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How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan: I was skeptical when I first heard about this book-- Michael Pollan writing about psychedelics? I thought a section that was included in a NYTimes pre-release was cringey. So, I set it aside for awhile and opted instead for the more radical books on psychedelics (like Tao Lin's Trip book about basically every drug they've ever taken). Any-who, finally got around to it and boy-o was I wrong. Pollan does a fantastic job combining history, journaling experience, and considering the future. I read How to Change Your Mind most nights before bed and Pollan's steady hand was meditative and consistently lulled me into expansive thought. Those nights reading translated into some great night's sleep and I've been trying to find something nearly as lovely ever since. Please please please read this.
Parable (series) by Octavia Butler: Butler, an author deserving of any and all celebration, recognizes a god in change. I was converted.
Upgrade Soul by Ezra Clayton Daniels: Such a brilliant sci-fi graphic novel that examines what it means to be "better" and how that defines what's worse.
Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown: An Octavia Butler scholar rethinks activism from many different perspectives of the natural world and pleasure. These are books to own and utilize often. These are revolutionary.
Making Comics by Lynda Barry: Re-learn to let your hand speak!
The Overstory by Richard Powers: I bet you've heard of this one-- and the change to how you see the trees around you is probably why.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: The world of botany as described and explored through Native American traditions. This is the real non-fiction book that The Overstory imagines.
- Jordan
*artwork from Lynda Barry's Making Comics
