Hey, hi, remember me?

If you forgot, I'm an author and book lover. Here's what you should be reading right now...

Some of you know me from the Pittsburgh Banned Book Club. Some of you might know me from my own book, Hiding Places. But before those things, I was just a reader who was passionate about fighting book bans.

Below I’ve created a list of banned books that you should be reading right now. Or maybe there’s a book that would be perfect for a certain red-hat relative’s birthday gift. Either way, all of these books are about systems of power, collapse, surveillance, control, and resistance. Basically, this is a syllabus for surviving under tyranny.

1. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. You already know—this hits different in late-stage capitalism. Climate collapse, privatized security, wealth hoarding, violent nationalism. Absolutely eerie similarities to 2025.

2. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Religious authoritarianism that takes over like the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. It’s somehow slow and fast all at once, and once you’re stuck, you’re stuck. And it didn’t even take a total collapse—just the slow boiling frog of apathy and power grabs.

3. 1984 by George Orwell. A masterclass in propaganda, thought control, and rewriting reality. Essential reading in any timeline where “alternative facts” are a thing.

4. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The soft dictatorship. Pleasure as control. Distraction over dissent. The state doesn’t crush you—it sedates you. Terrifyingly relevant.

5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. When knowledge is dangerous and books are contraband. Bradbury wasn’t just warning about censorship—he was screaming about willful ignorance (which is the number one thing driving me completely bonkers right now).

6. Animal Farm by George Orwell. How revolutions fail. How power corrupts. How slogans replace truth. A must-read if you’ve ever wondered why so many populist movements end up eating their own.

7. It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Written in 1935 but somehow reads like it was ripped from a 2025 headline. A demagogue rises to power in the U.S. promising order, faith, and greatness—then builds a fascist regime. Sound familiar?

8. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. The graphic novel version of resistance. Surveillance state. Media-controlled narrative. And one very pissed-off anarchist in a Guy Fawkes mask. Although I haven’t personally read this one yet, I have on good authority it’s well worth the read.

9. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Anarchism vs. capitalism. Isolation vs. freedom. A layered, cerebral sci-fi novel that tears into the contradictions of power and revolution.

10. The Trial by Franz Kafka. No dystopia list is complete without Kafka. Endless bureaucracy. No answers. No justice. Just the slow erosion of your will to fight back.