“No. There are people in this world who learned the lessons I never did, the lessons that our son has learned all too late – that you are right. There is no magic fix. That a better world can only be brought by what we give to one another, and nothing more.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, Locklands.”
2025 was. The American ideals I yearn for seem further from reality, and it can be hard to envision a future where justice and equality for all are a living reality.
When selecting books for the next reading challenge – thank you to the friend who got me moving on my selection – I struggled to narrow it down to a cohesive topic. I felt I needed to continue my exploration of authoritarianism, tyranny, as well as civic history and expression. Still, the 2025 reading challenge was mentally draining, given the daily headlines about faltering American institutions.
So, for 2026, I decided it was acceptable for me to do what humans have done for millennia: escape into fiction. They are fictional books that explore the lives of survivors of authoritarian rule, resistance against unequitable systems, and the champions of freedom. There are still a few historical and expositional books on the list. I suspect that I will pick up more throughout the year anyhow.
I hope you will join me.
