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Don't Give Up, Read Up!

The morning after the election, Bookshop started the hard work of defining our role as we faced the new political reality of our country. First, we gathered together at our morning meeting and rededicated ourselves to the core of our mission. The statement that we posted shortly after opening best describes the sentiments we shared with each other that morning:

"Today Bookshop Santa Cruz rededicates itself to being a safe place in this community. A safe place for all people. A safe place to share ideas and to evaluate options. A safe place to escape through books if needed. A safe place to find empathy within pages. A safe place to further discover what defines our community."

Since then, we have discussed various ways that books can help our community process, evaluate, spur action, escape and heal. We are not alone. In the weeks following, more than 400 children's authors pledged to "help eliminate the fear that takes root in the human heart amid lack of familiarity and understanding of others" by planting "seeds of empathy, fairness and empowerment through words and pictures." (Read about their statement here.) These authors understand that books hold power. It is our hope that there are thousands of ways that we use books during the next four years to bring light to our lives in the form of understanding, connection, and hope.

To start this process, we've compiled a reading list of books that move the conversation forward. We will continue to add to it, and to find ways to create dialogue around these books both in and outside the store. We hope you will join us.

The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States By Pauline Maier (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Pauline Maier (Introduction by)
$5.95
ISBN: 9780553214826
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Bantam Classics - July 1st, 1998

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement By Angela Y. Davis, Frank Barat (Editor), Cornel West (Preface by) Cover Image
By Angela Y. Davis, Frank Barat (Editor), Cornel West (Preface by)
$15.95
ISBN: 9781608465644
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Haymarket Books - February 9th, 2016

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They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement By Wesley Lowery Cover Image
$36.00
ISBN: 9780316312479
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Little, Brown and Company - November 15th, 2016

The Nazis, Capitalism, and the Working Class By Donny Gluckstein Cover Image
$22.94
ISBN: 9781608461370
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Haymarket Books - August 7th, 2012

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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City By Matthew Desmond Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780553447453
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Crown - February 28th, 2017

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right By Arlie Russell Hochschild Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9781620972250
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: New Press - September 6th, 2016

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Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis By J. D. Vance Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9780062300546
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Harper - June 28th, 2016

America at War with Itself (City Lights Open Media) By Henry A. Giroux, Robin D. G. Kelley (Foreword by) Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780872867321
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: City Lights Books - September 6th, 2016

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America By Nancy Isenberg Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780143129677
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Penguin Books - April 4th, 2017

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Between the World and Me By Ta-Nehisi Coates Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780812993547
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: One World - July 14th, 2015

Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities By Rebecca Solnit Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9781608465767
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Haymarket Books - March 15th, 2016

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate By Naomi Klein Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781451697391
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Simon & Schuster - August 4th, 2015

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America By George Packer Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780374534608
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - March 4th, 2014

Staff Pick Badge
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander, Cornel West (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Michelle Alexander, Cornel West (Introduction by)
$19.95
This item may be available from the publisher! Give us a call or send us an email to find out.
ISBN: 9781595586438
Published: New Press - January 16th, 2012

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Heat and Light: A Novel By Jennifer Haigh Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780061763496
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Ecco - February 28th, 2017

Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? By Thomas Frank Cover Image
$20.00
This item may be available from the publisher! Give us a call or send us an email to find out.
ISBN: 9781250118134
Published: Picador - March 14th, 2017

The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics By John B. Judis Cover Image
$12.99
ISBN: 9780997126440
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Columbia Global Reports - October 5th, 2016

The Democrats: A Critical History (Updated Edition) By Lance Selfa Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781608461929
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Haymarket Books - August 7th, 2012

From #Blacklivesmatter to Black Liberation By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Cover Image
Email or call for price
ISBN: 9781608465620
Availability: Out of Print
Published: Haymarket Books - February 23rd, 2016

Things That Can and Cannot Be Said: Essays and Conversations By Arundhati Roy, John Cusack Cover Image
$10.95
ISBN: 9781608467174
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Haymarket Books - October 4th, 2016

The United States of Fear By Tom Engelhardt Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9781608461547
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Haymarket Books - December 13th, 2011

Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches 1963-2009 By Howard Zinn, Anthony Arnove (Editor) Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9781608462599
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Haymarket Books - November 27th, 2012

Rich People Things: Real Life Secrets of the Predator Class By Chris Lehmann Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781608461523
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Haymarket Books - October 18th, 2011

Palante: Young Lords Party By Michael Abramson (Photographer), Young Lords Party, Iris Morales (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Michael Abramson (Photographer), Young Lords Party, Iris Morales (Introduction by)
$28.69
ISBN: 9781608461295
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Haymarket Books - July 26th, 2011

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Men Explain Things to Me By Rebecca Solnit Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781608464661
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Haymarket Books - September 1st, 2015

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning History #3) By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780807057834
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Beacon Press - August 11th, 2015

Staff Pick Badge
The Underground Railroad (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (National Book Award Winner) (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel By Colson Whitehead Cover Image
$27.95
ISBN: 9780385542364
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Doubleday - August 2nd, 2016

Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Raymond Obstfeld Cover Image
$27.95
This item may be available from the publisher! Give us a call or send us an email to find out.
ISBN: 9781618931719
Published: Time Home Entertainment - August 23rd, 2016

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century By Timothy Snyder Cover Image
$12.00
ISBN: 9780804190114
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Crown - February 28th, 2017