Books of 2024
Dec 27, 2024
I read 29 books in 2024, which is a bit less than the last two years, but there has been a lot going on this year. So that's probably why, which also likely explains why I read more fiction than I normally do. Anyway, you're not here for my year in review, you're here to find out which books I read that you might like!
📚 29 books total
✏️ 19 non-fiction books
🐉 10 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.
The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet
by Becky Chambers
🔗 hodderscape.co.uk
I devoured all of Becky Chambers’ books this year reading six of them in total. She writes science fiction in a genre called Hopepunk which is about surviving in difficult times by banding together and figuring out what to do collectively. That's pretty much an entire genre written especially for me.
This particular book is the first in a four book series set in the far future with space ships, multiple species, and real AI. While the backdrop is the incredible technology and universe, it's more about inter-personal relationships and how to manage conflict. That description might not sound great, but reading about how people resolve deep conflict is like a warm hug when it's needed most and she does it exceptionally well. All her books are great, but this one is one of my favorites and a perfect place to start.
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
edited by Sumaya Awad and Brian Bean
🔗 haymarketbooks.org
This past year the conflict and genocide in Palestine has be very visible for all to see and yet it feels indescribable at the same time. I wanted to learn more about the history of what's going on there and this book was perfect for that. It covers a bunch of different topics that you might want to know about Palestine and Israel and is for people who know nothing about the situation or those who know a little and want to learn more.
While the content of the book was difficult at times due to the nature of what's going on over there, it ended up being fairly easy to read. I recommend this book so highly that I gave away a bunch of them as raffle prizes at my union's annual general meeting.
Against Borders: The Case for Abolition
by Gracie Mae Bradley and Luke de Noronha
🔗 versobooks.com
Why do we have borders between countries? Who benefits from keeping those borders and who suffers? This book is a deep dive into this topic and is exceptionally well done. The authors take you step by step through all the questions and talk through what happens when we have borders and what the world might look like if we abolished them.
Borders seem like a thing that has always existed and always will, and yet this book got me to really think about them as a concept that people came up with and introduced rather than a natural state of the world. They are a process and physical manifestation of choices people make which can just as easily be unmade if we so choose. This book was very easy to read and I recommend it to people every chance I get.
Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times
by Carla Bergman and Nick Montgomery
🔗 akpress.org
Community and labor organizing is hard work because we're fighting against a system that is intensely unjust and unfair. People experience so much harm and mistreatment that it's difficult to not succumb to it and become constantly bitter. This book talks about the difficulties we face in movements and asks us what kind of world we're building if it doesn't have space for joy in it?
I loved this book because it's not prescriptive and the authors go out of their way to be very clear there's no “one way” to do things. They talk through how people have brought joy into various movements and also how the non-joyous stuff can creep in if people aren't careful. This book is a warm balm for an organizer's heart.
People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal
by Marshall Ganz
🔗 oup.com
A lot of books out there about community and labor organizing tend to be introductory books which talk through the basics. I've not been able to find many books at an intermediate or advanced level, which makes this book invaluable since it is exactly that for overall strategy, organizational structure, mentorship and training, and so much more.
The author has decades of experience organizing in movement spaces including the United Farm Workers and the Democratic Party and shares examples of how he put the theory into practice. It's a book that has me thinking a lot and implementing many of the ideas and I've loved it for that.
The list
And lastly, here's everything I read in 2024 in the order I read them. The books with a ⭐ next to them are the ones I highly recommend.
- Memoirs of a Revolutionist - Peter Kropotkin
- ⭐ Palestine: A Socialist Introduction - Edited by Sumaya Awad and Brian Bean
- State Capitalism and World Revolution - C.L.R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, and Grace Lee Boggs
- Parable of the Talents - Octavia E. Butler
- ⭐ Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times - Carla Bergman and Nick Montgomery
- The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin
- Conflict Is Not Abuse - Sarah Schulman
- ⭐ Against Borders: The Case for Abolition - Gracie Mae Bradley and Luke de Noronha
- ⭐ On the Line: Two Women's Epic Fight to Build a Union - Daisy Pitkin
- Adults in the Room - Yanis Varoufakis
- ⭐ The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
- The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation - Cory Doctorow
- How to Win a Grand Prix - Bernie Collins
- A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers
- Emergent Strategy - adrienne maree brown
- Record of a Spaceborn Few - Becky Chambers
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within - Becky Chambers
- How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective - Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
- Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age - Edited by Colin Barker, Gareth Dale, and Neil Davidson
- Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) - Jane McAlevey
- Home is Where We Start - Susanna Crossman
- Loving Corrections - adrienne maree brown
- A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers
- Raising Free People - Akilah S. Richards
- ⭐ Fundamentals of Community Organizing - George Goehl
- To Be Taught, If Fortunate - Becky Chambers
- Dawn - Octavia E. Butler
- ⭐ People, Power, Change - Marshall Ganz
- Shift - Hugh Howey