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Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Oct 27 2025

\ \ Welcome to Basement Books, a safe space where reading helps us think critically and care for each other.\ \ Growing up, my brother and I would read and write every day in our basement. It completely opened up new worlds to me and it's been a massive part of my life ever since.\ \ Sadly, I've come to learn that a lot of the most profound books in my life are books that, because they're non-fiction, aren't as popular in bookish spaces and are books left in the basement. I want to change that and bring these books out into the light.\ \ I want to make sure that stories and voices from around the world are listened to. I want us to dive into texts together that challenge the way we were taught to think. We read to understand the world and each other in order to imagine what liberation could look like when we get there together.\ \ As a former teacher, I know that there is nothing more powerful than education. I hope I can create my Bindery into a space that provides resources, syllabuses, and learnings that start conversations and for us to all learn together.\ \ From my page, you can expect the following content:\ \

Monthly wrap-ups\ \
Syllubuses to help you dive deeper on specific topics\ \
Resources to help you read around the world\ \
Book recommendations\ \
Invidivual book reviews and what I learned from specific books\ \
Deep dives on self-help books and how we can do better\ \
Anything else we want to do in the future. Let's see what happens!\ \ \ Come join me!\ \ Kaitlyn\ \

Welcome to Basement Books!

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jul 24

\ \ Summary\ \ Why must Palestinians prove their humanity? And what are the implications of such an infuriatingly impossible task? With fearless prose and lyrical precision, Mohammed El-Kurd refuses a life spent in cross-examination. Rather than asking the oppressed to perform a perfect victimhood, El-Kurd asks friends and foes alike to look Palestinians in the eye, forgoing both deference and condemnation.\ \ How we see Palestine reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. Masterfully combining candid testimony, history, and reportage, Perfect Victims presents a powerfully simple demand: dignity for the Palestinian.\ \ Review\ \ A book filled with unapologetic candor and wit that makes you come to terms with your own mentality and beliefs in regards to Palestine. This is a must read. \ \ What I learned\ \

El-Kurd argues that repeated exposure to images of Palestinian suffering has normalized atrocities that would once have shocked the world. I've learned more about this mentality when I read "Regarding the Pain of Others" by Susan Sontag. I have a lot of thoughts on this subject.\ \ \

"Are we too aquainted with the horrific? What was once horrifying, what was once a harbinger of doom, now blends into the terrain of boring scarecrow."\ \
Something that's discussed in this book as well as a few others on this topic ("One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This"), is the violence of language during this genocide. The headlines we see lack agency. People "die," buildings "collapse," or civilians are "caught in crossfire"instead of explicitly identifying who carried out the violence.\ \
The thesis of this book is incredibly powerful as it argues that Palestinians have to prove their humanity rather than be perceived as humans. They're held to an impossible standard (by design) to be expected to be patient, peaceful, articulate, and morally flawless in the face of genocide. Any perceived imperfection is used to undermine sympathy for their humanity.\ \ \

"On the contrary, our death is sustenance for the world we live in, necessary to maintain things as they are. Our blood is the price of our colonizers sense of 'security'."\ \ "You need to be polite in your suffering, should you be granted the right to a roof over your head. Crass statements are corrosive to your plight, even when such statements are about those who first steal your home and then loot your tent. The violence inflicted upon our lands and our bodies, we are told, is secondary to the blemishes tarnishing our image, the blemishes that stand between us and justice, it seems. The smears we live to scrub clean."\ \
Golda Meir is often displayed as a hero or peacemaker. In fact, a library is named after her at my hometown's university. However, her reality was violent and she blamed Palestinains for forcing her to kill their children:\ \ \

"When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to fogive them for having forced us to kill their sons...This was Golda Meir's vile catchphrase, and it has reverberated ever since. But Golda Meir could have spared our children. No one forced her. She chose to kill our children."\ \
The Palestinian Authority (which were founded as part of the Oslo Accords in the 90's) functions in collaboration with Israeli counterparts. One example is in the killing of Nizar Banat, a dissident political leader. Protests broke out and the PA beat up and used tear gas on the protestors.](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/0pGyyQ9nrkPlCrNCQuAe/)

Everything I learned from "Perfect Victims" by Mohammed El-Kurd

3 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jul 20

Non-fiction\ \

"A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid\ \ \ Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay candidly appraises the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up, and makes palpable the impact of European colonization and tourism.\ \
"My Favorite Plant" edited by Jamaica Kincaid\ \ \ Kincaid gathers a sparkling selection of new and beloved poetry and prose about each author’s favorite flora.\ \ Short stories\ \
"Ladies of the Night" by Althea Prince\ \ \ With women's loves and lives as their focus, the stories contain dramatic twists and some humorous, others shocking and disturbing, all leaving a haunting melody behind.\ \ Fiction\ \
"My Stories Have No Endings" by Gayle Gonsalves\ \ \ Kai is a spiritual child who dips her ears into the wind where she hears the voices that tell stories from the forgotten past. Though she grows up in poverty in the Caribbean, her quick mind wins her a scholarship to the island's most prestigious all-girls' school where she's catapulted into a very different world\ \ 🗺️If you want to see more book recommendations from all the countries in the world, check out my Reading the World Spreadsheet.\ \ And if you want to support this project, consider becoming a paid member of my Bindery!](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/wfFlzuZwZt6tldbFnKSw/)

