Favorite Readings

Fiction

• Ceremony (1986) by Leslie Silko
• Mind of My Mind (1977) by Octavia Butler
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert A. Heinlein
• Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia Butler
• Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (2023) edited by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
• Kindred (1979) by Octavia Butler

Non-fiction

Movement Building and Analysis

• An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World (2021) by Patrisse Cullors
• If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution (2023) by Vincent Bevins
• How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective (2012) edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
• How Nonviolence Protects the State (2007) by Peter Gelderloos
• Women, Race & Class (1981) by Angela Davis

History

• Not “A Nation of Immigrants”: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion (2021) by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States (2015) by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
• Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America (2023) by Michael Harriot (fantastic audiobook!)

Aboliton

• We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (2021) by Mariame Kaba
• From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America (2017) by Elizabeth Hinton
• Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces (2013) by Radley Balko
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition (2010/2020) by Michelle Alexander
• Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) by Angela Davis
• Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (2020) by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law
• An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World (2021) by Patrisse Cullors

Technology

• Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines (2023) by Dr. Joy Buolamwini
  • Also see her documentary on Netflix Coded Bias
• Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor (2018) by Virginia Eubanks
• Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World (2018) by Meredith Broussard
• Algorithms of Oppression (2018) by Safiya Umoja Noble

Mental Health and Relationships

• Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill (2019) by Robert Whitaker
• The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation by Cathy O’Neil (Author of the groundbreaking book, Weapons of Math Destruction)
• The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love (2004) by bell hooks
• An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World (2021) by Patrisse Cullors (I know this is on several lists, but it is really good and applicable to so many facets.)

Memoirs and Biographies

• Assata (1998) by Assata Shakur
• A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (1992) by Elaine Brown
• When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir (2018) by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele
• Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land (2020) by Toni Jensen

Articles and Reports

• The AI Lawyer is Here How Artificial Intelligence is making its way into the legal system by Jamiles Lartey - 02-10-2024
• Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be inhumane by Rumman Chowdhury - 06-14-2023
• AI Desperately Needs Global Oversight by Rumman Chowdhury - 04-06-2023
• Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023 by Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner - 03-14-2023
• Praying for Hand Soap and Masks: Health and Human Rights Violations in U.S. Immigration Detention during the COVID-19 Pandemic from Physicians for Human Rights - 01-12-2021
• In the Shadows: A Review of the Research on Plea Bargaining by Ram Subramanian, Léon Digard, Melvin Washington II, and Stephanie Sorage - 09-2020
• Shadow Prisons: Immigrant Detention in the South by Eunice Hyunhye Cho and Paromita Shah

