Birnam Wood
by Eleanor Catton

A very modern and timely story of political eco-fiction illustrating the clash between idealism and wealth. Of gullibility and cunning. Betrayal, on so many levels. Deeply flawed characters with loud inner voices, pounding political righteousness, ungrounded illusions, and petty lusts that drive them to pursue dreams and take actions beyond the scope of good sense.

Birnam Wood is a guerrilla collective New Zealand’s South Island that fights capitalism and ecological devastation by farming on unplanted land they don't own without asking anyone. Happenstance connects them to an breathtakingly vile Elon Muskish billionaire with a greedy heart and a charmingly deceptive presence as he is set on despoiling the environment to line his pockets.  The gap in power couldn't be more palatable as it all goes so wrong.

Nicely written, here's an excerpt:

…  A defeated, airless, ugly feeling, rose in her whenever she heard a person of her parents’ generation, talking brightly about home ownership, or foreign holidays, or financial serendipity, or education, for its own sake, or second chances in a crowded field; she felt this way, sometimes simply if someone spoke about the future – even the very near future – in optimistic terms. But she was not unaware that there was a certain satisfaction to be found in hopelessness, a certain piety, a touch of martyrdom, and feeling oneself and one’s entire generation to have been wronged by those in power, and deceived, and discouraged from civic participation, and robbed, and made fun of, and maligned.    …

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

wow wow wow what a book. I don't even know how it ended up on my bookshelf. Had to read it slowly to suck up all its goodness and stark truths. A compelling tale of the base but ever-hopeful nature of humanity.

It's a story of the 1930s dramatic and theatrical political rise of governor Willie Stark, an idealistic but underhanded populist in a fictional state very much like Louisiana. The novel is narrated by Jack Burden, a political reporter who evolves into Governor Stark's right-hand man. The trajectory of Stark's career is intertwined with Burden's slowly revealed backstory and philosophical reflections, particularly about history. Beautiful, descriptive writing. Inspired by the life of U.S. Senator and Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long, who was assassinated in 1935, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947.

Excerpts of some of the beautiful writing:

... I just lay there in the hammock. I lay there and watched the undersides of the oak leaves, dry and grayish and dusty-green, and some of them I saw had rusty-corroded-looking spots on them. Those were the ones which would turn loose their grip on the branch before long— not in any breeze, the fibers would just relax, in the middle of the day maybe with the sunshine bright and the air so still it aches like the place where the tooth was on the morning after you’ve been to the dentist or aches like your heart in the bosom when you stand on the street corner waiting for the light to change and happen to recollect how things once were and how things might have been if what happened had not happened. ...

... Cass Mastern lived for a few years and in that time he learned that the world is all of one piece. He learned that the world is like an enormous spider web and if you touch it, however lightly, at any point, the vibration ripples to the remotest perimeter and the drowsy spider feels the tingle and is drowsy no more but springs out to fling the gossamer coils about you who have touched the web and then inject the black, numbing poison under your hide. It does not matter whether or not you meant to brush the web of things. Your happy foot or your gay wing may have brushed it ever so lightly, but what happens always happens and there is the spider, bearded black and with his great faceted eyes glittering like mirrors in the sun, or like God's eye, and the fangs dripping. ...

And, a this! A student of history can have no agenda,  something that Connie Borders in If Not the Whole Truth had to learn: ... A student of history does not care what he digs out of the ash pile, the midden, the sublunary dung heap, which is the human past. He doesn’t care whether it is the dead pussy or the Kohinoor diamond. ...

Revolutionaries

American Heiress, The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes, and Trail of Petty Hurst by Jeffrey Toobin—Portrays the electrifying lunacy of the time and the toxic mix of sea, politics, and violence that swept up Patty Hurst and the nation.

Bringing the War Home, The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and revolutionary violence in the sixties and seventies by Jeremy Varon—Conveys the heated passions of the era: the moral certainty, the depth of Utopian longing, the sense of danger and despair, and the exhilaration over temporary triumphs.

Cuban Journal, a poet in the Venceremos Brigade, 1970 by Joel Sloman—An account in verse of the daily life of a brigadista during the 1970 massive sugar cane harvest.