Reading the World: Antigua and Bermuda

4 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jul 14

\ \ Content warning: This post includes information and testimonies about torture, war crimes, and murder. \ \ Summary\ \ Author Hal Gold draws upon a wealth of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial Japanese Army's most notorious medical unit, giving an overview of its history and detailing its most shocking activities. The book presents the words of former unit members themselves, taken from remarks they made at a traveling Unit 731 exhibition held in Japan in 1994-95. They recount vivid first-hand memories of what it was like to take part in horrific experiments on men, women and children, their motivations and reasons why they chose to speak about their actions all these years later.\ \ Review\ \ It doesn’t feel fair to give this book a rating, but wow. I had no idea about this horrifying piece of history before I read this book. The eyewitness and perpetrator accounts given in this book were some of the most disgusting stories I’ve read from human history (so I wouldn’t recommend this book lightly). However, I do think it’s so imperative that more people learn about the war crimes committed for the sake of “science”.\ \ What I learned\ \ Unit 731 was a secret research facility run by Japan in Manchukuo (now part of China). In this facility, they ran biochemical weapon research by experimenting on humans. It's hard to say the exact human cost due to destruction of evidence, but it's estimated that 200,000-300,000 people were murdered as a part of this program.\ \

Manchukuo was a puppet state of Japan in China that existed during WWII from 1932-1945. The land was occupied by Japan during its invasion of Manchuria.\ \
Victims were primarily Chinese, but there were also Russian and Korean victims as well. These victims were often civilians and included women and children (even children born within the unit as a result of rape). There were no survivors.\ \ \

“The Chinese had a saying about us, that Japan had a ‘three-way complete policy: burned completely, killed completely, and pillaged completely.’ Yet, when we were doing those things, we had no sense of guilt or of doing anything wrong. It was for the emperor-for the country!”\ \
The human experiments conducted on these victims was vast and included infecting prisoners with diseases, live vivisection (invasive surgeries that involved the removing of organs that often didn't invovle anesthesia), amputation, forced frostbite, forced STD infection, and more.\ \ \

“Some of the experiments had nothing to do with advancing the capability of germ warfare, or of medicine. There is such a thing as professional curiosity… What medical purpose would be served by performing and studying beheadings? None at all. That was just playing around. Professional people, too, like to play.\ \
As part of the experimentation of biochemical weapons, the unit also conducted experiments on civilians outside the unit by contaminating water supplies, food, and land. This contamination included releasing plague-invested fleas that they harvested and raised, anthrax, and typhoid. \ \
Most individuals invovled in these war crimes were never tried or punished (only 12 were) and it wasn't until 2002 that Japan acknowledged its role in them. This lack of punishment was largely due to the fact that the U.S. found the learnings from the experiments to be valuable, which ultimately led to the immunity for the perpetrators.](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/jp4yqUtxBU6P3CYdpOpQ/)

Everything I learned from "Japan's Infamous Unit 731"

1 book

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jul 8

\ \ Non-fiction\ \

"Mountains of Fire: The Menace, Meaning, and Magic of Volcanoes" by Clive Oppenheimer\ \ \ Meeting with volcanoes around the world, a volcanologist interprets their messages for humankind.\ \
"The White Darkness" by David Grann\ \ \ In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton's crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape, life-threatening physical exhaustion, and hidden crevasses. Yet when he returned home he felt compelled to go back. On November 13, 2015, at age 55, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone.\ \
"Madhouse at the End of the Earth" by Julian Scanton\ \ \ Drawing on the diaries and journals of the Belgica’s crew and with exclusive access to the ship’s logbook, Sancton brings novelistic flair to a story of human extremes, one so remarkable that even today NASA studies it for research on isolation for future missions to Mars. \ \ Memoir\ \
"The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica" by Naira de Garcia\ \ \ Lab Girl meets Why Fish Don’t Exist in this “compelling blend of memoir, environmental writing, and scientific exploration” ( Kirkus Reviews ) from a young scientist studying penguins in Antarctica—a firsthand account of the beauty and brutality of this remote climate, the direct effects of climate change on animals, and the challenges of fieldwork.\ \
"South" by Ernest Shackleton\ \ \ The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917. \ \
"Antarctica" by Gabrielle Walker\ \ \ Drawing on her broad travels across the continent, Walker weaves all the significant threads of life on the vast ice sheet into a multifaceted narrative, illuminating what it really feels like to be there and why it draws so many different kinds of people.\ \ Fiction\ \
"Chasing the Light" by Jesse Blackadder\ \ \ A fictional recounting of the little-known true story of the first woman to ever set foot on Antarctica, and her extraordinary fight to get there.\ \
"The Dark" by Emma Haughton\ \ \ A&E doctor Kate North has been knocked out of her orbit by a personal tragedy. So when she's offered the opportunity to be an emergency replacement at the UN research station in Antarctica, she jumps at the chance. The previous doctor, Jean-Luc, died in a tragic accident while out on the ice. The move seems an ideal solution for Kate: no one knows about her past; no one is checking up on her. But as total darkness descends for the winter, she begins to suspect that Jean-Luc's death wasn't accidental at all.\ \
"My Last Continent" by Midge Raymond\ \ \ Each year, Deb and Keller play tour guide to the passengers on the small expedition ship that ferries them to their research station. But this year, when Keller fails to appear on board, Deb begins to reconsider their complicated past and the uncertainty of any future they might share.\ \ 🗺️If you want to see more book recommendations from all the countries in the world, check out my Reading the World Spreadsheet.\ \ And if you want to support this project, consider becoming a paid member of my Bindery!](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/sz0GlpxIGAhwRfi395Y8/)

