Top Ten Books I’d Send To Donald Trump

So I read an article the other day about protesters sending books to the White House for Valentine’s Day, and it got me thinking.

1. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley. A powerful warning about the corrosive effects of hate, the irreparable mutual harm that oppression does both to oppressed and oppressors. Plus, it’s written by a woman.
2. Lagoon – Nnedi Okorafor. A novel that argues, melodiously but forcefully, the blinkered folly of Anglo- and anthropocentrism, how absurd it is to think that we, personally, are the centre of the universe. Okorafor depicts Lagos, Nigeria as a vibrant, modern city; in many ways a more interesting locus for an alien invasion than the more conventional Los Angeles or New York or London.
3. Six-Gun Snow White – Catherynne M. Valente. Another angry novel, taking two of the great American myths – the Wild West and Disney’s Aryan, prettified Snow White – and making them brutal; describing self-perpetuating cycles of abuse which the marginalised inflict upon themselves and each other in a hopeless attempt to win the approval of their oppressors. Plus, it’s short enough even for Trump’s limited attention span.
4. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A sharp, intersectional look at race in America; I defy anyone not to weep and rage.
5. The Clockwork Rocket – Greg Egan. Maybe if Trump read this, he would actually understand how science works, and how it relates to society. (Pro tip: it’s not a hoax invented by the Chinese.) Then again, maybe not.
6. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – Becky Chambers. Such a lovely, hopeful story about integration and working alongside those who are different to us. #hopenothate
7. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell. This is a novel about the incremental value of kindness; the sheer work involved in achieving any kind of progress. Hopeful about humanity’s potential, pragmatic about its reality.
8. Railsea – China Mieville. Another spin on a classic American myth – Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. But whereas Melville’s novel’s about conquest, Mieville’s is about the self-defeating wastefulness of rampant capitalism.
9. Boy, Snow, Bird – Helen Oyeyemi. And yet another retelling, this one (again) of Snow White: there is nothing new under the sun. Anyway, this one also brings the toxic nature of hate to the fore, but its ending is slightly more hopeful than Valente’s version (albeit problematic).
10. The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. Essentially a 700-page feminist rant about the systematic repression inherent in women’s writing of the nineteenth century – albeit an extremely well-researched and readable one. It’s extremely aware of how systems of oppression work.

(The theme for this post was suggested by the Broke and the Bookish’s weekly meme Top Ten Tuesday.)