I’m a librarian, writer, and proponent of the death positive movement. I’ve found some people assume that being death positive means a certain callousness. For me the opposite is true: I’m an anxious ball of feelings both for myself and towards others, and the death positive mindset helps me cope better with life’s curveballs. I can say with a degree of certainty that we’ve all been pitched some doozies lately, so I wanted to offer up some books that nourish in times of darkness without turning away in denial.
I wrote...
Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin
By
Megan Rosenbloom
What is my book about?
In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy―the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. Dozens of such books live on in the world’s most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection. Along the way, Rosenbloom tells the story of how her team of scientists, curators, and librarians test rumored anthropodermic books, untangling the myths around their creation and reckoning with the ethics of their custodianship.
In Dark Archives―captivating and macabre in all the right ways―Rosenbloom has crafted a narrative that is equal parts detective work, academic intrigue, history, and medical curiosity: a book as rare and thrilling as its subject.
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The Books I Picked & Why
It's Ok That You're Not Ok: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand
By
Megan Devine
Why this book?
I am like the Johnny Appleseed of this book; I’ve given it to the closest friends and the most casual acquaintances from very different walks of life, whether they are the person suffering a loss or a person supporting someone suffering one because guess what? We’ll all be both at different points in our lives. We can also define loss and its accompanying grief broadly; this book helped me show up for a friend during her divorce, for instance. If I could mandate a national book club that compelled us all to read one book, I’d pick this one.
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Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
By
Angela Garbes
Why this book?
I wish I’d read this book before I had my child because it centered me through the upheaval of early parenthood better than other more didactic books. Garbes looks at pregnancy unflinchingly but also with curiosity and empathy. She’s the smart, candid mom friend you wish you had.
Change on the personal and societal level is hard, relentless, and can feel demoralizing. Brown’s work is grounded outside of the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and prioritizes self-care, community, joy, and curiosity while taking inspiration from the natural world and its rhythms and long arcs toward revolution. You may not have thought you needed a strategy book rooted in the science fiction writing of Octavia Butler, but fortunately, life can provide positive surprises, not just negative ones. I expect I’ll return to portions of this book again and again when I need to fill my cup.
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Year of Zines: In Which Sarah Mirk (That’s Me) Somewhat Obsessively Tries to Make a Zine Every Day for a Year
By
Sarah Mirk
Why this book?
What I love about Mirk’s book is the physically productive response to anxiety, the unselfconscious approach to creating physical art and words, and how the physical creation is so personal yet so universal. The dedication of creating a zine a day is monkish in its attention and yet also achievable in a way that is inspiring. Make art for your own sake, because it’s good for you even if it’s not “good”. Use it to get to know and love yourself better.
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
By
Rebecca Solnit
Why this book?
The world is hell, so now what? By now we all know how easy it is to fall into despair. “Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting.” Solnit’s arguments and examples of a galvanizing hope are not naïve. They are nuanced, realistic, and give us something to cling to like a life raft as we scan for dry land.
