Killer Books and Kick-ass Journalism

The week 64 listicle

Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash

Hello readers, writers, activists! I’m a week behind with my listicle ….

Here are some words from others that have been keeping me busy:

Another activist newsletter!

I discovered a new activist newsletter recently. World-Weary is “A weekly newsletter for aspiring activists, helping you stay informed about the world’s problems, learn how to get involved and make a difference”. It covers everything from sexual assault and racism to hate speech and poverty. You can read it here.

The worst ideas ever

About ten years ago, I started hearing people say they were going to solve their life problems (never the world’s problems, mind) by “putting it out to the universe” – asking it to help them replace that lumpy mattress, find them a hot new girlfriend, help them get out of their shitty job). I’m a materialist at heart, so this all seemed ludicrously self-delusional, as well as self-absorbed, to me. But I didn’t know where this whacky idea came from until I listened to the episode about Rhonda Byrne’s self-help bible The Secret on If Books Could Kill. This podcast about the most ludicrous and dangerous books to make the bestseller list includes episodes on such bogus classics as Freakonomics, The Population Bomb, The End of History, among others.

If you have no idea how to do proper research but have a half-arsed idea you want to make a fortune from – turns out there are plenty of publishers (and readers) who’ll buy it.

Amazing animal rights journalism

At the other end of the spectrum, journalist Spencer Roberts talks about how he’s built a freelance career pitching and publishing great stories about the environment and animals, especially marine life. Listen to him on the unsurpassable Our Hen House podcast.

And… some revolutionary poetry

I loved this poem “The Invention of America” by Katie Farris from her new book Standing in the Forest of Being Alive.

Everyone is writing about a country

as if a country existed.

Yup.

I’ll be back with some thoughts on writing and activism next week.

Pen in Fist is written by me, C Lou Hamilton, aka Dr Carrie. To find out more about my activism, follow me on twitter. You can access my other writing, and information on my editing and translating work, on my website. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to Pen in Fist for free here.