Environmentalism With Dragons

Jenn Northington Feb 2, 2017

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Amanda and Jenn discuss books about Africa, non-NBA basketball reads, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked.

This week’s episode is sponsored by the Book Riot Store and the Swords & Spaceships newsletter.

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Questions

1. Hello Amanda and Jenn,

I love your podcast and hope you can give me more to read.

Like many bookish folk, my heart raced a bit when we met the book people in F451. I also was interested in what the Wikipedia entry calls “ecologically minded misfits” in Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Not to focus just on fiction, I have just finished Bryan Burrough’s Days of Rage about the mid-century underground movements.

Can you suggest other titles (fiction and non-fiction) that address clandestine groups that are motivated to create what they believe is a better civilization?

–ErnieK

2. Hello!

I was listening to the Sarah MacLean episode of the Reading Lives podcast and really identified with her when she discussed feeling naive about Africa. While Googling books to read, I became overwhelmed. Where would you recommend that I start?
Thank you!

3. Happy new year and all that jazz, may the next one bring us less shit than the former !

As I sat down to plan for the 2017 read harder challenge, I come across a curious problem at the very first task. (not an actual problem, I have a list as long as my arm of [kicking ball sport, not named to prevent international confusion] books, I’ll complete the task easily, it’s more of a query).”That’s an easy one”, I thought, “I’ll just read a basketb… oh, they’re all going to be about NBA, ain’t they ?”. Shining beacon of the sport as I am sure NBA is, it is also something I have zero interest in.

So, my question is : is there anything, fiction or non-fiction, I’m not picky, on the non-NBA basketball related genre?

Thanks!
–Eva

4. Hey all,

My grandmother’s birthday is coming up and I wanted to see if you could help me think of some book recs for her. My grandmother used to read a lot when she was younger but it has been difficult for her as she has become mostly blind. I set her up with an Amazon Echo and now she listens to my books on Audible and loves it. If you can recommend any good audiobooks that she might find interesting, that would be great. She has listened to Game of Thrones and the Outlander series and really enjoyed those. She does obviously like long series so anything with multiple books and/or many hours on audio would probably appeal to her. I don’t think she would be into sci-fi, but some fantasy seems a safe bet. She also did mention that she would like something steamy. lol

Thanks!

–Rachel

5. I’m a bisexual woman and I’m in the process of coming out. My closest friends know but I have yet to tell my mother (who doesn’t believe in bisexuality) or her homophobic family members- my dad has been very supportive. Anyway, I’m looking for some books about bisexual or lesbian characters. I’ve read Oranges are Not the Only Fruit and fell in love. I tried reading some Sarah Waters but it didn’t hook me so I didn’t finish it. The book doesn’t necessarily have to be about coming out, I’m more interested in simply finding compelling books about bisexual or lesbian woman. I would be interested in reading something like Jeanette Winterson that focuses on gay people in religious families. My mother’s family are extremely religious Evangelists. They already think I’m a demon because I’m an atheist, so I’m very excited for them to find out I’m gay too! So can you guys help me out?
(P.S. Jeanette Winterson’s biography is already on my list, as well as The Color Purple, and Fried Green Tomatoes)
–Virginia

6. Hi!

I was hoping you could recommend some books, fiction or non fiction, that talk about the Israel/Palestine conflict. I’m looking for different perspectives, so something that looks at it from a western viewpoint would be great, but I also want to read something from a local viewpoint.

If you’d be willing to answer a second recommendation questions with extremely loose ties to the first, I would be eternally grateful. I’ve started listening to some economic based podcasts, and I’d love some books to go along with those. Specifically books about the changes in economics since the beginning of the US involvement in the middle east. See, I told you it was related. Kind of…

Thanks so much for your time and help!

– Logan

Books Discussed

Oneida by Ellen Wayland-Smith (rec’d by Liberty)

Lexicon by Max Barry

An Autobiography by Angela Davis

The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth

Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, translated by Roland Glasser

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Mighty Be Our Powers by Leymah Gbowee

King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander