My mom has been a libertarian for some time, and I think my sibling and I have been helping her slowly be more aware of social issues. I even got her to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
I’m looking for books to subtly help her grow— I read a lot of leftist nonfiction, and I’d like to get her there eventually, but I need to start slow!
I think books on racism, classism, and/or gender would be great. Fiction can be good too as long as it has those themes/subjects. She really likes fantasy.
Thanks! (:
by Wenk_wenk11-3
43 Comments
Maybe some Ursula K. Le Guin?
Cider House Rules is sooo beautifully written, and explores a lot of themes around wealth and privilege, healthcare, access, education.
poverty by america is a must read.
*The Worst Hard Time* is about the Dust Bowl. Lots about the boom and bust agricultural cycle, but the people affected are conservative-coded farmers, which might make it more approachable.
Oh, if she likes fantasy, there’s a lot of subtly progressive stuff in Terry Pratchett.
Invisible Women- Carolyn Criado Perez
If she really likes fantasy, Blood Over Bright Haven might be a good start. And a little darker and dense, but the Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin is very heavy on those themes, in a sci-fantasy context.
More speculative fiction (although honestly it’s not far off of where we’re currently at), Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler is extremely relevant to our times despite being written over 30 years ago.
Ohhhh Ursula K. Le Guin is perfect for this! Try “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” It’s a short story with lots of social implications.
One fantasy piece that fits is *The Maid and the Crocodile* by Jordan Ifueko. It’s a fantasy novel with themes of classism throughout. I’ve only read it as an audiobook, and it’s one of my favorite audiobooks of all time. The narration is interwoven with songs sung by the character, and I just love it so much.
The Radium Girls is a journalistic exploration of early workers, primarily women, who experienced adverse health effects at work. It’s a true story about workers uniting in the face of crippling and deadly disabling symptoms directly related to their work. It’s a testament to workers uniting and standing up for fair regulation when the private market failed to protect workers.
The Color of Money – Mehrsa Baradaran
The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein
The Hunger Games series. It’s a modern fiction classic for a reason. I’m a high school English teacher who teaches the book in various capacities to various grade levels and I’ve yet to teach another book that creates so many opportunities for so many of my students to experience “lightbulb” moments of “oh my god, that sounds like what’s happening right now in our country/world with xyz.” The writing itself is very straightforward and the reading level tests around middle grade, but it’s so layered and nuanced that as someone who’s read the series literally over 30 times in the process of teaching it, I catch new political commentary every single time (or understand the commentary in a different way) and it makes my hair stand on end.
Terry Pratchett was never exactly subtle about the politics, but somehow a fair amount of conservatives still read discworld without realizing, so maybe those would be a good start? Starting with the watch or witches sub series would be good, but if starting with a giant series seems like too much you could start her with something that’s pretty stand alone, like Small Gods, or a smaller sub series.(like the Moist Von Lipwig bit starting with Going Postal can be read with no prior knowledge of discworld)
Sorry but nothing will be able to compete with whatever her social media algorithm is showing her daily.
Doing Harm by Maya Dusenberry is an outline of how the health industry, as a whole though many examples from the USA, has deprioritized and damaged the health of women in particular.
Terry Pratchett’s Disc World novels are seeded with liberal and humanist philosophy. The Vimes Boots Theory or Economics (“It’s expensive to be poor”) is in “Men at Arms,” one of the Night’s Watch books. That series starts with “Guards! Guards!”
Mistakes Were Made but not by Me – by Carol Tavris is about a persons ability and tendency to self censor and exempt from judgement. It’s a great way for people to understand more about explicit and implicit bias as well as how to anticipate and respond to toxic attribution patterns (internal universal beneficence and external universal malfeasance) and how to grow through these universal vulnerabilities.
Nomadland by Jessica Bruder
Germinal by Emile Zola
Kindred by Octavia Butler. IMO it’s better than Parable of the Sower. It is a time traveling sci-fi that weaves to s racism and history.
I also really like The Reason I Jump by Naomi Higashida and David Mitchell. It is about an autistic boy. It is not overtly political, but it is a beautiful story about being human and I think compassion for other humans leads to liberalism.
Feet of Clay – Anthony Storr is a chapter by chapter cataloguing of various cult leaders and their origins, peak behaviors, and resultant fallouts. Each chapter a different cultish leader.
“Why People believe weird things” by Michael Shermer is a skeptic’s go to.
It sounds like you have no idea what Libertarianism is. Libertarians (at least most) are very aware that all of the isms you mentioned exist, they just don’t believe the government is the thing that can fix them. You should tell your mom your goal here (to radicalize her) and see how she responds.
Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions is a science fiction novel in which a 2 dimensional world is described and created, and then a 3 dimensional being is introduced, a 1 dimensional universe and even a zero dimensional universe. It’s a great way to play with the ideas about limited perception and thought based on lifestyle, community, and confinements. It’s from the late 1880s and the first bit feels a bit technical to set up the world described.
*Cults Like Us* by Jane Borden is REALLY good and not too overtly political/leftist. It basically walks through core tenants/foundations of cults and examples of how those tenants look in more well-known cults (like Love Has Won, etc.), but then also connects it to the founding of the modern U.S. and our modern political/social climate again, without being too overtly politically partisan in a way that might turn people off.
If you really want to take a hard swing, I am constantly recommending *Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here* by Jonathan Blitzer, which traces the immigration policy crisis in the U.S. from the early 1980’s-2024. It is long, but it isn’t dense or overly academic and focuses on a handful of specific people throughout the book. One of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read and have obviously thought about it at a lot over the last year or so since I read it. Extremely engaging, very readable, very relevant. (Also FWIW – the book is critical of both Republican and Democratic administrations in their handling of immigration policy and thought it was a pretty balanced presentation about how both sides have contributed to the current nightmare we’re living in.)
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is about the experience of mindset rigidity and flexibility and understanding the underpinnings.
The Screwtape letters is a funny and clever fantasy novel by CS Lewis written from the perspective of a demon seeking to manipulate humans and their experience.
Not fantasy, but Demon Copperhead is great (modern retelling of David Copperfield set in Appalachia). I also found this list of “fantasy books to help readers grapple with complex social issues” but I haven’t read any of the books so can’t vouch for them: [https://people.com/fantasy-book-complex-social-issues-penn-cole-exclusive-8752030](https://people.com/fantasy-book-complex-social-issues-penn-cole-exclusive-8752030)
CS Lewis’s Space Trilogy is allegorical exploration of moral and political philosophy. The protagonist is an explorer to different communities and worlds.
Book 1, Out of the Silent Planet – Explores civilization with a singular universal overseer that shields community and individuals from complete experience and connection with their communities
Book 2, Perelandra – Is sort of a retelling of a biblical genesis but from an external visitor to a planet mirroring the story of Eden on which people are influenced by competing forces.
Book 3, That Hideous Strength is about political upheaval and community resistance.
Strangers in their own land
Absolute Gold Standard of moral philosophy, worth a read by anyone, is the short story by science fiction and fantasy author Ursula K LeGuin called “Those who walk away from Omelas” and could be a central focus of any book club.
If you haven’t read it, you’re wrong, and it’s been justified until now. 🙂
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Changed my outlook on the death penalty and the whole justice system.
Nickel and Dimed
The Righteous Mind is a great nonfiction exploration by Jonathan Haidt (almost any of his books are meaningful explorations of morality, happiness, gratitude, from a psychological and sociological perspective.
braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer 🙂
High Conflict by Amanda Ripley is a great look at how disagreement and miscommunication can spiral into entrenched polarity and rivalry.
Even if a misnomer, many people who indicate they are libertarian use it as a misnomer. Being socially progressive and fiscally conservative has the same exterior and rigidity, and often the same impact, as the people who say “the private market is the solution” without recognizing the instances where the private market has failed. As well, many libertarians are using the phrase to shield rigidity and conservatism. For instance, I contend that anyone who says they are a small government libertarian AND who supports the death penalty, is not a small government libertarian. Are you?
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, and if she responds to that then it could open the door to Caste
Prodigal Summer or The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Can you get her to get off social media? And Fox news? She would benefit from time outside the right wing bubble.
To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee and The book thief by Markus Zusak
[Triangle: the Fire that Changed America](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/108305.Triangle) by David Von Drehle is a very good read and makes it super-clear why regulation and unions are so important for protecting workers.
[Devil in the Grove](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13425592-devil-in-the-grove) by Gilbert King is about an awful legal case in Florida in which four innocent men were convicted of a rape that they didn’t commit (and which probably never occured). Thurgood Marshall was one of the defense lawyers, and the book also provides broader context about the NAACP’s legal strategy leading up to Brown vs. Board of Education.
Radley Balko is a journalist – originally libertarian, not sure where he falls these days, but probably not where your mom is. He’s published a couple of books, one on police militarization that now seems very prescient ([Rise of the Warrior Cop](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16043524-rise-of-the-warrior-cop)) and the other about two Black men who were wrongfully convicted in Mississippi and the many systemic issues that led to that ([The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33296669-the-cadaver-king-and-the-country-dentist)). Caveat: I’ve only read his journalism, not his books, because the issues he covers are so enraging that I can only deal with them in limited doses.
How about you leave her the fuck alone? 🙄
*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins
Ishmael – Daniel Quinn
A man answers an ad to go talk to a gorilla and save the world. This book changed my life, changed the way I saw everything.
Or maybe you shouldn’t try to manipulate your moms thoughts and beliefs? We should all be allowed to think for ourselves and pursue the ideas we want to pursue without being manipulated or brainwashed to think a certain way. I am sure you want that freedom for yourself, why not for her?