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by James Baldwin

An article in YES! Magazine inspired me to read Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin. 鈥�Can We Live Up to James Baldwin鈥檚 Hope for a Multiracial Democracy?鈥� by Ruth Terry highlighted Baldwin鈥檚 unflagging determination to disrupt the lie of White supremacy鈥攁nd the toll that took on him, including rage, attempted suicide, and substance use. As Terry grappled with her own anger at the tenacity of that lie, she questioned Baldwin鈥檚 belief that America can be better. I finished the article and realized I needed to read Baldwin myself.

I began with Go Tell It on the Mountain. It鈥檚 a passionate, lyrical book鈥攕emi-autobiographical鈥攁bout young John Grimes and his family, his community, and his church in 1930s Harlem. It鈥檚 a loving and searing portrait, and it pulled me deep into every character鈥檚 heart and mind. It was the perfect introduction to Baldwin, whose words offer both reflections and provocations as we continue his work to create true racial justice. 鈥擱obin Simons

by Mary L. Trump, Ph.D.

Mary Trump鈥檚 first book, , was remarkable for her unsparing portrait of the dysfunctional Trump family, whose wealth led to the rise of her infamous uncle to the presidency. In her second book, The Reckoning, the former president is still present, but he takes a back seat to the story of the nation that created him.

Mary Trump is a psychologist who specializes in trauma, developmental psychology, and psychopathology, and her real story is the founding trauma of America鈥攖he transatlantic slave trade, the systemic post-Civil War oppression of Black Americans and the terrorism of lynching, and the impunity from any repercussions that White Americans have enjoyed throughout. That鈥檚 created a nation built on racial trauma and a permanently traumatized population, both Black and White, that exhibits all the signs of PTSD. These forces have created today鈥檚 fractured civil society.

There鈥檚 more to that, of course, but as a guide through history seen through the eyes of a psychologist, this is an engaging read. 鈥擟hris Winters

by Alison Stine

Alison Stine recently published her second novel, , which I haven鈥檛 picked up yet, but her debut novel, Road Out of Winter, made a splash when it was published in 2020 as a solid entry into the new 鈥渃li-fi鈥� subgenre of literature. The book won that year鈥檚 Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished original science fiction paperback.

It tells the story of Wylodine, a young marijuana farmer in a post-climate-change Appalachia that is in a permanent state of winter. A letter from her mother in California helps convince her to pack up her grow lights and a pouch of seeds and set off to start over. She has a rare talent, able to make living things grow in the frozen world, but that also puts her in danger. She and a small group of misfits head into the mountains, dodging a violent cult, fellow climate refugees, and other people trying to carve out an existence in a broken world.

Stine is a past contributor to YES! She鈥檚 also a published poet, and her prose in Road Out of Winter reflects that literary precision. The book quietly raises the tension and the stakes until Wylodine reaches the only conclusion she can. Life is what we make of it, even in the most trying of circumstances. 鈥擟hris Winters

by Timothy Snyder, illustrated by Nora Krug

Historian Timothy Snyder is an expert on how tyrannical regimes take hold. He shared those insights in his 2017 bestseller On Tyranny, an elegantly concise book of lessons that were as pertinent to America under Trump as they were to Germany in the 1930s. Writer and illustrator Nora Krug knows something about tyranny, too, as she described in her about how ordinary Germans during the Nazi era slid into allowing atrocities.

The collaboration between Snyder and Krug in this year鈥檚 On Tyranny Graphic Edition brings their history lessons home in a way that is both personal and powerful. The graphic novel format encourages a close, thoughtful reading, while Krug鈥檚 illustrations spark new associations to Snyder鈥檚 observations about what each of us needs to do to resist tyranny. The overarching lesson is that the erosion of democracy can be gradual鈥攂ut that awareness matters, as do individual actions to defend civil liberties and human rights. Keep the book handy, and open to any page for a dose of everyday courage. 鈥擵alerie Schloredt

by Colson Whitehead

You may know Colson Whitehead as the author of seven other acclaimed novels, including . His first was The Intuitionist, a dazzling turn that makes the novel鈥檚 high-concept premise convincing from the very beginning.

The novel incorporates multiple genres鈥攔acial allegory, speculative fiction, and a playful take on hard-boiled detective fiction. The protagonist, Lila Mae Watson, is the only Black woman working for a city department that ensures the safety of essential infrastructure鈥攊n this case, elevators that are more than elevators as we know them. When something goes wrong, it looks like Lila Mae was set up to take the fall. In The Intuitionist, the inner workings of the city, like its elevators, are both familiar and mysterious. Whitehead immediately pulls the reader into this world, and we鈥檙e eager to go along for the ride. 鈥擵alerie Schloredt

by Lucy Jones

Lucy Jones argues that nature is a necessity for our physical and mental well-being. She calls it a support system that keeps us all alive. 鈥淧erhaps we are noticing this all the more now, as we are in danger of losing the living world as we have known it, and with it, potentially, part of ourselves.鈥� While the average Brit spends between 1% and 5% of their time outdoors, she sets out to foster her new daughter鈥檚 love of the outdoors before it gets 鈥渄istracted or influenced or cultured or educated out of her.鈥�

Jones organizes the 174 pages of the book into the parts and life stages of a tree: from seedling to roots, branches to trunk, and bark to snag. She writes, 鈥淔or centuries people have often acted on an intuitive sense that human beings require communion with the natural world for their emotional selves, for their nerves and their psyches. Now modern science is catching up.鈥� Jones looks at the latest in neuroscience, microbiology, and other fields to show that nature has a measurable effect on human mental health. She delves into the findings from alternative approaches, such as nature prescriptions, forest bathing, and ecotherapy. She also emphasizes the inequities in access and connection to nature, as seen in the tight correlation between socioeconomic status and health outcomes.

