Hello everyone,
Over the past year, it’s become crystal clear to me that our community book club is one of my favorite parts of this project overall. Perhaps what I love about it is the increased motivation I feel to read, or the intimacy of our group discussions, or the obvious benefit of reading alongside other like-minded humans who help to reveal so much more about a book than I could on my own. Either way, I’m happy to announce another six months of books, and I hope to see both old and new faces during our group discussions!
For the past six months, I chose books that aligned in some way to the archetypal nature of the first six astrological signs that the sun resided in. For the next six months, we’ll be covering the final six!
So, without further ado, here’s what we’ll be reading!
October: Libra
Venus and Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire by Bettany Hughes
“A cultural history of the goddess of love, from a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian. Aphrodite was said to have been born from the sea, rising out of a froth of white foam. But long before the Ancient Greeks conceived of this voluptuous blonde, she existed as an early spirit of fertility on the shores of Cyprus -- and thousands of years before that, as a ferocious warrior-goddess in the Middle East. Proving that this fabled figure is so much more than an avatar of commercialized romance, historian Bettany Hughes reveals the remarkable lifestory of one of antiquity's most potent myths. Venus and Aphrodite brings together ancient art, mythology, and archaeological revelations to tell the story of human desire. From Mesopotamia to modern-day London, from Botticelli to Beyoncé, Hughes explains why this immortal goddess continues to entrance us today -- and how we trivialize her power at our peril.
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November: Scorpio
Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair by Sarah Schulman
“From intimate relationships to global politics, Sarah Schulman observes a continuum: that inflated accusations of harm are used to avoid accountability. Illuminating the difference between Conflict and Abuse, Schulman directly addresses our contemporary culture of scapegoating. This deep, brave, and bold work reveals how punishment replaces personal and collective self-criticism, and shows why difference is so often used to justify cruelty and shunning. Rooting the problem of escalation in negative group relationships, Schulman illuminates the ways cliques, communities, families, and religious, racial, and national groups bond through the refusal to change their self-concept. She illustrates how Supremacy behavior and Traumatized behavior resemble each other, through a shared inability to tolerate difference. This important and sure to be controversial book illuminates such contemporary and historical issues of personal, racial, and geo-political difference as tools of escalation towards injustice, exclusion, and punishment, whether the objects of dehumanization are other individuals in our families or communities, people with HIV, African Americans, or Palestinians. Conflict Is Not Abuse is a searing rejection of the cultural phenomenon of blame, cruelty, and scapegoating, and how those in positions of power exacerbate and manipulate fear of the "other" to achieve their goals.”
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December: Sagittarius
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa
“This modern spiritual classic highlights a trick we play on ourselves and offers a brighter reality: liberation by letting go of the self rather than working to improve it. The Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa calls attention to the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. "The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use," he says, "even spirituality." The universal tendency is to see spirituality as a process of self-improvement—the impulse to develop and refine the ego when the ego is, by nature, essentially empty. Trungpa's incisive, compassionate teachings serve to wake us up from these false comforts. Featuring a new foreward by his son and lineage holder, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism has resonated with students for nearly thirty years—and remains as fresh as ever today.”
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January: Capricorn
Thrust: A Novel by Lidia Yuknavitch
“As rising waters—and an encroaching police state—endanger her life and family, a girl with the gifts of a ‘carrier’ travels through water and time to rescue vulnerable figures from the margins of history. Lidia Yuknavitch has an unmatched gift for capturing stories of people on the margins—vulnerable humans leading lives of challenge and transcendence. Now, Yuknavitch offers an imaginative masterpiece: the story of Laisvė, a motherless girl from the late 21st century who is learning her power as a carrier, a person who can harness the power of meaningful objects to carry her through time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as the Brook, she discovers a talisman that will mysteriously connect her with a series of characters from the past two centuries: a French sculptor; a woman of the American underworld; a dictator's daughter; an accused murderer; and a squad of laborers at work on a national monument. Through intricately braided storylines, Laisvė must dodge enforcement raids and find her way to the present day, and then, finally, to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a connection that might save their lives—and their shared dream of freedom. A dazzling novel of body, spirit, and survival, Thrust will leave no reader unchanged.”
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February: Aquarius
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
“When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions. Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.”
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March: Pisces
Radical Forgiveness: A Revolutionary Five-Stage Process to Heal Relationships, Let Go of Anger & Blame, and Find Peace in Any Situation by Colin Tipping
“Is there a divine purpose behind everything that happens? If you're willing to embrace that possibility, every aspect of your life can change. This is the theory behind Colin Tipping's revolutionary method for experiencing the freedom, peace, and renewed energy that come with Radical Forgiveness. Radical Forgiveness gives us step-by-step instruction in what begins as a healing process, and culminates in an entirely new way of living in the world. With more than a dozen tools that can help us find peace in a difficult work situation or let go of painful events from the past, this book offers quick, easy-to-use practices and clear insights for exploring the transformative Radical Forgiveness process.”
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Buy on Thrift Books
How to participate:
You are welcome to join us for some or all of these books, and you can participate in whatever way is easiest for you.
Regardless of how you’d like to participate, the only way to get access to updates, Zoom links and WhatsApp details is to sign up for the official MGSW book club Substack newsletter, which is separate from what you’re currently signed up for. Here is how to do that…
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Okay! These picks look great!
I would love to join the bookclub