books to read if you like punk rock novels

Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask by Jim Munroe
A guy who can turn into a fly and his girlfriend who can make things disappear team up to become capitalism-fighting superheroes. I think that's all you should really need to know to desperately want to read this, but I will add that it's bloody hilarious and the author has excellent politics. It's great to read something by someone who's obviously been involved in the punk, zine, and activist scenes, because the way people talk and interact in this book is actually familiar and realistic, with affectionate parody that never goes over the top. Plus, if you've ever lived in Toronto, you will recognize Kos, Who's Emma, and various other spots, and you can feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic and above all, ludicrously grateful you don't have to live there anymore. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Double Duce by Aaron Cometbus
The only thing I don't like about this book is that it's over too fast. Every time I get to the end I have the urge to turn back to the beginning and start over again immediately. This is a collection of the Double Duce stories from Cometbus zine, which (ostensibly fictionally) depict an only slightly wackier than real life punk house. This is probably the funniest book I've ever read. The part about the roommates replacing some of Willey's plumbing tools on his belt with a crack pipe (only discovered the next day at work) made Trevor laugh a lot on the bus.

Fall of America by Robnoxious
I'm not sure how hard this is to find, as it's self published and came out a few years ago, but it's a fun read if you come across it. It's an apocalyptic punk rock novella set in the very near future. The story traces a guy named Dug's life for a few years, as he has a kid, breaks up with her mom, goes travelling, macks it up, and eventually has to deal with a militaristic takeover of the U.S. Nothing ground breaking, but fun and political and relate-able.

books to read if you want to learn more about native issues

The Way We Civilise by Rosalind Kidd
This book explores treatment of Australian aboriginal people by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. I hadn't read much at all about aboriginal issues in places besides North America, so I was really interested to check this out. Not surprisingly, the horrible, dehumanizing treatment Australian native peoples received bears a strong resemblance to colonial North American policy, with an emphasis on both physical and cultural genocide (residential schools and other programs designed to destroy aboriginal language and culture). Kidd uses a lot of government reports and documents as sources for her analysis (Chomsky styles, only she's actually capable of forming a non-convoluted sentence), which is always an effective strategy. You can always dispute subjective points, but even the government would have a hard time trying to effectively argue with their published information.

Night Spirits: The Story of the Relocation of the Sayisi Dene by Ila Bussidor and Ustun Bilgen-Reinart
This book is about the relocation of the Sayisi Dene people of northern Manitoba in the 1950s by the Canadian government. It's incredibly sad and difficult to get through in places, but really worthwhile. Bussidor actually grew up in the community in question, and there are a lot of other primary sources used as well, which accentuates how recent these events were. The Dene people were suddenly airlifted from a remote forest community to a collection of shacks next to a cemetary just outside Churchill, Manitoba, and this book deals with the deplorable conditions they were subjected to and their (understandable) inability to adjust to their new life. As hard as this was to read, it's a good reminder that colonialism and genocide of aboriginal people were not issues confined to the U.S. (Canadians often seem to downplay our history of genocide to focus on the atrocities of the American West). It's also necessary to remember how recently events like these took place, as it also seems like we try to pretend that these horrible acts took place in the distant past to avoid taking responsibility for the actions of our recent ancestors.


Anything by Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill is one of my all time favourite authors, so it's hard to narrow down what you should read by him. He's aboriginal, very radical, and a professor. He writes in a way that's smart but not academic, and he's really sarcastic and witty a lot of the time as well, which I thoroughly enjoy. Acts of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader would be a good starting point (it contains an insanely funny and biting essay about racist naming practices for sports teams wherein he points out that if we're quick to embrace racist sports team names like Washington Redskins that perhaps we should expand our repetoire to include such equally offensive teams as the Wisconsin Wetbacks and St. Louis Sluts). Fantasies of the Master Race is also excellent. It deals exclusively with representations of aboriginal people in white culture, ranging from Hollywood movies to the new age men's movement. A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas is both a history of colonialism and analysis of the term genocide and how it's been appropriated, and it's really interesting as well.

