7 books to spark action
Recommendations for getting started, building community, climate action, and more
If the past few weeks have left you doom spiraling, have you tried a book to inspire some action? I can’t help it—this is answers in the pages, after all—I’m going to turn to books in this moment. And sure, you’re allowed to spiral at times, it’s been a devastating start to the year. And sure, escaping into a story is also called for at times, but we need to resist apathy and fight to care.1
Turning to books goes back to one of my reading “whys,” to feel connected. In reading the books below I felt connected to the feelings, experiences, and actions within the pages. They’ve inspired me to volunteer, find and build community, to continue learning. I don’t always get it right, but I can come back to what I learned from these titles when I need to refocus my time and attention.
I know it’s hard and so much feels impossible now, but to quote one of the books below, “Sadness is an appropriate response to threat and damage to what you love, and the underlying love matters.” I hope your underlying love drives you to consider what you can offer, and that one of these books helps you figure out what that is.
Motivation to get started
Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit
“It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.”
Originally published in 2004, it’s still as timely as ever. This book of essays focuses on “hope as a commitment to act when the future remains uncertain and unknowable.” The hope is delivered through stories of victory, many with the reminders that those involved didn’t always immediately see the results of their positive impact. This is available as a free ebook from Haymarket books.
Read if: You need reminders of hope, examples of activism success. Can you reach out to someone you know doing the work and learn from them? Can you look back and celebrate your past efforts for some motivation?
Building community
Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up and What We Make When we Make Dinner, Liz Hauck
“It’s a story about the interconnectedness of food and memory, and community service and community care. This is also a story of modern America.”
After her father’s unexpected passing, the author decides to make good on their shared plan to offer a weekly cooking program at the human service agency where he worked, a group home for teenage boys. She shares her experiences of getting to know the residents, the employees; and becoming a source of dependability and routine, and connecting with them over a shared meal.
Read if: You’ve been wanting to volunteer but don’t know where to start. Is there a service org near you that offers regular opportunities to serve meals? Could you start one? Do you have a talent or hobby that could be used as a regular offering?
Inciting Joy, Ross Gay
“Though I didn’t yet have the words for it, planting that orchard—by which I mean, you know this by now, joining my labor to the labor by which it came to be—reminded me, or illuminated for me, a matrix of connection, of care, that exists not only in the here and now, but comes to use from the past and extends forward into the future.”
The transformative power of community and joy is a theme throughout this book of essays. From gardening to pickup basketball, Gay’s stories will make you think about the joy that comes from showing care to others. When I think about building community, his essay Free Fruit For All! about his work in a community orchard has stuck with me. What started as noticing an announcement in his local paper, led to attending a meeting, from there volunteering for site preparation and plant selection, which led to naturally being part of the board. As the orchard takes shape, he acknowledges how many people are involved—loaning tools and books, writing grant proposals, donating, and all the little and big decisions that must be made. And they were all doing this with that understanding that fruit production takes time so “all this vocating, was actually for someone—might be me, but it might not be. And it would definitely be for someone I would never know, and could never imagine.” In our world of instant gratification, this might be the greatest lesson to take forward with whatever action you chose.
Read if: You want to have deeper, joyful connections with the people in your life. Is there a community rec center near you? Is there a hobby you enjoy that you could extend to others?
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, Eric Klinenberg
Anyone who has been to a library lately can see how important they are. Not just in providing books and information, but offering connection, shelter, and more. Aside from libraries, this book walks through other public institutions and spaces that bring people together: playgrounds, parks, sidewalks, courtyards, and community gardens.
Read if: You want to know your neighbors better. Can you support your local library? Clean-up a park? Start a community garden?
Climate action
Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, Edited by Rebecca Solnit & Thelma Young Lutunatabua
“Consumption disconnects us from community. When you’re sick, you order soup online instead of a friend bringing it over to you. If any good buds of truth came out of the pandemic and perpetual climate disasters, it’s the reminder that communities and healthy ecosystems are how we survive.”
Any book you read about the climate crisis is going to bring up feelings of sadness, anxiety, despair, or your go-to despondent emotion of choice. We are too late in this crisis to react otherwise. But this book was a project to provide hope and power through facts and perspectives. It does just that with reminders that “grief and fear can be a kind of doorway,” allowing these feelings to drive our actions, make us more committed. (Are you seeing a theme yet in these recs?) Through essays and interviews from a variety of contributors, you’ll find lessons from the past and dreams for the future; and similar to the book below, solutions and frameworks, most focused on the power of community. (Again, on the themes.)
Read if: You want motivation to join a local climate action group or build a group in your community. Do you want to protest? Learn about writing op-eds?
What If We Get It Right, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
“It is not about the glory. It’s about the ripples. This is what progress often looks like: success without rewards.”
I finished this one in January and have declared it a BOOK I WON’T SHUT UP ABOUT.™ Take me to the bookshop and I’m going to hold this up to you and talk about it for ten minutes. Minor mentions of the climate crisis in a meeting, let me tell you everything I learned about that from Dr. Johnson. What I like most is how this book is organized, covering topics from farming to design, to divesting and corporations, and of course policy. Through interviews with over 20 contributors, you can learn about all the work being done and find your space. Here’s how that looks:
Read if: You don’t know where to start in making an impact with the climate crisis. Can you start talking about the climate crisis more with your people? Is there a local climate group you can join like Citizens’ Climate Lobby, 350 or Third Act?
One more
Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond
This book didn’t fit neatly in the categories above but is worth the mention in understanding the deep inequalities of American life. Desmond clearly explains the ins and outs of poverty, the solutions available to us, and urges readers to become poverty abolitionists.
Read if: You are interested in poverty, how it got this way, and what solutions are available. Is there an organization near you doing the work?
What’s on my list
Democracy in Retrograde, Emily Amick & Sami Sage
As a paid subscriber of
, I’m looking forward to learning more from Emily and her co-author to help focus my efforts.Have you read any of books I listed? What book would you recommend to a friend who is spiraling and needs some direction?
You might also like:
A sentiment from R. Eric Thomas: “I call my senator, a lot. Just to chat. I write letters and commentary to stake claim for the things I believe in. I vote. I march. I tap-dance for justice. And, in the ends, I know that we are not at war with our terrible leaders. Instead, we are fighting against nihilism itself. We are fighting to care. What makes you happy or sad or brings you joy or makes you feel anything at all—it matters.”
Adding what if we get it right to my list ASAP (I’m still on book buying ban till my IRL tbr pile is deceased). I also love all the content the folks at Drawdown are putting out there about climate and the technologies that will help us „get it right“