Days of Rage, America’s radical underground, the FBI, and the forgotten age of revolutionary violence by Bryan Burrough—An explosive account of the decade-long battle between the FBI and the homegrown revolutionary movements of the 1970s. The Weathermen. The Symbionese Liberation Army. The FALN. The Black Liberation Army. The names seem quaint now, when not forgotten altogether. But there was a time in America, during the 1970s, when bombings by domestic underground groups were a daily occurrence. The FBI combated these and other groups as nodes in a single revolutionary underground, dedicated to the violent overthrow of the American government. Drawn on interviews with members of the underground and the FBI.

Dissent in the Heartland, The sixties at Indiana University by Mary Ann Wynkoop—A grassroots view of student activism (antiwar, civil rights, counterculture, feminism) on the Indiana University campus in the 1960s.

Fugitive Days by Bill Ayers—Chronicles his childhood, radicalization, days as a leader of the Weather Underground, and time as a fugitive from the US government.

If They Come in the Morning...: Voices of Resistance (Radical Thinkers) by Angela Y. Davis—an account of Davis’s incarceration and the struggles surrounding it, but also perhaps the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the prison system of the United States. Contributions from George Jackson, Bettina Aptheker, Bobby Seale, James Baldwin, Ruchell Magee, Julian Bond, Huey P. Newton, Erika Huggins, Fleeta Drumgo, John Clutchette, and others.

Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond by David Gilbert—From the early anti-Vietnam War protests to the founding of SDS, from the Columbia Strike to the tragedy of the Townhouse, Gilbert was on the scene: as organizer, theoretician, and above all, activist. He was among the first militants who went underground to build the clandestine resistance to war and racism known as “Weatherman.” And he was among the last to emerge, in captivity, after the disaster of the 1981 Brink’s robbery for money (to form a new country in a few select southern states that ideally would be populated only by African Americans) by several Black Liberation Army members and four former members of the Weather Underground that resulted in four deaths and long prison  terms. Written from the maximum-security prison where he lived for almost thirty years, 1983 to 2021.

My Life with SDS and the Weathermen Underground by Mark Rudd  (who lived underground as one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives with an eventual surrender in 1977)—Memoir about his involvement with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the subsequent, more violent Weather Underground during the late 1960s and 1970s with reflection on the motivations, naiveté, and contradictions of the era. Includes the 1968 occupation of Columbia University and the "Days of Rage" in Chicago.

Outlaws of America, The Weather Underground and the politics of solidarity by Dan Berger—Culled from dozens of in-depth interviews with former Weather Underground members, as well as with civil rights activists, Black Panthers, Young Lords, and others, the book examines the history of the Weather Underground with a critical, yet compassionate and nuanced, perspective on the organization's actions, motivations, and legacy.

Robert F. Kennedy: And the 1968 Indiana Primary by Ray E. Boomhower—Chronicles Robert F. Kennedy's campaign in Indiana and his historic speech in Indianapolis on the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

Subversives: the FBI’s war on student radicals and Reagan’s rise to power by Seth Rosenfeld—An investigative reporter details the covert alliance between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Ronald Reagan to discredit 1960s student activists at the University of California, Berkeley, based on over 300,000 pages of secret FBI documents that Rosenfeld obtained through a 30-year legal battle under the Freedom of Information Act.

The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam by Tom Wells— Argues that the anti-war movement on the American home front was not a failure but played a significant role in ending the conflict.

Weatherman edited by Harold Jacobs—Complete picture of Weatherman in the words of those who theorized, acted, watch, from the SDS split in June of 1969 to the bombings of in June 1970.

Up Against the Wall Motherf**ker, A memoir of the ‘60s, with notes for next time by Osha Neumann-Founding member writes a fast moving story about the anarchist street gang, the Motherfuckers, who influenced the Yippies and members of SDS; makes vivid the art, music, and politics of the era; and reveals the colorful, often deeply strange, personalities that gave the movement its momentum.
 
Rebel Women

A History of the Birth Control Movement in America by Peter C. Engelman—A narrative history of one of the most far-reaching social movements in the 20th century that defied the law and made the use of contraception an acceptable social practice―and a necessary component of modern healthcare.