books to read if you're a lady who wants to know more about your lady bits

The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation by Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton, and Emily Toth
A really interesting history of our perceptions of periods throughout popular culture and history. This book analyses jokes about periods, how women's health issues have been taught in school, menstruation imagery in fairy tales, and lots more along those lines. I expected to see a progression from paranoid, inaccurate attitudes towards bleeding to a more open, positive mindset through recent history, but this actually wasn't the case. Interestingly enough, although advertising has gotten slightly better over the years (I sincerely hope that we won't be seeing a repeat of the 1970s German television commercial for o.b. Tampons in which a stewardess's skirt is snatched from her by an overeager passenger, causing the voiceover: "I'm glad I'm wearing my o.b. Tampon!"), ads today are still worse in many ways than those during WWII. Due to the conditions of wartime, women's labour was viewed as necessary, and as such, advertisers treated them more respectfully than they had before and have since. "Ads called them women (i.e., adults), rather than girls; the language stressed utility and purpose and the ability of women to assume responsible and competent positions." It's pretty depressing to compare that description to the ads being put out today. Unfortunately, the fifty years that separate us from that era seem to have actually taken us backwards in some ways. Anyway, this book is a really interesting survey of changing attitudes, and well worth reading.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health by Toni Weschler
I've been trying to educate myself about women's health issues for quite some time now, and thought I'd reached a point where I was fairly well informed about my body and my cycle. However, picking up this book totally changed my mind ... I learned an insane amount more in a very short time. Weschler is a proponent of natural birth control (not to be confused with the none-too-effective "rhythm method"), and has been educating women on this subject for years. Natural birth control involves checking your cervical fluid (different consistencies indicate different stages of fertility) and body temperature to create ridiculously accurate, detailed charts of your cycle. If you're in a monogamous relationship with an STD-free partner and you keep careful charts, you can reliably do away with any other forms of birth control. Interesting stuff, even if you're not considering actually using the natural birth control method.

Hot Pantz: Do It Yourself Gynecology by the Blood Sisters collective
Okay, so this is technically a zine and not a book, but every woman should seriously have a copy of it, so it's worth mentioning. The Blood Sisters are a group of women in Montreal who promote using the Keeper, cloth pads, and other safe, reusable menstrual products over unhealthy and environmentally unsound disposables. This zine has lots of period info, and also a ton of general women's health information, including STDs, ovarian and uterine problems, and lots more. There is a huge focus on herbal remedies, with recipes for herbal emmenagogues (concoctions that bring on your period) and other handy concoctions, as well as good starter instruction on preparing and using herbs. Definitely good to have on hand. (Blood Sisters Red Alert, c/o Elle Corazon, 176 Bernard West, Montreal, PQ, H2T 2K2, or http://bloodsisters.org/bloodsisters/)


Our Bodies, Ourselves by The Boston Women's Health Book Collective
I've owned one edition or another of this book since I was a little kid (having a feminist mum rules), and it's always been super useful to have around. First published in 1970, Our Bodies, Ourselves has been updated and expanded several times over the years, and the current edition serves as both a history of second wave feminism and women's health issues, and as a handy reference. A huge (seriously, this is bigger than most phone directories) amount of information is covered, including body image, relationships and sexuality, pregnancy, and aging. One of the coolest things about this book is the amount of direct quotes from women that are included. Every chapter has technical and medical information, but it's interspersed with quotes about different women's experiences and feelings about the topic being covered. Completely essential reading.

books to read if you like biography and autobiography

I'm all about biography and autobiography because I think it's one of the most interesting ways to learn history. Although what you're reading is filtered through one person's viewpoint and that has to be kept in mind, really, all history is filtered through one viewpoint. I'd rather read it from an admittedly biased individual than read the ostenibly unbiased, dry accounts that the dominant culture presents as the objective truth. It's more interesting to get to read about events on a macro and micro level at once, and it makes historical events seem more real and relate-able.

