Jamail, Feffer, Chomsky and more: 5 books we're loving this month

Progressive Picks As Haruki Murakami wrote, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” Here at Truthout, we strive to find books that provide a variety of perspectives and experiences. This month’s Progressive Picks cover some of the most pressing issues on our minds, from the climate crisis and technology to Latin American politics. After travelling the world, award-winning Truthout reporter Dahr Jamail brings us an emotional account of how climate change is affecting communities around the world in [The End of Ice](. While highlighting the shocking changes that have already occurred, Jamail simultaneously evokes an emotional connection to nature and the Earth. In [Frostlands]( the second installment of the Splinterlands series, John Feffer brings us to the sustainable community of Arcadia where the life-changing research of a climate scientist is in danger. Despite being a work of fiction, the urgent messages conveyed in the novel feel eerily real. With the current debates around Venezuela, [The Ebb of The Pink Tide]( is an essential read to understanding the political climate in Latin America. Mike Gonzalez examines the rise and fall of popular movements, such as the cabildos abiertos, popular assemblies, Zapatista communities, and MST land occupations. In a collection of interviews, Noam Chomsky and C.J. Polychroniou bring us an essential overview of the problems of our world today. [Optimism Over Despair]( covers subjects from rising neoliberalism to the dysfunctional US electoral system. Chomsky states, “We have two choices. We can be pessimistic, give up, and help ensure that the worst will happen. Or we can be optimistic, grasp the opportunities that surely exist, and maybe help make the world a better place. Not much of a choice.” Then there's [Future Politics]( a groundbreaking work of political analysis that challenges readers to rethink what it means to be free or equal, what it means to have power or property, what it means for a political system to be just or democratic, and proposes ways in which we can -- and must -- regain control. Support Truthout’s independent journalism by ordering any of these Progressive Picks now! Click on any link or image below, or view our full catalog by [clicking here.]( [Frostlands]( By John Feffer The second installment of the Splinterlands series, Frostlands opens with the sustainable community of Arcadia coming under attack as eighty-year-old Rachel Leopold, a climate scientist, is finalizing research that could reverse the melting of the polar ice caps and prevent lethal amounts of methane from being released into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, political forces both inside and outside the walls of Arcadia may prove to fracture Rachel’s research and beliefs as she and the Earth confront their mortality. [Get the book →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption]( By Dahr Jamail After nearly a decade overseas as a war reporter, Jamail returned to America to renew his passion for mountaineering, only to find that the slopes he had once climbed have been irrevocably changed by climate disruption. Don't miss his brand new book on the state of our planet's wild places, which Kirkus Reviews called "assiduously researched, profoundly affecting, and filled with vivid evocations of the natural world." [Get the book →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [The Ebb of the Pink Tide: The Decline of the Left in Latin America]( By Mike Gonzalez Author Mike Gonzalez says we must understand that the decline of Latin American leftist governments is partially rooted in their failure to fundamentally challenge neoliberalism. While we cannot ignore the role of U.S. imperialism in the crisis, social movements and the left must take a critical look at the legacy of the “Pink Tide” governments in order to build a viable socialist alternative. [Get the book →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Optimism Over Despair: Noam Chomsky On Capitalism, Empire, and Social Change]( By C.J. Polychroniou and Noam Chomsky This anthology from Truthout and Haymarket Books collects wide-ranging interviews by C.J. Polychroniou with arguably the world's most well-known critic of US policy. Chomsky discusses the “war on terror,” neoliberalism, Israel and Palestine, Black Lives Matter, the refugee crisis and cracks in the European Union, the dysfunctional US electoral system, the climate crisis and our prospects for building a better world. [Get the book →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech]( By Jamie Susskind This book confronts one of the most important questions of our time: How will digital technology transform politics and society? The great political debate of the last century was about how much of our collective life should be determined by the state and what should be left to the market and civil society. In the future, the question will be how far our lives should be directed and controlled by powerful digital systems -- and on what terms? 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