Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A book about a social justice issue.

I grabbed this definition off of the web: Social justice issues can occur in relation to practically any aspect of society where inequality can arise as a result of unjust prejudices or policies.

Some examples:
* racism
* sexism
* voting rights
* climate change
* healthcare
* refugee crises
* income gap
* gun violence
* discrimination due to sexual orientation or identity
* food deserts
* incarceration
* sex trafficking
* slavery
* ageism


Listopia for a book about a social justice issue

There's so many choices for this prompt! I listened to Naomi Klein's On Fire: The Case for the Green New Deal for the 2020 reading challenge and would recommend. I also loved Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist. So heavy, but so good.

I think I'm going to read Transcendent Kingdom for this prompt.

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Giver by Lois Lowry has quite a few issues in its dystopia. Ageism and euthanasia are two that stick out to me.

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America I wish I could give a copy of this book to every human in the United States. And I wish they'd read it.

A few I've read:

Sold
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Educated
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America

I found in my TBR Just Mercy, Such a Fun Age and Catch and Kill.

I'm hungry because it's dinner time and my food is simmering, so I'm thinking I might like to read about the problem of food deserts in some parts of some cities. Sort of like Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, but about grocery stores instead of gun violence. Is this a thing? There's a book about everything, so there must be ...


Ask and ye shall find.
Books About Food Security
Books about Food
Books About Food and Agriculture
gotta love Listopias!!

in particular maybe these books:
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty
Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture

Nadine wrote: "I'm hungry because it's dinner time and my food is simmering, so I'm thinking I might like to read about the problem of food deserts in some parts of some cities. Sort of like..."

Looks like More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change and Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty are about that. Not sure how readily available they are.

All I can find is Overcoming Food Deserts in Your Community: How To Start A Home, School or Community Garden, Food Co-op or Food Coalition

Here's a good list by topics: https://socialjusticebooks.org/bookli...

I’m definitely going to read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.

I’m thinking about The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America or the more recent The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power, about redlining and housing discrimination.

I've also had my eye on The Address Book recently

Homegoing could also work for this.

I'm going for Black and British: A Forgotten History. But I'll need to exchange what I thought was this book when I ordered it from Waterstones, and ended up with Black and British: A short, essential history instead *headdesk*

Mmm. Maybe Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood would work here? Anybody can confirm?

Does this book work for this category?
How the Pill Changes Everything: Your Brain on Birth Control by Sarah E Hill

Marie-eve wrote: "Mmm. Maybe Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood would work here? Anybody can confirm?"

Some of the things in this book include domestic abuse, systemic racism, colorism, and poverty. I'd count it.

Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family *
Overground Railroad: The Green Book & Roots of Black Travel in America *
Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights *
Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China *

White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind - *Author is mixed race but often passes as white. Should give her a valuable perspective.


*BIPOC author

I just finished The Chai Factor for this years challenge [Set in a country beginning with C] (I read 103 books so far, but still didnt fill all my prompts.. lol) and it would definitely works social issues as it talks about islamophobia in Canada, bigotry, homophobia, and such.

It could also work for the Muslim-American prompt if you take the American part of it and switch it for Canadian.

Im not 100% i actually liked it, but i know i didnt dislike it. lol

If Dear Martin is on the list, Dear Justyce works, right?

This might be a little too specific, but any non-fiction books about how post-Jim Crow discrimination against the Black community continues to have an effect on the community?

Just Mercy
Suh a Fun Age
Vindication of the Rights of Women
Stories from Suffragette City
To Kill A Mockingbird
Stamped
The Help

Hi, this is my first time participating in the challenge and I'm trying to plan my books. Would Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation by Colin Grant fit this category?

M wrote: "Hi, this is my first time participating in the challenge and I'm trying to plan my books. Would Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation by Colin Grant fit this category?"


Looks like it would work, yes.

Would On Immunity: An Inoculation work?

Coleen wrote: "This might be a little too specific, but any non-fiction books about how post-Jim Crow discrimination against the Black community continues to have an effect on the community?"

I haven't read it yet but The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness certainly seems to fit the bill. Books about the War on Drugs or Mass Incarceration would probably cover similar ideas. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America covers housing segregation and discrimination. The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap also might apply.

