Field Notes from a Catastrophe

Elizabeth Kolbert

Kolbert’s essays span Kyoto, Bush-era climate denialism, ocean acidification, Canadian tar sands, and melting glaciers.

The Companion Species Manifesto

Donna Haraway

This academic pamphlet from Donna Haraway describes dog writing as “a branch of feminist theory, or the other way around.”

Thinking Small

Daniel Immerwahr

A historical—and critical—look at the history of community development, locating its roots in dubious US-led efforts in India, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

The Lathe of Heaven

Ursula K. Le Guin

This brief novel from Ursula K. Le Guin concerns a man named George Orr who has a most unwelcome ability: his dreams have the power to alter reality.

Ancillary Mercy

Ann Leckie

The conclusion of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series is more madcap than the preceding books, and fiercely satisfying.

Ancillary Sword

Ann Leckie

The second of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series follows Breq as she’s given command of a ship—her first since she was herself a ship, before the Lord of the Radch destroyed it.

Ancillary Justice

Ann Leckie

The first in Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series introduces Breq, an AI who once inhabited a starship and many of it’s formerly-human crew.

Alias Grace

Margaret Atwood

In 1840s Toronto, a woman named Grace Marks, just shy of 16 years old, escapes with a man after one or both of them murder their employer and his housekeeper-turned-mistress.

The Internet of Garbage

Sarah Jeong

Jeong calls bullshit on the predominant stance that online harassment is an unsolveable problem.

Can’t and Won’t

Lydia Davis

Critical and flippant, funny and devastating, calming and maddening.

On Booze

F. Scott Fitzgerald

This hurried collection of short works by Fitzgerald from New Directions purports to be about booze but is really more steeped in it.

The Girl in the Road

Monica Byrne

In a near future marked by rising sea level, two girls embark on ambitious ventures.