What We've Been Reading: Jan 2025

Welcome to the first monthly reading-round-up of 2025!

This is the place where we gather highlights from what the Lighthouse team have been reading each month. You can check out round-ups from previous months and years amongst our Read Think Act posts.

JJ

This month I’m reading Trans Femmes Futures by Nat Raha and Mike van der Drift: A clear and energising read on how to be everyday abolitionist of the gender binary and a reminder the patriarchy does not own femme or femininity.

Noor

Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford - This was recommended by a customer and I listened to it on Libro. I found it a really well-researched and clear introduction into the global issues of AI that are becoming more and more worrying, from the destructive extraction of minerals and metals, to the abuse of human labour like miners and content moderators. From resource extraction, environmental and human abuse, to the lacking ethical, legal and financial regulation of AI, we should all be on our guard.

Christina

Mine is also about AI - Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI by James Muldoon, Mark Graham and Callum Cant. If you have seen me in the last month and a half there is a nonzero chance that I spoke to you about this book. Feeding the Machine illuminates how the problem with AI has been capitalism all along (imagine the Scooby Doo meme please) through following the human labour associated with AI along the supply chain. From data annotator to warehouse worker to venture capital investor, the book shows that so much about the exploitation and extraction related to AI labour isn't new, just using the old playbook with new tools. There are also chapters on labour organising, which is obviously vital. I wish the book had featured interviews with miners who extract the critical minerals needed for AI to function, so an essential companion to this book is the book Cobalt Red.

Phoenix

I am currently reading Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh. It is a book about so many things: the violence of growing up during the Troubles, invisible borders, grief, loss, depression, the faultlines and the icy river of trauma. It is also about the beauty of moths, of whooper swans, of deep connection to water, about words, about the Irish language that is "rooted in a world in which the unseen is as real as the seen".

Thin Places is beautifully written, and it feels incredibly special to share these pieces of the author's heart and world. The author speaks of "a sky that - no matter how grey and uncertain- still holds room for butterflies, moths, dragonflies, and things we once were too fearful to name; things like whispered hope." Thin Places does just that so beautifully - to speak of such sorrow whilst also feeling the beauty and magic of moths and other creatures. Thin Places is a book that burrows itself deep within the heart.

Mairi

I absolutely loved Niamh Mulvaney’s The Amendments, a subtle, layered, intergenerational Irish novel that weaves the personal narratives of individual women through seismic political shifts of modern Ireland & modern feminism. 40 years of history, an intricate family drama, a queer love story, the uniqueness & universality of girlhood and coming of age across generations, it was totally captivating

Also enjoyed M L Rio’s If We Were Villains - queer dark academia that’s all drama and damaged young people and Shakespeare - bound to be a book that thespians & Shakespeare nerds would relish for all those extra layers.

Page turners that are especially fun audiobooks to recommend from our friends at Libro: Katy Brent’s How to Kill Men and Get Away With It (psychological crime/#MeToo vigilante novel) and The Last Bookstore on Earth (apocalypse climate fiction blended with queer YA love story) - dark subjects but ‘easy reads’.

Hannah

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke packed so much whimsical but eerie forest feeling into a short story. If you like the style then definitely look at Clarke's long form novels.

She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark was a twisted treat. I've not read many collections where I'm grimacing, chuckling, and cringing within each short story (full content warning list included).

A Haunting in the Arctic by C.J. Cooke weaves a chilling tale through time, folklore, and through the eyes of two narrators who are exploring the Icelandic coast (though only one is there by choice). I spotted the twist a little earlier than I wanted to but it didn't take away from the intense atmosphere! (It carries a fair few content warnings)