Cover Story: Summer Reading List

Summer Reading List

In The Contributor ’s annual reading list, regular writers, volunteers, vendors, interns and more help wrangle a mish-mash of our favorite reads from the previous year. Here is what we were reading over the past year.

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Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People

BY GWEN E. KIRBY

When you first meet Dr. Jim O’Connell, you instantly know that you’re in the company of one of those rare individuals who are able to truly see people and listen to them. This book captures his humility and deep caring for others. You will not only learn about how O’Connell and his team have built Boston’s Health Care for the Homeless Program, the nation’s largest medical system to care for patients experiencing homelessness, but also about the importance of truly connecting with people. You will read about tenacity, consistency, and true caring – and you will recognize that serving people is about more than just implementing a program. It is about building relationships and mutual respect that leads to accepting people and their choices. The brilliance of this book lies in Kidder’s ability to show the growth of Dr. O’Connell through and with his team to constantly learn and relearn how to work with people within a system that perpetuates chronic homelessness. — JUDITH TACKETT

Homelessness Is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns

BY GREGG COLBURN AND CLAYTON PAGE ALDERN

Colburn and Aldern take a systematic approach as they dissect the question of why some cities see higher rates of homelessness than others. They clearly point to the housing market conditions such as high rent costs and low vacancy rates as the main culprits. The authors also examine individual factors that increase risks of homelessness (poverty, mental health, substance use, etc.), but conclude that rather than focusing on blaming individuals, our country needs to examine the housing system we created. This book not only looks at the causes of homelessness at the individual and systemic levels but also attempts to offer solutions. The authors point out that homelessness programs have not failed, rather the lack of scaling up programs in light of scarce resources is what does not work. “Homelessness is a Housing Problem” uses direct and easily digestible language to help us think through complex issues and concludes that the differences in rates of homelessness are based on how communities structure their housing. In essence, the example of how the U.S. has been able to reduce veteran homelessness by investing in housing, rental subsidies, and systems thinking can provide a blueprint to reducing overall homelessness. — JUDITH TACKETT

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

BY JULIAN JAYNES

Julian Jaynes, a reputable Princeton psychologist, released a book in 1976 proposing a profoundly unorthodox theory of the human mind. Crucial to his work and its reception was the notion that human consciousness evolved very recently, within the span of recorded history. While Jaynes remains a controversial figure, he was a titan of human thought and his seminal text is tantalizing and consumable to even the greenest layperson. A true educator, he invites the reader gently and eagerly into a world of unfathomable possibility. This is a summer read for Hoboscope connoisseurs. — LAURA BIRDSALL

Hello Molly!: A Memoir

BY MOLLY SHANNON

If we’re going by the metric that having a sad childhood makes you hilarious as an adult, actress and comedian Molly Shannon proves this in her memoir Hello Molly! Shannon, who’s best known for her six seasons on Saturday Night Live, lost her mother, sister and cousin in a car crash when she was 4 years old. Her childhood was full of mischief, even as she and her family struggled through a difficult life without her mother. The book is full of vulnerability and grace. Shannon is an excellent storyteller and she comes off as genuine, smart and worthy of her superstar status. — AMANDA HAGGARD

Remarkably Bright Creatures

BY SHELBY VAN PELT

This book hits everything I’m looking for in fiction: Something a little weird (chapters with an octopus narrator), a narrative that challenges traditional relations and storytelling that touches on various relationships on a broad spectrum of intimacy. In this book, a widow who also lost her young son befriends a giant Pacific octopus that’s in an enclosure in an aquarium as he lives out his last days. This exploration of friendship, family and relationship to self is stunning and will leave me thinking about it for a long time. — AMANDA HAGGARD

No Choice: The Destruction of Roe v. Wade and the Fight to Protect a Fundamental American Right

BY BECCA ANDREWS

This book, full disclosure, was written by my close college friend Becca Andrews. Her reporting on Roe v. Wade outlines the tangible losses in recent years and the storytelling brings into picture the history and nuance of abortion and the right to choose. The history allows for a better view into how we got here. The real stars of the book are the people profiled, who, as Andrews notes, are, “doing groundbreaking, inspiring work to ensure safe, legal access to this fundamental part of health care.” — AMANDA HAGGARD

I'm Glad My Mom Died

BY JEANNETTE MCCURDY

I'm Glad My Mom Died , a memoir by American writer, director and former actress Jennette McCurdy, is about her career on iCarly as a child actress. McCurdy writes about her relationship with her mother and the abuse she suffered into her adulthood. After her mother died in 2013, McCurdy began to examine the relationship and created a one-woman show, which was then expanded into this memoir. It’s an indictment of the types of parents who force their kids into fame, and it begs for a follow up when McCurdy is older. How does one come out on the other side? — AMANDA HAGGARD

Poverty, by America

BY MATTHEW DESMOND

We have created a huge tidal wave of poverty and homelessness in America — one that is not going to be stopped by a few grants to a few nonprofits. Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America , gets at how to dismantle the system we’ve built. We have to change the entire way we think and, even then, it is going to take years to turn the tide. But if we don’t begin, we haven’t seen anything yet. Desmond’s book explains all of that very bluntly, and also supports his theories with facts and figures. This isn’t light reading, but it is necessary. — CATHY JENNINGS

The Peregrine

BY J.A. BAKER

As J. A. Baker notes in The Peregrine , it is easy to let birds flit about on the fringe of perception, comfortably out of view. But as Baker spent a few months documenting the sophisticated habits of Essex peregrines, his appreciation for the falcons’ brilliance — and the breadth of their experiences — flourished. Recounting his observations with ornate, flowery prose, he begins to spurn his own humanity and long for the natural world he once ignored. It’s a stunning tribute to the rich, poignant and unsparing stories of wildlife, and a deft meditation on the beauty in every moment. — JUSTIN WAGNER