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Biden won. But can you imagine a future where Trump was re-elected?
The Student Advisory Committee has prepared a newsletter on the theme of society. This is definitely not the kind of ~society~ content on YouTube from the Joker motivational meme channel that you somehow end up watching at 2am:
There is something inherently cringey and sad about this
Instead, this is a recommendation list of 10 books about how governments can shape and control society, which hopefully will inspire you to rethink the way society is and guide you to ponder whether this way is for better or worse.
1. Yes No Maybe So | Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed (politics • romance)
For fans of Becky and her quirky Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda which has been adapted to the quirky Love, Simon.
YES
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone), Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.
NO
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing—with some awkward dude she hardly knows—is beyond her.
MAYBE SO
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer—and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural romance of the century is another thing entirely.
Key Themes:
politics
cross-cultural relationships
teen
Rating:
✔ easy read
⚠ Yes No Maybe So is suitable for all Year Groups.
2. Lovely War | Julie Berry (historical fiction • romance)
Hazel, a classical pianist from London, James, a British would-be architect-turned-soldier; Aubrey, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the U.S. Army, and Colette, a Belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past. Their story, as told by goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though War is a formidable force, it's no match for the transcendent power of Love.
Key Themes:
war
life & death
human nature
racial prejudice
Rating:
✔ easy read
✘ WWI atrocities & violence
⚠ Lovely War is suitable for all Year Groups.
- readwithcindy
3. Scythe | Neal Schusterman (fantasy • dystopian)
Thou shalt kill.
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.
Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.
Key Themes:
mortality & life
surveillance
corruption
justice
compassion
choices.
Rating:
⚠ Scythe is suitable for all Year Groups.
4. Never Let Me Go | Kazuo Ishiguro (dystopian)
Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it.
Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.
Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society.
Key Themes
growing up
obligations to society
friendship
value of human life
Rating
✔ easy read
♛ named the "Best Novel of 2005" by Time magazine
⚠ Never Let Me Go is suitable for all Year Groups.
5. BZRK | Michael Grant (sci-fi)
Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal: to turn the world into their vision of utopia. No wars, no conflict, no hunger. And no free will. Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human.
This is no ordinary war, though. Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain. And there are no stalemates here: It’s victory . . . or madness.
Key Themes:
conspiracy
mystery
insanity
Rating:
✘ deaths & violence
• moderately complex plot & language
⚠ BZRK is recommended to Year 8+.
6. Four Dead Queens | Astrid Scholte (fantasy)
Keralie may seem harmless, but in fact, she's one of Quadara's most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara's most enlightened region. Varin runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When he attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara's queens dead.
With no other choices and on the run from Keralie's former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavouring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation's four dead queens.
Key Themes:
greed
politics
heist
friendship
love
Rating:
✘ deaths & violence
✘ mild explicit language
⚠ Four Dead Queens is recommended to Year 8+.
7. Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury (dystopian)
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden... But then he meets an eccentric young neighbour, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When his wife, Mildred, attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
Key Themes:
censorship
knowledge
technology
obedience to society
Rating:
✘ violence & death
✔ easy read
⚠ Fahrenheit 451 is recommended to Year 8+.
8. Blindness | José Saramago (post-apocalypse)
A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there, the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations, and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides her charges—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and their procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing.
Key Themes:
human nature
collapse of society
morals
Rating:
✘ strong language
✘ violence & death
✘ sexual references
♛ Nobel Prize-winning author
⚠ Blindness is recommended to Year 9+.
9. Gone With the Wind | Margaret Mitchell (historical fiction)
From a loved, pampered daughter of a rich Southern plantation owner to working in cotton fields to feed her family, Scarlett O'Hara is a woman who can deal with a nation at war and the Union Army destroying everything she has known. Her world has been transformed by the Civil War, but there is one thing in her life that has not changed - the mysterious, roguish man named Rhett Butler.
Key Themes:
war 🇺🇸
romance ❤️
survival/perseverance ✊
self-actualisation 💁♀️
Rating:
✘ extreme political ideals 💀
✘ sexual references
♛ Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 1937
• moderately complex language
⚠ Gone With the Wind is recommended to Year 10+.
SAC's Sassy Sidenote:
Although it is quite tempting to be distracted by the whirlwind that is Scarlet and Rhett’s romance, it is absolutely necessary for anyone reading this to realise the very pro-Confederate and pro-slavery attitude presented in the novel. The KKK is shown in a very biased manner and we would like to remind you that the political ideals in this novel are VERY wrong. For those of you interested in the historical aspects, please do your own research and read it for the romance, read with admiration for Scarlett’s struggle through and after the war, not for the intense patriotism.
10. The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood (dystopian)
Offred is a national resource. In the Republic of Gilead her viable ovaries make her a precious commodity, and the state allows her only one function: to breed. As a Handmaid she carries no name except her Master’s, for whose barren wife she must act as a surrogate. But Offred cannot help remembering details of her former life: her mother, her lover, her child, her real name, woman having jobs and being allowed to read, fun, ‘freedom’. Dissenters are supposed to end up either at the Wall, where they are hanged, or in the Colonies, to die a lingering death from radiation sickness. But the irrepressible Moira shows Offred that it is possible to cheat the system.
Key Themes:
religion ✞
misogyny 🤦♀️
tragedy 🎭
Rating:
✘ deaths
✘ graphic/disturbing themes
✘ explicit language
✘ explicit sexual content
♛ shortlisted for the 1986 Booker Prize
⚠ The Handmaid's Tale is recommended to Year 10+.
SAC's Sassy Sidenote:
The graphic novel adaptation is also available for borrow in Rennie Library. Here is an excerpt. (recommended to Year 10+)
Opinion Piece: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Also known by her initials AOC, Alexandria is an American politician serving as congresswoman for New York’s 14th district.
From bartender in the Bronx to one of the most influential representatives in the US government, we have witnessed the rise of a passionate, committed woman with a strong moral compass. She is unafraid to call out politicians and companies about their unethical and deceitful practices, and is always unapologetically blunt (and usually right!).
AOC prioritises key issues like criminal justice reform, economic inequality and gun control and healthcare, and has been vocal in the recent Israel-Palestine conflict about the US’s role in supplying weapons to the IDF. AOC has inspired a generation of young women and girls to follow their dreams and pursue a political career.
The look of "you gotta stop tampering with elections and respect users' privacy"
*sips nervously*