Anything from the Nabat series
Published by an imprint of AK Press, this series of books reprints out of print autobiographies of various outlaw type folks. My favourites are You Can't Win by Jack Black (not the irritating actor), which is about a hobo burglar who does spends years hopping trains and doing crimes, and does intense time in Folsom and San Quentin, and Out of the Night by Jan Valtin, which is this epic story of an organiser with the Communist Party in Germany (and in various other locations ... he ends up as an insanely well travelled guy) in the years leading up to and during WWII. The former is smart and fun and will have you using copious amounts of old hobo slang, and the latter is smart and intense and incredibly difficult to read, but incredibly necessary at the same time. Amazing stuff, as is everything else in the series.

Recollections of My Life as a Woman by Diane diPrima
Diane di Prima is one of the people I most admire. Not only is she an absolutely beautiful writer, but she's a toughass lady. As one of the original writers in the Beat movement, she introduced lots of the legendary male Beat writers to New York City, was a skilled and prolific author, founded a poetry zine and printing press, put on plays, lived with incredible style, and managed to do it all while raising several kids. When you think of how many of the male Beat writers (who usually get more accolades than diPrima) relied on their wives, girlfriends, or mothers to support them and allow them to live in carefree, artistic ways, her accomplishments are all the more impressive. A rad lady and an equally rad autobiography.

Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown
A really interesting autobiography detailing the first twenty five or so years of Brown's life. He grew up in Harlem in an incredibly transitional era ... coming from a fairly traditional rural Southern family who had moved to the city, running around the streets causing shit as a little kid, and seeing heroin devestate his community as a teenager. He tells fascinating, sad stories about being a bad kid, running around stealing and skipping school and ending up going through the juvenile detention system. Later he ends up working his way into university, and has to deal with choosing to go straight and leaving his old friends and community behind. It's crazy to read his descriptions of how widespread of an epidemic heroin became, in Brown's words, "Drugs were killing just about everybody off in one way or another. It had taken over the neighborhood, the entire community. I didn't know of one family in Harlem with three or more kids between the ages of fourteen and nineteen in which at least one of them wasn't on drugs. This was just how it was."

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
Lorde describes this as a biomythography, and it's a rad read. She uses her amazing poetic voice to flesh out the structure of the autobiography and create a story that contains the facts and goings on of her life, as well as more mythological stories and feelings behind everything that happened to her. Stories of growing up poor, black, and female with aspirations towards being formally educated and becoming a poet, which is a hard path to choose in life (especially in the time in which she grew up), but which Lorde is strong enough to accomplish for herself.

Living My Life by Emma Goldman
The two volumes of Emma Goldman's autobiography are a lot to get through, but they're not as weighty as you might think, and they're a hell of a lot of fun to read. I think pretty much everyone I know really admires Goldman for her politics, her eloquence, and the amount she managed to accomplish in her life, especially considering her gender and the repression she faced, but even if you've read lots by her and are pretty aware of her life, you'll learn tons more from these books. Goldman was a toughass lady, so there's lots of tales of confrontations with cops and jailers, crazy tales of speeches she made with cops and right wingers waiting outside for her, and all that other stuff. That's the stuff that everyone knows about her, but I liked the chance to learn that she also owned an ice cream shop, tried prostitution to make money for activism but got nervous and had some dude give her money to just go home, and other stories that give a more complete picture of her life.

Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975 by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz was one of the early founders of the women's liberation movement (second wave feminism), as well as an anti-war activist, involved in work in Cuba, and associated to a certain extent with SDS and the Weather Underground. I like that she writes really honestly about her progression into activism, covering the victories, but also the mistakes and the nervous moments. Although she sort of snipes at other women more than I like reading about, some of the gossipy anecdotes are pretty entertaining (Bernadette Dohn from the Weather Underground wore very short skirts! And she was a jerk to Dunbar Ortiz! Scandalous!). She writes a lot about being a rural, working class woman who becomes a part of the activist scene, and does a good job of examining the class prejudices she encounters along the way.

