The books I am currently reading or plan to read can be found in my 2023 Reading List.
1 Year -> 34 Books
Here are my diverse reading list 2022 stats
- Woman/Men/Other 15/16/2
- BIPOC*/White 18/14
- Art or Graphic Novel/Non-Fiction/Fiction or Poetry 2/12/20
- Paper/e-reader/Audiobook 14/0/20
- The language I read/ heard the book in German/English 18/16
*here, I count all authors who share their perspective as part of a marginalized group – the dominant group usually is white. As I am a German reader, the suppressing group, in that case, is white, cis-gender, heterosexual, and somewhat Christian.
My top picks from the books I read in 2022
Octavia E. Butler – Earthseed: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents
Last year Octavia Butler was already in my top picks, but Earthseed moved me to a whole new level. I’d call it near future or realistic dystopia as she, I think, mostly recombines the existing past and present horrors. That it was all written from the perspective of a black woman changed the scenery in a way I rarely felt before. Earthseed and the God’s Gardeners (from Margret Atwood’s amazing MaddAddam Trilogy) are my favorite religions.
God is change – Shape god.
Kim Stanley Robinson – The ministry of the future
More near future SciSfi both realistic and with a bit of optimism. It’s a great read if you prepare for struggle but also expect the world, with our combined effort, to get on a better path. The science is exceptionally well-researched, so I learned a lot, and the storytelling reminds me of a newspaper. At the same time, Robinson leads us through the many aspects of the situation via two main characters.
Fatma Aydemir – Dschinns
This is for German speakers: Fatma Aydemir stands for a whole series of books I read this year where German authors take us on a journey through their families past and present, the intersection of cultures, countries, dreams, and expectations. What does it mean to be an immigrants child in Germany? While reading Dschinns, I felt like I had met most of the different family characters in my life at some point, but only now I had the openness which allowed a closeness. It made me sad because I felt I had missed out on so many people who only existed in two dimensions where there was so much more.
Hengameh Yaghoobifarah – Ministerium der Träume, Shida Bazyar – Nachts ist es leise in Teheran, Mithu Sanyal – Identitti are more books with a similar flavor while vastly different.
Paul Mason – How to Stop Fascism
The third pick is as straightforward as its title. Read it, take the notebook and get the priorities straight. Use the learnings history provided at an unfathomable loss so it won’t happen again.
The intro to my 2022 diverse reading list
It’s working well so far. I am starting the third year of curating the books I am reading a lot more consciously, and I look forward to all the things I’ll learn along the way.
Here are the 2021 diverse reading list and 2020 diverse reading list summaries and the recommendations for those years.
In the beginning, there was the question of whether that could change the world, and by now, I think I am ready to answer with a “yes”.
The yes, however, comes – as usual – with a few restrictions. First, one needs to be in a privileged position to even think about curating one’s reading list; secondly, only that is not enough. So it’s not a universal tool I recommend to everyone for everything, but it’s one thing among others I do to change myself and, therefore, the world.
Do you have tips, authors, or books you think I should read? Please send me a message!
berta @ herrberta.art
Books read in 2022
- Helmut Schmidt, Fritz Stern – Unser Jahrhundert
- Arthur Rimbaud – Illuminations
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – Slaughterhouse-five
- Octavia E. Butler – Parable of the Sower
- Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz – Betreuungsrecht
- John Doerr – Measure what matters
- Dimitry Glukhovsky – Metro 2033 4/4
- Octavia E. Butler – Parable of the Talents
- Rainer Maria Rilke – Das Stundenbuch
- Doris Lessing – The good terrorist
- Nisi Shawl – 2043…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be): Black Stars Series
- Nnedi Okorafor – The Black Pages: Black Stars Series
- Joe Sacco – Wir gehören dem Land (Paying the land)
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – The Visit: Black Stars Series
- C. T. Rwizi – These Alien Skies: Black Stars Series
- Nalo Hopkinson – Clap Back: Black Stars Series
- Victor LaValle – We Travel the Spaceways: Black Stars Series
- Eure Heimat ist unser Alptraum – edited by: Fatma Aydemir, Hengameh Yaghoobifarah (Publisher)
- Sonya Renee Taylor – The Body Is Not An Apology
- Slavoj Zizek – Faktor X: Das Ding und die Leere
- The ABCs of Socialism – edited by: Bhaskar Sunkara
- Fatma Aydemir – Dschinns
- Jessica Bennett – Feminist Fight Club
- Max Czollek – Gegenwartsbewältigung
- Kim Stanley Robinson – Das Ministerium für die Zukunft
- Max Czollek – Desintegriert euch
- Emilia Roig – Why we matter
- Tochi Onyebuchi – Riot Baby
- 劉慈欣 Liú Cíxīn – Jenseits der Zeit (Trisolaris Triology Part 3 Radioplay)
- Mithu Sanyal – Identitti
- Hengameh Yaghoobifarah – Ministerium der Träume
- Shida Bazyar – Nachts ist es leise in Teheran
- Gregor Eistert – Lärm
- Paul Mason – How to Stop Fascism