Reading the World: Antarctica

9 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jun 24

\ \ I have been meaning to read "Orientalism" by Edward W. Said for years now and I finally picked it up a few months ago. Yes, it took me a few months to get through. This book is a dense piece of academia, but it's so foundational when understanding the narratives that the western world abscribes to the east. \ \ Summary\ \ In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding. Essential, and still eye-opening, Orientalism remains one of the most important books written about our divided world. \ \ What I learned\ \

"What our leaders and their intellectual lackeys seem incapable of understnding is that history cannot be swept clean like a blackboard, clean so that 'we' might inscribe our own future there and impose our own forms of life for these lesser people to follow."\ \ \ \ History, culture, and collective memory cannot be discarded just because they are inconvenient to colonialism and its leaders. This is still especialy relevant today as leaders continue to frame domination as a "fight for democracy" or a "new start" while ignoring the people whose histories and identities are already deeply rooted in the place that they want to occupy.\ \
"It does not occur to Balfour, however, to let the Egyptian speak for himself, since presumably any Egyptian who would speak out is more likely to be 'the agitator [who] wishes to raise difficulties' than the good native who overlooks the 'difficulties' of foreign domination."\ \ \ \ The former prime minister of Britian and one of the figures behind the Balfour Declaration which supported a "national home for Jewish people" in Palestine in 1917 assumes authority to define Egypt and Egyptians without ever considering their own perspectives. Unsurising that Balfour did the same to Palestinians.\ \
"Most important, such texts can create not only knowledge but also the very relity they appear to describe."\ \ \ \ Descriptions of other cultures are never neutral. In fact when they're repeated enough, they shape how people see the world and how institutions behave. The "Orient" was not simply discovered through Western writing, it was constructed by it.\ \
"According to Israeli law only a Jew has full civic rights and unqualified immigration privileges; even thought hey are the land's inhabitants, Arabs are given less, more simple rights: they cannot immigrate, and if they seem not to have the same rights, it is because they are 'less developed'. Orientalism governs Israeli policy towards the Arabs throughout, as the recently published Koenig Report amply proves. There are good Arabs (the ones who do as they are told) and bad Arabs (who do not, and are therefore terrorists). Most of all there are those Arabs, who once defeated, and be expected to sit obediently behind an infallibly fortified line, manned by the smallest possible number of men, on the theory that Arabs have had to accept the myth of Israeli superiority and will never dare attack."\ \ \ \ Orientalism isn't just a thing of the past, but still shapes our world today, most notably in Palestine. This is a key example where entire populations can be divided into categories of "good" and "bad" based on their willingness to accept existing power structures.\ \ \

Everything I learned from "Orientalism" by Edward W. Said

1 book

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jun 10

\ \ Non-fiction\ \

"Before We Were Trans" by Kit Heyam\ \ \ A portion of this book focuses on Angola. Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories.\ \ Fiction\ \
"A General Theory of Oblivion" by Jose Eduardo Angualusa\ \ \ On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years. \ \
"That Hair" by Djaimilia Pereira De Almeida\ \ \ That Hair is a family album of sorts that touches upon the universal subjects of racism, feminism, colonialism, immigration, identity and memory.\ \ Poetry\ \
"Broken Halves of a Milky Sun" by Aaiún Nin\ \ \ A powerful poetry debut exploring the effects of racism, war and colonialism, queer love and desire.\ \ 🗺️If you want to see more book recommendations from all the countries in the world, check out my Reading the World Spreadsheet.\ \ And if you want to support this project, consider becoming a paid member of my Bindery!](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/hdrRszsy4HQToTk0kzhd/)