Daughters of Aquarius by Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo—Reveals how women experienced and shaped the counterculture communes, extends understanding of second wave- feminism, and how the counterculture women moved these values and practices into mainstream middle America.

Hotbed, Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club that Sparked Modern Feminism by Joanna Scutts—Little known story about the bold women of the 1912 Heterodoxy club whose audacious ideas and unruly acts transformed a feminist agenda into a modern way of life.

Loose Change, Three women of the sixties by Sara Davidson—Private lives of three women set against the public background of the time: the free speech movement, antiwar protests, Woodstock, drugs, the sexual revolution, Eastern spirituality, the avant garde art world of New York and Paris, communes, and the first moments of the women’s movement.

Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion by Jean H. Baker—A re-examination of the controversial birth control advocate as an intensely feminist reformer. Published in 2011, the book attempts to rescue Sanger from both conservative critics and progressive neglect by placing her actions within the historical context of the early 20th century. See my review

Margaret Sanger, An autobiography: A Fight for a birth control by Margaret Sanger—A memoir detailing her life and experiences as a nurse in New York City's slums, which fueled her dedication to women's reproductive rights and social justice. The book describes her personal struggles and public battles to make birth control universally available, including facing opposition from government and religious leaders, and highlights her role as the founder of the birth control movement and first president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Outlaw Woman, A memoir of the war years, 1960-1975 by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz—In 1968, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz helped found the Women’s Liberation Movement, part of what has been called the second wave of feminism in the United States. She was an antiwar and anti-racist activist and organizer throughout the 1960s and early 1970s and a fiery, tireless public speaker on issues of patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, and racism. She worked in Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade and formed associations with other revolutionaries across the spectrum of radical politics. Unlike most of those involved in the New Left, Dunbar-Ortiz grew up poor, female, and part–Native American in rural Oklahoma, and she often found herself at odds not only with the ruling class but also with the Left and with the women’s movement.

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan— Published in 1963, part social chronicle, part manifesto, it gave a pitch-perfect description of “the problem that has no name”: the insidious beliefs and institutions that undermined women’s confidence in their intellectual capabilities and kept them in the home. Writing in a time when the average woman first married in her teens and 60% of women students dropped out of college to marry, Betty Friedan captured the frustrations and thwarted ambitions of a generation and showed women how they could reclaim their lives.

The Story of Jane, The legendary underground feminist abortion service by Laura Kaplan—Told by one of the members of Chicago’s  The Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation established in 1969, known as Jane,  a chronicle of the four years they provided more than 11,000 women with safe and affordable abortions.

We’ll Call You If We Need You, Experience of Women Working Construction by Susan Eisenberg —The author began her apprenticeship with Local 103 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in 1978, the year president Jimmy Carter set goals and timetables for the hiring of women on federally assisted construction projects and for the inclusion of women in apprenticeship programs. In this book, full of the raw drama and humor found on a construction site, Eisenberg gracefully weaves the voices of 30 women who worked as carpenters, electricians, ironworkers, painters, and plumbers to examine why their numbers remained small.
With the Weathermen, The personal journal of a revolutionary woman by Susan Stern—A candid, first-hand look at the radical politics and the social and cultural environment of the New Left during the late 1960s as Stern transforms from a shy, married graduate student into a go-go dancing, street-fighting “macho mama.”  Stern was tried on conspiracy charges as one of the famed "Seattle Seven" and later went on to write this memoir, before overdosing in 1976.

Yours in Sisterhood, Ms. Magazine and the promise of popular feminism by Amy Erdman Farrell— In the winter of 1972, the first issue of Ms. magazine hit the newsstands. For some activists in the women's movement, the birth of this new publication heralded feminism's coming of age; for others, it signaled the capitulation of the women's movement to crass commercialism. This book explores the complex and often contradictory effort to forge a popular feminist message within a commercial mass-market format.
 
Black Panthers, the Young Lords, and Young Patriots

Revolutionary Hillbilly, Notes from the struggle on the edge of the rainbow by Hy Thuman—Recounts Thurman's experience as a grassroots organizer and co-founder of the Young Patriots Organization in 1960s Chicago as part of  The original Rainbow Coalition: the Young Patriots (a group of poor white youth), the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and the Young Lords (a Puerto Rican political group).

