Social justice book reviews
A chill wind blows. For most, fall is about soft sweaters, delectable candles, and pumpkin treats. Here in the book blogging community, it certainly is about all of those things, but there is one most special event in the forecast every autumn. For us, the fall breeze brings Nonfiction November!
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Book reviews have been my focus for a couple of years, but this year I haven’t had the time or energy to read, and when I do, I definitely don’t have the time or energy to write reviews. The books I’ve been reading are largely about Palestine, or socialism—both of which I’m new to and find politically dense and hard to read. (Most of what I read is usually new to me, because I can never stick with one topic for very long before I find another new and exciting hyperfixation. Such is life.)
For example, I’ve actually read three books about Palestine beyond just Light in Gaza in 2024.
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This year’s Nonfiction November has left me feeling inspired by the book community, and it’s left my bookshelf overflowing! I can’t wait to share my new towering TBR with you. Luckily Lisa at Hopewell’s Public Library of Life has this week’s prompt, New To My TBR:
Read moreIt’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book!
Nonfiction November 2023 continues with Week 4: Worldview Shapers, which I am proud to host!
Here’s your prompt:
One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is learning all kinds of things about our world which you never would have known without it. There’s the intriguing, the beautiful, the appalling, and the profound. What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Do you think there is a book that should be required reading for everyone?
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Today, Frances of Volatile Rune kicked off Week 2 of Nonfiction November! Here’s her prompt, Choosing Nonfiction:
Read moreWhat are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking.
You know Nonfiction November is going to be packed when it gets started before November does! The other hosts and I have so much planned for you all that we just couldn’t wait. As I said last week, I truly do love this event. It’s hard to find folks in the book blogging community who want to talk nonfiction, but in November, that all changes. It’s nonfiction’s moment and she is ready for it.
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Fall is here, which means it’s almost time for Nonfiction November 2023!
Reading and blogging challenges are a huge part of book blog culture, but since I am an exclusively nonfiction book blogger, Nonfiction November is the one I wait for all year. And next week, it’s finally back!
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It is not uncommon in school to learn about women’s suffrage. Most of us are familiar with the names of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton because of it. As far as feminist history, this is often the beginning and the end of the story. If we want to know about the lives of women under slavery, the role that Black men and women played in achieving women’s suffrage, the treatment of working-class women by suffragists, and the stances that Black women took on the abortion and anti-rape movements, then we have to look elsewhere. Angela Davis’s 1981 masterpiece Women, Race & Class is where you can find all this and more. High school and college classrooms around the country would do well to add it to their syllabi.
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Shon Faye’s The Transgender Issue: Trans Justice is Justice for All is the first book I’ve read that is solely dedicated to the trans issue. Only… trans people are not an issue at all. They are millions of people fighting to survive. Faye’s pointed and ironic title is the first way that she flips the mainstream treatment of trans people on its head.
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Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell was my first step in my own journey toward abolitionism. I started reading it days after the footage of Tyre Nichols’ murder became public. I’ve known since 2020—embarrassingly late—that policing was a racist institution, and since then I’ve hovered around the “defund the police” area. I didn’t take a hard stance because I didn’t know enough about abolition. But Nichols’ murder, in which five Black cops with body cams used their hands to murder someone, pushed me over the edge. Reform and defunding don’t work. We need abolition.
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