Hi everyone! Happy New Year!
I’m putting together our January “What We Are Reading” list and am looking for book recommendations from the community.
What book are you reading right now, or what’s one you’d recommend starting the year with?
Please share the title and author, and we’ll feature community picks in this month’s upcoming newsletters 
I’m currently reading Chrystin Onderserma’s Dignity Not Debt: An Abolitionist Approach to Economic Justice. I really appreciate how she turns what is typically a policy-wonk / high academic conversation into everyday stories and accessible language. That said, it’s still a little dry, and I haven’t finished it quickly. Or maybe it’s just that I’m not as good at reading hard copy books as I used to be.
Thanks, Paul, we will check it out!
I’m reading:
Braiding Sweetgrass- heartwarming and thoughtful look at botany through indigenous lens of reciprocity. Beautifully written, at times a warm grandmotherly hug, at times a heartbreaking reminder of what has been lost through settler-colonialism.
Who Would You Be Without Your Story?- conversations with Byron Katie. (Self-help) If this is your first Byron Katie read- I recommend Loving What Is as an introduction.
Africa Risen- a collection of African and African Diaspora sci fi and speculative fiction short stories.
Estamos Aqui- a bilingual collection of migrant farm worker poetry- quick read.
When the light of the world was subdued, Our songs came through- edited by Joy Harjo- A collection of Native American Poetry- often bilingual- spanning over 200 years. Huge, powerful collection.
You Suck, Christopher Moore- If you’ve read any Christopher Moore, it’s more of the same- irreverent, weirdly horny, cringe-y comedy novels. Now with vampires! (Not as good as Sacre Bleu, Fluke or Lamb)
I’m currently reading Anne Carson’s Eros the Bittersweet, which is a really fascinating look at particular formulations of the idea of eros in ancient Greece, focusing on the way it converges experiences of pleasure and pain or ecstasy and agony.
Great suggestions, thank you!
I’m reading ‘Decolonize Humxnity’ principle editor Kathryn Touré
and I finished frantz fanon’s ‘black skin white masks’
I’m finishing up Reinventing Organizations, which I’m reading to support Cosmos’ organizing work
I’m going to pick up The Patterning Instinct again, particularly for its future-casting sections… this book has been foundational in developing my fractal praxis theory.
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
A friend recommended this with the line, “Checklists save lives.” As a lifelong type-A, she had me at “checklist.”
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
A longtime travel addict, I first became curious about Korea’s Jeju Island while playing my favorite “game” - exploring Google Maps. When I learned the story centers on the island’s famed women divers, I downloaded it to my Kindle right away. I’m excited to “dive in” this month
Sonic Art; An Introduction to Electroacoustic Composition by Adrian Moore
https://www.routledge.com/Sonic-Art-An-Introduction-to-Electroacoustic-Music-Composition/Moore/p/book/9781138925038
This plays into my current quest to learn about sound design and the organization of sounds into a coherent musical whole.
Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M Banks
https://www.amazon.com/Hydrogen-Sonata-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/0316212377
Banks last novel in his “Culture” series, published just before his death. The Culture, which is a post scarcity alien civilization in the far future acts as a perfect analog to what we are experiencing today, socially and politically. Doing this on Audible
Speaks for itself. This will be my third attempt at completing this “great American novel”. Maybe three’s a charm. Also listening on Audible
I am reading :Aroma Yoga by Tracy Griffiths and TRUE HUMAN- reimagining ourselves at the end of our world by Samantha Sweetwater