un-American Activities
If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance edited by Angela Davis (PDF)
Naming Names by Victor Navasky
Red Scare Racism and Cold War Black Radicalism by James Zeigler
The Other Blacklist: The African American Literary and Cultural Left of the 1950s by Mary Helen Washington
Still Black, Still Strong: Survivors of the War Against Black Revolutionaries by Dhoruba Bin Wahad, Assata Shakur, Mumia Abu Jamal (PDF)
Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner
The COINTELPRO Papers by Ward Churchill (PDF)
Red Scare: Memories of the American Inquisition by Griffin Fariello
Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals and Reagan’s Rise to Power by Seth Rosenfeld (EPUB)
Interview with the Rosenfeld on NPR.
Green Is the New Red by Will Potter
War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony by Nelson Denis (EPUB)
War Against The Panthers: A Study of Repression in America by Huey Newton (PDF)
The Repression Lists
The Story Behind The NATO 3 Domestic Terrorism Arrests
Why Did the FBI Spy on James Baldwin (Review of the book All Those Strangers by Douglas Field)
Cointelpro 101 by The Freedom Archives (Video)

SECURITY CULTURE/THE SURVEILLANCE STATE

The Burglary by Betty Medsgar
Overseers of the Poor by John Gilliom (PDF)
The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy by Violet Blue
Security Culture, CrimethInc
EFF Surveillance Self Defense
The Intercept’s Surveillance Self Defense against the Trump Administration
Things To Know About Web Security Before Trump’s Inauguration
How Journalists Can Protect Themselves Online
How To Encrypt Your Entire Life in Less Than An Hour
On Building a Threat Model for Trump
FBI Confirms Contracts with AT&T, Verizon, and MCI
New York’s EZ Pass: We’re Watching You
NYCLU on EZ Pass Surveillance and ACLU blog on EZ Pass Surveillance
New York’s New Public Wifi Kiosks Are Spying On You
Why Public Wifi is a Public Health Hazard
The Drone Papers
The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program
US Cited Controversial Law in Decision To Kill American By Drone
Security Notebook (a packet of readings)
Why Misogynists Make The Best Informants
Fusion Centers / What’s Wrong With Fusion Centers (ACLU report) / Fusion Center Investigations Into Anti War Activities
How See Something, Say Something Punishes Innocent Muslims and Spawns Islamophobia
Citizenfour by Laura Poitras (Documentary)
1971 by Johanna Hamilton (Documentary)

RESISTANCE TACTICS

The Ideology of the Young Lords Party (PDF)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (PDF)
The Black Panther Party: Service to the People Programs, edited by David Hilliard (PDF)
Blood in My Eye by George Jackson (PDF)
Peoples’ War, Peoples’ Army by Vo Nguyen Giap (PDF)
Poor People’s Movements by Frances Fox Piven
Policing the Planet, edited by Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton
In the Shadow of the Shadow State
Black Riot
Against Innocence
Nothing Short of a Revolution
A Concise History of Liberation Theology
Organizing Lessons from Civil Rights Leader Ella Baker
After Trump
Black Study, Black Struggle
The Jackson Kush Plan (by Cooperation Jackson/MXGM)
Fuck Trump, But Fuck You Too: No Unity with Liberals
the past didn’t go anywhere — making resistance to antisemitism part of all our movements
De-arrests Are Beautiful
10 Points on Black Bloc (Text or Youtube)
On Blocs
How To Set Up an Anti-Fascist Group
How To Survive A Knife Attack: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4


BLACK LIBERATION

Black Reconstruction by W. E. B. Du Bois (PDF)
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture by Angela Davis (PDF)
Revolutionary Suicide by Huey Newton (PDF)
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement by Barbara Ransby
We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement by Akinyele Omowale Umoja (PDF)
How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America by Manning Marable (PDF)
Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Repression by Robin DG Kelley (PDF)
Interview with Robin DG Kelley about his book
Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson (PDF or EPUB)
Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (PDF)
Black Jacobins by CLR James (PDF)
A History of Pan-African Revolt by CLR James
Black Awakening in Capitalist America by Robert Allen
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime by Elizabeth Hinton
This NonViolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed by Charles E. Cobb Jr (PDF or EPUB)
Eddie Conway in conversation with Charles E. Cobb in How Guns Kept People Alive During The Civil Rights Movement: Part I, Part II and Part III
The Young Lords: A Reader (PDF)
Black Anarchism: A Reader (PDF)
We Charge Genocide’s Report on Community Policing (PDF) | The group’s talk with DOJ
An Open Letter To My Sister Angela Davis by James Baldwin
Cooperation Jackson: Countering the Confederate Assault and The Struggle for Economic Democracy (Video)
American Nightmare: Black Labor and Liberation (Documentary, not yet released)
On Reparations: Resisting Inclusion and Co-optation by Jamilah Martin
Beyond Nationalism but Not Without It by Ashanti Alston
The Liberal Solution to Police Violence: Restoring Trust Will Ensure More Obedience
The Weapon of Theory by Amilcar Cabral
The Carceral State
The Work Continues: Hannah Black Interviews Mariame Kaba… [more]

"Reporters and editors on the National Desk of The New York Times were asked to suggest books that a visitor ought to read to truly understand the American cities and regions where they live, work and travel.

There were no restrictions — novels, memoirs, histories and children’s books were fair game. Here are some selections.

Recommend a book that captures something special about where you live in the comments, or on Twitter with the hashtag #natbooks."

"I read a lot of books. I work in a library. I do a lot of science and #scicomm stuff."

[Doesn't contain the full thread, so see also:
https://twitter.com/JohnBorghi/status/706859033060352000 ]

"There has never been a better time than right now to be a reader of African literature, especially in the United States (historically, an underdeveloped nation in this regard). Of course, we’re still playing catch-up; many of these books have already been published in South Africa, Nigeria, or the UK, or in their original language. But that just means that old classics are becoming suddenly available alongside emerging new voices. So if you’re looking for something to read, and you want it to have the word “African” attached to it, here are my top 25 suggestions for the first six months of the new year. All dates are for U.S. publications. Chain bookstores won’t carry most of these, so you might have to do something as laborious and difficult as click a link–or ask your local bookstore to place a special order–but the one thing you can’t do, any longer, is complain you have nothing to read. You have your orders; go forth and read."

