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Pagan Kennedy's new book, "The Secret History of the Rape Kit," recounts how a forgotten woman provided countless others a chance to hold their assailants accountable. Below, Kennedy recommends six books that offer hope and companionship in dark times.
'Color Me Flo' by Flo Kennedy (1976)
Kennedy (no relation) masterminded some of the most outrageous political acts of the 1970s — like a "pee-in" held in Harvard Yard to protest the school's lack of women's bathrooms. In this delightfully shaggy book, Kennedy recounts scenes from her adventures as a civil rights lawyer, prankster, and feminist gadfly. It was Kennedy who taught us: "Don't agonize, organize." Buy it here.
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'Tunnel 29' by Helena Merriman (2021)
In 1961, a wall went up around East Berlin in the middle of the night, preventing almost everyone from fleeing. That step into fascism inspired a group of students to engineer an escape route, digging a tunnel that snaked from a basement in East Berlin to freedom. Merriman has reconstructed a lost history that unfolds like a heist movie. Buy it here.
'Giovanni’s Room' by James Baldwin (1956)
Baldwin tends to be remembered as an essayist and author of "The Fire Next Time." But if you're exploring his work, consider starting with this novel, a page-turner about queer people trying to live their truth in the 1950s. Buy it here.
'Empire of Pain' by Patrick Radden Keefe (2021)
I was sucked into this book because I couldn't look away from its characters' villainy. In a blitz of brilliant reporting, Keefe reveals how the most dastardly members of the Sackler family built a Big Pharma empire and pushed opiates into doctors' offices and eventually the streets. Buy it here.
'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood (1985)
Years ago, Atwood asked herself a question: "If you wanted to seize power in the United States and set up a dictatorship, how would you go about it?" The 2017 TV adaptation of this novel was excellent, but you should really hold the story in your hand and read it. After all, it portrays a dystopia in which women have lost the right to even touch a book. Buy it here.
'The Power Broker' by Robert Caro (1974)
As an insomniac, I spend hours lying in the dark, aching to fall into an unconsciousness. And that's how a 66-hour audiobook became my best friend. 'The Power Broker' spins the epic true tale of Robert Moses, who twisted New York City into the shape of his own greed and ego. Buy it here.
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