A peek at the bookshelves of SciComm Collective

It’s our second curated reading list!

by Michelle Shen

Graphic by Elena YH Lin

Image Description: An illustrated vase of purple and pink tulips is accompanied by two books.

“How do you make sure that the books you choose to read are books that you will like?” This was a rather simple question that was posed to me a couple of weeks ago, to which I replied just as simply, “I don’t.” And I’m sure you can sympathize with that frustration too. There is no shortage of places where you can go to seek a new book recommendation (think BookTok, Goodreads, the New York Times Best Seller list, your classmate or colleague, your local librarian). What there is a shortage of, however, are spot-on book recommendations that suit your taste and your need exactly, which, unfortunately, makes the hobby of reading more of a process of trial and error.

It was around this time last year that our team put together a reading list for our SciComm Collective blog. I have personally sampled quite a few of the books read and recommended by my team members, and honestly, I liked them! All this to say, our team has pretty good taste, and so it is with confidence that I present to you our second compilation of What has SciComm Collective been reading lately?

For an experience of someone else’s reality…

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

Major themes in Habib’s memoir include faith, love, art, family, and forgiveness, and finding spaces where one can fit in truly and wholly. Habib’s memoir will likely resonate with anyone who shares identities or experiences with them: those who are queer, Muslim, but also those who are immigrants, artists, writers, and/or activists. And even if you don’t think you wear any of those hats, Habib’s writing is soothing and beautiful, and I am sure you will leave with some new thoughts and ideas.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Despite being a work of fiction, Real Life retells the happenings of a weekend for one graduate student — Wallace, an introverted, gay, Black man enrolled in a PhD program in a Midwestern American town — with the tenderness and complexity of, well, a snapshot of real life. This novel is an apt reminder that authentic, albeit fictitious, characters have much to reveal to us about the realities experienced by others too.

For something fun and maybe a little offbeat…

Sourdough by Robin Sloan

Sourdough tells a story about start-up culture, both the tech kind and the bread kind. With its satirical and eccentric flair, this novel is charming and entertaining, and may leave you with a desire to bake your own sourdough too.

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

The premise of the novel is a little out there (what happens when two contemporary novelists meet and have a couple of drinks, one dies in a freak accident, and then the other decides to steal the former’s latest, yet-to-be revealed manuscript and pass it off as her own work?) But in telling this story, Kuang makes more than a few pointed commentaries about the publishing industry, diversity initiatives, and the echo chambers of the internet. It’s fun, it’s timely, and oh, it is wild.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry follows the life of Elizabeth Zott, a chemist in the early 1960s, who has a lot of difficulty securing a job that matches her training (largely owing to her being a woman and the sexist attitudes of the time). While the novel does have a lot to say about sexism and feminism, I find that the best qualities of the novel are its personality and humour instead. While I would advise against taking the novel’s depiction of a woman in STEM seriously (the singular attention that Zott pays to her identity as a chemist is pretty much unheard of in reality), the novel’s depiction of her eternally loyal dog, Six-Thirty, is pretty much perfect.

For a little more substance…

Complaint! by Sara Ahmed

A couple of our earlier reads have already touched on the strange setting that is academia, and the more insidious things that can happen there. In Complaint!, Ahmed draws on the true stories of academics and students who have made complaints to higher authorities about inequality, workplace harassment, and bullying. Ahmed examines how power dynamics operate in academic institutions, and how these processes of accountability are meant to work and how they often actually work. While this is not a casual read by any means, it is meditative, insightful, and it offers direction on how we can rise as a collective against those in power.

Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood by Satya Doyle Byock

At one point or another, some of us may find ourselves caught at a stage in life, somewhere between “who I was” and “who I want to become”. We might feel stuck, or hesitant, or frustrated even. For those of us in these kinds of situations, Quarterlife offers compassion and guidance without the nagging sense of feeling prescriptive. If you find yourself faced with the daunting task of unpacking your relationships, expectations, dreams, and purposes, this book may be a worthwhile companion for you.