"The Brown Bookshelf is designed to push awareness of the myriad of African American voices writing for young readers. Our flagship initiative is 28 Days Later, a month-long showcase of the best in Picture Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans."

"Contemporary American attitudes about childhood are rife with paradox. We’re convinced that our children are overprotected (this is a sentiment that seems politics-proof, reaching across party lines), yet parents find it impossible to step back from the many protective measures put in place over the past century. (Who wants to be the first one on the block to let their kid walk to school alone?) Or how about this: we’re convinced that our children are overprotected, yet 22 percent of American children live in families whose household incomes fall beneath the poverty level. These children, as well as black kids like Tamir Rice (shot to death by police at age twelve), are denied the protections accorded their upper- and middle-class counterparts. What is “childhood innocence,” and who gets to benefit from it?

Historians of childhood can offer crucial context, showing how children’s lives have changed over time. But the field of childhood studies, which blends a strong historical perspective with critical assessment of the evolution of attitudes and ideologies around childhood, is full of interesting theoretical approaches to the kinds of paradoxes above.

Here are ten books that can help you figure out how we came to be so confused about childhood.

PLACES TO START

Steven Mintz, Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood (2004).

This is a synthetic history of childhood that surveys a lot of finer-grained historical work on the social, political, and cultural changes that have affected American children’s lives between the colonial period and the present. Huck’s Raft is a great starting point if you want to know the historical basics—What was it like to be an enslaved child? What kinds of protections did children working in industrial workplaces have? When did a majority of American children gain access to public school?—and offers a solid bibliography with leads to the foundational work in the field.

Ann Hulbert, Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children (2003).

Another broad history, this one of American parenting advice in the twentieth century, amplifies some of the discussions in Huck’s Raft. Hulbert traces the influence of religion, psychology, and social science on American ideas about the proper shape of a good childhood. The sources Hulbert taps—infant-care manuals, government pamphlets, the famous Dr. Spock—are invaluable in revealing how concepts about childhood manifested themselves in pragmatic advice to those directly responsible for children’s care. Raising America, which is a trade book written by a journalist, is also very fun to read.

Viviana Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children (1985).

A book by a sociologist that you will find cited in almost every history of American childhood, Pricing the Priceless Child has a simple and irresistible thesis: just as American children were removed from the workforce in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, becoming what Zelizer calls “economically useless,” they were sentimentalized—made “emotionally priceless.” Zelizer looks at life insurance rates and the outcomes of wrongful death suits, showing through the seemingly impersonal records of courts and actuaries how children’s lives took on new significance.

Carolyn Steedman, Strange Dislocations: Childhood and the Idea of Human Interiority, 1780-1930 (1995).

When I took a graduate seminar in childhood studies with Julia Mickenberg at the University of Texas at Austin, she assigned this dense book, which initially terrified and then deeply engaged everyone in the class. Steedman looks at the way the figure of Mignon, the child acrobat character who appears in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1795-6), popped up across genres in the nineteenth century. But Steedman also taps archives of performance, medicine, science, law, and psychology, drawing connections between Mignon’s various appearances in literature and on stage and new ideas about what it might mean to have a self. I’m including this as a “Places to Start” book, despite its high level of difficulty, because it is a book that shows how ambitious childhood studies can be.

DIGGING IN

Karen Sánchez-Eppler, Dependent States: The Child’s Part in Nineteenth-Century American Culture (2005).

Most of the books on this list are about the twentieth century, but Karen Sánchez-Eppler’s Dependent States is (like the Steedman) an inspiring example of how to write about the theory of childhood within a specific historical period. Sanchez Eppler shows how nineteenth-century American adults thought through ideas about dependence, freedom, and citizenship by using children—real and fictional—as exemplars. The author is also great at writing about the way we can, or can’t, hear the voices of children while writing the history of childhood—another theoretical question that will pop up in most childhood studies books.

Kenneth B. Kidd, Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale (2004).

Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, psychologists and self-appointed “boy workers” at organizations like the YMCA, the Boy Scouts, and 4-H conversed among themselves regarding the correct conditions necessary for the production of an “upstanding” American boy. There are other histories of the Boy Scouts that are more complete, but Kidd’s book explores the way that ideas about ferality and domesticity, stemming from psychoanalysis and literature, shaped the pronouncements of those put in charge of “making boys.” Kidd makes it clear that the normative ideas about gender and age that still govern our conversations about growing up had deep roots in this era.

Nicholas Sammond, Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Making of the American Child, 1930-1960 (2005).

More work on constructed ideas of normality, but in this case intertwined most fascinatingly with a history of Disney. We commonly think of media as a corrupter of children, but Sammond shows how, in the early evolution of the American children’s media marketplace, developmental science was a key player. Disney’s ability to market itself as Better For Children was made possible by its alliance with social scientists who claimed knowledge of children’s minds, and its evocation of ideals of patriotism that focused on the child as the symbolic American. Read along with the Hulbert for maximum impact.

Marta Gutman and Ning De Coninck-Smith, eds. Designing Modern Childhoods: History, Space, and the Material Culture of Children (2008).

A collection of essays about twentieth-century purpose-built environments for children, ranging across the United States and the world. Each essay, whether by a social historian or a historian of architecture or design, keys into the idea outlined in John R. Gillis’s epilogue on “The Islanding of Children”: kids in Western cultures have been increasingly sidelined in “mythical landscapes” of their own. Essays on postwar “adventure playgrounds” in the UK, children’s hospitals in Canada, and birthday parties in the United States offer scope for imagination.

NEW MOVES

Lee Edelman, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (2004).

This book left blisters on the hands of my grad school reading group when we tackled it while preparing for oral exams. It’s probably the most abstract of the titles I have recommended here (it’s not really a history). Many books in childhood studies explore the way children come to stand in for “the future”—especially white, middle-class children—and talk about what that has meant for the shape of American politics and literature, and for children themselves. Edelman looks at that common association and shows how it’s been deployed against queerness. The argument turned everything we had been reading about on its head, in a most satisfying way.

Robin Bernstein, Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights (2011).

The paradigms of performance studies come to bear on childhood in Bernstein’s book about violence, innocence, and race. The idea of childhood innocence—another through-line in the literature of childhood studies—was crafted in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Bernstein shows how the quality came to adhere to white children rather than black—trying to illustrate everyday attitudes by analyzing material and visual culture, and making arguments about how their uses transferred these qualities of innocence to their users. You will never look at a Raggedy Ann doll the same way again."

