Just on the Horizon: Nine Utopian Books to Deprogram Our Brains
Kristen R. Ghodsee Recommends Thomas More, Aldus Huxley, and More
Birth announcement
2023 Reading Challenge: The Patriarchs
Such a great read from the amazing science journalist Angela Saini. I devoured this one in almost one sitting. An essential guide to understanding the origins and persistence of patriarchal power in the world today.
Spotted on the Staff Picks wall at McNally Jackson in Rockefeller Center
So happy to still be on the nonfiction staff picks wall!
3 days only (April 26-28)! Preorder Everyday Utopia with 25% off in North America
3 days only (April 26-28)! Preorder Everyday Utopia with 25% off in North America on Barnes & Noble
The cover of the Dutch translation of Everyday Utopia →
2023 Reading Challenge: The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin
I have dipped in and out of this book for decades, but I finally sat down and read it cover-to-cover. There’s so much to process in this book, and so much that is still very relevant to the present day.
“A revolution is more than the destruction of a political system. It implies the awakening of human intelligence, the increasing of the inventive spirit tenfold, a hundredfold... It is a revolution in the minds of men, more than in their institutions”
2023 Reading Challenge: Wide Sargasso Sea
I had to read this for one of my book clubs, but it was a real disappointment. It provides a back story to Jane Eyre, and boasts a weird and sometimes confusing shift in perspective that has a sort of Rashomon effect. I hated the stereotypes and essentializing, and even the prose, though sometimes beautiful, felt self-indulgent. Not a fan.
A short interview in Publishers Weekly for Everyday Utopia →
This was such a fun conversation to have. Tara Saunders asked such thoughtful questions.
2023 Reading Challenge: Klara and the Sun
Such a beautifully-written and thoughtful book.
The full jacket proof
Still a few corrections to be made, but this is what it will look like. I’m so excited for this design and for the sun on the spine.
Draft image of the UK cover
It’s always so fun to see what the designers come up with for my new books. This is a mock up of the cover for the UK version of Everyday Utopia, which is being published this spring by Bodley Head.
Everyday Utopia!
Audio book of Red Valkyries is now available →
It’s available on Audible, Spotify, and wherever you get your audiobooks. I am extremely grateful to Tantor Media and to Esther Wane for their amazing work on the project.
And I made the list of what to read in La Repubblica →
Full review of Red Valkyries in the Chicago Review of Books →
Liza Featherstone reviews Red Valkyries in Jacobin →
Cover design of the forthcoming Japanese translation
The Japanese translation of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence is coming out in May, and they have changed the title to “Maybe it's capitalism that's keeping you from enjoying sex.” This image is the lonely woman under capitalism surrounded by her purchases and is an interesting twist of the themes of the book.
Spring Reading: Our Country Friends
It’s just not the same without Daisy and this is the first novel I have read in 2022. Not my favorite, but a good snapshot of the early pandemic.
And one more blurb from Grace Blakeley
“Red Valkyries is a fascinating alternative history of the feminist movement, told from the perspective of the east rather than the west. The women Ghodsee profiles are committed socialists who realise that women’s liberation is incompatible with capitalism, and who also frequently struggle against the centralisation of power within their own countries. Required reading for anyone seeking out an alternative to #girlboss feminism.”