Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

This dystopian speculative fiction novel begins with global climate and economic crisis and ends with the founding of a new religion–and a new hope and vision for humanity. Lauren Olamina lives in a gated community where the horrors of a world in chaos are kept at bay, but the community faces its own struggles, and when it no longer provides the safety it once did, Lauren must leave with only a few supplies and the knowledge of her new belief system: Earthseed, the dream that humanity is someday destined to leave Earth and live among the stars. This novel is set in the 2020s and may feel prescient to the reader. In part, this prescience is aided by Butler’s attention to detail as she discusses race relations, economic precarity, the daily struggle for survival, and the undaunted hopefulness of humanity.

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich

Erdrich, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of the Ojibwe, gives us the story of Father Damien Modeste, a priest consulted on the matter of the miracles performed by Sister Leopolda at the remote outpost Little No Horse. Shall Sister Leopolda be granted Sainthood? Or are her miracles more complicated than they first appear? This simple premise is the entry point into a lifetime of history regarding Modeste’s young adulthood, his later interactions with the Ojibwe people, and his loves had and lost. All of Erdrich’s books are excellent, but I chose this one for its exploration of the complicated role of gender and the interplay between spirituality and duty in Modeste’s life. It is told in Erdrich’s enriching prose by interweaving of time and experience in a non-linear narrative.

Citizen 13660 by Miné Okubo

Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 the United States began a program of forced internment of Japanese-descended people. Presented as “protective custody,” this internment upset the lives of over 100,000 people, the majority of whom were American citizens, by forcibly relocating them to isolated, militarized bases. Many lost their livelihoods, jobs, land, or homes during internment. Miné Okubo, already an accomplished artist, was interned first in California and then in Utah. Both locations forbid the use of cameras, and so Okubo documented her internment with over 2,000 sketches of daily life which later became the subject of her book.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

This alternative history steampunk novel retells Belgium’s devastating colonization of the Congo. African American missionaries and socialists from Great Britain found Everfair, a utopia in the Congo, that quickly rises to prominence as its residents make enormous strides in steam power. Everfair becomes a place of recluse for native Congolese and for slaves who have escaped from America. Shawl’s novel highlights the complicated relationships these immigrants and Indigenous peoples have with colonialism and violence, and centers the dream of utopia and the promise of real freedom that can emerge when people work together towards a common vision. Fans of science fiction may also be interested in Nisi Shawl’s “A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction.”

Salt Fish Girl by Larissa Lai

This novel–set alternatively in ancient China and in a futuristic Pacific Northwest–tells the story Miranda. Miranda, troubled even in her middle-class life inside the walls of Serendipity, finds herself caught up in a conspiracy of science, capitalism, and biotechnology. Born with a particularly strong odor of durian emanating from her body, Miranda’s life invites us to consider the intertwining of or bodies with our natural world. Lai’s book falls most neatly into the category of magical realism with elements of mythology, romance, and science fiction as Miranda’s story is intertwined with that of Nu Wa, an ancient Chinese shapeshifter, and as Miranda falls in love with a fishy woman. This is Lai’s second of three standalone novels and makes an excellent entry-point into her work.

The Beginning and End of Rape by Sarah Deer

Sarah Deer is a Tribal scholar, citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, and a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas. Her account of the legal history of sexual violence against Indigenous peoples and on Indigenous land is a must-read for anyone interested in ending sexual violence. You’ll walk away with a knowledge of Federal law as it pertains to Indigenous peoples in what is today called the United States of America, and a deeper understanding of how those laws create the circumstances in which Indigenous women and girls are more likely to suffer harm and struggle to find justice. Deer’s solution to this problem places self-determination back in the hands of Tribal peoples.

Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts

File this under “books that will change your life,” Roberts’ book pairs well with The Beginning and End of Rape by Sarah Deer. Roberts deftly and expertly interweaves legal history, critical race theory, and a stunning feminist critique in her description of the history of anti-Black woman racism in America. Her book centers the role of reproduction–and white America’s control of Black reproduction in particular–to give us an opportunity to radically reconsider our notions of liberty and equality in America.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

This young adult novel by Cherie Dimaline, a member of the Georgian Bay Metis Community in Ontario, brings us into a world where the majority of people have stopped being able to dream. Without dreams, they descend slowly into madness, and they will do anything to get out of it. The only groups still able to dream are Indigenous peoples, and a temporary cure for the dreamless state lives in the marrow of their bones. But removing the marrow is a deadly proposition, leading the young teenager Frenchie and his friends to live a life on the run.

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Ozeki’s breathtaking novel takes place in two locations an ocean apart. In Tokyo, Nao, a teenage girl, contemplates suicide but first plans to record the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun. Across the Pacific and living on a remote island, Ruth, mired in writer’s block, discovers Nao’s journal washed up on shore. Ruth believes the journal to be debris from the 2011 tsunami which struck the island of Japan. But as she reads Nao’s journal she slowly discovers things are not as they appear, and that Nao may be more aware and knowledgable than she first seemed.

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa

This classic text is a collection of poetry and prose in both English and Spanish, reflecting what Anzaldúa calls the new Mestiza–an interplay identity that arises at the intersection between borders, sexuality, Indigenous identity, and gender. Anzaldúa provides a scathing critique oppression in all forms and from all sources as she describes life as a Chicano living in an Anglo-dominated culture, growing up as a woman in Hispanic culture, and her experiences as a lesbian in a heteronormative world. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in feminist critique, or for those looking to explore both poetry and social theory.