VID Bookclub! Reading as an Act of Resistance
August, 2025
VID Book Recommendations
Reading is an act of resistance! Following last month’s launch of our VID Book Club, several members sent in their favorite reads, and we’re excited to share them here. This feature is a space for recommendations, not a discussion group (at least for now!), so everyone can enjoy and explore what others are reading. Thanks to all who contributed! We’ll keep adding to this shared resource each month. Here are a few from August:
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Carol F.: Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, “Of course there is also Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book.”
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Sarah O.: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger, A dystopian novel set in a future ruled by “Elon Musks of the world.” “I loved it, my sister-in-law loved it—the reader is great.”
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Caroline D.: (audiobooks) Mollywood by Molly Jong-Fast and What Do We Need Men For? by E. Jean Carroll, both recent autobiographies, read by the authors. Carroll offers a detailed telling of the Trump trial.
Have a title you’d like to recommend? Please forward your suggestion to [email protected]
Reading continues to be under attack. Book bans and culture wars are one front, but another is the creeping, insidious narrative, like David Brooks’ recent essay When Novels Mattered, which suggests progressive values and “left-wing conformity” are to blame for a supposed decline in literary greatness. This framing is not only dismissive of today’s authors, but it shifts the blame onto the very communities that fight hardest to keep literature bold, diverse, and alive.
To set the record straight, author, bookstore owner, and reader extrordinaire Ann Patchett offers a pitch-perfect rebuttal to Brooks, pointing to some of today’s boldest, culture-shaping novels — from Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman and Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead to Percival Everett’s James and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. Patchett’s response underscores how misleading it is to reduce today’s literary achievements to “progressive storytelling.” These are not political labels but powerful stories that reflect who we are and the times we live in.
Watch her full 6-minute video here.
So, in the spirit of Reading is Resistance, we’re excited to introduce the new VID Book Club! During our August Dispatch break, we encourage all VID members to dive into great fiction. Share your recommendations, new books, old books, or your personal favorites, and we’ll feature your picks on the VID Book Club page of our website. Send your suggestions to [email protected].
