10 books for right now
A curated list of books to read for whatever tf this part is
Hello! This is a curated list of ten books for right now, drawn from what I’ve read over the past few years while going through a long transition (where I didn’t belong in my previous life and hadn’t created the next one and existed as imaginal goo) in which I lost a true sense of meaning, purpose, reason, and joy, all while the world around me felt increasingly complicated and impossible to reenter or function in.1
During this period I read a shit ton, mainly in order to figure out what was going on with me and to better understand what was happening to the world, and this is a list that captures the best of those titles, but specifically for the post-election $#UCK!*/%!!@
A lot of what I read ended up being nonfiction, with the majority falling into the categories of philosophy/sense-making, feminism, addiction and recovery, human development, cultural development, sociology, anthropology, spirituality, technology, eco-feminism/environmental philosophy, and futurism. There was also a mix of post-apocalyptic fiction, self-help, and even poetry.
These are the best of the best among hundreds of books, and I recommend all of them equally. There are suggestions for further if you’re into a specific book or topic —because I can’t help myself.
See you Sunday, love you lots.
TOP TEN BOOKS FOR RIGHT NOW
[UPDATE: it’s actually 11 books because I had two #2s!, but 11 is a GREAT number so we’re going with it.]
1. Emergent Strategy (adrienne maree brown)
This entire “top ten” list exists because of how impactful this book has been for me to read in the weeks since the election. I had this book for years and tried to read it and couldn’t, at first because it felt like a personal attack (I couldn’t hear about how deeply problematic charismatic leaders are while I was still trying to crush being one) and then because I just could not get into it. I tried so hard. I thought it about it all the time. I moved it around and put it in different book piles. But then a month ago in whatever post-election fugue I was in, I picked it up and couldn’t stop. The best way for me to describe this book to you is that it’s my actual operating guide for this moment—it is the answer to the questions I have. Here’s somequotes from it to give you an idea of her tone, the topics covered, and how relevant it is to this moment in time.
“Real time is slower than social media time, where everything feels urgent. Real time often includes periods of silence, reflection, growth, space, self-forgiveness, processing with loved ones, rest, and responsibility.”
“Demonizing is more efficient than relinquishing our world views.”
“The easier “being wrong” is for you (the faster you can release your viewpoint), the quicker you can adapt to changing circumstances.”
“How do I listen to others? As if everyone were my Teacher, speaking to me (Her) cherished last words.” (←This is Hafiz.)
“We are all the protagonists of what might be called the great turning, the change, the new economy, the new world. And I think it is healing behavior, to look at something so broken and see the possibility and wholeness in it.”
“If we accept the scientific and science fictional premise that change is a constant condition of this universe, then it becomes important that we learn to be in right relationship with change.”
“We are all learning what it means to be somebodies who shape the future, to operate at the scale of transformation.”
READ THIS if you believe love is how the story ends, you’re burnt out on performative activism/ cancel culture/ post-modern deconstruction /pessimism/colonialism/ capitalism (all the isms), and looking for a no-nonsense guide on how to navigate multiple post-apocalyptic scenarios with grace and a love ethic.
2. When Things Fall Apart (Pema Chödrön)
To some of you this is an obvious choice, but it’s the obvious books that I return to when I need them the most. When we’re in extreme distress we’re not working at our higher centers—we’re in survival mode, and we need to be reminded of simple ideas in simple language because that’s usually all we can absorb (think of when you just get the worst news…you’re not going to be reading intellectual papers, you’re going to be getting your animal body to rest so your nervous system can recover and saying things like “this too shall pass” or “it’s going to be okay”). Anyway! This book is one that I’ve found to be accessible and reassuring when everything breaks and I can’t bring myself back together. I read it many times in the past few years, and it never failed to bring me back to the center or at least give me some solid ground or a way to relax into the chaos. Favorite quote: “When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something.”
READ THIS if you want a little reassurance and to feel empowered or clearer in chaos (it makes my nervous system settle almost immediately, and it has saved me from making so many rash, life-destroying decisions.)
