Sharing is socialism and it would be selfish not to share. Here are a collection of book recommendations by Andrew (Pfannkuche) and Andrew (Weeks). We hope that you will find something that piques your interest.
Andrew (Pfannkuche)
Here is a small selection of books that, I think, does a good job of explaining my socialism. I’ve tried my best to categorize them into two sections, theory and literature. The first row (literature) is meant to demonstrate the different relationships I have to the socialist movement, Bendiner makes me laugh, Koestler make me proud (what?), and Rooney, well she understands how depressed I am at everything. The second row is theory. Gittlitz’s a historical tale that bridges the gap between theory and my modern relationship to socialism. Regarding Fisher, I hope it is not an overstatement to say that he will go down in history as the greatest philosopher of our century and Capitalist Realism is the book that best explains our modern moment, it is a true masterpiece for my generation. Kołakowski’s anti-communism is of service to us, he does not have “a dog in the fight” so he can describe our impenetrable inter-left disputes in a way that an academic newcomer can use to their advantage.
Each of these books has brought me comfort at some point in my life, and I am therefore not only recommending them for intellectual reasons but because they have made me smile.
Andrew (Weeks)
A few recommendations: I read books, whether fiction or nonfiction, in order to get oriented in time and the world. Some of the best books I’ve read recently for this purpose were Louis Menand’s cultural-intellectual history of postwar America, The Free World. Its focus is the years 1945-1965, which means the genesis of the society and culture that have prevailed more or less to the present. By Menand’s account, this began with French Existentialism. For a cogent and fun introduction to the latter, I recommend At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell. For a Russian novelization of that same period, I recommend the highly readable The Big Green Tent by Ludmila Ulitskaya, a page-turner historical novel. Another novel that captures the ethical situation of the European intellectual faced with the plight of legal and illegal immigrants is Go, Went, Gone by the German writer Jenny Erpenbeck. In the developed countries, culture and social strata are being undermined by the same forces of capitalism that are destroying the less developed nations and forcing their populations to seek refuge. Virginie Despentes’ trilogy Vernon Subutex captures the secret nightmares of all of us petit-bourgeois intellectuals when the hipster record store owner is bankrupted and reduced to homelessness until he is rescued by a scattered cohort of friends whose “convergences” embody a shimmer of hope against the forces of degradation and atomization. Insight into the American gulag of hopeless lifers is offered by the short story collection of my fellow Southern Illinoisan The Graybar Hotel by Curtis Dawkins, currently serving a life sentence without parole at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Michigan.
Normal Thoughts 