books to read for inspiration

Support Zine by Cindy Ovenrack (and various other folks)
I'm putting this in the inspiration section even though it probably seems like an odd choice. This is a zine about supporting people who have been sexually abused, and I think it's amazing both as a community resource, an example of how our communities (punk, activist, etc) actually get it together and act like a for reals community sometimes, and as a documentation of how many different people are working through a lot of difficult issues, and helping their partners to do the same. Equally of use to survivors and their partners and friends, this zine contains information about how to truly listen to someone who is telling their story, interpreting what phrases like "i just can't talk about it" mean, how to be sexual with a partner who is working through past abuse, helping someone when they are trapped in a flashback, and a ton of other things. I honestly feel that everyone should read this ... whether you've been through abuse, have a close friend or partner or acquaintance or relative who has, or even if you don't think you know anyone who has (which indubitably just means no one has told you their story yet). These are not issues anyone should have to think about or experience, but unfortunately virtually all of us do, and you can help people you care about work through things and avoid being hurt further if you put some thought and preparation into it. (put out by Microcosm Publishing, www.microcosmpublishing.com)

Not For Rent: Conversations with Creative Activists in the U.K. by Stacy Wakefield and Grrrt
Interviews with a variety of squatters, zine editors, volunteers at DIY show spaces, bands, and anti-road activists. There's a good variety of subcultures represented, from hippies to rastas to punk rock kids ... it's cool to read about people coming from a variety of backgrounds who are all working on creating community in different ways. It's nice to be reminded sometimes that in spite of superficial differences, there's a lot under the surface that holds together anyone working towards positive change and alternative social structures. Both this zine and the one in the review following are a good response to the criticisms levelled by Ward Churchill in Pacifism As Pathology that white, middle class activists tend to spend more time mythologizing and vaguely "supporting" revolutionary movements in developing countries than putting their own time or livs on the line at home.

Passionate and Dangerous: Conversations with Midwestern Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists ed. by Mark Bohnert
The introduction of this zine thanks the creators of Not For Rent for inspiration, and it is definitely the same sort of idea, but in the midwest U.S. as opposed to Britain. You get the same sense of inspiration and positivity from this volume, but it's interesting to see the regional differences in the projects being presented (i.e. Not For Rent has lots of interviews with anti-road activists, whereas Passionate and Dangerous has more about Latino activist issues, agitating for health care, and other U.S. specific stuff). I would absolutely love to see a series of these projects sprouting up all over the place ... it's so important to realize that people are doing fun, important, and daily work everywhere, to have a sense that creating change happens in your own backyard (wherever that may be), and that you don't have to limit your activism to reading or hitting up the occasional demo or contributing money ... there is stuff that can be done where you live, for your own community, every day!

The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llwellyn
Subtitled "How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education," this book is primarily written for kids or teenagers who are interested in dropping out of school and beginning the process of homeschooling (or "unschooling," as Llwellyn rightfully prefers to call it). However, I've owned a copy for a good ten years now, and still find myself referring to it often, either for inspiration (the stories of all the kids who dropped out of school and found interesting, creative paths through life) or as a resource (amazingly comprehensive lists of books on various subjects as well as inventive suggestions on how to learn science, math, and other subjects without books or textbooks). As someone that's chosen to go without formal schooling past high school and learn through work, life, and practically living in the library whenever I get the chance, this book has really shaped my thoughts about learning and self education.

Peops by Fly
Fly is an amazing artist (whose comics you've probably seen in Slug & Lettuce zine) and a longtime squatter in Lower East Side community of NYC. This book is a series of portraits of people, with various things they said while being drawn by her, and a brief bio of them at the bottom of each page. The people interviewed are ridiculously diverse ... lots of squatters, various dirty travelling kids, lots of artists, writers, activists, and musicians, and some children as well. It's really inspiring to read about people from all different ages and backgrounds who are passionate and motivated about whatever it is they put their time into, and to see the amazing, creative projects folks come up with.