Related titles: Practicing Peace in Times of War (Pema Chödrön). This one is probably the one I would recommend over WEFA for this particular moment, but WEFA is such a brilliant sturdy book it wins.
3. Doppelganger (Naomi Klein)
There are many reasons to read this book, from her discussion on the cost of cancel culture and Israel and Gaza to social media and becoming our own brands. My primary reason for recommending it is for her specific arguments about why the real conspiracy is capitalism, and how until enough of us internalize that idea we’ll continue to remain polarized and blame many people caught under the heel of the same system (think about how the recent assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO brought shared outrage from both sides of the political divide—this was in part (IMO) because the guts spilled out and everyone had to talk about it; instead of it being Obamacare/the left is stealing your money, United is.) In my discussion of the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO (bottom of this newsletter), I wove in some of her ideas from this book because they were spot on. I can’t recommend it enough.
READ THIS if you want to understand this moment in the broader context of social media, technology, and capitalism or why your formerly liberal friend voted for DJT and got hot for Joe Rogan.
4. Metamodernism (Brendan Graham Dempsey)
This one is hard to talk about without immediately worrying I’m putting you to sleep. I need you to know the words METAMODERNISM or SPIRAL DYNAMICS are just awful boring words that sound like a corporate seminar but that are actually representative of some of the most fascinating frameworks that exist in explaining human behavior—from why we get addicted and recover to why masks became a political symbol to why half the country feels like they are living an entirely fucking different reality.
Understanding human and cultural development models (like Piaget, Wilber, Loevinger, Maslow) has been foundational to my work—I’ve studied them since 2014 and it would be fair to say nearly everything I write about is somehow either influenced by or rests on my knowledge of them. And of all the books I’ve read on them, this one is one of the easiest to understand and the one that has the most relevant cultural examples, and is most specific to this exact point in time. (I recommend this piece by
that summarizes the book.)If you want to get a grip on wt fuck is happening, this is a great place to start.
READ THIS if you’re ready to stop being mad at everyone for being where they are at, and want to be part of a solution that takes into account that we live in a global society with many cultures and people at vastly different stages of development.
Related content: Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values (Don Beck) [audio version is the only one I like], A Brief History of Everything (Ken Wilber), Trump and a Post Truth World (Wilber), Integral Recovery (Dupuy OR du Plessis, there are two models). I mentioned this podcast by last week which dabbles a bit in some of the concepts; Elise also did an explainer on Spriral Dynamics, and Trace Bell is a legend on this subject.
5. What is Zen?: Plain Talk for a Beginner’s Mind (Norman Fischer)
While I don’t practice Zen meditation or Buddhism, I did start reading both this book on Zen as well as Zen Mind, Beginners Mind during my long transition, and they were the most helpful books on how to move through my life when most days it was hard to get out of the house let alone the bed. When you’re in an existential crisis and life has completely lost its meaning and you don’t know what the fuck to do and a spiritual practice feels totally unattainable, it’s helpful to be reminded that every aspect of your life can become a meditation, or that brushing your teeth and washing the dishes can be your spiritual practice.
READ THIS if you need really simple, practical and direct advice for how to human right now.
6. Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism (Yanis Varoufakis)
I’ve read many books on what comes after capitalism and this one takes the cake. Yanis suggests we are already beyond capitalism, in what he calls a new kind of feudalism (Technofeudalism!) where we all pay rent to a handful of wealthy landowners, except in this modern case the real estate is digital and the landlords are Elon, Mark and Jeff. The gist is that the wealth gap is growing, that money that flowed into the markets post-2008 was essentially siphoned out of the economy by the wealthiest and turned into super yachts, leaving the majority of the world impoverished and blaming one another and not the five fucking men who own and manipulate all of it.
READ THIS if you want to stop getting dopamine hits from frictionless online consumerism but need a better case for it.
Related content: This podcast that summarizes the book.