Reading the World: Angola

4 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • May 11

\ \ Non-fiction\ \

"Algeria is Beautiful Like America" by Olivia Burton\ \ \ A memoir, graphic novel that explores the rich heritage and tumultuous modern history of Algeria and its connections to Europe and colonialism.\ \
"The Wretched of the Earth" by Frantz Fanon\ \ \ A dense, but foundational text that I think everyone should read. It's an eternal touchstone for civil rights, anti-colonialism, psychiatric studies, and Black consciousness movements around the world.\ \
"Inside the Battle of Algiers" by Zoha Drif\ \ \ This gripping insider's account chronicles how and why a young woman in 1950s Algiers joined the armed wing of Algeria's national liberation movement to combat her country's French occupiers.\ \ Fiction\ \
"A Man with No Title" by Xavier Le Clerc\ \ \ Mohand-Said Ait-Taleb is an enigma. Living in France but ravaged by memories of the war in Algeria, he has withdrawn into his own world, away from his wife and children. When his son Xavier discovers articles by Albert Camus describing the appalling conditions his father grew up in, he starts to piece together the story of his life.\ \
"This Strange Eventful History" by Claire Messud\ \ \ Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family story.\ \ Other\ \
"The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody" by Ahmed Taibaoui\ \ \ A man disappears without trace and the detective in search of him finds more than he expected.\ \
"2084 : The End of the World" by Boualem Sansal\ \ \ Tells the story of a near future in which religious extremists have established an oppressive caliphate where autonomous thought is forbidden.\ \ \ \ 🗺️If you want to see more book recommendations from all the countries in the world, check out my Reading the World Spreadsheet.\ \ And if you want to support this project, consider becoming a paid member of my Bindery!](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/JFsabZAPYqWiTnN5CWOu/)

Reading the World: Algeria

7 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • May 5

April Wrap Up

I had so much fun reading in April! I found myself being drawn weirdly to sci-fi novellas, poetry (to celebrate National Poetry Month, and investigative non-fiction.

#aprilwrapup #aprilfavorites #bookrecommendations #nonfiction

12 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Apr 8

March Wrap-up

March reading wrap-up. I was in a bit of a slump this month, so I’m looking for any book recs to get me out of it.

#marchwrapup #readingwrapup #marchfavorites

7 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Mar 4

\ \ Non-fiction\ \

"To the Lake" by Kapka Kassabova\ \ By exploring on water and land the stories of poets, fishermen, and caretakers, misfits, rulers, and inheritors of war and exile, Kassabova uncovers the human destinies shaped by the lakes. \ \
"Free" by Lea Ypi\ \ Family and nation formed a reliable bedrock of security for precocious 11-year-old Lea Ypi. She was a Young Pioneer, helping to lead her country toward the future of perfect freedom promised by the leaders of her country, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. Then, almost overnight, the Berlin Wall fell and the pillars of her society toppled. The local statue of Stalin, whom she had believed to be a kindly leader who loved children, was beheaded by student protestors.\ \
"Indignity: A Life Reimagined" by Lea Ypi\ \ The author of Free returns with an extraordinary inquiry into historical injustice, dignity, truth, and imagination.\ \ \ Poetry\ \
"Negative Space" by Luljeta Lleshanaku\ \ Personal biography disperses into the history of an entire generation that grew up under the oppressive dictatorship of the poet's native Albania.\ \
"Haywire" by Luljeta Lleshanaku\ \ In Haywire she turns to the fallout of her country's past and its relation to herself and her family. Through intense, powerful lyrics, she explores how these histories intertwine and influence her childhood memories and the retelling of her family's stories.\ \ \ Fiction\ \
"A Girl in Exile" by Ismail Kadare\ \ A Girl in Exile, first published in Albanian in 2009, is set among the bureaucratic machinery of Albania's 1945-1991 dictatorship. While waiting to hear whether his newest play will be approved for production, playwright Rudian Stefa is called in for questioning by the Party Committee. A girl - Linda B. - has been found dead, with a signed copy of his latest book in her possession.\ \
"The Palace of Dreams" by Ismail Kadare\ \ A dystopian novel often interpreted as a critique of totalitarian regimes.\ \
"Misinterpretation" by Ledia Xhoga\ \ In present-day New York City, an Albanian interpreter reluctantly agrees to work with Alfred, a Kosovar torture survivor, during his therapy sessions. Despite her husband’s cautions, she soon becomes entangled in her clients’ struggles.\ \ \ \ 🗺️If you want to see more book recommendations from all the countries in the world, check out my Reading the World Spreadsheet.\ \ \ \ And if you want to support this project, consider becoming a paid member of my Bindery!](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/RfurZYhr6vUXBRsSng62/)

