VSN Gift Guide: Awaken a Loved One with Rad Reads

More books for the Gift Guide, I know, but the nieces, nephews, and grandkids know that my gift of choice tends to be a book.

What better gift than the gift of art or beauty? A book turns its reader into a traveler. A book given as a gift can introduce new worlds, expand horizons, challenge old notions, and change lives. If you’re going to spend holiday money (and at the last minute, these are easy to obtain, especially in e-book form), why not spend it on helping to improve someone’s life in some way? Given that we must prepare to resist Führer Trump and his minions, what better book to give for Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah — or at any time when one lives under right-wing white supremacist Christian nationalist rule — than a radical book?

Some righteous bookseller suggestions:

1. Red Emma’s Bookstore

   The first in my heart, Red Emma’s in Baltimore is my hometown collective-run bookstore. I’ve been a customer for decades and the shop’s evolution, growth, and community commitment are good news for anyone with a brain. The Red Emma’s goodness is available beyond Charm City, too — it offers a great online repository of super reads.

2. Seven Stories Press

   From serious tomes for grizzled and newbie activists to book clubs and “rad reads for rad kids,” New York City publisher Seven Stories Press does a mountain of good by making uncompromising political books, fiction, and poetry available. Dan Simon founded the company in 1995 and named it to honor seven authors who shared SSP’s fiercely independent spirit.

3. Working Class History

   Working Class History labors overtime to educate via social media and its podcasts about people’s history and the struggle against the dominant paradigm. WCH also has an online bookstore that offers radical reads on history, politics, and culture. Do peruse its curated list of WCH Favourites.

4.  Firestorm Books

   Since 2008, radical bookstore and community event space Firestorm Books of Asheville, N.C., has served the people and fueled the grassroots movement.  While quietly radicalizing Southern Appalachia by operating as a queer and feminist collective promoting values like cooperation, empowerment, and equity, it provides organizing space and offers truly dangerous and wonderful lefty reads.

5. Busboys & Poets

   I started in the DMV and will end there: The website of Washington, D.C. eatery Busboys and Poets says it aims “to not only be a restaurant, but also a space in which intellectual, cultural, political, and social issues can come together for a discussion that benefits everyone.” At its birthplace,  14th and V Streets, NW, or in its additional seven locations, Busboys and Poets Books works to strengthen communities through access to “socially-conscious literature, programs, healing conversations, and a respectful exchange of ideas.” I feel like an improved version of myself after buying and reading books from Busboys and Poets. Via its online bookstore, you and your loved ones can too, wherever you are.

While the notion of a Buy Nothing Holiday appeals and is worth pursuing, sometimes, buying a gift is the only appropriate act. That being so, why not spend the money on ideas and truths we need to know that The Man doesn’t want us to know? Resist the darkness. Eschew evil Bezos and his greedy, lying ilk.

Happy holidays, y’all. Make them bright.

Support independent media. Check out our Verdant Square Shop