On My Shelf

2024 Reading List
Fiction Titles in Pink - Favorites in Bold
Title	Author	Genre	Year	fiction	shorts	read	rec
Finished Books
Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines	Joy Buolamwini	technology, social justice	2023	0	0	1	FALSE
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution	Cat Bohannon	science, social justice, feminism	2023	0	0	1	FALSE
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness	Michelle Alexander	social justice	2010	0	0	1	FALSE
Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor	Virginia Eubanks	social justice	2018	0	0	1	FALSE
Are Prisons Obsolete?	Angela Y. Davis	social justice	2003	0	0	1	FALSE
Not “A Nation of Immigrants”: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion	Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz	history, social justice	2023	0	0	1	TRUE
If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution	Vincent Bevins	social justice, movement analysis	2023	0	0	1	TRUE
Wild Seed	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1980	1	0	1	FALSE
Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World	Meredith Broussard	technology, social justice	2018	0	0	1	FALSE
Mind of My Mind	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1977	1	0	1	TRUE
Voices in the Code: A Story About People, Their Values, and the Algorithm They Made	David G. Robinson	technology, social justice	2023	0	0	1	FALSE
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress	Robert A. Heinlein	science fiction	1966	1	0	1	FALSE
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America	Michael Harriot	history	2023	0	0	1	TRUE
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation	Anna Malaika Tubbs	history, social justice, feminism	2021	0	0	1	FALSE
Hunger Games	Suzanne Collins	science fiction	2008	1	0	1	FALSE
The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation	Cathy O’Neil	technology, psychology, social justice	2022	0	0	1	FALSE
Chatching Fire	Suzanne Collins	science fiction	2009	1	0	1	FALSE
Mockingjay	Suzanne Collins	science fiction	2010	1	0	1	FALSE
Token Black Girl: A Memoir	Danielle Prescod	memoir	2022	0	0	1	FALSE
More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech	Meredith Broussard	technology, social justice	2024	0	0	1	TRUE
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective	Edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor	social justice, feminism	2017	0	0	1	FALSE
The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor	Hamilton Nolan	labor	2024	0	0	1	FALSE
Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code	Ruha Benjamin	technology, social justice	2019	0	0	1	FALSE
Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need	Sasha Costanza-Chock	technology, social justice	2020	0	0	1	TRUE
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir	Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele	memoir	2018	0	0	1	FALSE
A Disability History of the United States	Kim E. Nielsen	social justice, labor, history	2018	0	0	1	FALSE
Belonging: A Culture of Place	bell hooks	essays	1990	0	0	1	FALSE
Go Tell It On the Mountain	James Baldwin	semi-autobiographical novel	1953	1	0	1	FALSE
The Selected Works of Audre Lorde	Audre Lorde, Edited by Roxane Gay	feminism	2020	0	0	1	FALSE
Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism	Harsha Walia	social justice, migration	2021	0	0	1	TRUE
Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class	Jefferson R. Cowie	labor, history	2010	0	0	1	FALSE
Ain’t I a Woman?	bell hooks	feminism	1981	0	0	1	FALSE
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land	Toni Jensen	memoir	2020	0	0	1	FALSE
Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment	Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz	history, social justice	2018	0	0	1	FALSE
All the Real Indians Died Off: And 20 Other Myths about Native Americans	Dina Gilio-Whitaker and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz	history	2016	0	0	1	FALSE
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds	adrienne maree brown	social justice	2017	0	0	1	FALSE
Clay’s Ark	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1984	1	0	1	FALSE
Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms	Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law	social justice	2020	0	0	1	TRUE
Patternmaster	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1976	1	0	1	FALSE
An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World	Patrisse Cullors	social justice, radical self-love	2021	0	0	1	TRUE
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love	bell hooks	feminism	2004	0	0	1	TRUE
Parable of the Sower	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1993	1	0	1	TRUE
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology	Edited by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.	short stories	2023	1	1	1	FALSE
Parable of the Talents	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1998	1	0	1	FALSE
Kindred	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1979	1	0	1	FALSE
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good	Written and Gathered by adrienne maree brown	social justice	2019	0	0	1	FALSE
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Mark Twain	adventure fiction	1876	1	0	1	FALSE
Fledgling	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	2005	1	0	1	FALSE
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love	Sonya Renee Taylor	radical self-love	2018	0	0	1	FALSE
What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World	Prentis Hemphill	social justice, radical self-love	2024	0	0	1	TRUE
Dawn	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1987	1	0	1	FALSE
Adulthood Rites	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1988	1	0	1	FALSE
Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.	Luis J. Rodriguez	memior	1993	0	0	1	FALSE
Imago	Octavia E. Butler	science fiction	1989	1	0	1	FALSE
Trippy: The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics	Ernesto Londono	psychiatry, mental health	2024	0	0	1	FALSE
All Systems Red	Martha Wells	science fiction	2017	1	0	1	FALSE
Books in Progress
Engage and Evade: How Latino Immigrant Families Manage Surveillance in Everyday Life	Asad L. Asad	immigration policy	2023	0	0	0	FALSE
Reel to Real: Race, Class and Sex at the Movies	bell hooks	feminism	1996	0	0	0	FALSE
All About Love: New Visions	bell hooks	feminism	1999	0	0	0	FALSE
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa	Walter Rodney	history, economics	1972	0	0	0	FALSE
The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence	Petra Molnar	migration	2024	0	0	0	FALSE
Short Story Collections in Rotation
Night of the Living Rez	Morgan Talty	short stories	2022	1	1	0	FALSE
A People’s Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers	Edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams	short stories	2019	1	1	0	FALSE
Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements	Edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha	short stories	2015	1	1	0	TRUE