"This is very obviously a work in progress and a massively incomplete list, but if you’re looking for books both by and about people of marginalized races? Voila, a start, alphabetized by author’s last name. (As yet unreleased titles are in green.)"

"Welcome to my database of science fiction and fantasy books that demonstrate diversity in sexuality/gender, race, disability, and other aspects. My hope is that this will both promote existing but less well-known books, and inspire authors to write more and publishers to make them available. I feel that too much time and effort is spent criticizing whatever's currently popular, sometimes to the extent of nitpicking, for not having enough diversity instead of finding the books that do and celebrating them. More are being published every day- and the best way to encourage them is to talk about these books."

"A List Of Some Of My Favourite Books By African Writers.

In honor of International Literacy Day, I compiled a list of some of my favourite books written by African authors (with the exception of the book about Fela). There are many books I could’ve added to this post but these were the first that came to mind.

There’s no order to this list and each comes highly recommended as they, in some way, changed me for the better. If I had to pick a favourite it would undoubtedly be Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions simply because it was the first book I read in which I related so deeply to several of the characters - and still do. From Nyasha’s struggle with depression and being caught between two cultures she feels alienated by, to Tambu’s hunger for a world beyond her circumstances. Ugandan author Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol comes in a close second, it’s just about as cheeky and blunt as I am in some parts and, perhaps a little out of narcissism, is why I enjoyed it.

Between these 18 books you’ll find everything from the personal to the political, and everything in-between. There’s love, there’s romance, there’s struggle, there’s strife, there’s beauty and there’s ugly too. No story is as simple as their titles may suggest, just read Camara Laye’s L’enfant Noir (The African Child) that explores the author’s early childhood in Guinea under French colonisation, or South African writer Sol Plaatjie’s historical novel Mhudi written in 1919 that placed a woman at the center of a story that deals with survival, displacement and early European colonisation in South Africa.

For anyone interested in reading these books, I found some of them available online (not all are complete):

Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo
Maru by Bessie Head
Fela: This Bitch of A Life by Carlos Moore
Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono
No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe
I Write What I Like by Steve Biko
Decolonising the Mind by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba
Mhudi by Sol Plaatjie
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol by Okot P’Bitek
Welcome to Our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin
GraceLand by Chris Abani"

[Wayback link: https://web.archive.org/web/20150115054038/http://arablit.org/2015/01/15/arab-women-writers-recommend-their-favorite-arab-women-writers/ ]

"A great deal of the conversation about publishing and diversity is grounded in the idea that there simply aren’t many writers of color. One of the most frequent derailments during any conversation about this topic is the belief that because of historical, institutional racism and the socioeconomic consequences thereof, there simply aren’t as many writers of color. It’s also popular to create an exhausting statistical frenzy by talking about data collection and submission ratios and the like. These are comforting explanations. If we can blame history and institutional racism, if we can blame math, we don’t have to accept responsibility for reading narrowly.

Like many editors and writers, I cannot say I know a great many writers of color. I don’t have all the answers but in my gut, I knew there were many writers of color even if we don’t find them in the major magazines and journals. In addition to a great many writers of color, there are also blogs, book groups, book clubs, writer’s networks, workshops, magazines, presses, and organizations all dedicated to working with writers of color in some fashion. Where do you find writers of color? Beyond mainstream publications and organizations, you could check out White Readers Meet Black Authors, The Asian-American Writers’ Workshop, VONA, the APOOO Book Club, Go On Girl, Cave Canem, Kundiman, Racialicious, Color Lines, The Root, Kartika Review, Callaloo, Cha, The African American Review, DesiLit, Melanated Writers Collective, The Radius of Arab American Writers, Mizna: Prose, Poetry, and Art Exploring Arab America, and on and on. Organizations for writers of color aren’t designed to keep white people away. You can learn more about the diverse writing community simply by paying attention to these organizations.

Earlier this summer, I put out a call for names of writers of color so there might be a resource to help people read and publish more diversely. This list was not designed to pigeonhole writers or suggest that they should be identified by race or ethnicity. These are writers who also happen to be people of color. This is not a token list of writers to go to when you need someone to write about race—these writers write about a wide range of subjects. Some of these writers are familiar and others are up and coming. I’ve listed the writers in alphabetical order by first name with genre and online presence information provided by the individuals who put the names forth. As such, this information is incomplete but it is a start, a compass point to orient you.

There are a great many writers who are not on this list. That is the point of all this. You cannot possibly list every writer of color working today. We are many. We are everywhere. The world of letters is far more diverse than the publishing climate would lead us to believe. You only need to open your eyes and open your mind. I challenge everyone to pick five (or more) writers from this list with whom you are not familiar, look up their work, see what these writers are about.

It isn’t hard to find writers of color. All you have to do is read."

[via: http://nicoleslaw.com/post/108129652119/reading-list ]

"Working through a stack of wonderful books from women of color and I just want to say thank you. (Finished several of these already and I bought Ms. Angelou’s entire collection for Kindle before getting my library card, but I want to wait before reading the next one.)

• Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay
• Redefining Realness, Janet Mock
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
• Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde
• The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance, Audre Lorde
• Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks
• All About Love, bell hooks
• Trauma Queen, Lovemme Corazón
• The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich
• Women Reading Women Writing, Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Audre Lorde
• Lost in Language & Sound, Or, How I Found My Way to the Arts, Ntozake Shange
• Some of Us Did Not Die, June Jordan

Relatedly, Roxane posted a long list of writers of color on the Rumpus in 2012. Just found this, but it’s quite a gift. [http://therumpus.net/2012/08/we-are-many-we-are-everywhere/ ]"

[video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXWB7A1_zWA ]

"On the complex terrain of arts education today and expanded ways of valuing knowledge.

What should an arts education look like today? Can education change the role of artists and designers in society? How does teaching change when it is done with compassion? How does one navigate and resist the often emotionally toxic world of academia? With the rising cost of education what can we do differently?

Bibliography:

Streetwork: The Exploding School by Anthony Fyson and Colin Ward

Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks

Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope by bell hooks

Education Automation: Comprehensive Learning for Emergent Humanity by Buckminster Fuller

Talking Schools by Colin Ward

Learning By Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit by Sister Corita Kent and Jan Steward

The Open Class Room by Herbert Kohl

Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich

Why Art Can’t Be Taught by James Elkins

Education and Experience by John Dewey

Freedom and Beyond by John Holt

Notes for An Art School edited by Manifesta 6

Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community by Martin Duberman

Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner

We Make the Road By Walking by Myles Horton and Paulo Friere

Education for Socially Engaged Art by Pablo Helguera

Rasberry: How to Start Your Own School and Make a Book by Sally Rasberry and Robert Greenway

This Book is About Schools edited by Satu Repo

Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century) edited by Steven Henry Madoff"

"Here are the three most important books in forming my own worldview on economics.

• Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber. Before there was money, there was debt. This makes this book a great place to start. One of my favorite books of the last decade.

• The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Economy of Cities, Cities and the Wealth of Nations, and The Nature of Economies by Jane Jacobs. Jane Jacobs was not a traditional economist but her work in understanding how cities operate made me see economies not as a product of nations but as the result of the activity within cities and regions. ‘Death and Life’ and ‘The Economy of Cities’ are so important to me that I gift them to people like missionaries hand out bibles. Here’s a nice writeup of two of her books.

• Civilization and Capitalism (Vol. 1-3) by Fernand Braudel.The single most important book in getting me to understand the connection between capitalism, markets, and everyday life. It also introduced me to the Annales School which is full of interesting ideas. Note: this one is loooooooooong and it took me years to read all three volumes (ok tbh, I’ve read two and half volumes.)

If I were to start reading from scratch, I would start with one or more of these books as an intro. They’re clever and fun and great texts for getting your bearings.

• Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan. A good introduction to general concepts in economics through fantastic storytelling. Check out socoftw's outline of the book here.

• The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in The Real World by Greg Ip. Nice primer. Some bits are a little too FREE MARKET RULEZ! for me but it was also a really good book for me to read. I recommend it because I was able to leap tall-ish articles in a single read after this book.

• The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford. This is the book that explains why your cup of Starbucks costs what it does (among other things.)

These books are a good place to begin thinking critically about conventional economic theory.

• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. A clever look at conventional wisdom in economics. Also just a fun read. Also available as an excellent blog, podcast, and twitter feed.

• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. A summary of three decades of Kahneman’s work in understanding individual behavior in markets. Questions a lot of the “rational behavior” assumptions of neoclassical economics.

• How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. Statistics are stories told to people as “facts.” Considering how many economic decisions are made based on statistics, it’s important background to know. This book is a classic. (Speaking of facts: I got introduced to this book in high school by none other than George Gallup Jr.)

• The Surprising Design of Market Economies by Alex Marshall. The government builds our markets through property law, taxation, and infrastructure and yet our political conversations purposefully ignore this. This would be lolworthy if not for, you know, people making really bad policy decisions that affect the rest of us.

Okay, now that I’m into this, I want to dive a bit deeper.

• An Engine, Not a Camera by Donald Mackenzie. Finance theory doesn’t exist separate from the economy. By creating a theory of markets, you alter the fate of those markets over and over again.

• Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen. Economic development shouldn’t be seen merely an increase in basic income but as an increase in personal freedom, political freedom, opportunity (including credit), and social security. (Excerpt here.)

• The Work of Nations by Robert Reich. How do you value labor over wealth and reconfigure a workforce for a globalized economy? (I’d also follow his tumblr)

• Capitalism: Its Origins and Evolution as a System of Governance by Bruce R. Scott. A comprehensive look at capitalism and market economies. (Note: this book is sitting on my shelf but I haven’t read it yet.)

These are the books that reflect my current interest in heterodox economics and economic dynamics.

• Capital and Affects: The Politics of the Language Economy by Christian Marazzi. This book was a good introduction to “postfordism” which is a funny word for what comes after an age of industrial, mass market production.

• The Science of Passionate Interests: An Introduction to Gabriel Tarde’s Economic Anthropology by Bruno Latour & Vincent Antonin Lépinay. How do you measure economics not solely in terms of money but as an intensification of passionate interests?

• The Atlas of Economic Complexity by Ricardo Hausmann, CA Hidalgo, et al. Can you predict economic growth based on a measure of “productive” knowledge? Read an overview of the Atlas here. Peep all of the visualizations here and here. (Beware: charts are a highly evolved form of statistics.)

• Complex Economics: Individual and Collective Rationality by Alan Kirman. We make lots of assumptions in our current economic models: rationality, independence, and impersonal interactions. These aren’t based in any mathematical or market truths — they’re just formalisms. So what happens if the purpose of economics wasn’t efficiency but coordination? (Note: this is another book that is sitting on my shelf but I haven’t read it yet.)

Reading Important Old Theorists Is Important Because Everybody Interprets Their Words For Their Own Ends.

• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. I suggest reading the whole thing but also understand if you can’t — it’s a long ass book written for an audience from 200 years ago. In that case, the Wikipedia article is a decent summary as long as you follow the links.

• Capital, Vol 1-3 by Karl Marx. I’ve only read Volume 1. Friedrich Engels’ synopsis is a great overview of the basics. The WP article is also a good primer.

• Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman. I would suggest reading the Wikipedia article about him.

• The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes. Oh, so this is where macroeconomic theory comes from.

Oh yeah, these books are good too.

• Principles of Economics by Greg Mankiw. This is a good 101 read but it’s also an overpriced textbook so look for a used earlier edition that only costs $20 or so. Also browse Greg Mankiw’s blog here.

• The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson. You can also watch the PBS series based on the book here"

"Best of 2014: Medievalpoc Fiction Week Masterpost

All Fiction Week Posts in one Mega Reading List!!

