I truly needed the boost of hope and courage that reading Steven Charleston's Ladder to the Light gave me this past month. This is one powerful little book. Charleston, a retired Episcopal priest and bishop, is also an elder of the Choctaw Nation and a practitioner of Zen meditation. He leaves interpretation open for the phrase "the Spirit" so that as many people as possible feel at home in his writing, saying, "theological debates are for another day." He throws those doors open wide and invites readers "to interpret the nature and meaning of the Spirit for themselves." This book is radical in its inclusion and unity without falling into syncretism, and avoids the trap of offering spiritual platitudes and…

"History is very kind to the memory of mediocre white men." Ijeoma Oluo's Mediocre is a history of how the United States has upheld white male power, the systems they created, and how this has impacted society and given us the systemic issues we all continue to face today. Oluo sets a tone from the start of the book, when she gracefully, effortlessly shows how simple it is to be trans-inclusive: "Men without uteruses should not control our reproductive choices." "When I talk about mediocrity, I talk about success that is measured only by how much better white men are faring than people who aren’t white men." It was nice to see that allyship so clearly, right off the bat. I…

Janet LoSole's Adventure by Chicken Bus is a memoir/travelogue following the author, her husband Lloyd, and their two young daughters, Jocelyn and Natalie, on an 18-month long homeschooling field trip backpacking through Central America and, for a short while, living in Costa Rica. From the start, Janet and Lloyd were adamant about participating in community-based travel, supporting the local economy instead of corporations that gentrify the area. From the epilogue, community-based travel focuses on: 1. Benefiting the local community and its natural environment. 2. Respecting the culture of the host community. 3. Relying on local, family-owned businesses for food, shelter, and transportation. Travel memoirs like this can easily devolve into poverty tourism. The writer must remain aware of this at…

With the exception of his essay in The Fire This Time, I had yet to really sit down and read Kiese Laymon's writing, until now. Halfway through the essays in How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, I paused to head over to Goodreads and add his entire backlist to my to-be-read list. Laymon's writing is so commanding. Even when talking about sports (something I don't care much about), I had trouble putting this book down because, in Laymon's hands, the essay is never about "just sports"—or "just" anything. He digs in far beyond the surface and creates connections people often miss (due to privilege, lack of interest, white supremacy, or any number of reasons). I highlighted so…