Reading is a radical act . . . an act of courage—and faith in better days to come.
Great Books & Great Minds, Diamond-Michael Scott
Guerrilla Reads is a read-along project for people who still believe that reading deeply—especially in hard times—is an act of resistance, revolution, and repair.
Guerrilla Reads are books that are timely, idea-driven, and provocative, written by writers who challenge the status quo, shed light on how power and influence work, and point to what might still be possible. They show us where we are, how we got here, and what people are doing about it. The lens is cultural, science-oriented and unapologetically partisan: left-leaning, liberal-progressive, and anti-authoritarian.
How it works. I post several times on a book I’m reading, with questions inviting your discussion. Each read-along post is framed by my own reflections and reading experience: how the book is built, where it comes from, how it works on the page and in the world. My background is in literature and history; I taught for decades, wrote for longer than that, and I’m still reading, writing, and learning—with you, and from you, and from the books we read together.
New posts follow the rhythm of my reading life, not a fixed calendar. Some of the books I choose are hard to find quickly, especially for library users who often find themselves on a wait list. So I encourage you to build a personal TBR list and return when the time is right. My posts are written to stand on their own and to wait for you. They are free to read and share; comments are always open to paid subscribers. You can read all the posts and (for paid subscribers) follow the discussions here.
If this sounds like something you’d like to do, welcome. Let’s read together.
The 2026 possible choices
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, by Colin Woodard;
Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America, by Beth Macy;
Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster, by Jacob Soboroff;
Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, by Virginia Giuffre
If you have other suggestions, please drop them into the comments or email me: susanalbert01 @ gmail.com. For more about Guerrilla Reads, go here.
The 2025 list
You’ll find my discussions of these books and reader comments all listed on this summary/index page.
Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post, by Martin Baron. The first installment in the story of Jeff Bezos’ takeover of the legacy newspaper that broke the Watergate scandal. This book covers the first Trump term. Now, in the Trump 2.0, many WaPo journalists are leaving—and telling us why, so we trace this important ongoing narrative via additional online readings. If you have time (and the courage) for another book on this vitally important subject, read this one: Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis in American Democracy, by Margaret Sullivan.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson. “The keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far” (New York Times 2020). America’s caste system and its brutal enforcement, compared to that of India and Hitler’s Germany. Selected because it helps us to understand why DEI is under attack by the current administration and how that fits the anti-democratic playbook.
Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, by Rachel Maddow. The history of a virulent homegrown, foreign-supported strain of authoritarianism on the far-right rim of political life. Selected because it documents the historical emergence of fascism on the American political scene. My posts are here, here, and here.
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez. The evolving history of the evangelical subculture, leading to the outcomes of the 2016 and 2024 elections: patriarchy, aggressive masculinity, authoritarian governance, intrusion of church into state. Selected because it traces the history of one of the anti-democratic strains in American life, introduced in the previous book. My posts for this book are 1) here, 2) here, and 3) here.
A Guerrilla Reads Extra: Money, Lies, and God, by Katherine Stewart. A review for readers who haven't picked this book up--yet. About who’s behind White Christian Nationalism’s well-designed, carefully constructed political machinery: how and why it was built, who’s paying for it, and what it’s doing to American democracy.
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, by Heather Cox Richardson. On a national level, the historical forces that have created the current threats to the democratic process. Chosen because it clearly outlines the current threats to our fragile American democracy. My posts for this book are 1) here, 2) here, and 3) here.