Matt's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 22 Mar 2025 19:58:55 -0700 60 Matt's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Living a Marxist Life: Why Marx is a Drug You Should Probably Take]]> 200451618
Living a Marxist Life responds to this disconnect by framing Marxism not as a mere “theory� but as a practical philosophical truth-a lived practice that immediately changes the reality of those experimenting with it. From Frida Kahlo to Jean-Luc Godard, Pablo Picasso to Angela Davis, Marxists are not dry theoreticians but embodied agents of a process that is as intensely imaginative and joyful as it is demanding and difficult. This book, then, is a chronicle of radical change-a record of the ways our thoughts, habits, desires, actions, and emotions can be fundamentally reshaped by an encounter with Marx.

This book is not an introduction to Marx, nor a systematic defense of Marxism. Rather, it is a self-help book that calls into question the very idea of self-help, a guide to the good life that rejects normative morality, and an inspirational manual that promotes philosophy, sociology, and politics, not vague spirituality or religion, as solutions to the urgent problems that face us.]]> 200 Andrew Pendakis 1350420867 Matt 4 social-justice-politics 4.50 Living a Marxist Life: Why Marx is a Drug You Should Probably Take
author: Andrew Pendakis
name: Matt
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire]]> 150247408 Disability Visibility: another revolutionary collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience, and intimacy in all its myriad forms.

What is intimacy? More than sex, more than romantic love, the pieces in this stunning and illuminating new anthology offer broader and more inclusive definitions of what it can mean to be intimate with another person. Explorations of caregiving, community, access, and friendship offer us alternative ways of thinking about the connections we form with others—a vital reimagining in an era when forced physical distance is at times a necessary norm.

But don't worry: there's still sex to consider—and the numerous ways sexual liberation intersects with disability justice. Plunge between these pages and you'll also find disabled sexual discovery, disabled love stories, and disabled joy. These twenty-five stunning original pieces—plus other modern classics on the subject, all carefully curated by acclaimed activist Alice Wong—include essays, photo essays, poetry, drama, and a full spectrum of the dreams, fantasies, and deeply personal realities of a wide range of beautiful bodies and minds. Disability Intimacy will free your thinking, invigorate your spirit, and delight your desires.]]> 384 Alice Wong 0593469739 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.28 2024 Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire
author: Alice Wong
name: Matt
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic]]> 58341029
The story of art collective Gran Fury—which fought back during the AIDS crisisthrough direct action and community-made propaganda—offers lessons in love andgrief.

In the late 1980s, the AIDS pandemic was annihilating queer people, intravenous drug users, and communities of color in America, and disinformation about the disease ran rampant. Out of the activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an art collective that called itself Gran Fury formed to campaign against corporate greed, government inaction, stigma, and public indifference to the epidemic.

Writer Jack Lowery examines Gran Fury’s art and activism from iconic images like the “Kissing Doesn’t Kill� poster to the act of dropping piles of fake bills onto the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Lowery offers a complex, moving portrait of a collective and its members, who built essential solidarities with each other and whose lives evidenced the profound trauma of enduring the AIDS crisis.

Gran Fury and ACT UP’s strategies are still used frequently by the activists leading contemporary movements. In an era when structural violence and the devastation of COVID-19 continue to target the most vulnerable, this belief in the power of public art and action persists.]]> 432 Jack Lowery 1645036588 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.50 2022 It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic
author: Jack Lowery
name: Matt
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World]]> 195888446 From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to heal on a personal and a collective level.

As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how.

What It Takes to Heal asserts that the principles of embodiment—the recognition of our body’s sensations and habits, and the beliefs that inform them—are critical to lasting healing and change. Hemphill, an expert embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist who has partnered with Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Esther Perel, among others, shows us that we don't have to carry our emotional burdens alone. Hemphill demonstrates a future in which healing is done in community, weaving together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure and everything we create?�

In this life-affirming framework for the way forward, Hemphill shows us how to heal our bodies, minds, and souls—to develop the interpersonal skills necessary to break down the doors of disconnection and take the necessary risks to reshape our world toward justice.
Read less]]> 256 Prentis Hemphill 0593596838 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.51 What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World
author: Prentis Hemphill
name: Matt
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century]]> 51456746
From Harriet McBryde Johnson’s account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond: this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love.]]> 309 Alice Wong 1984899422 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.46 2020 Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century
author: Alice Wong
name: Matt
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/11/11
shelves: social-justice-politics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On Anarchism (Penguin Special)]]> 22317992 On Anarchism is an essential introduction to the Noam Chomsky's political theory.



On Anarchism sheds a much needed light on the foundations of Chomsky's thought, specifically his constant questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. The book gathers his essays and interviews to provide a short, accessible introduction to his distinctively optimistic brand of anarchism. Refuting the notion of anarchism as a fixed idea, and disputing the traditional fault lines between anarchism and socialism, this is a book sure to challenge, provoke and inspire. Profoundly relevant to our times, it is a touchstone for political activists and anyone interested in deepening their understanding of anarchism, or of Chomsky's thought.



'Arguably the most important intellectual alive' New York Times


Noam Chomsky is the author of numerous bestselling and influential political books, including Hegemony or Survival, Failed States, Interventions, What We Say Goes, Hopes and Prospects, Gaza in Crisis, Making the Future and Occupy.



Nathan Schneider is the author of Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse and God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet.

]]> 181 Noam Chomsky Matt 5 social-justice-politics 3.80 2005 On Anarchism (Penguin Special)
author: Noam Chomsky
name: Matt
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[The Highly Sensitive Person in Love: Understanding and Managing Relationships When the World Overwhelms You]]> 155383
Statistics show that 50 percent of what determines divorce is genetic temperament. And, if you are one of the 20 percent of people who are born highly sensitive, the risk of an unhappy relationship is especially high. Your finely tuned nervous system, which picks up on subtleties and reflects deeply, would be a romantic asset if both you and your partner understood you better. But without that understanding, your sensitivity is likely to be making your close relationships painful and complicated.

Based on Elaine N. Aron’s groundbreaking research on temperament and intimacy, The Highly Sensitive Person in Love offers practical help for highly sensitive people seeking happier, healthier romantic relationships. From low-stress fighting to sensitive sexuality, the book offers a wealth of practical advice on making the most of all personality combinations. Complete with illuminating self-tests and the results of the first survey ever done on sex and temperament, The Highly Sensitive Person in Love will help you discover a better way of living and loving .]]> 261 Elaine N. Aron 0767903366 Matt 0 other 3.87 2000 The Highly Sensitive Person in Love: Understanding and Managing Relationships When the World Overwhelms You
author: Elaine N. Aron
name: Matt
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In]]> 313605 200 Roger Fisher 0140157352 Matt 0 other 3.95 1981 Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
author: Roger Fisher
name: Matt
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1981
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life]]> 59900658 From the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, and the editor of the acclaimed anthology Disability Visibility, a genre-bending memoir in essays offers a glimpse into an activist's journey to finding and cultivating community and the continued fight for disability rights.

In Chinese culture, the tiger is deeply revered for its beauty and ferocity and symbolizes power, bravery, and protection. That same fighting spirit resides in Alice Wong.

Drawing on a collection of original essays, previously published work, conversations, graphics, photos, commissioned art by disabled and Asian American artists, and more, Alice uses her unique voice and talent to share a raw and multifaceted impressionistic collage of her life as an Asian American disability rights activist, community builder, and media maker. From her love of good food and pop culture to her unwavering commitment to speaking out against the often complex and overlooked ways inequities and injustices play out in an ableist society, Alice tells her story and creates a space to hear from other disability activists through enriching conversations. From a world-class activist and storyteller, Alice's Year of the Tiger offers humor and wisdom, and encourages us to do better.]]> 376 Alice Wong 0593315391 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.24 2022 Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life
author: Alice Wong
name: Matt
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/03/13
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing]]> 59641216
So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.]]> 250 Matthew Perry 1250866448 Matt 0 other 3.89 2022 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
author: Matthew Perry
name: Matt
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/25
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]]> The Psychology of Money 41881472 242 Morgan Housel 0857197681 Matt 0 other 4.28 2020 The Psychology of Money
author: Morgan Housel
name: Matt
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs]]> 60199447 Care Work with The Future Is Disabled. Piepzna-Samarasinha writes about the last two years of surviving COVID-19 as a disabled femme of color in an ableist world that isn’t interested in protecting disabled folks. They also discuss mutual aid and disabled joy in the face of isolation and discrimination.

The pandemic has been incredibly difficult for disabled people who have been asked to “take one for the team� by wider society. Piepzna-Samarasinha writes encouragement to disabled folks, relishing in our community’s creativity in our fight for survival. They also mourn those lost in the pandemic and the care crisis so many of us still face.]]> 333 1551528916 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.45 2022 The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs
author: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
name: Matt
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[The Long Covid Survival Guide: How to Take Care of Yourself and What Comes Next]]> 59891838
For people living with Long COVID, navigating the uncharted territory of this new chronic illness can be challenging. With over two hundred unique symptoms, and with doctors continuing to work toward a cure, people experiencing Long COVID are often left with more questions than answers.

A support group in book form, The Long COVID Survival Guide is here to help. Twenty contributors—from award-winning journalists, neuroscientists, and patient-researchers to corporate strategists, activists, and artists—share their stories and insight on topics getting diagnosed; finding a caregiver; confronting medical racism and gaslighting; navigating employment issues; dealing with fatigue and brain fog; caring for your mental health; and more.

This vital resource provides the answers and reassurance you need, to live with and heal from Long COVID.]]> 288 Fiona Lowenstein 1615199101 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.26 2022 The Long Covid Survival Guide: How to Take Care of Yourself and What Comes Next
author: Fiona Lowenstein
name: Matt
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: social-justice-politics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level]]> 6391876 The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks, the New York Times bestselling author of Five Wishes, demonstrates how to eliminate the barriers to success by overcoming false fears and beliefs. Fans of Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and The Secret will find useful, effective tips for breaking down the walls to a better life in The Big Leap.]]> 224 Gay Hendricks 0061735345 Matt 4 other 3.91 2009 The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level
author: Gay Hendricks
name: Matt
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/11/18
shelves: other
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Human Design: The Revolutionary System That Shows You Who You Came Here to Be]]> 63363691 Find guidance, alignment, and purpose with this insightful, practical guide to understanding and interpreting your Human Design chart.

World-leading expert Jenna Zoe reveals the power and potential of Human Design in simple steps and shows you how to utilize your results to create an incredible life. Drawing inspiration from many different schools of wisdom, including the chakras, I Ching, astrology, and the Tree of Life, Human Design is a system based on our time and date of birth, illustrated as a unique chart that reveals our opportunities, challenges, personality, strengths, relationships, and much more.

Once you have your chart, you can tap into a detailed and unique toolkit to help you unlock your true purpose in this world. You'll discover how

generate your own chart with an easy-to-follow process find out what your Energy Type is and how you can harness itstop striving to be someone you're not and feel comfortable in your own skinunderstand your intuition, personality, habits, relationships, and more
When your chart reveals how to be the real you � the most individual you can be � you'll find that you're able to confidently walk your unique path and live according to your soul's purpose.]]> 292 Jenna Zoë 1788178858 Matt 4 other 4.12 2023 Human Design: The Revolutionary System That Shows You Who You Came Here to Be
author: Jenna Zoë
name: Matt
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/10/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High]]> 15014
When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. Crucial Conversations gives you the tools you need to step up to life's most difficult and important conversations, say what's on your mind, and achieve the positive resolutions you want. You'll learn how to:

Prepare for high-impact situations with a six-minute mastery technique
Make it safe to talk about almost anything
Be persuasive, not abrasive
Keep listening when others blow up or clam up
Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want]]> 240 Kerry Patterson 0071401946 Matt 5 other 4.04 2002 Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
author: Kerry Patterson
name: Matt
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2002
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/09/14
shelves: other
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]]> <![CDATA[The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World]]> 60568520
In The Future Is Analog , David Sax points out that the onset of the pandemic instantly gave us the digital universe we’d spent so long anticipating. Instant communication, online shopping, virtual everything.

It didn’t take long to realize how awful it was to live in this promised future. We craved real experiences, relationships, and spaces and got back to real life as quickly and often as we could.

In chapters exploring work, school, religion, and more, this book asks pointed questions: Is our future inevitably digital? Can we reject the downsides of digital technology without rejecting change? Can we innovate not for the sake of productivity but for the good of our social and cultural lives? Can we build a future that serves us as humans, first and foremost?

This is a manifesto for a different kind of change. We can spend our creativity and money on building new gadgets—or we can spend them on new ways to be together and experience the world, to bake bread, and climb mountains. All we need is the clarity to choose which future we want.]]> 288 David Sax 1541701550 Matt 4 other 3.46 The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World
author: David Sax
name: Matt
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/09/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole]]> 58734811 In her new masterpiece, the author of the bestselling phenomenon Quiet reveals the power of a bittersweet outlook on life, and why we’ve been so blind to its value.

With Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she employs the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and the surprising lessons these states of mind teach us about creativity, compassion, leadership, spirituality, mortality, and love.

Bittersweetness is a tendency to states of longing, poignancy, and sorrow; an acute awareness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy when beholding beauty. It recognizes that light and dark, birth and death—bitter and sweet—are forever paired. A song in a minor key, an elegiac poem, or even a touching television commercial all can bring us to this sublime, even holy, state of mind—and, ultimately, to greater kinship with our fellow humans.

But bittersweetness is not, as we tend to think, just a momentary feeling or event. It’s also a way of being, a storied heritage. Our artistic and spiritual traditions—amplified by recent scientific and management research—teach us its power.

Cain shows how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain. If we don’t acknowledge our own sorrows and longings, she says, we can end up inflicting them on others via abuse, domination, or neglect. But if we realize that all humans know—or will know—loss and suffering, we can turn toward each other. And we can learn to transform our own pain into creativity, transcendence, and connection.

At a time of profound discord and personal anxiety, Bittersweet brings us together in deep and unexpected ways.]]> 310 Susan Cain 0451499786 Matt 0 other 3.96 2022 Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
author: Susan Cain
name: Matt
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves: other
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]]> <![CDATA[Unf*ck Your Anxiety: Using Science to Rewire Your Anxious Brain]]> 52979490 127 Faith G. Harper 1621065480 Matt 4 other 3.60 Unf*ck Your Anxiety: Using Science to Rewire Your Anxious Brain
author: Faith G. Harper
name: Matt
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/08/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lightmaker's Manifesto: How to Work for Change without Losing Your Joy]]> 56822980 234 Karen Walrond 1506469949 Matt 0 social-justice-politics 4.20 The Lightmaker's Manifesto: How to Work for Change without Losing Your Joy
author: Karen Walrond
name: Matt
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/08/16
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]]> <![CDATA[King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering Masculinity Through the Lens of Archetypal Psychology - A Journey into the Male Psyche and Its Four Essential Aspects]]> 91781 Moore and Gillette identify four archetypes of masculine energies from myth and literature: the Lover, brimming with vitality and sensitivity; the Magician, guider of the processes of inner and outer transformation; the selfless and wise King identified with Adam or primordial man; and the Warrior, whose energies often go awry in destructive activity. Dream analysis, meditation, Jungian "active imagination" and ritual processes are among the tools set forth in a clear, concise map to territories of masculine selfhood.]]> 180 Robert L. Moore 0062506064 Matt 0 other 4.12 1990 King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering Masculinity Through the Lens of Archetypal Psychology - A Journey into the Male Psyche and Its Four Essential Aspects
author: Robert L. Moore
name: Matt
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Multiamory: Essential Tools for Modern Relationships]]> 61272930
When Multiamory authorsDedekerWinston, EmilySoteloMatlack, andJaseLindgrenstarted producing their advice show aboutpolyamoryand other non-traditional relationships, they received dozens of questions from listeners about all sorts of relationship quandaries and communication stalemates. They quickly found out that existing relationship tools weren't up to the task, and that conventional wisdom is sorely lacking for modern relationships. Many of the primary resources for relationship advice are frustratingly religious, unapproachable and academic, or alienating to anyone who falls outside the mainstream of heterosexual monogamy.

Over the course of many years and hundreds of episodes, they have spent hoursnerdingout over research, reading up on evidence-based relationship advice, and listening to the personal struggles of hundreds of couples and individuals. They have re-tooled commonplace communication frameworks to fit modern-day relationships, and when there was no existing tool that fit, they put on their inventor hats and developed their own. This has led to the creation of Essential Tools for Modern Relationships , acuratedcollection of the most popular communication tools, advice, and wisdom from the Multiamory podcastthat have helped thousands of listeners improve their communication and create healthy relationships. In this book, you'll learn how

]]> 326 Dedeker Winston 1627783202 Matt 5 other 4.48 Multiamory: Essential Tools for Modern Relationships
author: Dedeker Winston
name: Matt
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/06/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses, and Find Your True Well-Being]]> 61398910
Many people with chronic illness understandably feel dismissed or abandoned by the healthcare system and find solace in alternative medicine, as Harrison once did. Yet the wellness industry promotes practices that often cause even more damage than the conventional approaches they’re meant to replace. From the lack of pre-market safety testing on herbal and dietary supplements, to the unfounded claims made by many wellness influencers and functional-medicine providers, to the social-media algorithms driving users down rabbit holes of wellness mis- and disinformation, it can often feel like no one is looking out for us in the face of the $4.4 trillion global wellness industry.

The Wellness Trap delves into the persistent, systemic problems with that industry, offering insight into its troubling pattern of cultural appropriation and its destructive views on mental health, and shedding light on how a growing distrust of conventional medicine has led ordinary people to turn their backs on science. Weavingtogether history, memoir, reporting, and practical advice, Harrison illuminates the harms of wellness culture while re-imagining our society’s relationship with well-being.]]> 320 Christy Harrison 0316315605 Matt 0 social-justice-politics 3.76 2023 The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses, and Find Your True Well-Being
author: Christy Harrison
name: Matt
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/03
shelves: social-justice-politics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Will Teach You to Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works]]> 40591670
Buy as many lattes as you want. Choose the right accounts and investments so your money grows for you—automatically. Best of all, spend guilt-free on the things you love.

Personal finance expert Ramit Sethi has been called a “wealth wizard� by Forbes and the “new guru on the block� by Fortune . Now he’s updated and expanded his modern money classic for a new age, delivering a simple, powerful, no-BS 6-week program that just works.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich will show
� How to crush your debt and student loans faster than you thought possible
� How to set up no-fee, high-interest bank accounts that won’t gouge you for every penny
� How Ramit automates his finances so his money goes exactly where he wants it to—and how you can do it too
� How to talk your way out of late fees (with word-for-word scripts)
� How to save hundreds or even thousands per month (and still buy what you love)
� A set-it-and-forget-it investment strategy that’s dead simple and beats financial advisors at their own game
� How to handle buying a car or a house, paying for a wedding, having kids, and other big expenses—stress free
� The exact words to use to negotiate a big raise at work

Plus, this 10th anniversary edition features over 80 new pages,
� New tools
� New insights on money and psychology
� Amazing stories of how previous readers used the book to create their rich lives

Master your money—and then get on with your life.

]]> 352 Ramit Sethi 1523505745 Matt 0 other 4.24 2009 I Will Teach You to Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works
author: Ramit Sethi
name: Matt
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/21
shelves: other
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Selfish Romantic: How to date without feeling bad about yourself]]> 62310089 � How many people are being treated badly because they think they don't tick desirable boxes?
� What would happen if you didn't limit yourself by seeing yourself as a bunch of labels, and instead saw yourself as a catch?
� How fun would it be to be single without questioning your loveability, to date without taking rejection personally, and to have sex without hating your body? Nearly every question life coach and queen of boundaries Michelle Elman is asked relates to one dating. Including unravelling myths about single life, changing your dating mindset, dealing with ghosting, text etiquette and taking relationships offline, The Selfish Romantic will teach you how to empower your love life like never before. Combining Michelle's expertise in boundaries and body positivity, this is your guide to navigating the modern dating landscape.]]> 358 Michelle Elman 1802795022 Matt 0 other 4.36 The Selfish Romantic: How to date without feeling bad about yourself
author: Michelle Elman
name: Matt
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/05/21
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]]> <![CDATA[A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life]]> 143675
“Jack is helping to pave the path for American Buddhism, bringing essential basics into our crazy modern lives. And the language he uses is as simple and as lovely as our breath.”—Natalie Goldberg

Perhaps the most important book yet written on meditation, the process of inner transformation, and the integration of spiritual practice into our American way of life, A Path with Heart brings alive one by one the challenges of spiritual living in the modern world. Written by a teacher, psychologist, and meditation master of international renown, this warm, inspiring, and expert book touches on a wide range of essential issues including many rarely addressed in spiritual books. From compassion, addiction, and psychological and emotional healing, to dealing with problems involving relationships and sexuality, to the creation of a Zen-like simplicity and balance in all facets of life, it speaks to the concerns of many modern spiritual seekers, both those beginning on the path and those with years of experience.

A Path with Heart is filled with practical techniques, guided meditations, stories, koans, and other gems of wisdom that can help ease your journey through the world. The author’s own profound—and sometimes humorous—experiences and gentle assistance will skillfully guide you through the obstacles and trials of spiritual and contemporary life to bring a clarity of perception and a sense of the sacred into your everyday experience. Reading this book will touch your heart and remind you of the promises inherent in meditation and in a life of the the blossoming of inner peace, wholeness, and understanding, and the achievement of a happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.

Sure to be a classic, A Path with Heart shows us how we can bring our spirituality to flower every day of our lives. It is a wise and gentle guidebook for an odyssey into the soul that enables us to achieve a deeper, more satisfying life in the world.]]> 384 Jack Kornfield 0553372114 Matt 0 other 4.23 1993 A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
author: Jack Kornfield
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average rating: 4.23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift]]> 54705911 The national bestseller

From the author of the bestselling More Beautiful Than Before comes an inspiring book about loss based on his most popular sermon.

As the senior rabbi of one of the largest synagogues in the world, Steve Leder has learned over and over again the many ways death teaches us how to live and love more deeply by showing us not only what is gone but also the beauty of what remains.

This inspiring and comforting book takes us on a journey through the experience of loss that is fundamental to everyone. Yet even after having sat beside thousands of deathbeds, Steve Leder the rabbi was not fully prepared for the loss of his own father. It was only then that Steve Leder the son truly learned how loss makes life beautiful by giving it meaning and touching us with love that we had not felt before.

Enriched by Rabbi Leder's irreverence, vulnerability, and wicked sense of humor, this heartfelt narrative is filled with laughter and tears, the wisdom of millennia and modernity, and, most of all, an unfolding of the profound and simple truth that in loss we gain more than we ever imagined.]]> 240 Steve Leder 0593187555 Matt 5 4.43 2021 The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift
author: Steve Leder
name: Matt
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/04/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Unstuck: A Life Manual On How To Be More Creative, Overcome Your Obstacles, and Get Shit Done]]> 61489892
This short and sweet book shows you how to get shit done, stop overthinking, be more productive, and create more good stuff. In 54 bite sized lessons, UNSTUCK explores how what we think holds us back is actually the very thing we need in order to move forward. Not only WHERE we are in life but also WHO we are is exactly the right recipe for success. In the actual context of life itself, everything is either a big mistake (or a big miracle), and all the unfolding is happening perfectly. If we could just learn the steps needed to embrace the possibilities, we realize that the things we think are in our way in life, are actually the way to living fully.]]> 132 Anthony Meindl 0578372940 Matt 0 other 4.26 Unstuck: A Life Manual On How To Be More Creative, Overcome Your Obstacles, and Get Shit Done
author: Anthony Meindl
name: Matt
average rating: 4.26
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]]> <![CDATA[Body Neutral: A Revolutionary Guide to Overcoming Body Image Issues]]> 63024301
A life-changing guide to reclaiming your relationship with your body—and yourself

Have you ever thought that if only you could change the way you looked, your life would be better? It’s so easy to imagine that by changing the outside of our bodies, we’d feel better on the inside. But we all know that even if we could magically attain a so-called “perfect� body, our problems wouldn’t actually be solved. That’s because body image issues are never just about the they’re always about something deeper inside.

As a longtime personal trainer and coach, Jessi Kneeland has seen hundreds of clients achieve their fitness goals but still feel trapped in a web of body hatred, anxiety, obsession, and dysmorphia. Searching for a solution, Kneeland set out on a quest to discover what it truly takes to help people understand, process, and heal their body image issues for good. They share their discoveries in Body Neutral, where you’ll


There is a reason you’re unhappy with your body, and Body Neutral will help you discover what that reason is and how to defuse its power, freeing you to enjoy a life of true confidence, security, and satisfaction.]]> 432 Jessi Kneeland 0593491769 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.04 2023 Body Neutral: A Revolutionary Guide to Overcoming Body Image Issues
author: Jessi Kneeland
name: Matt
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/02/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together]]> 53231851
McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm--the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country--from parks and pools to functioning schools--have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world's advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare.

But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply can't do on our own.

McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint a story of racism's costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy's collateral victims: white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.]]> 415 Heather McGhee 0525509569 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.62 2021 The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
author: Heather McGhee
name: Matt
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals]]> 54785515 The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks.

Nobody needs to be told there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and ceaseless battle against distraction; we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient and life hacks to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with “getting everything done,� Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing that many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.]]> 271 Oliver Burkeman 0374159122 Matt 4 other 4.20 2021 Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
author: Oliver Burkeman
name: Matt
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/01/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World]]> 56379758 United Nations Champion of the Earth, climate scientist, and evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe changes the debate on how we can save our future in this nationally bestselling “optimistic view on why collective action is still possible—and how it can be realized� (The New York Times).

Called “one of the nation’s most effective communicators on climate change� by The New York Times, Katharine Hayhoe knows how to navigate all sides of the conversation on our changing planet. A Canadian climate scientist living in Texas, she negotiates distrust of data, indifference to imminent threats, and resistance to proposed solutions with ease. Over the past fifteen years Hayhoe has found that the most important thing we can do to address climate change is talk about it—and she wants to teach you how.

In Saving Us, Hayhoe argues that when it comes to changing hearts and minds, facts are only one part of the equation. We need to find shared values in order to connect our unique identities to collective action. This is not another doomsday narrative about a planet on fire. It is a multilayered look at science, faith, and human psychology, from an icon in her field—recently named chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy.

Drawing on interdisciplinary research and personal stories, Hayhoe shows that small conversations can have astonishing results. Saving Us leaves us with the tools to open a dialogue with your loved ones about how we all can play a role in pushing forward for change.]]> 318 Katharine Hayhoe 1982143851 Matt 0 social-justice-politics 4.31 2021 Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
author: Katharine Hayhoe
name: Matt
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/12
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]]> How We Live Is How We Die 61142207
Poignant for readers of all ages, her teachings on the bardos—a Tibetan term referring to a state of transition, including what happens between this life and the next—reveal their power and relevance at each moment of our lives. She also offers practical methods for transforming life’s most challenging emotions about change and uncertainty into a path of awakening and love. As she teaches, the more freedom we can find in our hearts and minds as we live this life, the more fearlessly we’ll be able to confront death and what lies beyond. In all, Pema provides readers with a master course in living life fully and compassionately in the shadow of death and change.]]> 240 Pema Chödrön 161180924X Matt 0 other 4.27 How We Live Is How We Die
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name: Matt
average rating: 4.27
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]]> <![CDATA[Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity]]> 58537365 Celebrating special interests Cultivating Autistic relationships Reframing Autistic stereotypes And rediscovering your valuesIt’s time to honor the needs, diversity, and unique strengths of Autistic people so that they no longer have to mask—and it’s time for greater public acceptance and accommodation of difference. In embracing neurodiversity, we can all reap the rewards of nonconformity and learn to live authentically, Autistic and neurotypical people alike.]]> 304 Devon Price 0593235231 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.38 2022 Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity
author: Devon Price
name: Matt
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/12/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change]]> 62122504 368 W. David Marx 0593296710 Matt 0 other 3.88 2022 Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change
author: W. David Marx
name: Matt
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
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]]> <![CDATA[Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto]]> 60382737
From the founder and creator of The Nap Ministry,Rest Is Resistanceis a battle cry, a guidebook, a map for a movement, and a field guide for the weary and hopeful. It is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey's lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art,Rest Is Resistanceis a call to action and manifesto for those who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.]]> 224 Tricia Hersey 0316365211 Matt 0 social-justice-politics 4.06 2022 Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto
author: Tricia Hersey
name: Matt
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> Abloh-isms 57580376 Abloh-isms is a collection of essential quotations from American fashion designer, DJ, and stylist Virgil Abloh, who was a major creative figure in the worlds of pop culture and art. Abloh began his career as Kanye West’s creative director before founding the luxury streetwear label Off-White and becoming artistic director for Louis Vuitton, making Abloh the first American of African descent to hold that title at a French fashion house. Defying categorization, Abloh’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at museums and galleries, most notably in a major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Gathered from interviews and other sources, this selection of compelling and memorable quotations from the designer reveals his thoughts on a wide range of subjects, including creativity, passion, innovation, race, and what it means to be an artist of his generation. Lively and thought-provoking, these quotes reflect Abloh’s unique perspective as a trailblazer in his fields.

Select quotations from the book:

“I believe that coincidence is key, but coincidence is energies coming towards each other. You have to be moving to meet it.�
“Life is collaboration. Where I think art can be sort of misguided is that it propagates this idea of itself as a solo love affair—one person, one idea, no one else involved.�
“Black influence has created a new ecosystem, which can grow and support different types of life that we couldn’t before.”]]> Virgil Abloh Matt 0 other 4.30 Abloh-isms
author: Virgil Abloh
name: Matt
average rating: 4.30
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]]> <![CDATA[Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself]]> 55782639
Healthy boundaries. We all know we should have them–in order to achieve work/life balance, cope with toxic people, and enjoy rewarding relationships with partners, friends, and family. But what do “healthy boundaries� really mean–and how can we successfully express our needs, say “no,� and be assertive without offending others?

Licensed counselor, sought-after relationship expert, and one of the most influential therapists on Instagram Nedra Glover Tawwab demystifies this complex topic for today’s world. In a relatable and inclusive tone, Set Boundaries, Find Peace presents simple-yet-powerful ways to establish healthy boundaries in all aspects of life. Rooted in the latest research and best practices used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), these techniques help us identify and express our needs clearly and without apology–and unravel a root problem behind codependency, power struggles, anxiety, depression, burnout, and more.]]> 282 Nedra Glover Tawwab 0593192109 Matt 5 other 4.26 2021 Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself
author: Nedra Glover Tawwab
name: Matt
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/11/11
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]]> Why You Should Be a Socialist 43263381 A primer on Democratic Socialism for those who are extremely skeptical of it.

America is witnessing the rise of a new generation of socialist activists. More young people support socialism now than at any time since the labor movement of the 1920s. The Democratic Socialists of America, a big-tent leftist organization, has just surpassed 50,000 members nationwide. In the fall of 2018, one of the most influential congressmen in the Democratic Party lost a primary to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old socialist who had never held office before. But what does all this mean? Should we be worried about our country, or should we join the march toward our bright socialist future? In Why You Should Be a Socialist, Nathan J. Robinson will give readers a primer on twenty-first-century socialism: what it is, what it isn’t, and why everyone should want to be a part of this exciting new chapter of American politics.

From the heyday of Occupy Wall Street through Bernie Sanders� 2016 presidential campaign and beyond, young progressives have been increasingly drawn to socialist ideas. However, the movement’s goals need to be defined more sharply before it can effect real change on a national scale. Likewise, liberals and conservatives will benefit from a deeper understanding of the true nature of this ideology, whether they agree with it or not. Robinson’s charming, accessible, and well-argued book will convince even the most skeptical readers of the merits of socialist thought.]]> 336 Nathan J. Robinson 1250200865 Matt 4 social-justice-politics 3.82 2019 Why You Should Be a Socialist
author: Nathan J. Robinson
name: Matt
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/11/04
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]]> <![CDATA[When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times]]> 687278
� Using painful emotions to cultivate wisdom, compassion, and courage
� Communicating so as to encourage others to open up rather than shut down
� Practices for reversing habitual patterns
� Methods for working with chaotic situations
� Ways for creating effective social action]]> 148 Pema Chödrön 1570623449 Matt 4 other 4.27 1996 When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
author: Pema Chödrön
name: Matt
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1996
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience]]> 58330567 Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances—a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.

Over the past two decades, Brown's extensive research into the experiences that make us who we are has shaped the cultural conversation and helped define what it means to be courageous with our lives. Atlas of the Heart draws on this research, as well as on Brown's singular skills as a storyteller, to show us how accurately naming an experience doesn't give the experience more power, it gives us the power of understanding, meaning, and choice.

Brown shares, "I want this book to be an atlas for all of us, because I believe that, with an adventurous heart and the right maps, we can travel anywhere and never fear losing ourselves."]]> 301 Brené Brown 0399592555 Matt 4 other 4.33 2021 Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience
author: Brené Brown
name: Matt
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2021
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War]]> 41044920
It is impossible to think of Russia today without thinking of Vladimir Putin. More than any other major national leader, he personifies his country in the eyes of the outside world and dominates Western media coverage of it to an extraordinary extent. In Russia itself, he is likewise the center of attention for detractors and supporters alike. But as Tony Wood argues, this overwhelming focus on the president and his personality means that we understand Russia less than we ever did before. Too much attention is paid to the man, and not enough to the country outside the Kremlin's walls.

In this timely and provocative analysis, Wood looks beyond Putin to explore the profound changes Russia has undergone since 1991. In the process, he challenges many of the common assumptions made about contemporary Russia. Though commonly viewed as an ominous return to Soviet authoritarianism, Putin's rule should instead be seen as a direct continuation of Yeltsin's in the 1990s. And though many of Russia's problems today are blamed on legacies of the Soviet past, Wood argues that the core features of Putinism--a predatory, authoritarian elite presiding over a vastly unequal society--are integral to the system set in place after the fall of Communism.

What kind of country has emerged from Russia's post-Soviet transformations, and where might it go in future? Russia Without Putin culminates in an arresting analysis of the country's foreign policy--identifying the real power dynamics behind its escalating clashes with the West--and with reflections on the paths Russia might take in the 21st century.]]> 224 Tony Wood 1788731247 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 3.84 2018 Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War
author: Tony Wood
name: Matt
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/09/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sea Is Rising and So Are We: A Climate Justice Handbook]]> 57415313 160 Cynthia Kaufman 162963865X Matt 4 social-justice-politics 4.29 The Sea Is Rising and So Are We: A Climate Justice Handbook
author: Cynthia Kaufman
name: Matt
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/09/09
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]]> <![CDATA[A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines]]> 86856 From the star of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain'sNew YorkTimes-bestselling chronicle of travelling the world in search the globe's greatest cuilnary adventures

The only thing "gonzo gastronome" and internationally bestselling author Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling. Inspired by the question, "What would be the perfect meal?," Tony sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail, and in the process turns the notion of "perfection" inside out. From California to Cambodia,A Cooks' Tourchronicles the unpredictable adventures of America's boldest and bravest chef.

Fans of Bourdain will find much to love in revisting this classic culinary and travel memoir.]]> 277 Anthony Bourdain 0060012781 Matt 0 other 4.08 2001 A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines
author: Anthony Bourdain
name: Matt
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent]]> 52514416 A provocative, elegantly written analysis of female desire, consent, and sexuality in the age of MeToo

Women are in a bind. They are told that in the name of sexual consent and feminist empowerment, they must proclaim their desires clearly and confidently. Sex researchers tell us that women don't know what they want. And men are on hand to persuade women that what they want is, in fact, exactly what men want. In this environment, how can women possibly know what they want—and how can they be expected to?

In this elegantly written, searching book Katherine Angel surveys medical and psychoanalytic understandings of female desire, from Freud to Kinsey to present-day science; MeToo-era debates over consent, assault, and feminism; and popular culture, TV, and film to challenge our assumptions about female desire. Why, she asks, do we expect desire to be easily understood? Why is there not space for the unsure, the tentative, the maybe, the let's just see? In contrast to the endless exhortation to know what we want, Angel proposes that sex can be a conversation, requiring insight, interaction, and mutual vulnerability—a shared collaboration into the unknown.

In this crucial moment of renewed attention to violence and power, Angel urges that we remake our thinking about sex, pleasure, and autonomy without any illusions of perfect self-knowledge. Only then will we bring about Michel Foucault's sardonic promise, in 1976, that "tomorrow sex will be good again."]]> 160 Katherine Angel Matt 0 social-justice-politics 4.07 2021 Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent
author: Katherine Angel
name: Matt
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Your Grief, Your Way: A Year of Practical Guidance and Comfort After Loss]]> 54878482 Comforting words and practical ideas for living with loss.

Everyone experiences grief differently after the loss of a loved one. Some people find solace in comforting quotes and warm words, while others feel a need to take action--to do something to memorialize their loss. And some benefit from both approaches. Here's a path forward for you, no matter how you process your grief.
Your Grief, Your Way features:
- Multiple ways to process grief: Find relief through short meditations, mindful reframings, journaling prompts, concrete actions, and more.
- A year of daily messages of comfort: Each page includes a quote and a short paragraph about grief along with a practical tip--something you can do to tend to your grief.
- Comfort and practicality in short spurts: Discover strength and support in these bite-size nuggets, since grief reduces the ability to focus.
- Quotes from a wide range of grievers: Tend to your grief with thoughtful words of people who have been in your shoes.

Whether you're looking for inspiration, a practical way to honor your loved one, or both, Your Grief, Your Way helps you navigate life after loss.]]> 208 Shelby Forsythia 0593196716 Matt 5 other 4.40 Your Grief, Your Way: A Year of Practical Guidance and Comfort After Loss
author: Shelby Forsythia
name: Matt
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/05/19
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]]> Just Kids 341879 Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work--from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.]]> 304 Patti Smith Matt 5 other 4.19 2010 Just Kids
author: Patti Smith
name: Matt
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/05/06
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]]> <![CDATA[A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster]]> 6444492 A startling investigation of what people do in disasters and why it matters

Why is it that in the aftermath of a disaster--whether manmade or natural--people suddenly become altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What makes the newfound communities and purpose many find in the ruins and crises after disaster so joyous? And what does this joy reveal about ordinarily unmet social desires and possibilities?