Reading the World: Albania

8 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Mar 2

\ \ Some reflecitons on my reading stats this month:\ \

This month was by far the most books I've read in a month in a long time. It was so fun just loooooving reading. It brought me so much joy.\ \
Although most books I read this month were just okay, I still had a great time, which is all that matters.\ \ \ Favorite non-fiction book: "Original Sins" by Eve L. Ewing \ \ Synopsis: Why don’t our schools work? Eve L. Ewing tackles this question from a new angle: What if they’re actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America’s classrooms were designed to do the opposite: to maintain the nation’s inequalities. It’s a task at which they excel.\ \ Review: I'm so mad at myself because I've had an arc of this book for over a year now and it took me this long to read it. This book desperately made me want to become a teacher again and I think it's absolutely required reading for all educators. The bibiliography of this book alone is enough to recommend it--so impressive! And I got chills reading the last chapter.\ \ Favorite fiction book: "A Mouth Full of Salt" by Reem Gaafar \ \ Synopsis: " A Mouth Full of Salt" uncovers a country on the brink of seismic change as its women decide for themselves which traditions are fit for purpose – and which prophecies it’s time to rewrite\ \ Review: While the pace of the beginning of this book was a little slow, I was wholly captivated by it. Such a powerful mix of mystery, tension, and folklore. It’s an important look at Sudanese history and the racism/classism present in its past that still dictates its future. And the ending? It hit me in the chest; absolute perfection.\ \ What I’ve added to my TBR (to-be-read)\ \
"Japan's Infamous Unit 731" by Hal Gold: This is a piece of history I knew nothing about, so naturally now I need to know everything.\ \
" Shorelines" by Alycia Pirmohamed: A memoir that explores migration, memory, and home.\ \
" Our Cut of Salt" by Deena Helm: A Palestinian horror from a debut author that explores the idea of home.\ \
"Exiles" by Mason Coile: I've been coming to realize that I really like short sci-fi books, so I had to add this one to my list.](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/HxqJsMlQ89k8D9NgOiWa/)

February Wrap-up

10 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Feb 25

\ \ Summary\ \ In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa’s resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants—if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants.\ \ Following in the footsteps of the four elephants, Roberts pieces together the story of this long-forgotten expedition, in travels that take her to Belgium, Iraq, India, Tanzania, and Congo. The storytelling brings to life a compelling cast of historic characters and modern voices, from ivory dealers to Catholic nuns, set against rich descriptions of the landscapes travelled. In an original weave of past and present, she digs deep into historic records revealing an extraordinary—and enduring—story of colonial greed, hypocrisy, and folly.\ \ Review\ \ I'm conflicted about this one. This is a point in history that I've been diving into ever since I read "King Leopold's Ghost" and as far as telling this history, this is a good companion to that book. The story was a fascinating look at the egosim and pride of colonizers, which ultimately became their downfall.\ \ It was a tragic look into a niche part of this history in Leopold's attempt to start a training school for Elephants in order to futher colonize Africa. I learned a lot.\ \ Where I think this book fell short was in the travelogue aspect. Roberts clearly did an incredible amount of research into this book and was very clearly careful and intentional about discussing the imperialist impact of this history. However, there was a strange irony in Roberts, a British jouranlist, retracing an imperialist journey through Africa. Her interactions with the land and the people around her seemed surface level at times and a missed opportunity to take the focus away from the colonizers and onto the effects of their colonization.\ \ I would recommend this book if you're interested in the topic, but I highly recommend that you read "King Leopold's Ghost" first.\ \ What I learned\ \

King Leopold was respsonsible for the deaths of an estimated 10 million Africans over the period of 23 years. \ \
In the 1958 World Fair, Belgium hosted what they called the "Kongorama", a literal human zoo, to showcase Belgium's "civilizing" impact on the Congo. This zoo held 600 Congolese men, women, and children captive. This harkened back to 1897 when King Leopold started this human zoo which attracted 1 in 4 Belgiums to come visit. \ \
In the construction of the Central Railway Line in Africa, Germans used slave labor, resulting in the deaths of 100 men each month. During its peak of construction, over 20,000 Africans worked on the railway line. \ \ \ \ \
Elephants will not abandon their sick or dying family members, communicate through an infrasonic system that humans can't hear, can recognize themselves in a mirror (few animals can do this), have a better memory than humans, and even have a burial ritual for the deceased. \ \
At the beginning of the 19th century, there were 26 million elephants in Africa. Now, there's between 4-500,000. \ \ \

"Sven Lindqvist remarked: 'You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions.'"](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/72v0jbGQG77gEti3ETzN/)

What I learned from "A Training School for Elephants"