Thistil Mistil Kistil: Medieval Webcomic
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
Novels by Amelie Howard
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon (includes criticism)
Diversity Showcase: Indie YA Science Fiction, Fantasy and Steampunk
Never Alone (Kisima Innitchuna) [-gifs at link]
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okarafor
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville
Review by skemono: Marvel: Mighty Avengers, by Al Ewing and Greg Land
"As Demographics Shift, Kids’ Books Stay Stubbornly White" by Elizabeth Blair
Novels by Miriam Forster
"A Diversity Reading List" by Ellen Oh
Gaming and RPGs: V20 Dark Ages by David Hill
Novels by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Octavia Butler Bibliography
"Ellen Oh Talks History of Hanboks" by Ellen Oh
Reading List: African Literature
The N. K. Jemisin Bibliography
ElfQuest by Wendy and Richard Pini (includes criticism)
Sword and Silence by Joyce Chng
Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction
So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Ursula K. LeGuin Bibliography
Birth of a Dark Nation by Rashid Darden
The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew
"My Multicolored Heroes" by Sarwat Chadda
Ms Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona & Jake Wyatt
Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn by Danielle Ackley-McPhall and Day Al-Mohammed
Novels by Zoe Marriott
Short Fiction: Lunar Year’s End by Jaymee Goh (Crossed Genres)
Short Fiction: Blessed are the Hungry by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (Apex)
The Blood of Eden series by Judy Kagawa
Ash by Malinda Lo
Diversity in YA: 10 Sci Fi/Fantasy Novels About Latino Characters
Thorn by Intisar Khanani
Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
Unforgiven: A Highlander Fic (based on a 19th century painted portrait’s resemblance to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) by C. E. Murphy
Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okarafor
EastisEverywhere: topical commentary on discussions of multicultural Singaporean Literature
#WeNeedDiverseBooks
The Vast and Brutal Sea by Zoraida Cordova
L’Île au trésor by Jean-Philippe Stassen and Sylvain Venayre
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Nebula Award Winner for Best Novel)
Review by r-stern: Assassin’s Creed
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
"Diversity, Literature, and the Audacity of Writing"-shwetanarayan
EastIsEverywhere: Selection of Singaporean Literature
Review by Medievalpoc: Dicebox by Jenn Manley Lee
Review by Medievalpoc: Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History ed. Rose Fox and Daniel José Older
Mytho by Zimra
Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier Saint-Georges by Lesa Cline-Ransome
DiversityInYA: 9 Books With South Asian Main Characters
Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow
"Possibilities" by Medievalpoc
Mary Robinette Kowal on the Glamourist Series, historical Accuracy, and Medievalpoc
Discussion: Fairy Tales, Retellings, Race, and Creativity
House of Hades by Rick Riordan
"Black Nerds, Escapism, and Why We Need More Diverse Books" by Hannah Giorgis
DiversityInYA: Diverse Selections Including Romeo and Juliet Retellings
Review by Medievalpoc: Saga (Image Comics) by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples
10 African American YA Authors to Know
No Queens in Afrika: Women Rulers in Sword & Soul and Other African-Inspired Fantasy
The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton, art by Leo and Diane Dillon
Refilwe: An African Retelling of Rapunzel by Zukiswa Wanner
Bitch Magazine Series: Girls of Color in Dystopian YA Fantasy Literature
Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories From History-Without the Fairytale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
Neil Gaiman on Diverse Casting and American Gods
Reading List: Books with Gay Women of Color Protagonists
Fantasy Survey Results from writingcafe
10 Asian Pacific American YA Authors to Know
The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack & J. Brian Pinkney
FOR LOVE & LIBERTY: Untold Love Stories of the American Revolution
The Little Piano Girl: The Story of Mary Lou Williams, Jazz Legend
Erekos by A.M. Tuola
Dark Metropolis, Otherbound, Drift, Rebellion and more from DiversityInYA
Crow in the Hollow by Brian W. Parker
The Dragon King Chronicles by Ellen Oh
"Don’t Categorize Diverse Books as ‘Special Interest’" by Ellen Oh
"Notable Novels for Teens About the Arab World" by Elsa Marston
Sin Eaters: Retribution by Kai Leakes
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation by M. T. Anderson
"The Most Important Advice I Can Give To Writers" by blue-author
Half World by Hiromi Goto
Author Corinne Duyvis on why her YA fantasy, Otherbound, is not an issue book
Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis
Novels by Nnedi Okarafor
Faerie Blood by Angela Korra’ti
Annals of the Western Shore by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Dreamblood series by N.K. Jemisin
"12 Fundamentals of Writing "The Other" (And The Self)" by Daniel José Older
Junot Díaz and the White Gaze, La Respuesta Magazine
"Whitewashing and the Earthsea Cycle" by Medievalpoc
The Circle of Magic books by Tamora Pierce
Review by Medievalpoc: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
"The Diversity Struggle for a POC Author" by Lydia Kang
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
Discussion and Humor: Fantasy Sub-Genre Fiction “Explained”
"Race, Sexuality, and the Mainstream" by Malinda Lo
Review by Medievalpoc: Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars (a blurb from this review is included in the front matter of The Very Best of Kate Elliott, forthcoming in Feb. 2015)
Wizards of the Coast’s Doug Beyer on Kiora, the Crashing Wave and Cultural Appropriation in Fantasy Media
Broken Age trailer from Doublefine Studios
Review by r-stern: Yoko Tsuno by Roger Leloup
"Children and the Myth of Colorblind Youth" by Medievalpoc
"Who Gets to Be a Superhero? Race and Identity in Comics" by Gene Demby
Review by Medievalpoc: The Inheritance Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
Medievalpoc accidentally reviews Wolves of the Dawn by William Sarabande while attempting to answer a question
Kids Respond to Whitewashing on Book Covers"

[in response to: http://theconversation.com/five-african-novels-to-read-before-you-die-33063 ]

"1. Yvonne Owuor’s Dust (2014). Everything changed when she wrote this book. It’s glorious and great, and brave and beautiful, and as you’re reading it, flip back and re-read the prologue, which is the poetry that the rest of the book works to explicate. Also, remember that it’s the story of an artist holding a paintbrush like a stabbing knife. This book is doing work. (alternate: Binyavanga Wainaina’s One Day I Will Write About This Place, which is pretty much all of those things too).

2. Shailja Patel’s Migritude (2010). This book is as beautiful as its cover, and I’ve learned almost as much from her writing as I’ve learned from her example. So brave and strong that you almost don’t notice the melding of an acute artistic sensitivity with painful self-reflection. So worldly that you almost don’t notice how rooted she is. So political that you almost don’t notice that she writes about love, always. (alternate: Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go, which is a lot more of those things than the “I’m not an Afropolitan” people seem willing to notice).

3. Alain Mabanckou’s Blue-White-Red (1998, 2013), African Psycho (2003/2007), Broken Glass (2005/2009), Memoirs of a Porcupine (2007/2011), Black Bazaar (2009/2102), Tomorrow I’ll be Twenty (2010/2013). Did you know that there is such a thing as African literature written in French? Neither did I! But Alain Mabanckou turns out to exist, and he’s a completely amazing and interesting and delightful writer, and as you can see from the dates above (original publications/translations), his English translators are slowly catching up with him. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because he’s funny and playful that he’s not deadly serious, and cruel. (alternate Francophone writer that is finally getting most of his stuff translated in the states: Abdourahman Waberi).

3.5. Oh, and what the heck, here’s a bunch of other novels written recently-ish by Africans, in French, that have been translated into English:

• Ken Bugul’s The Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman (1982/1991)
• Gaston-Paul Effa’s All That Blue (1996/2007)
• Fatou Diome’s The Belly of the Atlantic (2003/2006)
• Gabriel Mwene Okoundji’s The Wounded Soul of a Black elephant & A Prayer to the Ancestors (2002,2008/2010)
• Léonora Miano’s Dark Heart of the Night (2005/2010)
• Edem Awumey’s Dirty Feet (2009/2011)
• Kossi Efoui’s The Shadow of Things to Come (2011/2013)
• Scholastique Mukasonga’s Our Lady of the Nile (2012/2014)

For most of these writers, this is the only book which has been translated in English, so for crying out loud, at least you could read that one book, you gauche provincial. (Alternate Europhone language whose African writers are finally getting translated into English: Portuguese. Look for names like Mia Couto, Pepetela, and Ondjaki.)

4. Hisham Matar’s In the Country of Men (2006) and Anatomy of a Disappearance (2011). Variations on a theme. Haunting, lovely, and wonderfully perceptive about masculinity and power, and his prose is crystal sharp. (Alternate Libyan novels: Ahmed Fagih’s Maps of the Soul, which is 618 pages and comprises the first three books (Bread of the City, Sinful Pleasures and Naked Runs the Soul) of his twelve novel epic, already published in Arabic.) (alternate African literary language that I can’t even begin to: Arabic. SO MANY BOOKS IN ARABIC.) (also, the Maghreb, what about them…) (what about the islands, do those count) (Africa is big)

5. Africa39: New Writing from Africa south of the Sahara. These are not at all the only interesting writers under the age of 39, but it’s a damned good anthology and a damned good list of writers. Most anthologies are not nearly this full of interesting surprises, and the level of quality is a lot higher than I had even hoped. And it’s 39 writers, from all over the place south of the Sahara, which is a lot of people and places. If you’re going to make an impossible list, it’s a good backstop to keep everything from sliding out of control (alternate: all the other books ever written by African people (alternate alternate: literature in non-European languages, let me know what you find)."

"Fabulism, it seems, is having a moment — although whether it’s truly a trend is up for debate. Some might say it’s been right there, purring along all this time, while others might blink and wonder what you’re talking about. Such is always the case with magic. But whether you’re a newbie or an old hat, there are always new corners of the fantastic to discover.

Before we begin, take note: I say fabulism, but there’s really no single term that works for all of these books, or even for more than a few of them. There’s Robert Scholes’s fabulation, Todorov’s fantastic, there’s plain old fairy tale or fantasy, there’s the much-discussed magical realism, but none of these really work as blanket terms, at least not for what we think of when we consider contemporary literary works with, er, unrealistic elements. And maybe that’s a good thing — maybe that’d tether these books too close to earth, keep them too cemented in our imaginations.

So, here you’ll find 50 excellent novels and short story collections by fabulists, fantasists, and fairy-tale-tellers, literary books that incorporate the irreal, the surreal, and the supernatural, which have no unironic dragons, very few (if any) self-serious necromancers, but lots of delightful, magical, humane, real-as-all-get-out storytelling. Better get started, and if any of your own favorites are missing here, add them to the list in the comments."

"Some resources about design fiction I'm use to share with students. Note that the term itself is polysemic and covers different perceptions about its meaning."

"What books are currently on your night stand?

I just got in the “Selected Poems” of Bill Manhire, who is from New Zealand. He’s a mature poet with his own voice, but his unobtrusive authority and his tenderness remind me of Seamus Heaney. I’m teaching Intermediate Fiction at Bard this semester, and I’ve assigned Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, Petina Gappah, Lydia Davis and Stephanie Vaughn. So I’m rereading them, too.

Who is your favorite novelist of all time? And your favorite novelist writing today?

Penelope Fitzgerald was the author of several slim, perfect novels. “The Blue Flower” and “The Beginning of Spring” both had me abuzz for days the first time I read them. She was curiously perfect. Among living novelists, my favorites include J. M. Coetzee, Michael Ondaatje and Michel Tournier, none of whom need my praise. I cherish James Salter’s short stories, and his every sentence.

Sell us on your favorite overlooked or underappreciated writer.

Lydia Davis is famous, but not nearly famous enough. Ditto Anne Carson. It’s notable that neither of them is really a novelist; “the novel” is overrated, and the writers I find most interesting find ways to escape it.

Have you read any good contemporary poetry lately?

I’m very pleased to have encountered in the past couple of years the work of two astounding young poets, each of whom has one book out: Ishion Hutchinson (“Far District”) and Rowan Ricardo Phillips (“The Ground”). Both have impressive reserves of insight and the language to bring those insights to life. They are the future of American poetry.

And I’m glad I finally got round to reading “Stag’s Leap,” by Sharon Olds. There is the feeling that one gets when one “discovers” a new song only to realize it has a million views on YouTube already. “Stag’s Leap” was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize last year. But the book is new to me, and I love it.

And which recent books by or about photographers would you recommend?

“Wall,” by Josef Koudelka; “Sergio Larrain” (a monograph on the reclusive Chilean genius, who died in 2012); and “The Sochi Project: An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus,” by Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen.

I wrote the introductory essay to Richard Renaldi’s “Touching Strangers.” Nevertheless, it is an excellent book. Ivan Vladislavic’s novel “Double Negative” is another great book that wasn’t marred by my introduction.

What are your literary guilty pleasures? Do you have a favorite genre?

No guilt. I read many kinds of things, but my deepest happiness is in reading poetry.

What are your favorite art history books?

I was trained in art history and still get a great deal of joy from reading it. The best art history books, I feel, are as good as the best novels. Among the most illuminating for me are the following: “The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany,” by Michael Baxandall; “The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus,” by Paul Zanker; “The Painting of Modern Life,” by T. J. Clark; “The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art,” by Joseph Leo Koerner; and “Inside Bruegel,” by Edward Snow. The last of these, a startling interpretation of Bruegel’s “Children’s Games,” is great for nonspecialist readers.

…

What kind of reader were you as a child? And what were your favorite childhood books?

