Books have always been and continue to be my beacon. Reliably guiding how I prepare for, respond to and recover from life. Titles will be added periodically as I continue to comb through my many digital libraries or incorporate other recent reads. The following list is in no way reflective of everything I read daily, but does consist of the books that have genuinely helped me find my way. I have no doubt that several of these recommended reads will further support your activism, advocacy, community, relaxation and personal growth as well.
Movements, Activism & Advocacy
You Are Your Best Thing | Tarana Burke & Brene Brown
We Are Each Other’s Harvest | Natalie Baszile
The Solidarity Struggle: How People Of Color Succeed and Fail At Showing Up For Each Other In The Fight For Freedom | Mia McKenzie & CeCe McDonald
Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice Art and Activism of Sins Invalid | Shayda Kafai
We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice | Mariam Kaba
Abolition for the People: The Movement for A Future Without Policing and Prisons | Colin Kaepernick
The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Care | Zena Sharman
Pussy Prayers: Sacred and Sensual Rituals For Wild Women Of Color | Black Girl Bliss
The Cancer Journals | Audre Lorde
Parable Of The Brown Girl: The Sacred Lives of Girls Of Color | Khristi Lauren Adams
Black Imagination | Natasha Marin
Beyond The Gender Binary | Alok Vaid-Menon
How To Tell A Story | The Moth
The Devil Never Sleeps | Juliette Kayyem
Facilitating Breakthrough | Adam Kahane
Essentials Of Health Justice | Joel B. Teitelbaum
Queer Love in Color | Jamal Jordan
Black Joy | Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts
The Black Agenda | Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman
Disaster and Human Trafficking | Mondira Dutta
Disaster Recovery Through The Lens Of Justice | Alessandra Jerolleman
God Is a Black Woman | Christena Cleveland
Fresh Banana Leaves | Jessica Hernandez
State of Emergency | Tamika D. Mallory
For Brown Girls with Soft Edges and Tender Hearts | Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez
Brown Girls | Daphne Palasi Andreades
Black Food Matters | Hanna Garth
The Sex Lives of African Women | Nana Darkoa sekyiamah
Disasterology | Samantha Montano
There’s A Revolution Outside My Love: Letters From A crisis | Tracy K. Smith & John Freeman
Inflamed: Deep Medicine and The Anatomy Of Injustice | Rupa Marya & Raj Patel
Feminist AF: A Guide To Crushing Girlhood | Brittney Cooper
The Politics Of Trauma | Staci Haines
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice | Leah Lakshmi Piepzma-Samarasinha
Skin, Tooth, Bone: A Disability Justice Primer | Sins Invalid
Medicine Stories | Aurora Levins Morales
The Purpose Of Power | Alicia Garza
All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism | Lydia X. Z. Brown & Autism Women & Nonbinary Network
Unbowed: A Memoir | Wangari Maathai
How To Be An Anti-Racist | Ibram X. Kendi
Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer And Sex Changed A Nation At War | Leymah Gbowee
Angela Davis: An Autobiography | Angela Y. Davis
The Fire This Time | Jesmyn Ward
When They Call You A terrorist | Patrice Con Colors
Resistance & Hope: Essays By Disabled People | Alice Wong
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis And The Next | Dean Spade
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage & Solutions For The Climate Crisis | Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katherine K. Wilkinson
The Art Of Creative Thinking: 89 Ways To See Things Differently |Rod Judkins
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals | Alexis Pauline Gums
Emergent Strategy | Adrienne Maree Brown
Pleasure Activism: The Politics Of Feeling Good | Adrienne Maree Brown
We Will Not Cancel Us | Adrienne Maree Brown
Structured Negotiation | Lainey Feingold
Stakes Is High | Mychal Denzel Smith
The Age of Dignity | Ai-Jen Poo
I Write What I Like | Steve Biko
Across Boundaries: The Journey Of A South African Woman Leader | Mamphela Ramphele
We Are Not Here To Be Bystanders | Linda Sarsour
Sustaining Spirit: Self Care For Social Justice | Naomi Ortiz
Unbought And Unbossed | Shirley Chisholm
The Good Fight | Shirley Chisholm
You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train | Howard Zinn
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and The Pathway To Mending Our Hearts & Bodies | Resmaa Menakem
We Want To Do More Than Survive | Bettina Love
Passages In Caregiving | Gail Sheehy
Song In A Weary Throat | Pauli Murray
Mighty Justice | Dovey Johnson Roundtree
We Speak For Ourselves | D. Watkins
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women And Women Of Color | Andrea Ritchie
Disability Visibility | Alice Wong
Women Writing Resistance Essays On Latin America And The Caribbean | Jennifer Browdy
Love and Rage | Lama Rod Owens
The Art Of Gathering | Priya Parker
Disability and Theater: A Practical Manual for Inclusion in the Arts | Stephanie Barton-Farcas
Sister Outsider | Audre Lor
How We Show Up | Mia Birdsong
A Taste Of Power | Elaine Brown
Citizen: An American Lyric | Claudia Rankine
Dog Whistle Politics | Ian Haney Lopez
A Black Women’s History Of The United States | Daina RameyBerry
Healing Resistance | Kazu Haga
Beyond Survival | Leah Lakshmi Piepzma-Samarasinha
A Disability History Of The United States | Kim E. Nielsen
What The Eyes Don’t See: A Story Of Crisis, Hope and Resistance in an American City | Mona Hanna-Attisha
Feeding On Dreams | Ariel Dorfman
Medical Apartheid | Harriet A. Washington
Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution | Mona Eltahawy
First Person Accounts of Mental Illness & Recovery | Craig Winston
Long Walk To Freedom | Nelson Mandela
Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael| Kwame Ture
Personal Narratives, Essays & Stories
This Here Flesh | Cole Arthur Riley
My Broken Language | Quiara Alegria Hudes
Unbound | Tarana Burke
Toufah | Toufah Jallow
The Last Nomad | Shugri Said Salh
Bamboozled By Jesus | Yvonne Orji
I Don’t Want to Die Poor | Michael Arceneaux
This Child Will Be Great | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
The Body Is Not An Apology | Sonya Renee Taylor
No Ashes in the Fire | Darnell L. Moore
Find Another Dream | Maysoon Zayid
Aftershocks | Nadia Owusu
I Wonder As I Wander | Langston Hughes
The Big Sea: An Autobiography | Langston Hughes
I’m Telling the Truth, But I’m Lying | Bassey Ikpi
A Small Place | Jamaica Kincaid
Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close | Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman
Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen | Nina G.
Thick: And Other Essays | Tressie McMillan Cottom
Eloquent Rage | Brittney Cooper
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes | Dr. Maya Angelou
What I Know For Sure | Oprah Winfrey
Invisible Man, Got The Whole World Watching | Mychal Denzel Smith
Unashamed | Leah Vernon
Too Late To Die Young | Harriet Mcbryde Johnson
Untamed | Glennon Doyle
The Pretty One | Keah Brown
She Came To Slay | Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Year Of Yes | Shonda Rhimes
Haben | Haben Girma
Succeeding Against The Odds | John H. Johnson
The Book Of Delights | Ross Gay
I’m Judging You | Luvvie Ajayi
Born A Crime | Trevor Noah
Kinky Gazpacho | Lori Tharps
Justice Shorter 