📚☀️ Summer 5781/2021 - Our Liberatory Library! ☀️🎧
Fall may just be a couple months away, but August has just arrived and summer ain’t over yet! The Joyous Justice team is SO excited to share with you some of what’s been on our reading and audiobook listening lists this summer. If you’re in search of a compelling read, find yourself with some time or you’ve already made it through your own list, we hope these gems serve as inspiration for what to pick up next!
If you’ve read or plan to read any of these books, let us know by commenting below! We’d love to read what these texts inspired within you! We also invite you to consider supporting independent book sellers (like Bookshop or IndieBound) or your local library.
Happy reading/listening!
April’s Bookshelf
What I’m currently reading —
* The Untethered Soul^^, by Michael A. Singer
* The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, by INSIGHT! Women of Color Against Violence, and
* Women's Wisdom from the Heart of Africa^^, by Sobonfu Somé
Just finished —
* The Surrender Experiment^^, by Michael A. Singer
* The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance, and Peace of Mind^^, by Debra Landwehr Engle
* Walking on the Wind: Cherokee Teachings for Harmony and Balance^^, by Michael Tlanusta Garrett
A book I’m currently re-reading on the side—and enjoying it even more this second time around! —
* Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown. I’m applying its principles to my work life, but clearly not my current reading list, haha!
^^ These are some of the supplementary books I’ve opted to read as part of my first year Kohenet (Hebrew priestess) project.
Tracie’s Bookshelf
What I most frequently recommend —
* So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo. You can read my book review here.
* Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racism in America, by Ibram X Kendi
* Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabelle Wilkerson
Because I have some commitment-phobia when it comes to fiction, I often read young adult titles. A few I've enjoyed in the past couple of years —
* The Length of a String, by Elissa Brent Weissman
* The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
* The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (I'm not sure if this technically classified as a young adult title, but the protagonist is a 9-year-old girl, so I'm including it)
What I’m looking forward to reading —
* Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About it, by Richard V Reeves — shout out to Rabbi David Jaffe who recommended I read it.
What I keep coming back to —
* The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity, by Eric Goldstein. Check out my review!
Sarah’s Bookshelf
From my podcast queue —
* Jewish Ancestral Healing Podcast
* Blowback
* All my Relations
* Why Won’t You Date Me? With Nicole Byer
A book I just cracked open —
* There is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists, edited by Cindy Milstein
Some of my favorite shorter reads —
* Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
* Beyond the Gender Binary, by Alok Vaid-Menon (If you don’t know about them or follow their work, you should! You can learn about them here)
* Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay In 40 Questions, by Valeria Luiselli, translated by Jon Lee Anderson
Daniel’s Bookshelf
What I’m reading right now —
* Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Books that have supported my healing journey —
* What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing**, by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry (**three of our team members read and loved this one!)
* The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
What I keep coming back to —
* You Were Born For This: Astrology for Radical Self Acceptance, by Chani Nicholas. I highly recommend her life-affirming app that I use daily… It’s one of only a few apps I pay for, but you can also use it for free.
* The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho