User menu

Shopping cart

What to Read After 1984

George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece 1984 has seen a huge popular resurgence since the November 2016 election. Read Up on some nonfiction to better understand the context of our current reality. Or you can check out the below dystopias for understanding and inspiration.

Staff Pick Badge
Parable of the Sower By Octavia E. Butler Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781538732182
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grand Central Publishing - April 30th, 2019

Nigerian-American World Fantasy Award winner Nnedi Okorafor said 1984 is not the dystopia that feels most relevant to her at this point in history. “After everything that happened, I’m not reading 1984, I’m not reading Fahrenheit 451, I’m not reading Handmaid’s Tale. I’m reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I feel like if we’re looking for any answers or where we’re going, it’s definitely in Octavia’s work.”

Speaking to The Stream on Al Jazeera, Okorafor read from the African-American novelist’s 1998 sequel, the Nebula-winningParable of the Talents, which features a presidential candidate, Andrew Steele Jarret, who rises to power by promising, like Trump, to “make America great again,” and whose supporters are known to form mobs to burn and feather and tar those who don’t “quite match Jarret’s version of Christianity.”


Staff Pick Badge
The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel By Margaret Atwood Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780385490818
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Anchor - March 16th, 1998

"Set in the near future, in a totalitarian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government, The Handmaid's Tale explores themes of women in subjugation. The character is one of a class of individuals kept as ‘handmaids’ for reproductive purposes in an era of declining births. The images of emptiness are one of the most striking aspects of this novel-the effect is chilling." - Tracy


It Can't Happen Here By Sinclair Lewis, Michael Meyer (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Sinclair Lewis, Michael Meyer (Introduction by)
$15.00
ISBN: 9780451216588
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: Berkley - October 4th, 2005

A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press.


We By Yevgeny Zamyatin, Clarence Brown (Translated by), Clarence Brown (Introduction by), Clarence Brown (Notes by), Masha Gessen (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Yevgeny Zamyatin, Clarence Brown (Translated by), Clarence Brown (Introduction by), Clarence Brown (Notes by), Masha Gessen (Foreword by)
$17.00
ISBN: 9780140185850
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Classics - August 1st, 1993

"Have you read an enjoyed A Brave New World or 1984? Do you love wacky dystopian societies that are just creepy enough to make you uncomfortable? Zamyatin did them first, and in my opinion, best. What is freedom? What is truth? And does love ensnare us, or free us as individuals? These are just a few of the questions asked here, you’re in for a heck of a ride." - Erin


Fahrenheit 451: A Novel By Ray Bradbury Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781451673319
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Simon & Schuster - January 10th, 2012

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.


Brave New World By Aldous Huxley Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780060850524
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Perennial Modern Classics - October 17th, 2006

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order--all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.


The Lathe Of Heaven By Ursula  K. Le Guin Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781668017401
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - January 31st, 2023

In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes. 


The Giver: A Newbery Award Winner (Giver Quartet #1) By Lois Lowry Cover Image
$11.99
ISBN: 9780544336261
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Clarion Books - July 1st, 2014

The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.


V for Vendetta By Alan Moore, David Lloyd (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Alan Moore, David Lloyd (Illustrator)
$24.99
ISBN: 9781779511195
Availability: Not On Our Shelves, But Available from Warehouse - Usually Delivers in 3-14 Days
Published: DC Comics - November 17th, 2020

A powerful story about loss of freedom and individuality, V FOR VENDETTA takes place in a totalitarian England following a devastating war that changed the face of the planet. In a world without political freedom, personal freedom and precious little faith in anything comes a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask who fights political oppressors through terrorism and seemingly absurd acts. It's a gripping tale of the blurred lines between ideological good and evil.