Making Stuff and Doing Things: A Collection of DIY to Doing Just About Everything by Kyle Bravo
This book is a huge, super posi guide to, as the title says, doing just about anything, DIY styles. You can learn to make an a-line skirt, a bike cart, block prints, egg replacer, DIY toothpaste, and a whole lot more stuff. There's a variety of authors and writing styles as well, which keeps it varied and interesting. You'll probably find that you already know lots of this stuff, but you probably know some folks who could benefit from it ... plus, it's a good feeling to realize how much stuff you've already taught yourself. No matter what your existing skills, I'm sure you'll find something new to tackle as well. This book is rad!
(PO Box 14332, Portland, OR, 97293, www.microcosmpublishing.com)

Recipes For Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook by the Crimethinc Collective
I sort of have issues with Crimethinc, mostly due to that ridiculous Evasion book (my objections here mainly stem from the fact that the author disregards the fact that it's hella easier to get away with all the scams he describes if you're a white dude, and the "homelessness. poverty. if you're not having fun, you're not doing it right" back cover tagline. basically, he just needs to be a little less condescending and a little more conscious of his own privilege. oh, and who seriously says they would rather be friends with racists than meat eaters?). However, I was really impressed with Recipes For Disaster. The "recipes" included are generally really well thought out and written with a lot of depth and detail, which is amazing. The guides to planning various actions and demos were obviously written by folks who've been organising for a long time, and who put equal effort into theory and action. The sections on screenprinting, wheatpasting, dumpstering, and the like are helpful, and good to have in one collection, but I was most impressed by more abstract (though still very practical) sections like the one on supporting survivors of domestic violence, which was absolutely amazing. It's so refreshing to read a practical set of steps to be used for supporting survivors of abuse, with the emphasis very much on supporting the victim and working from her needs, not on what the person helping out thinks should be done in this type of situation. Tons to read in here, and very much worth picking up.

books to read if you're white and/or male and/or middle class and wanna try to be an ally to folks who aren't any or all of those things

Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work For Racial Justice by Paul Kivel
This is a rad book for white folks who want to be allies but aren't really sure how to go about doing that. There's a bunch of chapters and exercises that debunk stereotypes, talk about the privilege one gets from being white, and that sort of thing that are pretty basic, but still clear and well written. He also talks about ways to use your privilege to be an ally to people of colour, and the importance of being vocal about being a white person and anti-racist. Good for making you realize that the way to be helpful about these issues is not to deny your privilege ("I'm totally discriminated against! People don't treat me the same because of my mohawk and bondage pants!"), but to use the opportunities it gives you to create change


Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America by Ward Churchill
I'm doing this review completely based on memory, due to Dan being a slowcoach and borrowing this book for a year and counting, but I've read Pacifism as Pathology umpteen or so times, so I should be able to remember it okay. Churchill has a lot of harsh things to say about pacifist activism, namely that it's mainly the product of middle class white folks who are the only ones who actually have the privilege to choose violence or nonviolence. He feels that people living in relatively affluent neighbourhoods who don't have to brave confrontations with the cops just from walking down the street on a daily basis don't have the right to try and push pacifism on everyone. I think what he says about acknowledging your privilege is completely valid, and he makes a lot of good points about these kinds of activists making a distinction between places where direct action is necessary (usually places that are far away, where the struggle is being carried out by people of colour), and North America, where they feel pacifism is the way to go (which conveniently keeps them in a safe position, where their role in armed struggle is that of a faraway supporter). A really interesting read that will have you thinking a lot about your participation in activism and how much personal safety you're really willing to risk.

Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class, edited by Michelle Tea
This was edited by the amazing Michelle Tea. I was sorry that none of her writing was included, but she did a fabulous job of choosing the writings contained in this book. Without a Net has a wide variety of authors, some more well known (Diane DiPrima and Dorothy Allison, for example), and some I've never heard of, but all the stories are amazing and the women that wrote them are a toughass bunch of ladies. Topics vary from traumatic childhood stories to being a blue collar dyke out-working guys at a labour job, so there's definitely lots of variety. I should also mention that although this book is incredibly worthwhile to read, it can be difficult to get through ... it contains a lot of abuse stories, and abuse survivors may find it triggering in places.

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