Though the book is packed with powerful research, I was surprised by how personal and poetic it is. In describing her recovery from alcoholism, Jones writes at length about the impact of seeing the tree out her window: 鈥淣ature picked me up by the scruff of my neck, and I rested in her teeth for a while. 鈥� I was caught, a burr on the leg of her, hooked on wonder and abundance.鈥�

Though I could not personally relate to some of Jones鈥� experiences, I could absolutely relate to the feelings nature conjured in her. Awe, she says, increases happiness and lowers stress. It makes us more ethical, kind, and generous. And perhaps most importantly, she writes, we can only get this from going outside: 鈥淎we is Earth鈥檚 signature.鈥� 鈥擝reanna Draxler

by Joy Harjo
鈥淪he would now be called 鈥楶oet Warrior鈥�
To assist in making her path on this earth
In times that would need what poetry
Could bring, for knowledge,
Compassion, and healing
And could be used as a tool for digging and defense
To unearth the truth, when needed.鈥�
鈥擩oy Harjo

I picked up Poet Warrior because it was a Peak Pick at the Seattle Public Library, ended up buying my own copy, and want to give it as a gift as well. It continues the life story that U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo began in her first memoir, Crazy Brave. She writes about how she became a poet, her family, her tribe, the land, plants, and her teachers. Interspersed are poems she wrote, as well as a few poems by other writers who inspired her.

The book is about her journey, and her prose description of it is as poetic as the actual poems. There is a strong justice theme, and her values around teaching come through:  鈥淭hen, you must do this: help the next person find their way through the dark.鈥� She shares many lessons she has learned in her travels and that she, too, is still a student: 鈥淪ome teachers are places, are oceans and mountains. Some are insects crawling the earth or flying. I am still learning.鈥� It鈥檚 time for us to learn from Joy Harjo. 鈥擜udrey Watson

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

by Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D. Jackson

Superhero origin stories have a common formula: The hero struggles with hardship, experiences an epiphany, and ends up fighting for justice. It is rare to find such narrative arcs in real life, but author Ilyasah Shabazz has written just such a story for young readers, The Awakening of Malcolm X, about her own father. The man who would grow up to become one of the most iconic figures in the Black Power movement and in American history spent his formative years struggling to find his way.

Malcolm X was indelibly shaped by incarceration, experiencing firsthand the cruelty of an institution that has trapped untold numbers of young Black people across generations. Shabazz fictionalizes the story of her father鈥檚 youth in a format that is readable and inspiring, especially for young people who might have first been exposed to the contemporary struggle for racial justice during the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings. 鈥擲onali Kolhatkar

by Oriel Mar铆a Siu

A new children鈥檚 book by Honduran academic and author Oriel Mar铆a Siu explores the European settler colonialism of North America through clever rhymes and fictional monsters. Dr. Siu, as she calls herself, pulls no punches in taking on the horrors of Christopher Columbus鈥� exploits in Christopher the Ogre Cologre, It鈥檚 Over! Centered on a young female protagonist, this is the second in Siu鈥檚 Rebeldita the Fearless series.

With so few children鈥檚 books written by and for people of color, Siu鈥檚 new offering gives young Black and Brown children historical lessons to prepare them for an educational curriculum based on reality rather than the gauzy triumphalism of conventional history books. 鈥淭his story of Cologre has not often been heard,鈥� writes Siu. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 telling the truth鈥攖his really occurred.鈥� In contrast to the aggressive conservative targeting of critical race theory, this children鈥檚 book is unapologetic, retelling history from the point of view of survivors rather than colonizers. 鈥擲onali Kolhatkar

, written and illustrated by , translated by

When You Look Up is a gorgeously illustrated children鈥檚 book that shows how empathy flows from imagination and storytelling. When Lorenzo moves with his mother to a new town, he鈥檚 more interested in his cellphone than his surroundings鈥攂ut that changes when he discovers a notebook hidden in an old desk. The notebook contains whimsical stories that stir his imagination and send him out exploring in order to better understand them. Readers move between the richly textured paintings that depict Lorenzo鈥檚 world and the bright cut-paper stories of the notebook as the two worlds begin to collide. Written and illustrated by Decur, a self-taught cartoonist and illustrator from Argentina, this oversize book is a true work of art that will enchant people of all ages. This book is available in both English and Spanish. 鈥擭atalie Lubsen

by Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long

This book was supposed to be a Christmas present for my 2-year-old, but we were both too excited to unwrap it. With its bright illustrations and lyrics, the story could easily be sung rather than read (by someone with a better singing voice than mine). As the protagonist enlists neighborhood kids to join in her music-making, they engage in neighborhood projects along the way鈥攃leaning up trash in the park, delivering groceries, and building a wheelchair ramp. Though marketed for ages 4鈥�8, neither the themes nor the vocabulary are out of reach for younger ages. My daughter鈥檚 questions are the perfect opportunity to talk about making a difference in our community, as well as the need for equity despite the differences that make people unique.

The story speaks to our current moment of racial reckoning鈥斺�渢ake a knee to make a stand鈥濃�攁s well as the rich history of activism it鈥檚 built on鈥斺�淚 dream with the cries of tried-and-true dreamers.鈥� The final scene is a community mural of the growing parade of children under the words 鈥淲e are the change.鈥� It ends with an invitation to sing along. Which my daughter, partner, and I really can鈥檛 help but do, again and again. 鈥擝reanna Draxler