Here I wanted to share with you my personal curriculum, if you will, by sharing with you all the books I own that are educational, informative, or important for our betterment as citizens. I believe that in order to make good decisions for ourselves, our families, and our country, we need to keep up our personal education throughout our lives.

These books are either audiobooks (mostly, as this is the simplest way for me to educate myself), ebooks or physical. They are also one’s available at my local library that I have added to my online reading list through the Borrow Box app. I recommend you do the same – libraries are free education!

I will list them by category to help you find what you may need to educate yourself, too.

(Sorry, there’s just too many for me to link to them! Instead, I recommend you save this post to keep returning to. Treat this list and any other as lifelong learning, not a quick to do list right now! Education is for life.)

Also check out my other posts on accessible books (which some have links!).

Politics and Philosophy

Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison – just started at time of writing this and the opening chapters alone had my jaw on the ground! Must read/listen for everyone

The War on the West by Douglas Murray

Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman

Why Politics Fails by Ben Ansell

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates – on Barack Obama’s presidency and black people being in power

Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass by Darren McGarvey

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

Cultures Across the Globe

Wandering Stars and There There by Tommy Orange – Native American culture across generations

This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto by Suketu Mehta

We Are Displaced and I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – on Japanese and Korean history, culture, and clashes I believe

The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri – refugee memoir

Racism and Racial Identity

The Black Curriculum Curriculum (Migration, Legacies, Places) by various authors

Notes of a Native Son by James Balwin – classic and always relevant

How to Argue with a Racist by Adam Rutherford

Black and British by David Olusoga

Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch

How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

Biased by Dr Jennifer Eberhardt

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

Homecoming by Colin Grant

Black British Lives Matter by Lenny Henry

What Are You Doing Here? by Floella Benjamin

Afropean by Johnny Pitts

Young, Gifted and Black by Jamia Wilson

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I‘m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Memoirs

Poor by Katriona O’Sullivan – poverty and class

Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson

Spare by Prince Harry

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Twin Ambitions – My Autobiography by More Farah

Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Wall

Just Sayin’ by Malorie Blackman

Rising to the Surface by Lenny Henry

Coming to England by Floella Benjamin – Windrush generation

Learning to Think by Tracy King – class, poverty, education, family

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay – doctor’s perspective on healthcare

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Gender, Feminism, Sexuality and Identity

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

Wordslut by Amanda Mortell – feminist, linguistics, politics, patriarchy, history

The Book of Pride by Mason Funk

The Gender Games by Juno Dawson

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

Gay Britannia by various authors

The Gendered Brain by Gina Rippon

Climate Crisis and Nature

Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Half Arse Human by Leena Norms (again) – she also has a YouTube channel with videos on the climate crisis

This Is Vegan Propaganda by Ed Winters

How to Catch a Mole by Marc Hamer

The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono

Rootbound: Rewinding a Life by Alice Vincent

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg

We Are The Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer

Our House is On Fire by Beata Ernman, Greta Thunberg, and co.

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by Sir David Attenborough

Health

How Superfoods Work by Julia Nordgren

Gut by Giulia Enders

How Not to Die by Michael Gregor

Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The Body by Bill Bryson

Burnout by Emily Nagasaki and Amelia Nagoski

Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful by Sarah Wilson – on anxiety

Exhausted by Anna Katharina Schaffner

Sleep by Lisa Varadi

The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van Der Kolk

Breath: The Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

History

Who Owns England? by Guy Shrubsole

Timelines in Black History by DK books

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia – on land, trade and cultures across the sea

10 Mistakes That Made History by Paul Coulter

Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor – British empire

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly – black female mathematicians

Black in Time by Alison Hammond – black history

The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer – mythology and philosophy, Greek classics

Dystopian Lit or Futurism or Science

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

1984 by George Orwell

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuvul Noah Harari

Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Money / Economics

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki

The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson

Neurodiversity and Disability

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

Different, Not Less by Chloe Hayden

Owning It: Our Disabled Childhoods (in our own words) by Sophie Kamlish

Personal Development

Half Arse Human by Leena Norms

Conflicted by Ian Leslie

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza

The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More by Jefferson Fisher

The School of Life by The School of Life

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

The Dopamine Brain by Anastasia Hronis

The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country by Helen Russell

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

Humanology: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Amazing Existence by Luke O’Neill

Parenting

The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) by Philippa Perry

Mindful New Mum by Caroline Boyd

My Black Motherhood by Sandra Igwe

The Panic Years by Nell Frizzell – on deciding whether to become a mother

Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes

Linguistics

The Last Word by Ben Macintyre

Literature with an educational message

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart – poverty

Demon Copperhead and Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver – class and poverty

1984 by George Orwell – need to reread now I’m older and wiser…

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch – social issues and political issues

The Motherless Land by Nikki May – race, culture and belonging

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – slave trade across continents and generations

Love Marriage by Monica Ali

Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Kindred by Octavia E Butler

The Color Purple by Alice Walker – classic, race, power, belonging

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – white-passing, race, family

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – WW1/1914 war novel

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden – classic

12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky – classic Russian literature

Colson Whitehead books

Percival Everett books

That’s all for now!

Education is a lifelong journey, not some end destination. A conversation with ideas between peoples, across time and space.

I thank these wonderful writers for sharing their knowledge with me, and I am here merely to share it with you, too.

*Psst! Pass it on…*

Sincerely,

S. xx