In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, looking at major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco through the 1917 explosion that tore up Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She examines how disaster throws people into a temporary utopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities, as well as looking at the cost of the widespread myths and rarer real cases of social deterioration during crisis. This is a timely and important book from an acclaimed author whose work consistently locates unseen patterns and meanings in broad cultural histories.]]> 353 Rebecca Solnit 0670021075 Matt 5 other 3.94 2009 A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: Matt
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/04/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are]]> 60551
In The Book, Alan Watts provides us with a much-needed answer to the problem of personal identity, distilling and adapting the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta.

A revelatory primer on what it means to be human, from "the perfect guide for a course correction in life" (Deepak Chopra)—and a mind-opening manual of initiation into the central mystery of existence.]]> 163 Alan W. Watts 0679723005 Matt 0 other 4.22 1966 The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
author: Alan W. Watts
name: Matt
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1966
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/13
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]]> <![CDATA[A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son's Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha]]> 57355429 176 Rodrigo García 0063158337 Matt 5 other 4.24 2021 A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son's Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha
author: Rodrigo García
name: Matt
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/04/09
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]]> <![CDATA[When They Call You a Terrorist (Young Adult Edition): A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power to Change the World]]> 49127395 Patrisse Khan-Cullors' and asha bandele's instant New York Times bestseller, When They Call You a Terrorist is now adapted for the YA audience with photos and journal entries!



A movement that started with a hashtag--#BlackLivesMatter--on Twitter spread across the nation and then across the world.

From one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Khan-Cullors' story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful.

In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.]]> 272 Patrisse Cullors 1250194989 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.44 2020 When They Call You a Terrorist (Young Adult Edition): A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power to Change the World
author: Patrisse Cullors
name: Matt
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics]]> 36613747 Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? One of America's most admired writers takes us on a mind-altering journey to the frontiers of human consciousness

When LSD was first discovered in the 1940s, it seemed to researchers, scientists and doctors as if the world might be on the cusp of psychological revolution. It promised to shed light on the deep mysteries of consciousness, as well as offer relief to addicts and the mentally ill. But in the 1960s, with the vicious backlash against the counter-culture, all further research was banned. In recent years, however, work has quietly begun again on the amazing potential of LSD, psilocybin and DMT. Could these drugs in fact improve the lives of many people? Diving deep into this extraordinary world and putting himself forward as a guinea-pig, Michael Pollan has written a remarkable history of psychedelics and a compelling portrait of the new generation of scientists fascinated by the implications of these drugs. How to Change Your Mind is a report from what could very well be the future of human consciousness.]]> 480 Michael Pollan 0241294223 Matt 0 other 4.25 2018 How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics
author: Michael Pollan
name: Matt
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/30
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]]> The Year of Magical Thinking 7815
From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."]]> 227 Joan Didion 1400078431 Matt 0 other 3.94 2005 The Year of Magical Thinking
author: Joan Didion
name: Matt
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living]]> 296776
Is this really how I want to live my life?
Each one of us at some point asks this question. The tragedy is not that life is short but that we often see only in hindsight what really matters.
In this, her first book on life and living, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross joins with David Kessler to guide us through the practical and spiritual lessons we need to learn so that we can live life to its fullest in every moment. Many years of working with the dying have shown the authors that certain lessons come up over and over again. Some of these lessons are enormously difficult to master, but even the attempts to understand them can be deeply rewarding. Here, in fourteen accessible chapters, from the Lesson of Love to the Lesson of Happiness, the authors reveal the truth about our fears, our hopes, our relationships, and, above all, about the grandness of who we really are.]]> 224 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 0684870754 Matt 0 other 4.29 1972 Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living
author: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
name: Matt
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/06
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]]> <![CDATA[An Abolitionist's Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World]]> 56269142 An Abolitionist's Handbook, Cullors charts a framework for how everyday activists can effectively fight for an abolitionist present and future. Filled with relatable pedagogy on the history of abolition, a reimagining of what reparations look like for Black lives and real-life anecdotes from Cullors.

An Abolitionist's Handbook offers a bold, innovative, and humanistic approach to how to be a modern-day abolitionist. Cullors asks us to lead with love, fierce compassion, and precision.

In An Abolitionist's Handbook readers will learn how to:

- have courageous conversations
- move away from reaction and towards response
- take care of oneself while fighting for others
- turn inter-community conflict into a transformative action
- expand one’s imagination, think creatively, and find the courage to experiment
- make justice joyful
- practice active forgiveness
- make space for difficult feelings and honor mental health
- practice non-harm and cultivate compassion
- organize local and national governments to work towards abolition
- move away from cancel culture

An Abolitionist's Handbook is for those who are looking to reimagine a world where communities are treated with dignity, care and respect. It gives us permission to move away from cancel culture and into visioning change and healing.]]> 288 Patrisse Khan-Cullors 1250272971 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.14 2022 An Abolitionist's Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World
author: Patrisse Khan-Cullors
name: Matt
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/03/02
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]]> Notes on Grief 57032570 Notes on Grief is an exquisite work of meditation, remembrance, and hope, written in the wake of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's beloved father’s death in the summer of 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged around the world, and kept Adichie and her family members separated from one another, her father succumbed unexpectedly to complications of kidney failure.

Expanding on her original New Yorker piece, Adichie shares how this loss shook her to her core. She writes about being one of the millions of people grieving this year; about the familial and cultural dimensions of grief and also about the loneliness and anger that are unavoidable in it. With signature precision of language, and glittering, devastating detail on the page--and never without touches of rich, honest humor--Adichie weaves together her own experience of her father’s death with threads of his life story, from his remarkable survival during the Biafran war, through a long career as a statistics professor, into the days of the pandemic in which he’d stay connected with his children and grandchildren over video chat from the family home in Abba, Nigeria. In the compact format of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, Adichie delivers a gem of a book--a book that fundamentally connects us to one another as it probes one of the most universal human experiences. Notes on Grief is a book for this moment—a work readers will treasure and share now more than ever--and yet will prove durable and timeless, an indispensable addition to Adichie's canon.]]> 86 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 0593320808 Matt 0 other 4.26 2021 Notes on Grief
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Matt
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
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]]> When Breath Becomes Air 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]> 208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Matt 0 other 4.41 2016 When Breath Becomes Air
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Matt
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
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]]> <![CDATA[Think Indigenous: Native American Spirituality for a Modern World]]> 56209655
There is a natural law—a spiritual intelligence that we are all born with that lies within our hearts. Lakota spiritual leader Doug Good Feather shares the authentic knowledge that has been handed down through the Lakota generations to help you make and recognize this divine connection, centered around the Seven Sacred Directions in the Hoop of

Wiyóhinyanpata � New Beginnings
Itókagata � The Breath of Life
Wiyóhpeyata � The Healing Powers
Wazíyata � Earth Medicine
Wankátakáb � The Great Mystery
Khúta � The Source of Life
Hóchoka � The Center of Life

Once you begin to understand and recognize these strands, you can integrate them into modern life through the Threefold The Way of the Seven Generations —Conscious living The Way of the Buffalo —Mindful consumption The Way of the Community —Collective impact]]> 176 Doug Good Feather 1401956165 Matt 5 other 4.45 Think Indigenous: Native American Spirituality for a Modern World
author: Doug Good Feather
name: Matt
average rating: 4.45
book published:
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son]]> 88362 White Like Me, Tim Wise offers a highly personal examination of the ways in which racial privilege shapes the lives of most white Americans, overtly racist or not, to the detriment of people of color, themselves, and society. The book shows the breadth and depth of the phenomenon within institutions such as education, employment, housing, criminal justice, and healthcare. By critically assessing the magnitude of racial privilege and its enormous costs, Wise provides a rich memoir that will inspire activists, educators, or anyone interested in understanding the way that race continues to shape the experiences of people in the U.S. Using stories instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable and scholarly, analytical and accessible.]]> 250 Tim Wise 1932360689 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.10 2004 White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
author: Tim Wise
name: Matt
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/02/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol]]> 45434420 The founder of a female-focused recovery program offers a radical new path to sobriety.

“You don’t know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEO

We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol’s ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn’t drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don’t imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but.

When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What’s more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don’t need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it.

Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.]]> 368 Holly Whitaker 1984825054 Matt 0 other 3.97 2019 Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol
author: Holly Whitaker
name: Matt
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
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]]> <![CDATA[A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance]]> 49247757 A stirring meditation on Black performance in America from the New York Times bestselling author of Go Ahead in the Rain

At the March on Washington in 1963, Josephine Baker was fifty-seven years old, well beyond her most prolific days. But in her speech she was in a mood to consider her life, her legacy, her departure from the country she was now triumphantly returning to. “I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too,� she told the crowd. Inspired by these few words, Hanif Abdurraqib has written a profound and lasting reflection on how Black performance is inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture. Each moment in every performance he examines—whether it’s the twenty-seven seconds in “Gimme Shelter� in which Merry Clayton wails the words “rape, murder,� a schoolyard fistfight, a dance marathon, or the instant in a game of spades right after the cards are dealt—has layers of resonance in Black and white cultures, the politics of American empire, and Abdurraqib’s own personal history of love, grief, and performance.

Abdurraqib writes prose brimming with jubilation and pain, infused with the lyricism and rhythm of the musicians he loves. With care and generosity, he explains the poignancy of performances big and small, each one feeling intensely familiar and vital, both timeless and desperately urgent. Filled with sharp insight, humor, and heart, A Little Devil in America exalts the Black performance that unfolds in specific moments in time and space—from midcentury Paris to the moon, and back down again to a cramped living room in Columbus, Ohio.]]> 301 Hanif Abdurraqib 1984801198 Matt 5 other 4.60 2021 A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
author: Hanif Abdurraqib
name: Matt
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Modern Man in Search of a Soul]]> 646175 A provocative and enlightening look at spiritual unease and its contribution to the void in modern civilization

Considered by many to be one of the most important books in the field of psychology, Modern Man in Search of a Soul is a comprehensive introduction to the thought of Carl Gustav Jung. In this book, Jung examines some of the most contested and crucial areas in the field of analytical psychology, including dream analysis, the primitive unconscious, and the relationship between psychology and religion. Additionally, Jung looks at the differences between his theories and those of Sigmund Freud, providing a valuable basis for anyone interested in the fundamentals of psychoanalysis.
]]> 244 C.G. Jung 0156612062 Matt 0 other 4.20 1931 Modern Man in Search of a Soul
author: C.G. Jung
name: Matt
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1931
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto]]> 57224758
We’ve been "saving the planet" for decades!…And environmental crises just get worse. All this hybrid driving and LEED building and carbon trading seems to accomplish little to nothing—and low-income communities continue to suffer the worst consequences.

Why aren’t we cleaning up the toxic messes and rolling back climate change? And why do so many Americans hate environmentalists?

Jenny Price says Enough already! with this short, fun, fierce manifesto for an environmentalism that is hugely more effective, a whole lot fairer, and infinitely less righteous. She challenges you, corporate sustainability officers, and the EPA to think and act completely anew—and to start right now—to ensure a truly habitable future.]]> 141 Jenny Price 039354088X Matt 0 social-justice-politics 3.34 2021 Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto
author: Jenny Price
name: Matt
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent: Living the Art of Allowing (Law of Attraction Book 6)]]> 18972093 340 Esther Hicks 1401922473 Matt 0 other 4.48 2006 The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent: Living the Art of Allowing (Law of Attraction Book 6)
author: Esther Hicks
name: Matt
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> The Anxious Hearts Guide 59982774 215 Rikki Cloos Matt 0 other 4.12 The Anxious Hearts Guide
author: Rikki Cloos
name: Matt
average rating: 4.12
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rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/31
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]]> <![CDATA[A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet]]> 50747101
Drawing on a decade of experience leading and teaching in college environmental studies programs, Sarah Jaquette Ray has created an “existential tool kit� for the climate generation. Combining insights from psychology, sociology, social movements, mindfulness, and the environmental humanities, Ray explains why and how we need to let go of eco-guilt, resist burnout, and cultivate resilience while advocating for climate justice. A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety is the essential guidebook for the climate generation—and perhaps the rest of us—as we confront the greatest environmental threat of our time.

]]> 216 Sarah Jaquette Ray 0520343301 Matt 5 4.10 A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet
author: Sarah Jaquette Ray
name: Matt
average rating: 4.10
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rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom]]> 56626177
In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. She saw too much sexual violence and buried too many friends to consider getting rid of police in her hometown of St. Louis, let alone the nation. But the police were a placebo. Calling them felt like something, and something feels like everything when the other option seems like nothing.

Purnell details how multi-racial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. The book travels across geography and time, and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings.

Here, Purnell argues that police can not be reformed and invites readers to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society, and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place.]]> 288 Derecka Purnell 1662600518 Matt 0 social-justice-politics 4.45 2021 Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom
author: Derecka Purnell
name: Matt
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People]]> 30962218 The Empath's Survival Guide is an invaluable resource for empaths and anyone who wants to nurture their empathy and develop coping skills in our high-stimulus world—while fully embracing their gifts of intuition, compassion, creativity, and spiritual connection.

This practical, empowering, and loving book was created to support empaths through their unique challenges and help loved ones better understand the empath's needs and gifts. Dr. Orloff offers crucial practices, including:

� Exercises to help you identify your empath type and where you are on the empathy spectrum;
� Tools for protecting yourself from sensory overload, exhaustion, addictions, and compassion fatigue while replenishing your vital energy;
� Simple, effective strategies to stop absorbing stress and physical symptoms from others and protect yourself from narcissists and other energy vampires;
� How to find the right work that feeds you;
� How to navigate intimate relationships without feeling overwhelmed;
� Guidance for parenting and raising empathic children;
� Awakening the empath's gift of intuition and deepening your spiritual connection to all living beings.

For any sensitive person who's been told to "grow a thick skin," here is a lifelong guide for staying fully open while building resilience, exploring your gifts of depth and compassion, and feeling welcome and valued by a world that desperately needs what you have to offer.]]> 245 Judith Orloff 1622036573 Matt 0 other 3.79 2017 The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People
author: Judith Orloff
name: Matt
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics]]> 168484 123 bell hooks 0896086283 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.16 2000 Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
author: bell hooks
name: Matt
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/12/15
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]]> Unwinding Anxiety 55628986 A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits

We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.

We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work.

Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.]]> 287 Judson Brewer 0593330447 Matt 0 other 3.88 2020 Unwinding Anxiety
author: Judson Brewer
name: Matt
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience]]> 56808517 Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organisers, artists, academics and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.
Contributions by Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Austin Channing Brown, and more.

It started as a text between two friends.

Tarana Burke, founder of the 'me too.' Movement, texted researcher and writer Brené Brown to see if she was free to jump on a call. Brené assumed that Tarana wanted to talk about wallpaper. They had been trading home decorating inspiration boards in their last text conversation so Brené started scrolling to find her latest Pinterest pictures when the phone rang.

But it was immediately clear to Brené that the conversation wasn't going to be about wallpaper. Tarana's hello was serious and she hesitated for a bit before saying, "Brené, you know your work affected me so deeply, but as a Black woman, I've sometimes had to feel like I have to contort myself to fit into some of your words. The core of it rings so true for me, but the application has been harder."

Brené replied, "I'm so glad we're talking about this. It makes sense to me. Especially in terms of vulnerability. How do you take the armour off in a country where you're not physically or emotionally safe?"

Long pause.

"That's why I'm calling," said Tarana. "What do you think about working together on a book about the Black experience with vulnerability and shame resilience?"

There was no hesitation.


Burke and Brown are the perfect pair to usher in this stark, potent collection of essays on Black shame and healing. Along with the anthology contributors, they create a space to recognise and process the trauma of white supremacy, a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of Black love and Black life.]]> 6 Tarana Burke 0593451910 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.52 2021 You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
author: Tarana Burke
name: Matt
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/11/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself]]> 720298
Melody Beattie’s compassionate and insightful look into codependency—the concept of losing oneself in the name of helping another� has helped millions of readers understand that they are powerless to change anyone but themselves and that caring for the self is where healing begins.

Is someone else's problem your problem? If, like so many others, you've lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to a loved one’s self-destructive behavior, you may be codependent--and you may find yourself in this book. With instructive life stories, personal reflections, exercises, and self-tests, Codependent No More helps you to break old patterns, maintain healthy boundaries, and say no to unhealthy relationships. It offers a clear and achievable path to freedom and a lifetime of healing, hope, and happiness.
This ground-breaking book is even more relevant today, as readers confront new, urgent challenges with greater self-awareness, than it was when it first entered the national conversation over 35 years ago.]]> 276 Melody Beattie 0894864025 Matt 0 other 4.12 1986 Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself
author: Melody Beattie
name: Matt
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships]]> 1128665 346 Tristan Taormino 157344295X Matt 5 other 4.07 2007 Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships
author: Tristan Taormino
name: Matt
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/11/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred]]> 13547521 hardcover 273 Mark Nepo 145167466X Matt 5 other 4.05 2006 Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred
author: Mark Nepo
name: Matt
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2006
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times]]> 52623750 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593189481.

An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down.

Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.

A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.

Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.]]> 241 Katherine May Matt 0 other 3.82 2020 Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
author: Katherine May
name: Matt
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
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]]> <![CDATA[Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement]]> 57351643 From the founder and activist behind the largest movement of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Tarana Burke shares her never before revealed life story of how she first came to say me too and launch one of the largest cultural events in American history.

After a long, difficult day working with young Black girls who had suffered the unimaginable, Tarana tossed in her bed, unable to sleep as a fit of memories intruded into her thoughts. How could she help these girls if she couldn't even be honest with herself and face her own demons? A fitful night led to pages and pages of scribbled notes with two clear words at the top: Me too.

Tarana Burke is the founder and activist behind the largest social movement of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the me too movement, but first she had to find the strength to say me too herself. Unbound is the story of how she came to those two words, after a childhood growing up in the Bronx with a loving mother that took a terrible turn when she was sexual assaulted. She became withdrawn and her self split: there was the Tarana that was a good student, model kid, and eager to please young girl, and then there was the Tarana that she hid from everyone else, the one she believed to be bad. The one that would take all the love in her life away if she revealed.

Tarana's debut memoir explores how to piece back together our fractured selves. How to not just bring the me too movement back to empathy, but how to empathize with our past selves, with out bad selves, and how to begin to love ourselves unabashedly. Healing starts with empowerment, and to Tarana empowerment starts with empathy. This is her story of finding that for herself, and then spreading it to an entire world.]]> 272 Tarana Burke 1250621739 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.57 2021 Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement
author: Tarana Burke
name: Matt
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/10/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth]]> 347852 The Road Less Traveled. In the era of I'm OK, You're OK, Peck was courageous enough to suggest that "life is difficult" and personal growth is a "complex, arduous and lifelong task." His willingness to expose his own life stories as well as to share the intimate stories of his anonymous therapy clients creates a compelling and heartfelt narrative.]]> 320 M. Scott Peck Matt 4 other 4.07 1978 The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
author: M. Scott Peck
name: Matt
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1978
rating: 4
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date added: 2021/10/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation]]> 55814319 198 Adrienne Maree Brown 1849354189 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.52 2021 Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation
author: Adrienne Maree Brown
name: Matt
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/10/04
shelves: social-justice-politics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy]]> 52569124
Polyamorous psychotherapist Jessica Fern breaks new ground by extending attachment theory into the realm of consensual nonmonogamy. Using her nested model of attachment and trauma, she expands our understanding of how these emotional experiences influence our relationships. Then, she sets out six specific strategies to help you move toward secure attachments in your multiple relationships.

