Relevant Reads for Progressives

Non-Fiction:  

Title: This One Wild and Precious Life | Author: Sarah Wilson | Publication Date: HarperCollins, 12/29/20

  Many of us today are living in a state of spiritual PSTD over horrible events that have shaken us to the core in the 2000’s: from terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 to the COVID pandemic, and every upheaval in between. Some individuals may have even retreated into a bubble of spiritual, psychological, or even physical separation. Our former joys, values, and activities may have gone by the wayside as we’ve given into despair.

That being said, no matter to what degree we suffer from disconnection, it does unite us. We all long to experience a new, more positive way of living and thinking.

   In this book, Sarah Wilson draws on science, literature, philosophy, and some of the world’s leading experts to offer us a more hopeful path to a life we can love again.

   She offers some ideas for unconventional practices that will shake things up and revitalize our spirits.   

Fiction:

Title: Dark August | Author: Katiee Tallo | Publication Date:  HarperCollins, 6/30/20

  Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless life with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great-grandmother—her last living relative—has passed away. Gus ditches the boyfriend and heads back to her childhood home in Ottawa, Canada. Expecting that she has inherited the grand ancestral mansion, she instead gets the dilapidated shell of it and an old dog.

  After the shock of loss and a few days of drinking, she pulls herself together enough to begin going through boxes and trunks of family items left behind. There she discovers a cold case file her mother--a disgraced police detective who died in a car accident when Gus was eight—had kept.

     With a renewed sense of purpose, Gus starts her own investigation into the cold case and stumbles onto a far-reaching and frightening event that has been covered up for decades. In the process she faces danger, but also cleans up her life and regains her self-respect.