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It鈥檚 been a hell of a year. YES! editors recommend relevant and illuminating books that help us find our way forward.

1. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis 

A splendid offering of wisdom, warmth, and inspiration to reshape our vision of climate futures, is a skillfully curated collection of essays, poems, and illustrations that is decidedly feminine in its character and feminist in its approach. In her essay, 鈥淪acred Resistance,鈥� contributor Tara Houska writes, 鈥淢uch of the space we call 鈥榯he climate movement鈥� appears to be modeled after the same systems of inequity and separation we are attempting to change, undo, or outright dismantle.鈥� In a beautiful cross-section of society鈥檚 most visionary voices on climate, the book instead invokes the powers of compassion, connection, and justice. Remaking the world is possible, they say, but whatever you do, don鈥檛 call it hope. The pursuit of solutions cannot afford passive optimism. As Houska concludes, 鈥淲e are never far from the answer to the problem we have created鈥攊t is within each of us.鈥� 鈥擝reanna Draxler

2. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Isabel Wilkerson鈥檚 invites a reappraisal of how we view race in this country. The book is eminently relevant in these fraught times, where the topic of race is everywhere. Yet Wilkerson never uses the words 鈥渞ace鈥� or 鈥渞acism鈥� to describe the experience of African Americans, continuing an approach she took in her previous work, The Warmth of Other Suns. Rather she writes about 鈥渦pper caste鈥� and 鈥渓ower caste鈥� to describe Jim Crow hierarchy, where everything you could or couldn鈥檛 do was based on what you looked like.

She compares India鈥檚 treatment of its lower-caste citizens and Nazi Germany鈥檚 treatment of Jews to America鈥檚 treatment of African Americans. Racism, she says, is insufficient to capture the enormity of what Black people endure. The word is so overused, people stop hearing it. She calls race 鈥渢he visible agent of the unseen force of caste. Caste is the bones, race the skin.鈥� It鈥檚 an invitation for people to peer beneath the surface of the language they鈥檝e gotten accustomed to. 鈥擫ornet Turnbull

3. Hav

Jan Morris is primarily known to contemporary readers as a British travel writer with dozens of books to her name. But she was also a journalist and historian who covered the first ascent of Mount Everest and the war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, and also one of the first high-profile transgender artists, beginning with her 1974 coming-out memoir, . Morris died Nov. 20, 2020, at age 94.

One of Morris鈥� most interesting works is , a novel in the guise of a travelogue to a fictitious Mediterranean city-state. The book includes 1985鈥檚 Last Letters From Hav, and its 2006 sequel (when she 鈥渞evisited鈥� the country), Hav of the Myrmidons.

The book explores the conflict between tradition and modern life, Cold War tensions, indigenous populations facing extinction, how society changes after tumultuous upheaval, and the rise of religious fundamentalism and neoliberal economics. All of it is told with Morris鈥� razor-sharp observations and poetic language, and as Ursula K. LeGuin notes in the introduction, 鈥渋t is a very good guidebook, I think, to the early twenty-first century.鈥� 鈥擟hris Winters

4. Just Us: An American Conversation

Under discussion in Claudia Rankine鈥檚 is our abiding but often unacknowledged American system of racial inequality. Rankine, a Black woman, attempts honest conversations with White friends and strangers who don鈥檛 see what to her is the obvious reality of everyday White supremacy. In a series of telling moments鈥攐n an airplane, at a dinner party鈥擱ankine allows herself to push against the glass wall of social convention by acknowledging racism. Her measured but discomforting comments are an experiment that invites other people to see themselves through her eyes and perhaps arrive at a moment of shared reality. But the smart, liberal White people Rankine engages usually respond with denial or the lack of awareness bred of ingrained privilege. Brilliant and generous, this book of essays, poems, and images is one for all Americans to give, share, and talk about. 鈥擵alerie Schloredt

5. Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary

When hospital staff in a chaotic urban ER left Timothy Snyder awaiting treatment for 17 hours, he came close to death, fading in and out of consciousness. Turns out his bloodstream was infected from a liver abscess that had been noted, but not treated, when his burst appendix was removed two weeks earlier at the same hospital. Friends asked why this eminent Yale historian hadn鈥檛 called in a favor to get the medical attention he needed sooner. But leveraging privilege hadn鈥檛 occurred to Snyder, best known for On Tyranny, his book about threats to democracy.

In the weeks that followed, as COVID-19 spread across the United States, Snyder battled his malady and made notes on ours鈥攁 medical system of extreme inequality, designed to maximize profit, that makes everyone sicker. The result is . You鈥檝e heard that health care is a human right. Snyder brings rage and empathy to his assertion that health is also necessary to liberty, and health care for all a path to real freedom. 鈥擵alerie Schloredt

6. The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart

Alicia Garza鈥檚 new book is the perfect answer to the question: Where do I start when it comes to organizing and movement building? What can I do?  

In , Garza uses her own story to describe the ebbs and flows of movements: building a base, organizing around an issue, taking action, and creating positive change. Going from a sexual-health peer educator in high school to community work in the Bay Area to co-founding Black Lives Matter, possibly the largest social movement in U.S. history, Garza shares the victories and challenges she鈥檚 experienced. Power, she writes, is the ability to affect the conditions of our own lives and the lives of others. Simply joining those who think like you is not how we gain power. 鈥淎 movement is successful if it transforms the dynamics and relationships of power鈥攆rom power being concentrated in the hands of a few to power being held by many.鈥� 鈥擹enobia Jeffries Warfield

7. We Will Not Cancel Us

What happens when actions meant for good鈥攖o hold people who cause harm accountable鈥攖urn out harmful themselves? Leave it to adrienne maree brown to dive fearlessly and faithfully into perilous waters in her new short book , the first in her Emergent Strategy Series. Instead of taking offense or simply shutting down, as many on the receiving end of call out and cancel culture have done, amb responded to critical comments to her blog post 鈥淯nthinkable Thoughts: Call Out Culture in the Age of COVID-19,鈥� in a loving, inquisitive, facilitating way and wrote a book about it. 

鈥淚 have learned a lot more about some things I thought I knew,鈥� she writes 鈥�… I got clearer on the parts that were triggers for people. … I homed in on what is within my expertise, and reaffirmed that celebrity activism is not my jam.鈥� We Will Not Cancel Us shares those lessons to help us all break the cycles of harm鈥攂e they intentional or unintentional. 鈥擹enobia Jeffries Warfield

8. What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat

In a world where thinness reigns supreme and diet talk is as normal as talking about the weather,  is a much-needed addition to fat discourse. As a long-time fat activist, Aubrey Gordon seamlessly threads a personal narrative with data and history, examining the roots of anti-fat bias and the harm it causes. The book is accessible for folks who may not know much about anti-fatness. And for fat people, it鈥檚 an incredibly validating and empowering read.

Particularly inspiring is Gordon’s final chapter, in which she details her vision for a better, just, and equitable world. 鈥擜yu Sutriasa