2 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Feb 23

[Welcome to my Syllabus Series. I was a high school English teacher for over five years and nothing gives me more joy than to help others learn something new. As someone who also reads a large amount of non-fiction, I wanted to create a new series where I pick a singular topic that you might want to learn more about. This edition is all about the current climate crisis.\ \ First, I’ll take you through books to read through various genres and the order you should read them in to scaffold and layer your learning. But learning isn’t all about reading, so I’ll also share video resources, shorter articles, and give you a list of people to follow on social media in order to stay up to date well beyond today. Finally, learning means nothing without action, so I will also provide you ways that you can do something with what you’re learning.\ \ This isn’t meant to be overwhelming and is laid out in a way that it’s learning you have time for. Therefore, the list isn’t extensive and manageable. Of course, there’s always more learning to be done.\ \ Books to read \ \ A collection of books read to read. For the best learning experience, try to read the books in this order.\ \

Fiction“Migrations” by Charlotte McConaghy\ \ A devastating yet healing novel (also one of my all-time favorites) that takes place in a near future where the main character is following arctic terns on what may be their last migration.\ \
Essays“Vanishing Treasures” by Katherine Rundell\ \ An accessible colleciton of essays each focused on a different endangered animal. The essays focus on why these animals are endangered (usually due to climate change and/or human interaction) and what we can do about it.\ \
Memoir\ \ “Life on the Rocks” by Juli Berward\ \ This is a blend of memoir and science writing (one of my favorite genres) that follows a marine biologist focused on saving our coral reefs from the impacts of climate change.\ \
Non-fiction“The Great Displacement” by Jake Bittle\ \ An increidble and timely piece of journalism that looks at the climate change impact (and the impact of our systems and capitalism) on every day lives of people in America. This book argues that climate displacement and refugees will continue to grow in our future and showcases what that could look like and what we can do about it.\ \
Non-fiction“The Weight of Nature” by Clayton Page Aldern\ \ A look at the effects of climate change on our brains that gives us a new and eye-opening look as to how we’re affected by climate change on a daily basis and how it’s not just something that’s affecting our outside lives, but our inside ones as well.\ \ \

- *\ \ Other media to consume \ \

TV series\ \ "Our Planet” on Netflix\ \ Just like the rest of the Planet Earth series, this series explores the lives of different animals around the world. What makes this particular one different is that it focuses on the impact of climate change on these animals. Warning: this show absolutely destroyed me.\ \
Article“Watching Hurrican Helene” by Nathan Shuherk\ \ An exploration of the experience watching natural disasters occur in real time from our phones and what it means for our future.\ \
YouTube video\ \ “Can clean energy handle the AI boom?” by Vox\ \ Looking at the amount of energy needed to support our data and AI.\ \
Article“Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe” by Nina Lakhani\ \ This article was written at the beginning of the genocide and reports that the emissions generated during the first 2 months were “greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations”.\ \
Report"A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing” by UN Environment Programme\ \ A report published in 2024 that lays out 18 signals of change within the climate, what we need to be aware of, and what we can do about it\ \ \ Who to follow \ \ When learning about a subject where community is key it’s important to find people to help you along the way. Here are a few people and organisations I encourage you to follow:\ \
Nathan Shuherk: If you’re looking for not only incredible book recommendations about climate change, but also personal writing about the climate crisis that’s a beautiful mixture of science writing and memoir, look no further. Also recommending reading his Substack.\ \
Emily Atkin’s “Heated” Substack: A Substack focused on the fact that you aren’t the reason the world is burning and exposing the systems that are responsible.\ \
Xiye Beara: A climate justice activist from the Otomi-Toltec Indigenous community in Central Mexico.\ \
Greta Thurnberg: Arguably one of the largest voices in the world when it comes to climate change, Thurnberg is consistent at challenging the systems responsible for climate change including colonialism and genocide.\ \
Nina Lakhani: Check out her backlist of articles on “The Guardian”. She’s doing some really important reporting.\ \ \ Take action \ \ Donate to mutual aid efforts In the midst of and after a climate disaster, we’ve seen time and time again that the systems that are built to help us, aren’t. As we work towards systemic change, we will need to rely on mutual aid in order to recieve and give immediate help to those in need.\ \ Whenever a disaster occurs, find people who are on the ground and either living there and/or sharing resources. Pay attention to mutual aid opportunities and give where you can (whether that be through monetary donations, donations of goods, donations ot time, etc). At the very least, you can share these resources to your own communities if you’re not able to give.\ \ Here are some places that you can donate and help with the current wildfires in LA:\ \
Mutual Aid LA Network has a huge spreadsheet of mutual aid resources\ \
Pasadena Humane has had an unprecedented influx of animals that continues to grow. They’re no longer looking for physical donations, but do still need monetary donations and foster homes.\ \
LA Street Care needs volunteers and donations for their mutual aid work providing resources to individuals who are unhoused.\ \
Donate to individual family’s GoFundMe Pages. Here are spreadsheets for displaced Black families, Latine families, Filipino families\ \ \ Don’t use AI AI is one of the things that is rapidly impacting climate decline. According to the UN Environment Programme:\ \