The Assassination of Fred Hampton, How the FBI and the Chicago Police murdered a Black Panther by Jeffrey Haas—in a chilling exposé written by an attorney of the People’s Law Office in Chicago, the truth behind a premeditated killing carried out by Chicago police and the FBI, updated with new material at the 50-year anniversary of the shooting an account of the assassination.
The Young Lords, A Radical History by Johanna Fernández-- the definitive account of the Young Lords, from their roots as a Chicago street gang to their rise and fall as a political organization in New York.
 
Social Change

1969, The year that rocked the world by Mark Kurlansky—An opinionated and readable history that makes the case for why 1968 was lasting relevance.

Anti-Social, Online extremists, techno-utopians, and the hijacking of the American conversation by Andrew Marantz—an eye-opening exploration of the causes and consequences of our current societal breakdown.

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams—A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis— 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. Called “a message to thinking Americans” by the Springfield Republican when it was  published in 1935; a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as today’s news.

Ten Years that Shook the City, San Francisco 1968-1978 edited by Chris Carlsson —In first person and historical essays, a broad look at the diverse ways those ten years changed the city and the world we live in today, from community gardening to environmental justice, gay rights, anti-gentrification, neighborhood arts programs and more.

The Underground Press in America by Robert J. Glessing— Explores the history and significance of the underground newspapers during the countercultural shifts of the 1960s, a detailed look into their operations, content, and cultural role.
 
Hippies

Be Here Now by Dr. Richard Alpert, Ph.D into Baba Ram Dass— Combines Alpert's personal narrative with psychedelic-inspired illustrations, practical spiritual practices, and philosophical insights drawn from Eastern traditions like Hinduism and Buddhism, became a counter-culture classic and is widely credited with popularizing Eastern spiritual concepts, yoga, and meditation in the West.

Coming to My Senses, The making of a counterculture cook by Alice Waters—A memoir portrait of late 1960s Berkeley seen through the eyes of the rebel chef of Chez Panisse as she searches for the right taste while in the throes of tumultuous political and personal events.

Hippies, A guide to an American Subculture by Micah L. Issitt—Covers the years between 1961 and 1972, focusing on the emergence, growth, and legacy of hippie culture

Sleeping Where I Fall by Peter Coyote—A candid memoir by actor, director, and Zen Buddhist priest Peter Coyote of his 15-year journey through the heart of the 1960s counterculture, from his privileged upbringing to his immersion in West Coast communal living and political activism including his time as a member and leader of the Diggers, a collective of artist-anarchists in the San Francisco Bay Area who experimented with creating a "Free Family" through free stores and other services that rejected the commercialization of the burgeoning hippie movement.
 
Communes

Monday Night Class by Stephen Gaskin—Original transcripts of the weekly meetings in San Francisco on consciousness, the spiritual plane, religion, marriage, drugs, sex, politic etc. drawing on the Bible, Zen Buddhism, mythology, and thinkers.

The Caravan by Stephen Gaskin—Transcripts of Stephen’s talks during and stories of the 1970-71 8,000-mile, 250-schoolbus caravan from San Francisco to Tennessee that started The Farm commune.

Total Loss Farm: A years in the life by Raymond Mungo (founder of the underground press' Liberation News Service and co-founder of Total Loss Farm)—Memoir about one of America's first communes located in southern Vermont. Written in a limber prose style formed by the tempo of the times, Mungo takes us into the cultural tsunami of a failed radical politics as it broke on the shoals of a drug–fueled personal freedom and washed inland across the farmlands of Vermont, leaving a trail of damage and redemption in its wake.

Voices from the Farm, Adventures in community living edited by Rupert Fike—Personal accounts from current and former members of The Farm, one of America's largest and oldest intentional communities.

We Are as Gods, Back to the land in the 1970s on the quest for a new America by Kate Daloz—Follows the Myrtle Hill commune in Vermont. Sheds light on one generation’s determination to change their own lives and, in the process, to change the world.

Volume One, Sunday morning services on The Farm by Stephen—A collection of Gaskin's Sunday morning sermons. It serves as an introduction to life and spirituality at The Farm, covering topics like high states of consciousness, shared vision, and the community's blend of politics and religion.

