BSR Book Week staff recommendations: Reading as resistance

We’re rounding up the books that keep BSR team members going in tough times: books that make us feel seen, teach us, inspire us, and keep us joyful and rested and fed and ready to fight another day.

From executive director Neil Bardhan:

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari

I've grappled for more than 25 years with how distracting I find the Internet. Smartphones and social media have intensified this, especially as we see their effects on politics and culture. This book is one of many that address digital distraction, but it’s the first that's really, dare I say, held my attention. Hari weaves together conversations with scientists and technologists into his own experience of a deep detox as he tries to understand for himself, and then explain to the reader, how this has all come about. I've been horrified by the digital age on many levels and am relieved to be digesting Hari's analysis. I need to reconsider rest and productivity generally, to say nothing of my relationship with big data.

Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky

A trans-focused graphic novel about horror and old friends at a bachelor party? Yes, this is a beautiful combination of keywords. I'm too much of a wimp to enjoy horror movies. This format really works for me, particularly as Lubchansky illustrates a fantastic Vegas-esque dystopia and captures the wording of stereotypical bro conversations in equally devastating ways.

From social-media manager Maya Arthur:

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

Resistance through reading Baldwin means confronting the roots of racial injustice with clarity, courage, and a call to moral reckoning.

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

This book is resistance through witnessing—Rankine’s lyric fragments expose the micro and macro violences of racism, urging us to stay awake and speak back.

The Sovereignty of Quiet: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture by Kevin Quashie

Quashie teaches resistance through interiority, reminding us that quiet is not absence but a radical space for Black selfhood and imagination.

White Girls by Hilton Als

Als resists categorization through fluid, genre-defying prose that interrogates identity, desire, and race with fierce intellect and vulnerability.

Go Find Your Father/A Famous Blues by Harmony Holiday

Holiday’s hybrid text is resistance through memory and music, tracing lineage and loss while reclaiming Black creative legacy through poetic excavation.

Mess and Mess and by Douglas Kearney

Kearney’s explosive poetics embody resistance through form—disrupting language itself to mirror the chaos and creativity of Black life and survival.

From BSR intern Chhaya Nayyar:

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Buried Giant follows an elderly couple in a post-Arthurian Britain on a quest to find their son. The novel grapples with ideas of collective and personal memory and the suppression of the past. It reminds us that even though amnesia and ignorance may be easier, in the end, they separate us from the experience of humanity altogether.

Waiting for the Mahatma by R.K. Narayan

Set against the backdrop of 20th-century India under British Colonial rule, Waiting for the Mahatma questions nationalism as an ideology. Narayan's political and social satire is the backdrop of a curious bildungsroman novel for our protagonist, Sriram, who resists being shaped by the transitional period of history he is living through.

From editor-in-chief Alaina Johns:

Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry

In Hersey’s manifesto, our bodies belong to ourselves, not to grind culture, capitalism, white supremacy, or any other legacy of slavery. There is so much to savor here, but one of the things that landed the deepest with me is Hersey’s insistence that we can’t achieve a better future if we can’t imagine it first, and that dream-space requires rest. I particularly recommend the audiobook, which is read by the author. The whole thing is like a deeply restorative and poetic meditation. Listen on the couch, in the shower, or on a long walk.

Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan

This isn’t just a theory or opinion. It’s a study of resistance and revolutionary movements around the world that consistently reveals the effectiveness of nonviolent protest. There’s a lot here, but what stands out the most for me is how the authors prove that nonviolent protest is more effective than the alternative because more people can participate in it, enabling a mass movement. And as more people mobilize, diversifying the crowd, they bring a greater variety of resistance tactics to the table. The authors also convincingly demonstrate that where nonviolent resistance is successful, it has a better chance of achieving sustained democratic reform than revolution through violence.

Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam

This fascinating book takes us through history and around a world where trans, gender-fluid, and/or nonbinary people held important roles that were specific to their own culture. Heyam, a trans scholar, has a lot of challenging insights, including their opinion that it may not be helpful to distinguish gender identity and/or expression as separate from sexual orientation. While those in power try to erase trans people from history and public life, we must fight back by learning the truth: trans and nonbinary people have always been here, all around the world.

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward

Despite its provocative title, this book by a self-identified butch lesbian scholar is deeply generous and hopeful. Ward (aiming particularly at cis hetero women) dives into the rampant paradoxes of heterosexual life, including the way heterosexual men are conditioned to desire women while simultaneously disdaining them. This exciting book is an essential read for anyone questioning gender norms and the marriage industrial complex.

Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else) by Olúfhemi O. Táíwò

I ultimately wanted more analysis than this relatively short book offered, but I recommend it anyway. Táíwò digs into the unintended consequences of identity politics and argues that instead of obsequiously giving the mic to the most marginalized person who managed to fight their way in the door, we focus on real collective action that holds the door open for all.

You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself when Cooking Feels Impossible by Margaret Eby

I expected to skim through this cute little book and glean a few recipes, but I ended up absorbed, reading every page to the end, nodding along, laughing out loud, and making lists. This book is a revelation. Eby doesn’t just leave us with a whole new arsenal of tips for eating easily and well (even for broke, busy people and parents). She kicks restrictive and elitist philosophies of eating to the curb in a way that feels hopeful and liberating for anyone who has ever stood exhausted in front of the fridge.

BONUS! Recs from Friends of BSR:

From Anndee Hochman (also an esteemed BSR writer):

Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit

A cogent, well-researched, emphatic reminder that activism matters because we live in uncertainty, the outcomes of even the most dire events are not inevitable, and we have the capability to make communal change. A clarifying tonic for both the optimists ("it will all be fine") and pessimists ("we're screwed") among us.

From an anonymous Friend of BSR:

The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood by Kristen Martin

This resonated with me for many reasons: it's an informative look into an often-overlooked topic with a detailed and human approach, combining the author's personal history with extensive research into the many ways this country has handled (or mis-handled) orphans. It gets dark, but Martin (who lives in South Philly) brings humor and hope into the narrative.

Our Friends of BSR donate at least $5 monthly or make a one-time annual gift of $60 or more. They attend our events for free, get exclusive updates from the editors, and have the chance to participate in programs like Book Week by adding their recommendations. Executive director Neil Bardhan ([email protected]) can answer any questions about becoming a Friend.