Winter solstice 2024: new books for darker times

For the third year in a row, I'm taking the opportunity of a winter solstice to put together a list of books focused on active hope. This is the darkest time of the year, a time for hibernation, but also for setting intentions and taking those initial steps toward action.

Following thinkers such as Joanna Macey and Rebecca Solnit, active hope is the kind that's based in hard work, rather than blind trust. It's honest about the state of the world and  how badly it works for the majority of people, but instead of this leading to despair, it's used as a foundation for resistance and change-making. Active hope doesn't believe things will be ok - it finds the actions we can take to make them better.

The books below, all published this year, engage with active hope in different ways. Be it within the realm of environmental justice, queer liberation, democracy or psychology, drawing on history or looking to the future, they look at our broken world with clear eyes and find countless ways to begin mending it.

You can check out last year's list HERE.

May your solstice hold seeds of a kinder world within it.