I began early — around 6 — and by the time I was 10 I had read Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” Charles and Mary Lamb’s “Tales From Shakespeare” and an abridged edition of “Tom Sawyer.” I wasn’t a prodigy, but I developed a sense that access to any book was limited only by my interest and my willingness to concentrate.

Whom do you consider your literary heroes?

They are many: Michael Ondaatje, most of all. But also Marguerite Yourcenar, John Berger and Seamus Heaney.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

I suppose at least a little faith in literature’s ability to make us better is what lies behind this question. But I have no such faith. The president has already read many wonderful books from many different cultures. Now we need him to act justly in certain matters: to stop killing people extrajudicially, and to stop deporting people with such enthusiasm. I doubt that more reading will quicken his conscience in these matters.

You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?

Alice Oswald, Laila Lalami and Zadie Smith.

You’ve got an active Twitter account going. Does it influence your thinking or writing process?

I suppose it must. It’s such a combative place at times that it makes me less worried about putting ideas out into the world. You realize that anything you have to say is going to annoy some stranger, so you might as well speak your mind. But being active on Twitter also means that the literary part of my brain — the part that tries to make good sentences — is engaged all the time. My memory is worse than it was a few years ago, but I hope that my ability to write a good sentence has improved.

What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?

I have not read most of the big 19th — century novels that people consider “essential,” nor most of the 20th-century ones for that matter. But this does not embarrass me. There are many films to see, many friends to visit, many walks to take, many playlists to assemble and many favorite books to reread. Life’s too short for anxious score-keeping. Also, my grandmother is illiterate, and she’s one of the best people I know. Reading is a deep personal consolation for me, but other things console, too."

[via: http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/78770035787 ]

[via: https://twitter.com/tejucole/status/446639178843840512 ]

"Summary: The human relationship to nature and place is dynamic, and so is the writing that grows out of that fundamental connection. Two celebrated authors joined Orion's Editor Jennifer Sahn for a wide-ranging discussion of how the genre of nature writing is evolving."

…

[From the first comment by Erik Hoffner :]

"Here are some of the books Robert Macfarlane and Rebecca Solnit shared during the event:

Robert Macfarlane’s recommended books and articles:

Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
Samuel Beckett, Waiting For Godot
David Gessner, Sick of Nature
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Rebecca Solnit, Hope In The Dark
Rebecca Solnit, Savage Dreams
Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings
Callum Roberts, The Ocean of Life: How our Seas Are Changing
Tim Robinson, Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage and : Labyrinth
WG Sebald, The Rings of Saturn
Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain
Tim Dee, Four Fields
Gilbert White, A Natural History of Selborne
JA Baker, The Peregrine
JG Ballard, The Drowned World
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Other Writings on Ecology and Conservation, ed. Curt Meine, Library of America edition (2012)

…and articles:

“No Heaven on Earth” by Verlyn Klinkenborg, Bookforum, 2008
http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/015_03/2721

“Super natural: the rise of the new nature writing,” by Tim Dee, The National, Aug 22, 2013:
http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/super-natural-the-rise-of-the-new-nature-writing

——————-

...and Rebecca Solnit’s ~

Thoreau, The Maine Woods & Walden & various essays
Mary Austen, Land of Little Rain
Willa Cather, Death Comes to the Archbishop & My Antonia
Peter Freuchen’s Arctic chronicles
Carobeth Laird, Encounters with an Angry God
George Stewart, Names on the Land
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her
Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature
Leslie Marmon Silko, Garden in the Dunes & Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit
Paul Shepard, Man in the Landscape & Nature and Madness
Charles Bowden, Blood Orchid
Louise Erdrich, The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse
Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines (problematic but majestic)
Robyn Davidson, Tracks
TTW, Refuge (Leap?)
Jaime de Angulo’s writings on Native Californians
Jim Harrison, Dalva and The Shape of the Journey
John Haines, The Owl in the Mask of the Dreamer [poems]
Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America & Collected Poems
Richard K. Nelson’s writings on subarctic peoples
Piers Vitebsky, The Reindeer People
Gary Paul Nabhan, The Desert Smells Like Rain
Chip Ward, Canaries on the Rim
Jane Tompkins, West of Everything
Jill Fredston, Rowing to Latitude
Keith Basso, Wisdom Sits in Places
Hugh Brody, The Other Side of Eden
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place & garden essays
William Kittridge, Hole in the Sky & Having It All
Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild (and Tom Killian and Gary Snyder, Tamalpais Walking and The High Sierra of California)
Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Kathleen Norris, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography
Bill McKibben, Eaarth, Deep Economy, Oil and Honey
Andrew C. Isenberg, The Destruction of the Bison
Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire
Alan Weisman, The World Without Us
Rob MacFarlane, Mountains of the Mind & The Wild Places
Amy Leach, Things That Are"

"Welcome to Just One Book, a selection of great book recommendations written by great people. For now, they're in no particular order, nor do we aspire to anything resembling comprehensiveness in genre, style, or time period. They're simply the go-to recommendations of some of our favorite writers and readers, for all occasions. Please enjoy them. Oh, and follow us on Twitter."

"Experimental Book traces the development of the artist’s book through the twentieth-century and beyond. This interdisciplinary Art + Design studio course asks highly motivated students to consider the future of the book and expand the boundaries of the traditional codex through provocative studio exercises and projects.

The class will benefit from critical readings, site visits to important book collections, notable guest critics and a collaborative, hands-on studio atmosphere.

Students will help shape the book’s radical trajectory into the twenty-first century by producing their own book works. Of particular interest will be the physicality of the book as it evolves in the digital space, including print-on-demand, book scanning, book videos and book-in-browsers.

Working with noted artist and creative director Paul Soulellis, the studio will engage in thematic exercises to explore narrative structure, form, chance, word and image, digital vs. print technologies, photography, typography and production, as well as audience and performance.

Each student will develop a final book project and participate in a collaboratively-designed studio exhibition."

[Readings: http://experimentalbook.wordpress.com/readings/ ]

[See also: http://soulellis.com/2013/10/any-answer-is-as-good-as-any-other-answer/ ]

QUESTION (in part):

"I’m just a working-class guy trying to take part in the conversation that all the smart people are having. This brings me to my question: What books should I read? There are so many books out there worth reading, that I literally don’t know where to start."

ANSWER (in parts):

"We’re not on a ladder here. We’re on a web. Right now you’re experiencing a desire to become more aware of and sensitive to its other strands. That feeling you’re having is culture. Whatever feeds that, go with it. And never forget that well-educated people pretend to know on average at least two-thirds more books than they’ve actually read."

