I spent this past summer unemployed and out of school, so I decided to occupy my time by reading. It’s been years since I have read for fun, as my mind is usually too drained to do so. So, a summer without obligations was the perfect opportunity. I am a big fan of nonfiction, and all the books on this list are nonfiction. If that’s not your cup of tea, sorry. I’m a nerd.
I present these books to you in the order I read them, along with brief summaries and my thoughts. They range from business to history to philosophy to disability studies and activism. I hope that you enjoy at least one of these books as much as I did.
Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom
Dark Archives was the first book in my summer reading journey, and it was endlessly fascinating. It’s a book about books. Books bound in human skin. The cover caught my eye at the bookstore (Exile in Bookville in the Loop), and the macabre topic fascinated me. Rosenbloom’s writing style is captivating, and her reverence for all books, even those with dark histories, makes me happy. Interestingly, she does not speak much about the content of the books, does not share their dark secrets. Instead, Rosenbloom focuses on the context surrounding the book. The people who made them and who they were allegedly made of, their stories and their motives. We learn about doctors in America, revolutionaries in France, and even a swindler who enthralled people with his stories. Dark Archives will leave you fascinated and horrified in equal measure.
You can find Rosenbloom on BlueSky at libraryatnight.bsky.social.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Switching gears, The Five Dysfunctions is a must-read for anyone who will be in a team at work. Which is basically everyone. In this book, Lencioni takes a narrative approach to outlining what he believes are the five foundational issues that lead to team dysfunction, as well as the steps to resolve those issues. The short story he uses to illustrate the problems is an easy read, and Lencioni does a good job narratively giving us both the issues and the solutions. However, if you want a more technical guide, Lencioni also has a field guide for The Five Dysfunctions.
The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni
In this book, Lencioni makes the argument that organizational health is the key thing for business leaders to focus on to drive success. Unlike The Five Dysfunctions, The Advantage is more technical, interspersed with real-world examples that Lencioni encountered in his time as a consultant. Throughout the text, he builds his compelling argument in favor of focusing on organizational health as he highlights all the processes and outcomes that can be impacted by organizational health.
You can find Lencioni’s consulting firm, Table Group, at the website: https://www.tablegroup.com/
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
In my opinion, Antifragile is a must read for just about everyone. In this book, Taleb builds his case for antifragile systems: those that improve when dealing with volatility, randomness, and misfortune. From a background in economics, Taleb uses markets, trade, and governments as his primary examples, but the concept of antifragility can be applied to just about anything. The book is approximately 15 years old but is still relevant (and will always be relevant, I believe). Taleb is also fantastic at crafting his arguments. There are specific details which I disagree with him on, but they did not detract from the overall messages of the book. This is one of the few books that have genuinely altered the way I think about things. Definitely recommend.
Humble Inquiry by Edgar and Peter Schein
A quick, but insightful, read, Humble Inquiry is a guide to using questions to learn, reflect, and make decisions. The Scheins discuss how asking questions, and doing so with humility, can lead to more desirable outcomes than regular confrontation. I think the concepts are important and can be applied just about anywhere, making this book very valuable.
Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew
This was the first in a series of disability studies books that I read over the summer. Against Technoableism is a collection of essays about how technology has been used to help and harm disabled people, as well as how technofuturism is part-and-parcel with ableism and eugenics. Shew critically studies the intersections of technology and disability to encourage the reader to think twice about “feel-good” new stories about disabilities being “cured” with technology, or the “miracles” of technology. I had been aware for a while of “inspiration porn,” where disabled people are fodder for non-disabled people, propped up to make them feel good and inspired and to show off new tech, but I had never really thought of just how pervasive it is in society, and just how technofuturists make things worse. Shew discusses how technofuturism perpetuates the ableist narrative of disabled people as needing to be “fixed,” often putting us in the category of technology itself, dehumanizing us. Against Technoableism is one of my favorite books from the summer, for sure.
Crip Negativity by J. Logan Smilges
This book made me cry. This book was relatable. This book was real. Crip Negativity is a short book that packs a hard punch. Smilges writes about how disabled people can and should spend time sitting in their negative feelings. They call it “feeling crip feelings cripply,” and it resonated with me deeply. Disabled people are expected to put a smile on and be grateful for what we are given, for us to be the happy props to inspire non-disableds, to do all the invisible labor of being disabled without complaint. In Crip Negativity, Smilges describes what they call a “life strike,” wherein disabled people cease doing labor, stop doing what is expected of us, and just feel, just be. Crip Negativity made me feel less bad about, well, feeling bad.
The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen
This book is, perhaps, another morbid read, as it paints detailed pictures of all the (known) mass extinctions in the history of Earth. From hundreds of millions of years ago, to the impending sixth mass extinction event, Brannen describes common threads between the extinctions, what stories fossils can tell us, and gives the reader a handful of existential crises. It was fascinating to get glimpses into these past worlds, from times when Earth was wholly unrecognizable. The book was fun to read, despite the heavy topic, and Brannen did a wonderful job keeping the text engaging and informative, while not confusing the reader with too much jargon. Brannen himself is a journalist, not a scientist, so he was able to connect better with his non-technical audience than an academic might have. This book is a must-read for any fan of science, history, and fossils.
Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design by Bess Williamson
Of the disability books I read over the summer, Accessible America provided me with the most historic insight. Starting with the World War I era, Williamson describes the myriad ways disabled people and their allies have worked to make things accessible. She discusses homemade inventions, house renovations, design movements, and cultural shifts in how accessibility is viewed. I learned a lot from this book, and it is a great foundational text for further study, as the history within provides context for much of the theory and praxis right now.
Cryptic: From Voynich to the Angel Diaries, the Story of the World’s Mysterious Manuscripts by Garry J. Shaw
Another book about books! This one was a lot of fun to read, especially as a writer and a lover of linguistics. In Cryptic, Shaw shares 10 historical texts that left readers stumped by their meanings. From cyphered text, to elaborate pranks, the reader travels back to various points in the past millennia to learn about what these texts were, the people who (sometimes allegedly) made them, and the historical context. Some of the histories are so absurd, they had me laughing out loud. Cryptic was probably one of the most entertaining of the books I read over the summer.
Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Care Work is a collection of essays by disabled poet and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Together, the essays paint a picture of how disabled people are, ultimately, the best people to take care of other disabled people. Piepzna-Samarasinha talks about community, sex, work, roommates, writing, joy, anger, abuse, queerness, and all these beautiful, broken, human things. One of the key ideas in their essays is “care webs.” A fairly straightforward, yet hard-to-achieve, concept of networks of mutual care among disabled people, especially those that are otherwise marginalized, too. Care Work is another book that made me cry, not just from sadness, but also from how much love I hold for my fellow disabled people. Successful writing should make you think hard and really feel things, and Piepzna-Samarasinha did just that.
Disabled Ecologies by Sunaura Taylor
I had never thought about environmentalism and environmental justice from a disability justice lens before, but Disabled Ecologies radically shifted my view. In this book, Taylor uses a longitudinal case study of the groundwater pollution in the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson, Arizona to illustrate the enmeshing of disability within ecologies. She argues that, as it is wrong to abandon disabled people, we should also not abandon disabled environments, especially with the increasingly devastating effects of climate change. When you consider that which disables the environment usually also disables the “more-than-human” life in that environment, it makes a lot of sense. Disabled Ecologies is a book about health, activism, human rights, intersectionality, nature, connectedness, anti-capitalism, and the harm of settler-colonialism. I think this book is important not just for people interested in disability, but also for healthcare and environmentalism, as Taylor also provides a blueprint for doing this research. I really hope the theory behind Disabled Ecologies catches on, because I want to see more.
What Will I Read Next?
Up next on my reading list:
The Magic Books by Anne Lawrence-Mathers
Academic Ableism by Jay Timothy Dolmage
Disability Praxis by Bob Williams-Findlay
Philology by James Turner
The Golden Thread by Kassia St. Clair
Where Do I Get Books?
ThriftBooks, a website for new and used books, often at great prices.
Tangible Books, a used bookstore not far from campus, over on 33rd and Halsted. This place has something for just about everyone, and the prices are fantastic. They also buy used books, if you have any you want to get rid of.
Seminary Co-op Bookstore, over by UChicago, at 57th and Woodlawn. So far, this has been my go-to place for disability studies and super niche topics. Plus, the neighborhood is super cute!