The electronics they house rely on a staggering amount of grist: making a 2 kg computer requires 800 kg of raw materials. As well, the microchips that power AI need rare earth elements, which are often mined in environmentally destructive ways, noted Navigating New Horizons.\ \ The second problem is that data centres produce electronic waste, which often contains hazardous substances, like mercury and lead.\ \ Third, data centres use water during construction and, once operational, to cool electrical components. Globally, AI-related infrastructure may soon consume six times more water than Denmark, a country of 6 million, according to one estimate. That is a problem when a quarter of humanity already lacks access to clean water and sanitation.\ \ While it may be impossible to not use AI at all in our current tech climate, be aware of what’s using AI and when and try to not utilize it.\ \ Protest You’ll notice a pattern that this will always be an action step for me here. If you are able, protesting helps make our voices louder. It’s a tool meant to disrupt and force those in charge to take action. Make sure that you continue to make your voice heard on the issues you care about.\ \ If you’re unable to physically protest, there are ways to spread information and awareness from your home. Use social media as a tool to educate, inform, and push for systemic change. The reality is that individual changes won’t make a dent in curbing climate change. In order to make a dent we need to focus on who is affecting it the most: corporations, billionaires, and our governments. We need to push for systemic change here.\ \

- *\ \ As I mentioned earlier, learning is an ongoing practice. If you would like more resources, don’t hesitate to reach out. And if you have any resources to add to this list, please add them to the comments below.](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/hLF913e8L5OemXYw7W00/)

Your climate crisis syllabus

5 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Feb 13

\ \ As part of my Reading the World project, I'm going to start dedicating a post to every single country (and some territories) in the world in order to share book recommendations with you from that place. This way you can easily diversify your reading and travel the world. \ \ I'm going to go in alphabetical order, so my first country is: Afghanistan (which is very fitting because The Kite Runner is what opened my eyes to global literature when I was a teenager). \ \ Here are some book recommendations, by genre for Afghanistan: \ \ Non-fiction\ \

"The Finest Hotel in Kabul" by Lyse Doucet (currently on the longlist for the Women's Prize in Non-fiction!)\ \ Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, has been checking into the Inter-Continental since 1988. And here, she uses its story to craft a richly immersive history of modern Afghanistan.\ \
"Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll\ \ The news-breaking book that has sent shockwaves through the Bush White House, Ghost Wars is the most accurate and revealing account yet of the CIA's secret involvement in al-Qaeda's evolution. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.\ \
"The Snow Leopard Project" by Alex Dehgan\ \ The remarkable story of the heroic effort to save and preserve Afghanistan's wildlife-and a culture that derives immense pride and a sense of national identity from its natural landscape.\ \
"The Naked Don't Fear the Water" by Matthieu Aikins\ \ An acclaimed young war reporter chronicles a dangerous journey on the smuggler's road to Europe, accompanying his friend, an Afghan refugee, in search of a better future.\ \
" To Lose a War" by Jon Lee Anderson\ \ Essential reporting from Afghanistan from before 9/11 to the return of the Taliban to power in 2021\ \ \ Essays\ \
"The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold" by Tariq Ali\ \ The occupation of Afghanistan is over, and a balance sheet can be drawn. These essays on war and peace in the region reveal Tariq Ali at his sharpest and most prescient.\ \ \ Fiction\ \
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini\ \ 1970s Afghanistan: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what would happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives.\ \
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini\ \ A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. \ \
" The Pearl That Broke Its Shell" by Nadia Hashimi\ \ In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age.\ \ \ \ 🗺️If you want to see more book recommendations from all the countries in the world, check out my Reading the World Spreadsheet. \ \ \ \ And if you want to support this project, consider becoming a paid member of my Bindery!](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/4yLE0c3NI8BdL2B0QUA9/)

Reading the World: Afghanistan 🇦🇫

9 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Feb 9

Everything I learned from "A Year with the Seals"

Yes, I’m still over here talking about seals🦭 Here are some thing I learned while reading “A Year with Seals” by Alix Morris #seals #animals #nonfiction #bookrecommendations

