Fledgling
Octavia E. Butler
In this, Butler’s last book, she returns to the notion of symbiosis so thoroughly explored in Lilith’s Brood.
A theory of nonscalability
On The Mushroom at the End of the World
Savage salvage
On The Mushroom at the End of the World
The Mushroom at the End of the World
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
This book has rewired my brain in ways I’m only just beginning to understand.
Worlds of Exile and Illusion
Ursula K. Le Guin
These three novels, Le Guin’s earliest, explore the experiences of visitors on three different planets.
Bots
On the boredom and misogyny of gendered bots.
Aurora
Kim Stanley Robinson
Aurora follows a generational space ship as it travels to a far away solar system in search of a planet that can be safely terraformed.
The Manhattan Project
On Field Notes from a Catastrophe
Field Notes from a Catastrophe
Elizabeth Kolbert
Kolbert’s essays span Kyoto, Bush-era climate denialism, ocean acidification, Canadian tar sands, and melting glaciers.
Reciprocal possession
On The Companion Species Manifesto
The Companion Species Manifesto
Donna Haraway
This academic pamphlet from Donna Haraway describes dog writing as “a branch of feminist theory, or the other way around.”
Follow the links
Hyperlinks are great, actually.
Thinking Small
Daniel Immerwahr
A historical—and critical—look at the history of community development, locating its roots in dubious US-led efforts in India, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
The Lathe of Heaven
Ursula K. Le Guin
This brief novel from Ursula K. Le Guin concerns a man named George Orr who has a most unwelcome ability: his dreams have the power to alter reality.
Hypertext for all
What is hypertext for?
Ancillary Mercy
Ann Leckie
The conclusion of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series is more madcap than the preceding books, and fiercely satisfying.
Ancillary Sword
Ann Leckie
The second of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series follows Breq as she’s given command of a ship—her first since she was herself a ship, before the Lord of the Radch destroyed it.
Ancillary Justice
Ann Leckie
The first in Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series introduces Breq, an AI who once inhabited a starship and many of it’s formerly-human crew.
Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood
In 1840s Toronto, a woman named Grace Marks, just shy of 16 years old, escapes with a man after one or both of them murder their employer and his housekeeper-turned-mistress.
The whole of work
The competitive advantage of the de-industrialized workplace.