Books

fiction

Foxfire, Joyce Carol Oates
The thrilling story of a girl-gang in upstate New York in the 1950's.

Into the Forest, Jean Hegland
In beautifully flowing prose, Hegland tells the story of two teenage girls struggling to survive after the collapse of civilization.

Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling
After being thoroughly impressed with the first movie, I began reading the books and quickly became obsessed. These books are not just for kids. There's so much to theorize about, so many minute details that you can only notice on a second read, and lots of obscure mythological and historical references.

Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
A novel of philosophy that explores human history and our relationship with the environment. I first read this book as a young teenager, and, like many who have read it, it changed my life. And I'm not exaggerating; it sent me in a completely new direction, and I can't imagine where I'd be without it.

Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
The story of a lesbian's coming of age, set in Victorian London. It's amazingly well-researched, and it's fascinating to see that even in such sexually repressive times, hidden enclaves of queer society were thriving.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
A five-part trilogy, starting with the classic that revealed the significance of the number 42 and introduced the babelfish that proves (and therefore negates) the existence of God.

Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
The delightful children's classic, filled with whimsy and nonsense. The Mad Tea Party is brilliant, and Jabberwocky (from the sequel Through the Looking Glass) is one of the greatest poems ever written.

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
I first read this play when I was 14, after the Claire Danes/Leonardo DiCaprio movie came out, and I have loved it ever since. In 2001 I started memorizing it, one scene at a time, and I'm halfway through Act 3 now.

The Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean Auel
The story of a young orphaned girl growing up in Ice Age Europe 30,000 years ago; the first book of the Earth's Children series. There are some things I don't like about these books — the inaccuracies in anthropology and human evolution, the Mary Sue-ness of the main character — but I still love this series because it's well-written, has a lot of interesting detail on survival skills and wild plants, and it explores a time of human history that most people ignore.

Annie on my Mind, Nancy Garden
This is such a sweet love story. When Liza, a senior in high school living in New York City, meets Annie, she knows there's something different about her. The girls fall in love and Liza realizes she's gay, but their secret romance doesn't remain secret for very long.

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
I don't know how he does it, but Nabokov manages to make a dirty old man into a sympathetic, understandable character. It's a beautifully-written book, sprinkled with literary references throughout (and literary references I actually get).

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
A brilliant fictionalized account of the life of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob, who was briefly mentioned in Genesis. This reimagining of ancient Hebrew life shows the story from the women's perspective, and much of Dinah's life centers around the red tent where women go to menstruate and give birth.

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
A richly imagined dystopia in which fertility rates have declined and women deemed able to produce children are forced to bear children for the barren wives of rich men.

The Color Purple, Alice Walker
An epistolary novel about Celie, a young black woman living in the South in the early 20th century, and her life as she is abused by her stepfather and her husband, and as she eventually rises above it and makes a life for herself. At one point Celie says, "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."

Ecotopia, Ernest Callenbach
The classic environmental utopian novel, where the northwest US has succeeded from the Union to form an ecologically-sound nation. His utopia is well-thought out, with many ideas for sustainability and ecotechnology, and I only wish that we had the political will to really create such a society.

The Last Witchfinder, James Morrow
When her scholarly aunt is burned at the stake, Jennet sets out to disprove the existence of witchcraft and thus destroy her witchfinder father's livelihood. Her lifelong pursuit finds her in a variety of strange situations: living among an Indian tribe after being taken captive, stranded on an island in the Caribbean with her lover Ben Franklin, and then on trial for witchcraft herself in an attempt to overturn the law. The book is beautifully written and historically fascinating, as Jennet explores the scientific knowledge of the 17th and 18th centuries.

nonfiction

Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
This book arose from the question of why some human cultures wind up conquering others, and sets out to disprove the age-old assumption of the superiority of white Europeans. Instead, Diamond lays out a superb argument that geographic differences between regions allowed those cultures to develop the resources and social organization that led to their ability to spread over the world.

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education, Grace Llewellyn
If you're still in school, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK! You don't know what you're missing. I read it as a junior in high school, and subsequently dropped out of my Quaker school to do unschooling my senior year, and even though I only had one year of unschooling, it made such a difference for me. I became enamored with the idea of education, and most importantly I learned how to learn. Even though my unschooling officially ended when I graduated, I've been unschooling myself ever since.

Metamagical Themas, Douglas R. Hofstadter
In this amusing book, Hofstader examines whimsies of language and thought. There's an excellent (and hilarious) chapter on sexism in language.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter
I can't understand all the things he talks about in here, especially the mathmatical formulae he discusses at length, but the part I can understand, I really enjoyed, especially the Dialogues. This book brought back my interest in Escher's art, and now I'm beginning to listen to Bach's music as well. Maybe someday I'll be able to tackle Gödel's Theorem.

Living on the Earth, Alicia Bay Laurel
A cute hippy book with tons of information, like how to make pottery from the clay in a stream bed, how to give birth at home, how to can vegetables, tips for gardening, camping, etc.

The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
A study of evolution, focusing on the inherent selfishness of genes. Dawkins examines the way that genes drive evolution and how an organism's behavior reflects its genes' strategies for maximizing replication. This book also coins the extremely useful term meme, as he explains how Darwinian theory can apply to non-biological systems such as human culture.

The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
This book sets out to prove that the existence of God is exceedingly unlikely, and it succeeds at that (although I was already convinced). Dawkins also gives a sensible explanation of the origins of religion as a byproduct of other necessary adaptations, and argues that religion does much more harm than good.

Full House, Stephen Jay Gould
Gould argues against the idea that evolution is a progress from "lower", less complex organisms, to "higher", more complex organisms, with humans as the end result. Gould says that the evolution of humans was "a cosmic accident that would never arise again if the tree of life could be replanted."

The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould
This book handily disproves the notion that IQ is an accurate measure of intelligence (or that intelligence is even a measurable thing), and also disproves the supposed mental differences between races.

The Tragedy of the Moon, Isaac Asimov
A collection of science essays on many different topics. The title essay, about the moon in human culture and its impact on calendars and history, is just fascinating, especially for a selenophile like me.

The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram
An absorbing book about the relationship between humans and our environment, focusing on the animistic religions of indigenous cultures, the way that humans perceive landscape, and the effect of written language on human societies.

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