"Come up with a system of note-taking that you can use in your reading. It’s okay if it evolves. You can write in the margins, or keep a reading notebook (my preference) where you transcribe passages you like, with your own observations, and mark down the names of other, unfamiliar writers, books you’ve seen mentioned (Guy D. alone will give you a notebook full of these). Follow those notes to decide your next reading. That’s how you’ll create your own interior library. Now do that for the rest of your life and die knowing you’re still massively ignorant. (I wouldn’t trade it!)"

"Ignore all of this and read the next cool-looking book you see lying around. It’s not the where-you-start so much as the that-you-don’t-stop."

SEE ALSO: the books recommended

[Orginal is here: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/08/31/dear-paris-review-john-jeremiah-sullivan-answers-your-questions/ ]

"Mostly social and cultural perspectives, with a little geography, media, art, biology and philosophy thrown in."

[Some context: http://storify.com/rogre/a-chat-with-anne-galloway-sparked-by-elemvee ]

"Great books on art drive us to see the artworks they're about.
And great artworks drive us to read books about them.

This is the Museum Book Club. The following titles from Hol Art Books and from other publishers, offer a range of stimulating conversations about art. There are free discussion guides for each, both in downloadable .pdf, and online, where you can also add your own questions!

* Read the books and use the guides on your own
* Join a club with your friends
* Start a new museum book club for your community
* More tips ...

Art educators, librarians, and curators: We'll pay you to create new reading guides to share here."

"With levity and a great deal of wit, Meg Cranston (b. 1960 Baldwin, New York) has for many years investigated the intersections between individual and shared experience and how imagery and objects acquire meaning in our culture. With an eye equally enamored of color theory, design, fashion, and supermarket advertising, she makes energetic collages pairing found imagery with monochromatic abstract forms. Having moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, she has become conversant with the city’s history and finds much inspiration in its cultural life. While oftentimes taking personal attributes or historical events as a jumping-off point, Cranston’s work is ultimately concerned with the formal language of art and the role the artist plays in helping us see the world in new ways. An iconic blond California girl greets visitors from the east wall in Cranston’s California (Full Size) (2012). A playful nod to the notion of the artist as seer or mystic, Cranston’s Fireplace 12 (2012) on the north wall borrows its colors from a spring–summer 2012 color forecast for fashion and home design. Symbols of the fire that they produce, the larger-than-life lighters conjure everything from rock concerts to religious rituals."

[Same here: http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/222 ]

[Otis interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H8UrVaq_38 ]

["An an ongoing series frieze asks curators, artists and writers to list the books that have influenced them" http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/meg_cranston/ ]

[Posted here: http://robertogreco.tumblr.com/post/42633481565/california-meg-cranston-2006-via-24700-via-made ]

"Max Fenton is stalwart of and evangelist for all sorts of reading and writing experiences, both on and off screen (particularly A Book Apart and Reading.am). He is also the online editor of The Believer magazine – a literary vehicle for very long essays and book reviews, a length absolutely justified by the overwhelming goodness of the content.

With this is mind, his shortlist of literary cornerstones was never going to be a simple compilation – especially if you peruse his ongoing bibliography – but that said, it’s a great quintuplet of poetry and alternative titles from known authors, contemporary writers with a tech and design bent and a few honorary bedside book mentions…"

"Remember also that such a pack would have to be small enough not to scare geeks away (or be graded somehow)…"

Erika Hall: "Nichomachean Ethics - Aristotle (350 BCE), Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond (1997), The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine (1794), Paul Rand: Conversations with Students - Michael Kroeger (Conversations took place in 1995, book published in 2008), Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley (1818), Søren Kierkegaard's In Vino Veritas"

"We placed a K.I.D.S. Corner Library at Leonard St. & Withers St. in north Brooklyn, in collaboration with Eyelevel BQE. The collection of the K.I.D.S. Corner Library is shown on this blog. If you are interested in the corner libraries, get in touch with Colin (Emcee C.M., Master of None). He is the contact person for the project and seeks input and collaboration from you and everyone else. His email is colin (at) emceecm (dot) com. We are especially interested in finding people interested in being Corner Librarians, especially in New York City, which means being responsible for checking your local Corner Library once a day to make sure it is running smoothly. Of course, we are also interested in library patrons and thoughtful contributions to the libraries, especially in the neighborhood where you live or work."

"If you are curious about why Occupy Wall Street has turned into Occupy Everywhere, if you want a basic understanding of the problems in the system that make this stand necessary, we believe these are the books to start with, in no particular order.* The links go to a description and video to start your Occupy education."

"1. Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein
2. Debt: The First 5000 Years, David Graeber
3. The End of Growth, Richard Heinberg
4. In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
5. Griftopia, Matt Taibbi
6. Democracy Matters, Cornell West"

"My position is that a designer is—or should be—first a poet. For that reason the books I have listed refer to a wide spectrum of human activity. They can be especially helpful and interesting to read for almost all activities having to do with creating products (industrial products) in our society of consumption."

"Otlet's Shelf is a Tumblr theme and a bookmarklet for Amazon.com. Together, they make it easy to collect and publish a list of your favorite books."

"Just finished Jack London's Tales of the Fish Patrol & loved it: crazy vignettes of vigilante lawmen and their adventures in sailboats up & down San Francisco Bay.

Lately I've been feeling a surging appreciation for writers like London and Kipling (especially in _Kim_) and Edgar Rice Burroughs (though his prose doesn't hold up as well as the other two). Or even a dude like H. Rider Haggard (whose character Allan Quatermain was the template for Indiana Jones).

I feel like we've lost this genre—true adventure. Litfic definitely doesn't do it, and mass-market thrillers (Clancy, Child, even Stieg Larsson etc.) are doing something else these days—something much darker. There's a brightness to London, etc., even when they're writing about shipwrecks or skulduggery. I guess some YA fiction comes close... but it all seems so drenched in magic lately. None of the bright grit of a book like Kim.

Am I missing somebody obvious, though? Who writes modern adventure?"

[See the replies.]

"Two new children's books explore the life of Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee expert and prominent conservationist. The Times spoke with Dr. Goodall about living out her childhood dream"

"I didn't keep a comprehensive list of books I read in 2010 (as I did in 2007 and 2008), and I didn't make much time for reading. But here are the ones I can remember, in roughly chronological order."