I know it's only the first day but I read and finished A Thousand Splendid Suns today. I could not put this book down for anything!
Last year I read A Woman Is No Man and it truly has become one of my favorite books of all time.
Both of these are an extremely important reminder of what women's roles are in other parts of the world. Truly enlightening and amazing reads!

I read The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency under this prompt. While this is a story about a lady private detective which would make the book fall primarily under the mystery genre, the theme of gender discrimination and sexism is very prevalent throughout the course of the book. In fact, I felt that was a much bigger focus than the mystery bit itself.

Vallen wrote: "I know it's only the first day but I read and finished A Thousand Splendid Suns today. I could not put this book down for anything!
Last year I read A Woman Is No Man ..."

I could see anyone reading A Thousand Splendid Suns and finishing it in a day. Heavy stuff but so well written and very eye opening!

I read this last year. But WOW.
This is a true story about a teenager getting burnt alive because others didn’t approve of their lack of gender conformity.
It is also SUPER informative on different terms and biases about our LGBT community.
The 57 Bus
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Marie-eve wrote: "Mmm. Maybe Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood would work here? Anybody can confirm?"

I am reading the same book and think it definitely fits here!

Ariel wrote: "Would On Immunity: An Inoculation work?"

Unless there's a lot of focus on how medical research historically has abused BIPOC for experimentation without consent, I don't think this book falls under the heading of "social justice."

I'm thinking of using "The Relentless Moon" (part of the Lady Astronaut series) for this one. It touches on multiple types of inequality, including racism and sexism in the astronaut corps, as well as discussions related to prioritizing between the elite who can participate in space travel vs. those stuck on Earth.

I have a few I highly recommend.

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard was the one I used for this prompt. It talks about what happens to all the things we use and how they're in most cases not responsibly and sustainably manufactured, distributed, utilized, and disposed of. It gets into topics such as climate change, poverty, wealth inequality across nations, child labor, polution, etc. I had not read much on climate change so it was a nice subject to start diving into.

Racism: New Jim Crow is excellent. I also like Life on the Color Line, Between the World and Me, and Waking Up White. My Grandmother's Hands also looks excellent but dives specifically into racial trauma.

Disability issues: Disability often gets left out of conversations on diversity and social justice and we have the prompt about a black lives matter reading list too, so if you want to diversify some good books include No Pity by Joe Shapiro, Being Heumann: An Unrepentent Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judy Heumann, and The Pretty One by Keah Brown. Sitting Pretty by Rebecca Toussig is another I read recently and loved.

LGBTQ: I recently read The Gender Games by Juno Dawson and liked it. I want to read Jonathan Van Ness's books too. Elton John has a book about the Aids Crisis that I read last year and liked, and of course he touches on the stigma for gay men.

Rural America: I have The Politics of Resentment. Haven't read it yet.

Would A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult work for this? It is centred around an abortion clinic?

I read The Song and the Silence by Yvette Johnson for this prompt.

Just finished reading Moonrise, a free-verse novel about a teen who goes to see his brother during his last month on death row before his execution.
Crossan always has some gut-punching and/or gut-wrenching stories and turns of verse.

Do you think we are the weather by Jonathan Safran Foer would work for this?

Finished Dear Justyce this morning for this prompt. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is an excellent, thought-provoking read.

Here's my review, if anyone is interested:
https://207booktalk.blogspot.com/2021...

Kelly wrote: "If Dear Martin is on the list, Dear Justyce works, right?"

Absolutely! I just finished it this morning for this prompt.

This is All I Got, by Lauren Sandler - affordable family housing, among other issues. Great in both audio and book format!

Nadine wrote: "A book about a social justice issue.

I grabbed this definition off of the web: Social justice issues can occur in relation to practically any aspect of society where inequality can arise as a resu..."

Im reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

The Happy Vegan by: Russell Simmons

I'm reading Factory 19 for this prompt. The blurb made it seem like it was about the gigification of the economy and how that increases the wealth gap, but so far I'm unconvinced. Both about the book as a whole and how it connects to social justice issues in particular. I'll keep going for a bit, but if it keeps being annoying, I have a few more on my TBR list that I can slot in.

People who like to double up could use the same book for this and the “body positivity” one since fatphobia is a social justice issue.

I read Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid