Books of 2022

I read 34 books last year, which is way more than any other year I've been tracking for 11 years. The second closest year was 19 books! My partner regularly reads 52 books a year (including audio books) and that's something I'd like to try to do this year as well.

📚 34 books total
✏️ 29 non-fiction books
⭐ 7 books I'd highly recommend

Here are a couple of books I'd like to highlight as ones that were particularly good or important reads.

Accountability in the age of social media

We Will Not Cancel Us by adrienne maree brown

This book is the most memorable and influential that I read this year, and it's a surprisingly small 80 pages. How do we deal with harm and accountability on the internet and social media? How do we hold ourselves accountable and learn from our mistakes without being overwhelmed by people yelling at us? These are really big questions and I learned a lot from this small book. There are no easy answers, so this book is more about asking questions to get us thinking about what we're doing now and what we might want to try in the future.

The Martian 2 (kind of)

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

It's not actually the Martian 2, but it's written by the same author and gave me the same joy that reading that book did. It's a fun filled romp through space where shit goes wrong and science and teamwork is the only cure. I tore through this book in a couple of days and loved it the whole time.

A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the US

Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States by Sharon Smith

I disliked history in school because I couldn't see how what they were teaching related to me, so this is the kind of history book I wish I had read instead. It's told mostly from the perspective of the working class and what they've done to create massive change. How did the 8 hour work week come about? Why did those in power start attacking communists and create the red scare? What happened with the union movement and what in the world was going on with the AFL and CIO? This book was fantastic and explained so much about why things happened in the US.

Language for how to Understand People

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg

So many of the issues we have with people can be improved if we learn to communicate with everyone and I've learned that more and more the past couple of years. This book gives some pretty damn good tools for how to approach that with people, especially when you disagree or have arguments. I liked it so much I asked if my partner would read it and I think we're both better off for having done so. The book has some areas I think it doesn't do well in like dealing with systemic power imbalances, but I still think it's fantastic overall and would love more people to read it.

The list

Here's everything I read in 2022. The books with a ⭐ are the ones I highly recommend.

1. Rosa Luxemburg - Dana Mills
2. Empowered Boundaries - Cristien Storm
3. Why Marx Was Right - Terry Eagleton
4. We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice - Mariame Kaba
5. ⭐Abolish Work: ““Abolish Restaurants”” Plus ““Work, Community, Politics, War”" - Prole.info
6. The Short Guide to Community Development - Alison Gilchrist and Marilyn Taylor
7. Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents - Great Britain: Home Office
8. Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication - Meenadchi
9. Queer Icons and Their Cats - Alison Nastasi ; PJ Nastasi
10. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed - Mariana Enriquez, Translated by Megan McDowell
11. Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paulo Freire
12. Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation - adrienne maree brown
13. How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems - Randall Munroe
14. ⭐Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
15. There And Back: Photographs From The Edge - Jimmy Chin
16. Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality - Julia Shaw
17. Another Now - Yanis Varoufakis
18. Prisms of the People - Hahrie Han, Elizabeth McKenna, Michelle Oyakawa
19. How to Make Tea - Brian R. Keating & Kim Long
20. Anarchist Communism - Peter Kropotkin
21. Black Ghost of Empire - Kris Manjapra
22. A Collective Bargain - Jane McAlevey
23. ⭐We Will Not Cancel Us - adrienne maree brown
24. ⭐The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls - Mona Eltahawy
25. Do You Dream of Terra-Two? - Temi Oh
26. Red Star Over the Third World - Vijay Prashad
27. ⭐Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States - Sharon Smith
28. Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation - Colin Grant
29. ⭐Nonviolent Communication - Marshall B. Rosenberg
30. Unions Renewed: Building Power in an Age of Finance - Alice Martin, Annie Quick
31. ⭐Talking to My Daughter: A Brief History of Capitalism - Yanis Varoufakis
32. Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America - Ijeoma Oluo
33. Amílcar Cabral: A Nationalist and Pan-Africanist Revolutionary - Peter Karibe Mendy
34. Shrill - Lindy West