Left Unread Books | Parable of the Sower (Parable, 1)
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Parable of the Sower (Parable, 1)
Octavia E. Butler
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This acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from an award-winning author “pairs well with 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale” and includes a foreword by N. K. Jemisin (John Green, New York Times).
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day.
Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions.
Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith… and a startling vision of human destiny.
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Posts about this title from Left Unread Books
Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • May 18
I think this book is going to change the world. Please be a part of it.
5 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Dec 7 2025
Want a peak at the cover of our newest Dystopian book?
3 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Apr 6 2025
Authors, I want to publish your books!
Pitchfest starts in three days and I am VERY determined to find our next publication! So, to help you help us both, here is a detailed look at exactly what I'm looking for.
18 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Mar 24 2025
Authors: It is Pitchfest time! Bring me your books!
There is another Pitchfest quickly approaching and I want to make sure you have all of the information you need to participate! So authors, check this out for a list of the type of manuscripts I am looking for! And good luck everyone!!!
24 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 26 2025
I am posting this a little late because it took me some time to sit and process what I was writing before I was ready to share it with you. But here are my thoughts as I sit with the heaviness of today. (TW: systemic oppression, death, racism)
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 24 2025
GIVEAWAY: Parable of the Sower
"Octavia Butler was not just imagining how bad things could get. She was looking at the history of America and predicting, with uncomfortable accuracy, exactly how bad it is designed to get. " - Parable may be one of the most impactful books you will ever read. See below for details on how to win a copy!
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 19 2025
Fearful Musings as I Read The Reformatory
I started reading The Reformatory last night and it has me thinking about the future. Heads up, this is a bit of a heavier read. So go in with that understanding.
3 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Jan 6 2025
Writing From The Human Experience
Witnessing violence, while eye-opening, is not enough to really incentivize people to pursue change. They also have to see the humanity of the people experiencing that violence. And that needs to be reflected in our writing.
17 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Dec 19 2024
Octavia Butler saw Elon Musk coming, and we need to talk about it!
Let's talk about company towns and how the great Ms Octavia Butler was an oracle for our (being Black people) ancestors.
9 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Nov 30 2024
The Secret Power of Literature... and spoiler alert, it's not escapism.
Escapism is lovely, but that is not what reading does for me. So I thought I would share a little bit about one of the biggest things I get out of reading.
***Trigger warnings: grief, slavery, trauma, parentlessness, broken family, racism***
20 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Nov 26 2024
How white authors are ruining dystopian literature
I am being criticized again for asking white authors not to erase Black people in their stories. So... let's talk about it. What is the point of dystopian literature and how are white authors failing us all?
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Nov 9 2024
[Book bans are on the rise. And if there is one thing we can count on, it is that a Trump presidency will only make America's problems worse. Everything we know about Project 2025 and their plans for education, race and gender studies, and the continued suppression of any progressive thinking, we can pretty comfortably guess that book banning is going to be on the rise.\ \ And this isn't shocking. Literature/art always plays a part in a people's liberation. Always.\ \ Obviously our hope is that our worst fears won't be realized. But in the now, we need to buckle up under the assumption that they will be. So here are some of the books I think you should get onto your shelf now. I have a list of fiction books that will help you to wrestle with the world as we know it and to dream about what it can be, and a list of non-fiction that will give you practical and actionable ideas about how to prepare to fight for a better world.\ \ FICTION\ \ Parable of the Sower: When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions. Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.\ **Parable of the Talents: **In 2032, Lauren Olamina has survived the destruction of her home and family, and realized her vision of a peaceful community in northern California based on her newly founded faith, Earthseed. The fledgling community provides refuge for outcasts facing persecution after the election of an ultra-conservative president who vows to "make America great again." In an increasingly divided and dangerous nation, Lauren's subversive colony--a minority religious faction led by a young black woman--becomes a target for President Jarret's reign of terror and oppression. Years later, Asha Vere reads the journals of a mother she never knew, Lauren Olamina. As she searches for answers about her own past, she also struggles to reconcile with the legacy of a mother caught between her duty to her chosen family and her calling to lead humankind into a better future.\ **Kindred: **Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present.\ \ Tender is the Flesh: His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.\ **Fledgling: **Octavia E. Butler's final novel is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted—and still wants—to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself.\ \ Broken Earth Trilogy: A season of endings has begun. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.\ \ NON-FICTION\ \ Let This Radicalize You: Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the convergence of mass protest and mass formations of mutual aid, and consider what this confluence of power can teach us about a future that will require mass acts of care, rescue and defense, in the face of both state violence and environmental disaster.\ **We Grow the World Together: **In We Grow the World Together, abolitionists and organizers Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson bring together a remarkable collection of voices revealing the complex tapestry of ways people are living abolition in their daily lives through parenting and caregiving. Ranging from personal narratives to policy-focused analysis to activist chronicles, these writers highlight how abolition is essential to any kind of parenting justice.\ **Defund: **A collection of illuminating interviews with leading abolitionist organizers and thinkers, reflecting on the uprisings of summer 2020, the rise of #defund, and the work ahead of bridging the divide between reform and abolition.\ \ Unbuild Walls: Unbuild Walls dives into US immigration policy and its relationship to mass incarceration, from the last forty years up to the present, showing how the prison-industrial complex and immigration enforcement are intertwined systems of repression. Incorporating historical and legal analyses, Shah’s personal experience as an organizer, as well as stories of people, campaigns, organizations, and localities that have resisted detention and deportation, Shah assesses the movement’s strategies, challenges, successes, and shortcomings. Featuring a foreword by Amna A. Akbar, Unbuild Walls is an expansive and radical intervention, bridging the gaps between movements for immigrant rights, racial justice, and prison abolition.\ **Freedom is a Constant Struggle: **Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today’s struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.\ **The Will to Change: **Everyone needs to love and be loved—including men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways in which patriarchal culture keeps them from understanding themselves. In The Will to Change, bell hooks provides a compassionate guide for men of all ages and identities to understand how to be in touch with their feelings, and how to express versus repress the emotions that are a fundamental part of who we are.\ \ Hope in the Dark: Hope in the Dark was written to counter the despair of radicals at a moment when they were focused on their losses and had turned their back to the victories behind them and the unimaginable changes soon to come. In it, she makes a radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable.\ \ They Were her Property: Bridging women's history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave‑owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South's slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave‑owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave‑owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.\ \ Hood Feminism: Today's feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?\ \
- If you are accessing this list from somewhere other than Bindery, please also support our efforts to educate and bring change by subscribing. You can do so for free, or by subscribing at a paid tier to help fund our own publishing efforts.\
- If you are already a part of our community, consider upgrading to at least the $5 so that you can take part in the publishing process of more Black and brown books. As you know, our paid subscribers help to fund our publishing efforts and take a more active role in bringing those books to life.\ \ ](https://leftunreadbooks.binderybooks.com/item/iXHFzCEOnmLlJUjqzusK/)
Books you should buy while you still can
We are all concerned that with a second Trump presidency, we are going to be facing a massive rise in book bans. So I have put together a list of books that I think everyone should read in light of the fights ahead of us. Check them out and grab whatever you think will benefit you!
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Oct 26 2024
Fledgling is one of the most uncomfortable books I have ever read. But it was written by Octavia Butler, what did I expect? However, in true Octavia fashion, it also challenged my worldview and made me really wrestle with the fabric of our society. And here are my thoughts. My very long-winded and detailed thoughts, lol! Enjoy! Click the link down below to read my full review!
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Oct 24 2024
The five most disturbing books I read this year!
I don't know about you, but I have a habit of falling in love with the most disturbing books. And even more troubling... I have made a habit of making sure everyone in my life has read them! So here are the five most disturbing books I read in 2024.
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 25 2024
Parable of the Sower: Community is our protector
There are consequences to trusting your government with your safety. This post will explore that thought briefly through the lens of this book.
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 25 2024
[If you haven't read this book, skip the sections of my thought here that are written in italics and bold, as I will keep spoilers identified in that way.\ \
- *\ \ Octavia Butler is often heralded as a prophet because of how accurately she pinpointed what America would look like in the early 2020's in this book. It is a book centered in a poorer neighborhood in a post climate-disaster California and in one of the very first scenes, this is demonstrated by a conversation the main character has with her step-mother.\ \ After a nightmare, Lauren (the main character) goes to talk with her step-mother, who points her to the stars and tells her that when she was a little girl she couldn't see as many because of all of the city lights. To which lauren admits that she thinks she prefers the stars. Which is what brings us to the moment I want to discuss. In response, her step-mother says that she would rather have the lights, but the stars are what they can afford.\ \ OK, let's dive in!\ \ The stars have always been beautiful. And very few people would disagree with that. But Lauren's step mother is right. Despite us knowing that there is something magical in laying in the dirt and looking up into the sky, we have grown accustomed to "advancements" that deny us easy access. And yes, I know there are plenty of places in the country where you can look into the stars, but I am speaking from a big city perspective about PRINCIPLES that apply to everyone. So stick it out with me.\ \ Everyone has, at some point, pictured themselves laying on a hillside beside their favorite person/people, looking up into the sky in awe together. It's a picture that brings us thoughts of intimacy and community. And yet, we know that ultimately, that is magic that most of us are perfectly comfortable abandoning for the sake of our conveniences.\ \ Now, I am not calling electricity evil. I am not critizing you for leaving your lights on. That's not where this conversation is going. What I am getting at is this: how often are our conveniences and "advances" costing us access to the magic that already exists in the world. And, more importantly, how much of that magic is being lost to time as a result?\ \ Over the last few decades, it has become clearer and clearer that our "advancements" are hurting our planet. We are destroying our ozone layer, melting the ice caps, disrupting the planet's oceans and weather patterns...the systems and advancements we have created for our own conveniences have not just cost us our ability to see the stars, but to sustain the very planet we call home. And our response has been to do two things:\ \
- To pretend it isn't happening\ \
- To advance technology further in order to slow it down\ \ \ I don't know if Octavia Butler intended for us to see this, but in listening to the exchange between Lauren and her step-mother, I couldn't help but think about how few of us (collectively speaking) are willing to listen to the people who have never forgotten the magic that sits, forgotten, in our planet. And i'm not speaking mystically. Indigineous communities all across the planet are calling for us to remember what it means to care about our planet. They are challenging us to end our efforts to exploit the planets natural resources, and to care for her oceans and forests...and we are not interested in listening. Even those among us that care about global warming are stubbornly clinging to the comforts that we are used to, instead of shifting our behavior to give the planet a break from our centuries of assault. And I just wonder.... are we going to end up in the same place as the people in this book? Are we going to refuse to listen until one day, we are looking up at the stars with our children and telling them stories about what it looked like to have a choice?\ \ Yeah... that's what's on my mind at the moment. I don't to make the right choices only because the world has already burned around me.](https://leftunreadbooks.binderybooks.com/item/UQ3klY3i1LEo0KGi9YG0/)
Parable of the Sower: Climate Justice and anti-Indigeneity
Climate justice cannot exist without solidarity with indigenous communities. In this post, I will be taking a moment from Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower to make this point.
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 12 2024
Is Parable of the Sower better than Handmaids Tale
Replying to @Revelin Dares #booktok #blackbooktok #readwithmichael #writewithmichael #readingispolitical #writingispolitical #bipocauthors #indiebooks #octaviabutler #parableofthesower #handmaidstale
3 books
Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Dec 18 2023
Black and brown dystopian recommendations
#BookTok #blackbooktok #bipocauthors #readwithmichael #writewithmichael #octaviabutler #brokenearth #marrowthieves
8 books
Posts about this book from across Bindery
Black Girl Nerds\ \ Jamie\ \ • Jun 19
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📚 July Book Club Voting Is Now Open! 📚
9 books
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Bee's Books\ \ Bailee Russo\ \ • Jun 1
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Get to know me through some of my favorite very specific sub-genres!
Do we share any favorites?
•Queer body horror: Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White Wife Shaped Bodies by Laura Cranehill What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher Providence Girls by Morgan Dante •vengeful vampire romantics: Hungerstone by Kat Dunn Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson Interview with the Vampire TV series A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night film •radical hopefulness The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers The Parable of the Sower & The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin A Psalm for the Wild-Built & A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers •very niche non-fiction Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique by Sa’ed Atshan Plucked by Rebecca Herzig Abolish Rent by Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis Black in Blues by Imani Perry Rogue Sexuality in Early Modern English Literature by Ari Friedlander •weird genre-benders The Seep by Chana Porter Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield Severance by Ling Ma Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
#gettoknowme #booktaste #bookrecs #readmorebooks #readingispower
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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • May 31
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[Sickos! The June votes have finished and we are ready to rock on our June picks for the Fiction & History Sickos Book Clubs.\ \ After two rounds of voting and twelve books to choose from, the Fiction Sickos will be reading:\ \ The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez\ \ This is an ambitious and unique standalone, adult fantasy story that ranks among my all-time favorites regardless of genre. This is very much an all-or-nothing type book, but I've found that the people who are able to find their footing early on typically consider it top tier stuff. The reason it can be difficult to get into at first comes down to the 2nd person POV and the storytelling device it uses to make it a story within a story. It's f'n brilliant but it does take getting used to. My advice: don't do this as audio only, at least at first. The best way is to immersion read it (physical + audio) or go straight eyeball reading.\ \
The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.\ \ But that god cannot be contained forever.\ \ With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.\ \ \ \ This will be a re-read for me but I haven't read it in a few years so I'm pretty jazzed up to give it another go and discuss it with y'all!\ \ The History Sickos will be reading:\ \ And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts\ \ This barely edged out Carthage Must Be Destroyed (which I'll probably be re-reading later in the month anyway), and was a suggestion from our comrade Whimsical Judge Theo. I know nothing about it other than the subtitle so here's what's labeled on the tin:\ \ An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts' expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years.\ \ As always, the discussion forums for these are in our Discord and to unlock those channels you'll need to be at the Sicko plus tiers.\ \ OTHER STUFF...\ \
- I recently reviewed Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents on YouTube\ \
- A Complement of Scoundrels' Kindle version is on sale for $3.99\ \
- We believe we've found the perfect audiobook narrator for A Complement of Scoundrels, will update when I can there\ \
- Hoping this is the week I can announce the second acquisition for our Kist Reads publishing imprint\ \
- Monday Updates will be back tomorrow\ \
- Expect some history content regarding my read of Empire of the Steppes soon](https://kistreadsbooks.binderybooks.com/item/lCv1ubxlCAn6nCL0qegG/)
June Fiction/History Sickos Book Club Picks! + Other Stuff
7 books
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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • May 28
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\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login](https://kistreadsbooks.binderybooks.com/item/qWpdpL1LPQyVJM6iIbog/)
(EARLY ACCESS VIDEO) Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents Review!
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • May 25
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[Poll:\ \ Q3 Book Club Picks - Select up to 3 choices\ \ Hi everyone! Hard to believe, but it is time to vote for our Q3 Book Club picks! For those of you who are new around here, we pick our books out quarterly to give people time to find the books and prepare their reading plans. We are now selecting our books for July -September 2026. \ \ If you are just here on Bindery and not on our Discord server, we take proposals on Discord. Everyone has a week to post suggestions, react, and comment. I then whittle them down based on the following:\ \
- Popularity: How many emojis/comments did a book get.\ \
- Content of comments - does it seem like the group is interested, have a large number read or not, etc. \ \
- Ensuring a diversity of reads, authors, book/story types, and sizes.\ \
- Last but not least, my interest is the tiebreaker when things are close. \ \ \ We had 31 submissions for this quarter, and so many amazing books to choose from! We had 5 clear top choices, 3 that were pretty clearly next in line, and then one that I picked amongst a few that were all pretty close. \ \ This poll will close in one week, and the final choices will be announced June 1. You may select up to 3 choices! And don't forget, if you are looking for more beyond the book club, consider upgrading to the paid tier where paid member's get to choose a book to read with me each month, or check out our many buddy reads we have going at all times over on Discord!\ \ Happy voting!\ \ Join for free or login](https://docofthedarkarts.binderybooks.com/item/GMzm18nX34PMJ1tjwJXl/)
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • May 18
I think this book is going to change the world. Please be a part of it.
5 books
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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • May 11
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Weekly Review/Preview - What I'm Reading/Watching/Playing/Doing!
9 books
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Weekly Review/Preview - What I'm Reading/Watching/Playing/Doing!
7 books
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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • Apr 27
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Weekly Review/Preview - What I'm Reading/Watching/Playing/Doing!
6 books
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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • Apr 21
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(VIDEO) May Book Club Options - Fiction/History Sickos
8 books
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Alysha Fortune Reads\ \ Alysha\ \ • Jan 14
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Women Fantasy Authors that arent romantasy
Here is my completed list of fantasy and scifi books written by women that aren’t Romantasy! #books #booktok #bookstagram #booksta #bookworm #fantasybooks #fantasy #scifi #Romantasy #womenauthors
30 books
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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Dec 7 2025
\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login](https://leftunreadbooks.binderybooks.com/item/Bt2RDZ8BxmsCeF1E58KB/)
Want a peak at the cover of our newest Dystopian book?
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Beverly Books\ \ Kristian\ \ • Sep 12 2025
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[I kept wandering the city, checking my google maps for nearby bookstores. I came upon McNally Jackson.\ \ About McNally Jackson \ \
McNally Jackson Books is an independent bookstore in New York City owned and operated since 2004 by Sarah McNally. The company operates five stores across the city in Soho, Rockefeller Center, Seaport, Downtown Brooklyn, and Williamsburg, as well as three stationery stores called Goods for the Study.\ \ The first thing I saw was the huge wall of books. The lighting and bookcases made for an impressive first impression.\ \ \ \ I didn’t realize just how big the store was. I can’t remember which location I was at, but when I thought there weren’t anymore books, I found another corner.\ \ \ \ I liked how they did shelf talkers.\ \ \ \ An excellent choice of book to recommend, even if it will shred your heart to pieces.\ \ \ \ Parable of the Sower is another must read.\ \ \ \ I left with House of Frank, one of the first Bindery Books releases!\ \ \ \ When I’m in NYC another time, I’d like to visit more of the McNally locations.\ \
3 books
Shelley's Corner\ \ Shelley\ \ • Aug 29 2025
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\ \ I went into this book expecting a dystopian story, but what I got felt closer to a historical retelling. Lauren’s voice is so honest, so unflinching, that it reads like she’s documenting events we’ve already lived through. Literally cautionary tale disguised as fiction.\ \ One thing I really loved is how organic the relationships felt. This could have easily fallen into the ‘found family’ trope, and it kind of did, but it didn’t sit there. Instead, it felt like watching a community form out of sheer necessity, out of survival. Nothing about it is forced or romanticised. It’s raw, messy, and real.\ \ And speaking of raw - this book does not hold back. Every time I thought, “Okay, surely we’ve had enough tragedy, we’ve suffered enough,” Octavia Butler said, absolutely not. At one point, I genuinely believed we’d reached a safe place, only for the rug to be snatched out from under me again. There were moments when I lost all trust, but by the end, I couldn’t help but love how relentless the story was.\ \ At its core, this is a book about humanity - the best and worst of us. We see people at their most monstrous, capable of violence, cruelty, even cannibalism. But we also see resilience, compassion, and choice. In a world falling apart, some still refuse to become monsters. That tension sits at the heart of everything, and it’s brilliant.\ \ There’s so much more I could say, but honestly, this feels like a book that stays with you long after the last page. I’m both excited and terrified to dive into Parable of the Talents next.\ \ Have you read this one yet? I’d love to know what stuck with you most.](https://shelleyscorner.binderybooks.com/item/aCiOtJc35x8qLFTRNSGS/)
1 book
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Children of Diaspora\ \ Rae the Reviewer\ \ • Jul 4 2025
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\ \ Join for free or login](https://children-of-diaspora.binderybooks.com/item/shnqo1DInG5XAdpeICTR/)
Giveaway Reminder + Discord + Dystopian Recs
Happy birthday Haymitch Abernathy 🎂
It’s Reaping Day but before you post about how “we’re not far now from having our IRL Hunger Games” I just ask that your dystopia doesn’t begin with The Hunger Games and abruptly end with The Handmaid’s Tale 📕
The third slide has two dystopias I’ve read and two from my TBR that I’ve heard raving reviews of. These can be heavy reads, but the thing I love about dystopia as a genre is the way in which it reveals so much about humanity and the many forms that resistance can take
#dystopia #sunriseonthereaping #thehungergames #handmaidstale #sciencefiction #parableofthesower
6 books
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Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Jun 27 2025
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dystopian novels by BIPOC authors you NEED to read right now! + how they predict current politics
10 books
6
Kirstyn's Bookshelf\ \ Kirstyn\ \ • May 30 2025
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absolutely feral for these books rn
What’s onyour priority tbr?
#bookrecommendations #books #booksbooksbooks
7 books
Kirstyn's Bookshelf\ \ Kirstyn\ \ • May 13 2025
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every book on my priority tbr + the insane arcs I recieved 📚
I haven't been this excited about reading in so long. When I'm not reading, I'm thinking about reading these books. Which one should I read next?
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Reads with Rachel\ \ Rachel\ \ • May 1 2025
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CONTRIBUTORS: Liselle Sambury Website: https://lisellesambury.ca/ Youtube: @LiselleSambury Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisellesambury/?hl=en Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lisellesambury?lang=en
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Kirstyn's Bookshelf\ \ Kirstyn\ \ • Apr 24 2025
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It’s not a science. 😅\ \ The way I haven’t even read some of these, but I still get hot vibes when I
It’s not a science. 😅
The way I haven’t even read some of these, but I still get hot vibes when I see someone reading them in public. 🤭
What book makes you want to know someone instantly?
#books #bookrecommendations #booksbooksandmorebooks
9 books
2
Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Apr 6 2025
Authors, I want to publish your books!
18 books
9
Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Mar 24 2025
Authors: It is Pitchfest time! Bring me your books!
24 books
9
Peppered Ink\ \ Mary\ \ • Mar 23 2025
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\ \ Join for free or login](https://marysmanybooks.binderybooks.com/item/qBjzygiyPOp7MWY9CDwR/)
Books & Beer with the Book Market at Laudenbach Brewing! 📚🍻
In which we venture to our nearby brewery and shop a new local business...
4 books
2
Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 26 2025
4 books
34
Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 24 2025
GIVEAWAY: Parable of the Sower
2 books
21
Bookish AfroLatina's Library\ \ Gabby\ \ • Feb 20 2025
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This Presidents' Day Book Reviews: Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents
This Presidents' Day, I’m highlighting two books that will have a hold on me for a long time: The Parable duology by Octavia E. Butler. She wrote these books in 1993 & 1998 but they begin in 2024 w/ Lauren Olamina, a Black American teen w/ hyper-empathy. Lauren’s America is plagued by extreme poverty, disease, addiction, corruption, & religious zealots. Through all of this Lauren writes that she doesn’t believe in her father’s god anymore. She believes that “God is Change.” I think it’s important that y’all read both books because Butler’s vision is clearer by the end of book 2.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler Sometimes I think about how my country (the U.S) might fall and this isn’t far off from that. After all, Butler’s predictions in this book were inspired by the patterns of our country’s priorities and behaviors for a few hundred years. Butler stressed that this is the future she saw coming if we (as a people) did nothing to change those behaviors. If you choose to read this series, please do so with care. The plot starts very slowly but it picks up about 1/3 of the way in. My only qualm is that I wish the lead wasn’t a teen.
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler Parable of the Sower was heartbreaking but Parable of the Talents always devastating. Despite the heartache, I really loved the way Butler depicted what a small community focused on mutual aid could look like. This gave me some hope, like a candle in the dark. Lauren’s drive for her purpose was inspiring and maddening all at once. It was an interesting choice for Butler to have her daughter be the narrator for much of the book. This series will definitely stay with me in the years to come.
#Bookstagram #BlackBooks #SpeculativeFiction #BookReviews #BookRecommendations #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackFuturism
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2 books
Bookish AfroLatina's Library\ \ Gabby\ \ • Feb 20 2025
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Black History Month: Still Black. Still Here.
Black History Month is still going to be observed this month by the new administration but we all know that we would continue to celebrate regardless of what the government chose to do.
Why? Because it's important to remember: We existed in the past. We exist now. And we will continue to exist in the future.
The following book recommendations depict this for us:
Black Past -Midnight by Beverly Jenkins is about a Faith Kingston, a rebel spy in Revolutionary War era Boston, who falls in love with a free Black man with a passion for justice.
-The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker & Marcus Kwame Anderson depicts the history of the Black Panther Party from its beginnings to its untimely end due to the U.S. Government's involvement.
Black Present -The Dead Don't Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi, and Black TV Nerd Sh*t by Julian Randall is a collection of essays on the author's journey to learn more about an ancestor who passed for white, experiences in academia, and struggling with mental health.
-Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler was published in 1993 and takes place in 2024-2026. It's a work of speculative fiction following a teen named Lauren Olamina who sees the destruction around her community and country and strives to survive through faith in her vision for the future.
Black Future -The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae & More is an anthology of Sci-Fi stories that imagine a future where Black, Indigenous, and People of Color resist and survive the censorship of their brutal government.
-Pet by Akwaeke Emezi is a YA Magical Realism novel about a girl named Jam who lives in a future without police where the comfort of a utopian society makes her community reluctant to remember their past.
I found each of these books incredibly powerful and I hope they lend you perspective as well as strength for the fight we are now in.
#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackFuturesMatter #Books #Bookstagram #BookRecommendations
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6 books
Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 19 2025
Fearful Musings as I Read The Reformatory
3 books
19
Bookish AfroLatina's Library\ \ Gabby\ \ • Feb 19 2025
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23 books
Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Feb 9 2025
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book recs for the mental space you need
however you most want to engage with reading right now - I’ve got you covered. 💕
📚 books mentioned: - Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi - Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi - Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler - Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
#funnybooks #fantasybooks #horrorbooks #dystopianbooks #bookrecommendations #starrysteph #nycinfluencer #bookstagram @faberbooks @faberbooks.us @randomhousekids @grandcentralpub
5 books