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult—a tense tale of a gunman and hostage standoff in a women’s clinic that asks the questions: How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent?
American Woman by Susan Choi—Pulitzer Prize finalist, based on the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army,a thought-provoking mediation on themes of race, identity, and class.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren—Nothing ever changes when it comes to corruption! This book
portrays the 1930s dramatic and theatrical political rise of governor Willie Stark, an idealistic but underhanded populist in a fictional state very much like Louisiana. The novel is narrated by Jack Burden, a political reporter who evolves into Governor Stark's right-hand man. The trajectory of Stark's career is intertwined with Burden's slowly revealed backstory and philosophical reflections, particularly about history. Beautiful, descriptive writing. Inspired by the life of U.S. Senator and Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long, who was assassinated in 1935, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. See my review.

All You Have to Do Is Call by Kerri Maher—based on the real-life Jane Collective, an underground women's health organization in Chicago that provided reproductive counseling and safe, illegal abortions in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

An American Tune by Barbara Shoup—Moving between the 1960s past and the at the beginning of the Iraq War; set in Bloomington, Indiana and the Indiana University campus. A young woman gets tangled up in a deadly bombing and changes her identity, becoming a wife and mother living a quiet life in northern Michigan until forced to revisit her past. Illuminates the irrevocability of our choices and how those choices impact our lives.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones—commentary on race and injustice in 21st-century America, exploring the devastating impact of mass incarceration. See my review.

Arcadia by Lauren Groff—Set in Upstate New York during the 1960s and 70s, and depicts a utopian commune through the eyes of the settlement's first-born child, Bit. A post-apocalyptic future ravaged by global warming. Loosely modeled after the history of Steve Gaskin’s The Farm commune in Summertown, Tennessee.

Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min—Details the life of Jiang Qing, the unwanted daughter of a concubine and Shanghai actress who became Madame Mao after her marriage to Mao Zedong and a formidable political force during the Cultural Revolution.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton--a contemporary psychological thriller and eco-satire set in New Zealand that follows a guerilla gardening collective called Birnam Wood. The group's members get caught in a web of deceit after forming a questionable partnership with a secretive American tech billionaire. The novel draws inspiration from Shakespeare's play, with the collective named after the famous forest. See my review.

Cinnamon Girl by Trish Macenulty—A 15-year-old runs away with a draft-dodger in 1970 after her step-grandmother dies thinking she's on the road to adventure and romance. Instead she's embroiled in a world of underground Weathermen, Black Power revolutionaries, snitches and shoot-first police.

Coyote Weather, a novel of the 1960s by Amanda Cockrell—Set in 1967 southern California, the impact of the Vietnam war and a wave of change on a group of teens. See my review.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid—The whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer coming of age in the late 60s/early 70s, told in an interview style.

Dissident Gardens by Jonathan Lethem—The American left through three generations of a family, starting with the Jewish communists of the 1930s and tracing their legacy through the counterculture of the 1960s and into the modern-day Occupy movement. The story focuses on the family's quest for self-reinvention and explores the intersection of personal and political lives amidst societal shifts.

Drop City by T.C. Boyle—Epic about a band of hippies who attempt to establish themselves deep in the wilderness of Alaska only to find their utopia already populated by other young homesteaders. When the two communities collide, unexpected friendships and dangerous enmities are born as everyone struggles with the bare essentials of life: love, nourishment, and a roof over one’s head.

Far Out, Poems of the 60’s edited by Wendy Barker & Dave Parsons—80 poet anthology that reflects on the decade's pivotal events and cultural shifts. 

Kingdom of No Tomorrow by Fabienne Josaphat—Follows a young Haitian immigrant as she joins the Black Panther Party in 1960s Oakland. The book explores themes of activism, social justice, gender inequality within the movement, and the personal costs of revolution. See my review.

Her Sister's Tattoo by Ellen Meeropol (wife of Robert Rosenberg whose parents were convicted and executed for conspiracy to commit espionage, and specifically for passing secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union)—Two sisters estrange after a 1968 protest; explores the consequences of political activism, family loyalty, and personal beliefs during the Vietnam War era.

Like a Complete Unknown by Anara Guard—Set in 1970 Chicago’s counterculture, an extremely naive teenage runaway and a widowed gynecologist form a happenstance bond as they both struggle find the path through the times.

Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson—Beat Generation memoir uncovers the hidden female characters (overshadowed by men such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac) who played pivotal roles in the progression of the 1950’s literary movement.

Revolutionaries by Joshua First—A long, strange trip through the heart of the sixties and beyond, a deeply personal portrait of a father and son and a profound allegory for America, where we’ve been and where we’re going.

So Long, Bobby by Lillah Lawson—Three generations of women, Bobbi, Ella, and Kasey from 1968, 1995, and 2018 in Athens, Seattle, and Colbert, Georgia in an elegy to America's past, its sins, and our constant drive to do better. A novel about how no matter what time period, we’re all more alike than we are different.

Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand—Four siblings face a turbulent Nantucket summer filled with life-altering events against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and other cultural upheavals. Misunderstandings, secrets, and wrong choices litter their paths to maturity and happiness.

The Ash Family by Molly Dektar—A young woman joins a seemingly idyllic, off-the-grid commune in the North Carolina mountains, only to discover the hidden, and ultimately deadly, cost of belonging

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer—Explores the dynamics of women’s ambition, mentorship, and power across generations. It centers on college freshman and daughter of hippies Greer Kadetsky, who finds her life changed after meeting a celebrated second-wave feminist icon.

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner—A revolutionary book about the New York art world of the seventies, Italian class warfare, and youth's blind acceleration into the unknown.

The Fourteenth of September by Rita Dragonette—Set during the peak of the Vietnam War in 1969, a 19-year-old is attending college on an army scholarship but secretly joins the campus's anti-war movement.

The Girls by Emma Cline—Loosely inspired by the Manson Family and the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate. A coming-of-age story that explores themes of female vulnerability, manipulation, and the desperate desire for acceptance.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros—Told in a series of poignant and lyrical vignettes, the story follows a young Latina girl growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago. for a year of her life as she grapples with her identity, dreams, and the realities of her community.

The Nix by Nathan Hill—From the suburban Midwest to New York City to the 1968 riots that rocked Chicago and beyond. Love, betrayal, politics and pop culture.

The Outside Lands by Hannah Kohler—A family swept along in events larger than themselves in 1960s America; follows a brother and sister coming to terms with their mother’s death and the wider tragedy of the Vietnam War as social customs and traditional values are overturned. A story about choice and opinion, resistance and acceptance. 

The Sometimes Daughter by Sherri Wood Emmons— Mostly set in Indianapolis, explores the complex bond between a daughter born at Woodstock in 1969 with her eternal hippie  bi-polar mother and mainstream father. 

The Unmooring by Ken Fireman—Rejection of a family’s conservative lifestyle  in 1961 takes a young man to the front lines of the civil rights struggle and Vietnam in a landscape like today’s, scarred by polarization, social conflict, deep racial fissure, official deceit, and generational tensions.

The Women by Kristin Hannah—A view of the Vietnam War and its fallout from an army nurse perspective. See my review.

The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni—A young man's pivotal summer in 1979, where he learns life-changing lessons from two Vietnam veterans. Forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer―breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one’s own destiny―come back into play.

The Wrong Kind of Woman by Sarah McCraw Crow—A widow challenges her traditional identity and embraces the women's movement after her professor husband's sudden death. The story is told through multiple perspectives, exploring themes of grief, feminism, and social change.

Trio by William Boyd—Summer 1968, and the world is reeling from war and assassinations, protests and riots. In a sunny British seaside town, a producer, a novelist, and an actress are enduring their own more private crises on the set of a disaster-plagued movie. All are leading secret lives. Pressures—and that’s before the FBI and CIA get involved. Asks the questions: What makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn’t?

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell— Four talented, mismatched musicians form a band in the 1967 London psychedelic scenethat rapidly rises from small Soho clubs to American tours. It’s about the families we choose and the ones we don’t; of voices in the head, and the truths and lies they whisper; of music, madness, and idealism. Can we really change the world, or does the world change us?
The book explores themes of creativity, identity, fame, idealism, madness, and grief.

You are Free by Danzy Senna—At the intersection of race and family life, stories richly nuanced, often funny, provocative.