Wrapping up year 5 with my public intentionally diverse reading list.
Find the last editions here: the 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 diverse reading list with summaries, insights, stats, and recommendations for those years. Generally speaking: Having read a book is NOT an endorsement.
As I already wrote last year: I talked enough about the intention in the last editions, and I have little to add, so let’s start a new year, acknowledging that I will never know everything, but I can keep learning.
It was a tough year also literary wise, but here are my top pick of the 50 book I read in 2024 by “personal meaning category:
Realitycheck. These books are different windows to the world we live in. Be it a Jewish girl in a concentration camp, a journalist in the age of fake news and mass manipulation, a black poor girl, or a soldier returning after the war. All book are haunting in their own right as they are not works of fiction but documents the doing of men – humans:
– Edith Bruck – Das barfüßige Mädchen
– Maria Ressa – How to stand up to a dictator
– Viola Davis – Finding me
– Wolfgang Borchert – Draussen vor der Tür
Alternate fiction: To wind down and open the mind, these books, and series help me relax. They are the SciFi, Fantasy stuff I always loved with a wider range of possibilities, heroines, and twists.
– Xiran Jay Zhao – Iron Widow
– Seanan McGuire – Wayward children series
– Nghi Vo – The singing hills circle
Perimenopause: Yes, it’s that time of the month … oops, no that time of a woman’s life. Hitting perimenopause some research was desperately due. Sheila de Liz is a good kick off and as I am getting to know my body better “Come as you are” is a great match to understand and explore.
– Sheila de Liz – Woman on fire
– Emily Nagoski – Come as you are
– Extra tip for German speakers: “Hormongesteuert” Podcast
Wo es keinen Konflikt gibt, kann es nur Einsamkeit geben. [Where there is no conflict, there can only be loneliness.]
Şeyda Kurt – Hass [hate]
Books read in 2024
- Melina Borčak – Mekka hier, Mekka da. Warum wir über antimuslimischen Rassismus sprechen müssen
- Aladin El-Mafaalani – Wozu Rassisimus?
- Şeyda Kurt – HASS. Von der Macht eines widerständigen Gefühls
- Paul Watzlawick – Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein
- Maja Göpel – Unsere Welt neu denken
- Véronique Bergen – Anarchismus: Libertäre Theorie und Praxis
- Sovia Szymula – fluide
- Kohei Saito – Systemsturz
- Edith Bruck – Das barfüßige Mädchen
- Nghi Vo – The Empress of Salt and Fortune
- Heidi Kastner – Dummheit
- Svenja Hofert – Business Slowdown
- Nghi Vo -When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
- Seanan McGuire – Every Heart a Doorway
- Yolanda García Hernández, Mario Martín Gijón – Réquiem por un Torero
- Maria Ressa – How to stand up to a dictator
- Nghi Vo – Into the Riverlands
- Nghi Vo – Mammoths at the Gates
- Jean-Philippe Kindler – Scheiß auf Selflove, gib mir Klassenkampf
- Seanan McGuire – Down among the sticks and stones
- Seanan McGuire – Come tumbling down
- Dr. Navid Kermani, Natan Sznaider – Israel
- Canan Topçu – Nicht mein Antirassismus
- Seanan McGuire – Beneath the sugar sky
- Seanan McGuire – In an absent dream
- Viola Davis – Finding me
- DUNE: The Graphic Novel, Book 2: Muad’Dib
- DUNE: The Graphic Novel, Book 3: The Prophet
- Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda – Monstress 8 Inferno
- Xiran Jay Zhao – Iron Widow
- Seanan McGuire – Across the Green Grass Fields
- Eva von Redecker – Bleibefreiheit
- Cadwell Turnbull – No Gods. No Monsters
- Lamya H – Hijab Butch Blues
- Nico Semsrott – Brüssel sehen und sterben
- Bernardine Evaristo – Mr. Loverman
- Christina Clemm – Gegen Frauenhass
- Wolfgang Borchert – Draussen vor der Tür
- Carolin Emcke – Gegen den Hass
- Seanan McGuire – Where the drowned girls go
- Toni Morrison – Sehr blaue Augen
- Elif Shafak – Hört einander zu!
- Maja Göpel – Wir können auch anders
- Arne Semsrott – Machtübernahme
- Patricia Sommer – Systemische Berating & systemische Therapie
- Nghi Vo – The Brides of High Hill
- Sheila de Liz – Woman on fire
- Emily Nagoski – Come as you are
- Miriam Stein – Die gereizte Frau
- Paul Auster – Baumgartner
The stats
- Everybody else/white, hetero cis-Men 41/9
- Art or Graphic Novel/Non-Fiction/Fiction or Poetry 3/27/20
- Paper/e-reader/Audiobook 7/0/43
- The language I read/ heard the book in German/English/Spanish 30/19/1
Do you have tips, authors, or books you think I should read or how to do the stats better? Please send me a message!
berta @ herrberta.art