Polysecure is both a trailblaizing theoretical treatise and a practical guide. It provides nonmonogamous people with a new set of tools to navigate the complexities of multiple loving relationships, and offers radical new concepts that are sure to influence the conversation about attachment theory.]]> 268 Jessica Fern 1944934987 Matt 4 other 4.36 2020 Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy
author: Jessica Fern
name: Matt
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/09/24
shelves: other
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair]]> 42759711
A Kirkus “Best Book of 2019 to Fight Racism and Xenophobia�

Winner of the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice Journalism Award

Finalist for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice

In a book Democracy Now! calls a “complete overhaul of the way we’ve been taught to think about crime, punishment, and justice,� Danielle Sered, the executive director of Common Justice and renowned expert on violence, offers pragmatic solutions that take the place of prison, meeting the needs of survivors and creating pathways for people who have committed violence to repair harm. Critically, Sered argues that reckoning is owed not only on the part of individuals who have caused violence, but also by our nation for its overreliance on incarceration to produce safety—at a great cost to communities, survivors, racial equity, and the very fabric of our democracy.

Although over half the people incarcerated in America today have committed violent offenses, the focus of reformers has been almost entirely on nonviolent and drug offenses. Called “innovative� and “truly remarkable� by The Atlantic and “a top-notch entry into the burgeoning incarceration debate� by Kirkus Reviews, Sered’s Until We Reckon argues with searing force and clarity that our communities are safer the less we rely on prisons and jails as a solution for wrongdoing.

Sered asks us to reconsider the purposes of incarceration and argues persuasively that the needs of survivors of violent crime are better met by asking people who commit violence to accept responsibility for their actions and make amends in ways that are meaningful to those they have hurt—none of which happens in the context of a criminal trial or a prison sentence.]]> 321 Danielle Sered 1620974800 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.47 2019 Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair
author: Danielle Sered
name: Matt
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/09/11
shelves: social-justice-politics
review:

]]> Kink: Stories 54304256 Kink is a groundbreaking anthology of literary short fiction exploring love and desire, BDSM, and interests across the sexual spectrum, edited by lauded writers R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, and featuring a roster of all-star contributors including Alexander Chee, Roxane Gay, Carmen Maria Machado, and more.

Kink is a dynamic anthology of literary fiction that opens an imaginative door into the world of desire. The stories within this collection portray love, desire, BDSM, and sexual kinks in all their glory with a bold new vision. The collection includes works by renowned fiction writers such as Callum Angus, Alexander Chee, Vanessa Clark, Melissa Febos, Kim Fu, Roxane Gay, Cara Hoffman, Zeyn Joukhadar, Chris Kraus, Carmen Maria Machado, Peter Mountford, Larissa Pham, and Brandon Taylor, with Garth Greenwell and R.O. Kwon as editors.

The stories within explore bondage, power-play, and submissive-dominant relationships; we are taken to private estates, therapists� offices, underground sex clubs, and even a sex theater in early-20th century Paris. While there are whips and chains, sure, the true power of these stories lies in their beautiful, moving dispatches from across the sexual spectrum of interest and desires, as portrayed by some of today’s most exciting writers.]]> 288 R.O. Kwon 198211021X Matt 0 other 3.11 2021 Kink: Stories
author: R.O. Kwon
name: Matt
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/09/05
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]]> Laziness Does Not Exist 54304124
Extra-curricular activities. Honors classes. 60-hour work weeks. Side hustles.

Like many Americans, Dr. Devon Price believed that productivity was the best way to measure self-worth. Price was an overachiever from the start, graduating from both college and graduate school early, but that success came at a cost. After Price was diagnosed with a severe case of anemia and heart complications from overexertion, they were forced to examine the darker side of all this productivity.

Laziness Does Not Exist explores the psychological underpinnings of the “laziness lie,� including its origins from the Puritans and how it has continued to proliferate as digital work tools have blurred the boundaries between work and life. Using in-depth research, Price explains that people today do far more work than nearly any other humans in history yet most of us often still feel we are not doing enough.

Filled with practical and accessible advice for overcoming society’s pressure to do more, and featuring interviews with researchers, consultants, and experiences from real people drowning in too much work, Laziness Does Not Exist “is the book we all need right now� (Caroline Dooner, author of The F*ck It Diet ).]]> 256 Devon Price 1982140100 Matt 5 other 3.92 2021 Laziness Does Not Exist
author: Devon Price
name: Matt
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/09/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook]]> 40409969 Medium Raw marks the return of the inimitable Anthony Bourdain, author of the blockbuster bestseller Kitchen Confidential and three-time Emmy Award-nominated host of No Reservations on TV’s Travel Channel. Bourdain calls his book, “A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook,� and he is at his entertaining best as he takes aim at some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, Alice Waters, the Top Chef winners and losers, and many more. If Hunter S. Thompson had written a book about the restaurant business, it could have been Medium Raw.]]> 288 Anthony Bourdain 0061998060 Matt 0 other 3.99 2010 Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
author: Anthony Bourdain
name: Matt
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/08/24
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]]> How to Blow Up a Pipeline 51686708
In this lyrical manifesto, noted climate scholar (and saboteur of SUV tires and coal mines) Andreas Malm makes an impassioned call for the climate movement to escalate its tactics in the face of ecological collapse. We need, he argues, to force fossil fuel extraction to stop—with our actions, with our bodies, and by defusing and destroying its tools. We need, in short, to start blowing up some oil pipelines.

Offering a counter-history of how mass popular change has occurred, from the democratic revolutions overthrowing dictators to the movement against apartheid and for women’s suffrage, Malm argues that the strategic acceptance of property destruction and violence has been the only route for revolutionary change. In a braided narrative that moves from the forests of Germany and the streets of London to the deserts of Iraq, Malm offers us an incisive discussion of the politics and ethics of pacifism and violence, democracy and social change, strategy and tactics, and a movement compelled by both the heart and the mind. Here is how we fight in a world on fire.]]> 208 Andreas Malm 1839760257 Matt 0 social-justice-politics 3.94 2021 How to Blow Up a Pipeline
author: Andreas Malm
name: Matt
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/01
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[The Joy of Being Selfish: Why you need boundaries and how to set them]]> 55714373 Does your boss make constant unreasonable demands?
Do you find yourself saying 'yes' to people and events to keep those around you happy?
Do you often find yourself emotionally exhausted and physically drained?
If so, you need a strong dose of boundaries.

It's time to discover the joy being selfish. Putting the needs of everyone around us before our own is ingrained in us from a young age. Often, this leaves us with little time or energy for much-needed self-love and self-care, and to figure out who we truly are and what we really want. Life coach and influencer '@scarrednotscared' Michelle Elman is here to teach you about reclaiming your life through the art of boundaries. The practical side of self-love, creating and upholding strong boundaries will teach others how to treat you, rid your life of drama and toxic relationships and allow you to love yourself and others in the best way possible.]]> 320 Michelle Elman 1787396770 Matt 5 4.21 2021 The Joy of Being Selfish: Why you need boundaries and how to set them
author: Michelle Elman
name: Matt
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/06/20
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]]> <![CDATA[We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice]]> 56019003
What if social transformation and liberation isn't about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle.

With chapters on seeking justice beyond the punishment system, transforming how we deal with harm and accountability, and finding hope in collective struggle for abolition, Kaba's work is deeply rooted in the relentless belief that we can fundamentally change the world. As Kaba writes, "Nothing that we do that is worthwhile is done alone."]]> 240 Mariame Kaba 164259525X Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.65 2021 We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice
author: Mariame Kaba
name: Matt
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/06/18
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah]]> 29946
In Illusions, Richard Bach takes to the air to discover the ageless truths that give our souls wings: that people don't need airplanes to soar...that even the darkest clouds have meaning once we lift ourselves above them... and that messiahs can be found in the unlikeliest places � like hay fields, one-traffic-light midwestern towns, and most of all, deep within ourselves.]]> 144 Richard Bach Matt 0 4.16 1977 Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
author: Richard Bach
name: Matt
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/06/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World]]> 40672036
In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.

Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don't feel overwhelmed by it. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction.

Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.

Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a thirty-day "digital declutter" process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way.]]> 302 Cal Newport 052553654X Matt 4 4.06 2019 Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
author: Cal Newport
name: Matt
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 4
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date added: 2021/05/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality]]> 7640261
How can reality be reconciled with the accepted narrative? It can't be, according to renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá. While debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternative explanation in this provocative and brilliant book.

Ryan and Jethá's central contention is that human beings evolved in egalitarian groups that shared food, child care, and, often, sexual partners. Weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality, the authors show how far from human nature monogamy really is. Human beings everywhere and in every era have confronted the same familiar, intimate situations in surprisingly different ways. The authors expose the ancient roots of human sexuality while pointing toward a more optimistic future illuminated by our innate capacities for love, cooperation, and generosity.

With intelligence, humor, and wonder, Ryan and Jethá show how our promiscuous past haunts our struggles over monogamy, sexual orientation, and family dynamics. They explore why long-term fidelity can be so difficult for so many; why sexual passion tends to fade even as love deepens; why many middle-aged men risk everything for transient affairs with younger women; why homosexuality persists in the face of standard evolutionary logic; and what the human body reveals about the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality.

In the tradition of the best historical and scientific writing, Sex at Dawn unapologetically upends unwarranted assumptions and unfounded conclusions while offering a revolutionary understanding of why we live and love as we do.]]> 416 Christopher Ryan Matt 5 other 3.95 2010 Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
author: Christopher Ryan
name: Matt
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/04/25
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]]> <![CDATA[More Than a Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament]]> 48930276
—Chelsea Clinton

Positive body image isn’t believing your body looks good; it is knowing your body is good, regardless of how it looks.

How do you feel about your body? Have you ever stayed home from a social activity or other opportunity because of concern about how you looked? Have you ever passed judgment on someone because of how they looked or dressed? Have you ever had difficulty concentrating on a task because you were self-conscious about your appearance?

Our beauty-obsessed world perpetuates the idea that happiness, health, and ability to be loved are dependent on how we look, but authors Lindsay and Lexie Kite offer an alternative vision. With insights drawn from their extensive body image research, Lindsay and Lexie—PhDs and founders of the nonprofit Beauty Redefined (and also twin sisters!)—lay out an action plan that arms you with the skills you need to reconnect with your whole self and free yourself from the constraints of self-objectification.

From media consumption to health and fitness to self-reflection and self-compassion, Lindsay and Lexie share powerful and practical advice that goes beyond “body positivity� to help readers develop body image resilience—all while cutting through the empty promises sold by media, advertisers, and the beauty and weight-loss industries. In the process, they show how facing your feelings of body shame or embarrassment can become a catalyst for personal growth.]]> 352 Lexie Kite 0358229243 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.16 2020 More Than a Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament
author: Lexie Kite
name: Matt
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/04/09
shelves: social-justice-politics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex]]> 52128695 An engaging exploration of what it means to be asexual in a world that's obsessed with sexual attraction, and what we can all learn about desire and identity by using an ace lens to see the world

What exactly is sexual attraction and what is it like to go through the world not experiencing it? What does asexuality reveal about consent, about compromise, about the structures of society? This exceedingly accessible guide to asexuality shows that the issues that aces face—confusion around sexual activity, the intersection of sexuality and identity, navigating different needs in relationships—are conflicts that all of us need to address as we move through the world.

Through interviews, cultural criticism, and memoir, ACE invites all readers to consider big-picture issues through the lens of asexuality, because every place that sexuality touches our world, asexuality does too.

Journalist Angela Chen uses her own journey of self-discovery as an asexual person to unpretentiously educate and vulnerably connect with readers, effortlessly weaving analysis of sexuality and societally imposed norms with interviews of ace people. Among those included are the woman who had blood tests done because she was convinced that "not wanting sex" was a sign of serious illness, and the man who grew up in an evangelical household and did everything "right," only to realize after marriage that his experience of sexuality had never been the same as that of others. Also represented are disabled aces, aces of color, non-gender-conforming aces questioning whether their asexuality is a reaction against stereotypes, and aces who don't want romantic relationships asking how our society can make room for them.]]> 210 Angela Chen 080701379X Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.35 2020 Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
author: Angela Chen
name: Matt
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/04/09
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]]> The End of Policing 35403039 The problem is not overpolicing, it is policing itself

Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself.

This book attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice—even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.

In contrast, there are places where the robust implementation of policing alternatives—such as legalization, restorative justice, and harm reduction—has led to a decrease in crime, spending, and injustice. The best solution to bad policing may be an end to policing.]]> 272 Alex S. Vitale 1784782912 Matt 0 social-justice-politics 4.18 2017 The End of Policing
author: Alex S. Vitale
name: Matt
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious]]> 35187191 New York Times’s “Frugal Traveler,� Seth Kugel has become one of our most internationally beloved travel writers. While his famously unassuming journeys around the globe have forged a signature philosophy of whimsy and practicality, they have also revealed the seemingly infinite booby traps of vacationing on the grid. In a book with widespread cultural reverberations, Kugel takes the modern travel industry to task, determined to reignite humanity’s age-old sense of adventure that has virtually been vanquished by the spontaneity-obliterating likes of Google Maps, TripAdvisor, and Starwood points. Woven throughout with vivid tales of his perfectly imperfect adventures, The Intrepid Traveler explains—often hilariously—how to make the most of new digital technologies without being shackled to them. For the tight-belted tourist and the first-class flyer, the eager student and the comfort-seeking retiree, Kugel shows how we too can rediscover the joy of discovery.]]> 320 Seth Kugel 0871408503 Matt 0 other 3.72 2018 Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious
author: Seth Kugel
name: Matt
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Learning Good Consent: On Healthy Relationships and Survivor Support]]> 27134368
“Whether or not you think you need it, whether or not you’re a survivor, or dating a survivor, or even having sex, you would probably benefit from reading this book. And the people you choose to be intimate with will probably thank you for making their safety a priority.� —Nomy Lamm, Feminist Review

� Learning Good Consent � offers powerful, complicated information (instead of shallow questions and uncomplicated answers). This book speaks to those who are unlearning silence as a safety/communication strategy.� —Jen Cross, make/shift

“Essential reading.� —Colin Atrophy Hagendorf, author of Slice Harvester

“What this book does is to stress not ‘no means no,� or even ‘yes means yes,� but ‘Do you want me to stay here with you?� ‘Are you here?� ‘I thought I wanted this, but I’m not sure now.� ‘Do you think we should take this farther?� I’m moved that this book is here. It matters.� —Alison Piepmeier, author of Girl Making Media, Doing Feminism

Cindy Crabb is an author of the influential, feminist, autobiographical ‘zine Doris , which has been anthologized into two The Encyclopedia of Stories, Essays and Interviews and An Anthology 1991�2001 . Her essays and analyses of the impact of her writing have appeared in numerous books and magazines, The Riot Grrrl Collection ; Stay Solid! A Radical Handbook for Youth ; Girl Making Media, Doing Feminism ; and We Don’t Need Another Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists .]]> 140 Cindy Crabb 1849352461 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.47 2016 Learning Good Consent: On Healthy Relationships and Survivor Support
author: Cindy Crabb
name: Matt
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2016
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/03/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Non Violent Communication A Language of Life]]> 3601593 264 Marshall B. Rosenberg Matt 5 other 4.37 1999 Non Violent Communication A Language of Life
author: Marshall B. Rosenberg
name: Matt
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/03/10
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]]> Man’s Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X Matt 0 other 4.39 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: Matt
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us]]> 17332242 Perv, there is a spectrum of perversion along which we all sit. Whether it’s voyeurism, exhibitionism, or your run-of-the-mill foot fetish, we all possess a suite of sexual tastes as unique as our fingerprints—and as secret as the rest of the skeletons we’ve hidden in our closets.

Combining cutting-edge studies and critiques of landmark research and conclusions drawn by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and the DSM-5, Bering pulls the curtain back on paraphilias, arguing that sexual deviance is commonplace.

Bering confronts hypocrisy, prejudice, and harm as they relate to sexuality on a global scale. Humanizing so-called deviants while at the same time asking serious questions about the differences between thought and action, he presents us with a challenge: to understand that our best hope of solving some of the most troubling problems of our age hinges entirely on the amoral study of sex.]]> 288 Jesse Bering 0374230897 Matt 0 other 3.69 2013 Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us
author: Jesse Bering
name: Matt
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest and Possibility]]> 55239844
In this urgent and incisive collection of new interviews bookended by two new essays, Marc Lamont Hill critically examines the “pre-existing conditions� that have led us to this moment of crisis and upheaval, guiding us through both the perils and possibilities, and helping us imagine an abolitionist future.]]> 128 Marc Lamont Hill 1642594539 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.53 2020 We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest and Possibility
author: Marc Lamont Hill
name: Matt
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: social-justice-politics
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]]> <![CDATA[We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice]]> 55608932
“Cancel� or “call-out� culture is a source of much tension and debate in American society. The infamous "Harper’s Letter,� signed by public intellectuals of both the left and right, sought to settle the matter and only caused greater division. Originating as a way for marginalized and disempowered people to address harm and take down powerful abusers, often with the help of social media, call outs are seen by some as having gone too far. But what is “too far� when you’re talking about imbalances of power and patterns of harm? And what happens when people in social justice movements direct their righteous anger inward at one another?

In We Will Not Cancel Us, movement mediator Adrienne Maree Brown reframes the discussion for us, in a way that points to possible paths beyond this impasse. Most critiques of cancel culture come from outside the milieus that produce it, sometimes even from from its targets. However, Brown explores the question from a Black, queer, and feminist viewpoint that gently asks, how well does this practice serve us? Does it prefigure the sort of world we want to live in? And, if it doesn’t, how do we seek accountability and redress for harm in ways that reflect our values?]]> 88 Adrienne Maree Brown 1849354227 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.28 2020 We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice
author: Adrienne Maree Brown
name: Matt
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Radical Belonging: How to Survive + Thrive in an Unjust World (While Transforming It for the Better)]]> 53311673
We are in the midst of a cultural moment. #MeToo. #BlackLivesMatter. #TransIsBeautiful. #AbleismExists. #EffYourBeautyStandards. Those of us who don't fit into the "mythical norm" (white, male, cisgender, able-bodied, slender, Christian, etc.)—which is to say, most of us—are demanding our basic right: To know that who we are matters. To belong.

Being "othered" and the body shame it spurs is not "just" a feeling. Being erased and devalued impacts our ability to regulate our emotions, our relationships with others, our health and longevity, our finances, our ability to realize dreams, and whether we will be accepted, loved, or even safe.

Radical Belonging is not a simple self-love treatise. Focusing only on self-love ignores the important fact that we have negative experiences because our culture has targeted certain bodies and people for abuse or alienation. For marginalized people, a focus on self-love can be a spoonful of sugar that makes the oppression go down. This groundbreaking book goes further, helping us to manage the challenges that stem from oppression and moving beyond self-love and into belonging.]]> 345 Lindo Bacon 1950665348 Matt 5 social-justice-politics 4.08 2020 Radical Belonging: How to Survive + Thrive in an Unjust World (While Transforming It for the Better)
author: Lindo Bacon
name: Matt
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: social-justice-politics
review:

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