1 book

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Feb 2

\ \ Some reflecitons on my reading stats this month:\ \

I read waaaay more non-fiction than fiction, but I had a great reading month with a super high average rating, so that's fine with me. \ \
I do want to try to read more from around the world next month. This month was abysmal when it came to that type of diversity. \ \ \ Favorite non-fiction book: "A Year with the Seals" by Alix Morris \ \ Synopsis: In a world where wildlife populations are disappearing at an alarming rate, A Year with the Seals is a rare look at what happens when conservation efforts actually work, and how human tampering with ecosystems continues to have unexpected consequences for a wide variety of species, humans included. \ \ Review: This was such an enjoyable read. Every time I wasn’t reading it, I wanted to be reading it. I learned so much, especially about the cycle of human-animal relationships and how we impact the world around us (even when we’re trying to help).\ \ Favorite fiction book: "On Sundays She Picked Flowers" by Yah-Yah Scholfield \ \ Synopsis: When Judith Rice killed her mother, she thought she put an end to the woman's hold on her. Seventeen years later, secluded deep in the woods of northern Georgia, Jude knows that the past isn't all that easy to discard.\ \ Alone with her strange house and even stranger woods, Jude must grapple with ghosts, haints, beasts, and an enigmatic woman who threatens to undo the tentative peace Jude's built for herself by fanning the violence that lives just underneath her skin.\ \ Review: I couldn’t put this book down. The tension that started to build from page one was so marvelously done. My favorite part of this book was how it explored complex family relationships, generational trauma, and forgiveness. It was brutal, haunting, and hopeful.\ \ At times the book felt like it was two separate books and stories put into one and I wish that the two stories ended up being a little more interconnected.\ \ I can’t recommend this book enough though and thought it was a true stand-out in the horror genre. I can’t believe this is a debut.\ \ Please check trigger warnings before reading this book. It had very dark and heavy themes.\ \ What I’ve added to my TBR (to-be-read)\ \
"The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue" by Zoulfa Katouh: Look at this cover😍 A poignant novel about a Syrian American girl who uses a magical sketchbook to turn her grief into art, painting miraculous murals of her mother’s life in Syria.\ \
" Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence": The organizers, journalists, and scholars in these pages are charting a new path forward, employing creative tools to subvert the status quo, organize globally against high-tech border imperialism, and help us imagine a world without borders.\ \
"False Calm" by María Sonia Cristoff: Part reportage, part personal essay, part travelogue, False Calm is the breakout work by Argentinian author María Sonia Cristoff. Writing against romantic portrayals of Patagonia, Cristoff returns home to chronicle the ghost towns left behind by the oil boom.\ \
"Black Bear" by Trina Moyles: A dazzling memoir about one woman's coexistence with bears in the boreal forest and a singular meditation on sibling loss.](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/CZof0dTnElxkxZExMiPW/)

January Wrap-up

Everything I read and loved in January.

12 books

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jan 29

\ \ I'm here with some super exciting updates on my Reading the World resource. \ \ In case you missed it when it was launched, I created a spreadsheet resource to help readers read more diversely from around the world. The spreadsheet features: \ \

2,000+ book recommendations for every country in the world\ \
Every book is labeled by genre and includes a summary\ \ \ \ \ But now I have a few updates for you:\ \
200+ new books, including 2026 releases\ \
Every book is now linked directly to Bookshop.org so you can easily pick it up (this also helps to support me in the project as I recieve affiliate money for every order) \ \ \ I'm really excited to keep this initiative going. As always, this document is a work in progress and if there's ever anything I should change or any books I should add, sound-off in the document's comments💖](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/MEQOymQICMXYFbeDoPNm/)

Reading the World: ✨UPDATE✨

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jan 21

\ \ Book summary\ \ This book takes a look at the myth that the United States is founded by and for immigrants and shows a more honest look at the history of this country. \ \ My review\ \ If you want to learn an incredible amount of information, read this timely book.\ \ It explores American imperialism and how immigration in the U.S. is a war story with refugees having to move to the country thay killed them.\ \ My only feedback for this book is that it felt a bit disorganized at times, often jumping from one topic or point in history to another.\ \ Everything I learned\ \

While history likes to portray Alexander Hamilton as an abolitionist, he married into a wealthy slave-trading family (Schuyler family) and even participated in the slave trade for his in-laws. \ \ \ \ \
No country has been bombed so heavily for so long (relative to the country's population) than Laos during the "Secret" war. Taking place at the same time as the Vietnam War, the Laotian Civil War was kept secret (not acknowledged by the CIA until 1994) because the involvement of the CIA and other foreign powers. (photo from Getty Images)\ \ \ \ Duing this bombardment, more bombs were dropped on the small country of Laos than all of the bombs dropped in WWII (2 million tons of cluster bombs). \ \ \
In the span of three days during the Korean War, the U.S. launched a mass killing spree in the village of Noguen-ri killing between 250-300 women and children. This massacre wasn't known to the American public until 1999 thanks to an Associated Press article. Documents proved that the U.S.commanders ordered their troops to shoot and "fire on" civilians.\ \ \ Further learning\ \
"Researcher finds evidence Alexander Hamilton owned slaves"\ \
America's Secret War: The CIA's Hidden Campaign in Laos | History Documentary\ \
"Other incidents of refugees killed by GIs during Korea retreat"](https://basementbooks.binderybooks.com/item/8PFDHc7Gtw9mm6v0rBFR/)

Everything I learned from "Not 'A Nation of Immigrants'" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

1 book

Basement Books\ \ Kaitlyn\ \ • Jan 9

[Over the holidays, I took a road trip to the nordics and visited a beautifully-curated bookstore in Copenhagen, Politikens Boghal. Here's a little look at all of the books I was tempted to pick up and what I ended up bringing home. \ \ \ \

Come book shopping with me!

7 books