Reading list · 8 books

For when the news is too much

True stories of people who kept going, and the long view the daily headlines leave out.

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Hope in the Dark (opens Bookshop.org)

Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities

Rebecca Solnit · 2004

Rebecca Solnit, writing after the Iraq war began, recalls social movements whose effects were slow and unpredictable, and argues that uncertainty leaves room for change.
A Paradise Built in Hell (opens Bookshop.org)

The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster

Rebecca Solnit · 2009

Rebecca Solnit examines the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Halifax explosion, Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, documenting how ordinary people organized to help one another.
Man's Search for Meaning (opens Bookshop.org)

Viktor E. Frankl · 1946

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl describes his years in Auschwitz and other camps and the approach to meaning he developed there, later called logotherapy.
The Book of Hope (opens Bookshop.org)

A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams · 2021

Primatologist Jane Goodall talks with Douglas Abrams over several conversations about her four reasons for hope, among them human intellect, nature's resilience and young people.
Braiding Sweetgrass (opens Bookshop.org)

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

Robin Wall Kimmerer · 2013

Botanist and Potawatomi citizen Robin Wall Kimmerer combines plant science with Indigenous teaching in essays on gratitude, reciprocity and caring for land.
Drawdown (opens Bookshop.org)

The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

Paul Hawken (editor) · 2017

Paul Hawken and a team of researchers rank one hundred existing climate solutions, from wind turbines to refrigerant management, by their projected effect on emissions and cost.
Hope Dies Last (opens Bookshop.org)

Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times

Studs Terkel · 2003

Oral historian Studs Terkel, in his last major book, interviews activists, organizers and ordinary Americans about why they keep working for change.
Four Thousand Weeks (opens Bookshop.org)

Time Management for Mortals

Oliver Burkeman · 2021

Journalist Oliver Burkeman draws on philosophers and the roughly four thousand weeks of an average life to argue for accepting limits and choosing what to leave undone.