The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy – Wendy Syfret | Nonfiction
A Declaration of the Pleasure of Pointlessness.
Wendy Syfret is a nihilist, or rather, a sunny nihilist. Nihilism often has a negative connotation. After explaining the history and nuances of nihilism, Syfret explores the ways in which nihilism can be reworked into a form of coping or consolation through appreciation of “the little things.” She warmly encourages readers to take action: live in the present to enjoy your life and instead of falling victim to apathy, reframe feelings of being small to leave the world better than you found it.
Further reading: How to be a happy nihilist an article by Wendy Syfret.
Know My Name – Chanel Miller | Memoir
Trigger warnings: sexual assault, gaslighting, graphic content
Know My Name is a disturbing, raw recounting of Chanel Miller’s sexual assault by Brock Turner at Stanford University in 2015, and subsequent trial. The title of her memoir is fitting – as the nation knows the name of the perpetrator but not the victim. Over the course of years, Miller grapples with a biases, the criminal justice system, and trauma. Through healing and writing, Chanel Miller takes her name back by proving that she is not just a victim, but a complex person; a writer, an artist, and a fighter.
“Know My Name is a gut-punch, and in the end, somehow, also blessedly hopeful.”
–Washington Post
Review by The New York Times
Sacred Self-Care: Daily Practices for Nurturing Our Whole Selves – Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes | Self-Help
This book is a seven-week guide designed by psychologist and theologian, Dr. Walker-Barnes, to help readers in developing lifelong habits that encompass mind, body, and soul. Dr. Walker-Barnes encourages readers to consider self-care as divine right and sacred obligation.
Each day in the guide includes a short story and prompts to help readers shift their mindsets.
- Mastering the Self-Care Fundamentals
- Practicing Self-Compassion
- Setting Healthy Boundaries
- Caring for Our Emotional Selves
- Caring for Our Minds
- Practicing Self-Care as a Way of Life
Sex With a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery – Annie Liontas | Memoir
In her thirties, Annie Liontas sustained multiple brain injuries, which led to strange problems, such as an increased sense of smell, extreme fatigue, confusion, dizziness, and more. Liontas’ head trauma inspires her to learn more about the phenomenon, as there is very little research done on TBIs (traumatic brain injuries). She learns that most studies done on TBIs do not include women or queer people and that 50-80% of incarcerated people have gotten at least one TBI.
This book is excellent for readers who have experienced TBI themselves, or for readers who are close to someone with a TBI.
Inward – Yung Pueblo | Poetry
A collection of meditative poems written by Diego Perez under his pen name of Yung Pueblo, which means “young people”
Inward is the first in a series. This installment explores self-love and how that intertwines with letting go and learning about oneself.
Perez has now written 4 books, with his most recent release in October of 2023 – The Way Forward.
The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America – Coleman Hughes | Nonfiction
In Hughes’ first book, he warns that the antiracist movement is actually driving society toward a new kind of racism. As one of very few Black students in his philosophy program at Columbia University, he wondered why his peers were more pessimistic about racism in America than his grandparents, who lived through segregation. Calling back to the ideals that originally inspired the American Civil Rights movement, he offers the ways a colorblind and racially just culture could be possible.
