This was probably one of the first books to specifically connect Witchcraft and Shamanism in a practical way for me. Witchcraft Today Book Three edited by Chas S. Clifton opened the door, but Johnson told you how to deftly step through it. Previously called The North Star Road, he linked stellar knowledge of European Paganism with its spirit worker roots and gave you very practical and meaningful ways to commune with the powers and understand more deeply the Witch’s sabbat, the wild hunt and the journey of life after death. Huge influence on my work. 

This book is about a young mother who takes her two daughters to Marrakech, Morocco in the 1960s so she can study Sufism, which, although not technically a “cult” does seem rather cult-like when described from the point of view of a five-year-old child who is watching her mother do strange ritual spinning to try to annihilate her ego.

You might remember the 1998 movie adaptation of this book starring Kate Winslet, but I think the book is better because of its dreamy, almost other-worldly descriptions of street life in Marrakech. This gem of a book is steeped in childlike wonder and longing and it will be over far too soon.

It’s impossible to understand the turbulence that frequently swept over Florence in those years without some sense of what the magnate class was all about: its pride and its violence, its lawlessness, its emphasis on knighthood, and its private military forces. Lansing shows how the magnate class evolved as a distinctive culture, becoming powerful and disruptive to the city’s peace well beyond even what its considerable economic clout would suggest. She places a lot of emphasis on the role of women among the magnates, even though women could never be full members of the lineage, since they married into other lineages. Lively and readable, with lots of stories of interesting individuals.

Born in 1956, I was formed in the 1970s. After the liberations of the '60s, the 70s saw clusters of people seeking new ways of living together beyond the nuclear family. One such endeavor is the commune at the heart of Devoured, in which Anna Mackmin encapsulates, dissects, and dismantles the secular dreams of a generation in a way I found breathtaking.

Bo, the teen narrator, pinpoints the absurdities of her self-deluded parents, useless poets, and unsavory predators wallowing in the commune's laxity.

Her voice, present tense of hiccupping inventiveness – interspersed with recipes by Bo and her mute younger sister, Star - is solemn yet funny, naïve yet weirdly wise.

A wonderful book. I read it and felt an entire layer of my youth had been laid to rest.

This is a one-of-a-kind novel by two authors who are also members of “Team Utopia.”

The entire novel is told from “interviews” of people who participated in the complete revolution across our planet, from the liberation of Palestine to the foundation of the New York City Commune. While not exclusively a climate novel, the book depicts the total transformation of society and the economy over the largest hurdles that we face today, of which the climate crisis plays an oversized role.

I was super excited to find this book because it depicts not only the “utopia” that exists in the near future, but shows how people fought and organized to build that utopia. I tried to do the same thing with my book, offering a sort of utopian blueprint for my wildest dreams. 

Joshua is another author with multiple series, but Commune is a standout piece of literature. His style is subtle and suggestive, making the reader pay attention so they don’t miss the nuances and the snippets of backstory. That said, his action sequences are fast and brutal with a realism that hits home. The humour of the characters throughout is so genuine it’s a stroke of brilliance.

Full disclosure – I loved this series so much I’m writing more Commune with him!

In the third novel of Zola’s twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart, a man named Florent, accused of a crime he didn’t commit, escapes to Paris and becomes a fish inspector at the Les Halles market. Food and politics collide in the heart of the market, giving the reader some of the most vivid and delicious descriptions you’ll ever find on the page.

This is an eye-witness account of the French Revolution of 1848 by a major participant. It offers a fascinating, acerbic picture of the major actors, the revolutionary “days,” and Tocqueville’s unhappy experience as Foreign Minister. It vividly conveys a sense of both the fears of the propertied classes and the limitations of radicals who could only play at revolution, mimicking the roles and gestures of 1789-’94.

But what I find most compelling is Tocqueville’s preoccupation with questions that are central to our understanding of the failures of democratic politics, then and now. How is it that in the space of two generations, democratic revolutions twice culminated in Napoleonic dictatorship? Why do so many democratic governments, including ours, appear to be moving in the same direction now? 

I get professional envy every time I read one of Daniel Gavron’s vivid collections of literary journalism. He is such an attentive observer and compassionate interviewer, and the conversations he preserves on every page bring a diverse range of Israelis to life in all their hopes and fears.

Published at the turn of the millennium, this book is a classic of kibbutz history in which Gavron, a former kibbutznik, travels to communities in various stages of decline or revival. His book inspired my own return to Israel to discover more about the uncertain future of Israel’s utopian movement. I can’t thank him enough for that.

This heavy, sardonic novel about a commune of hippies whose utopian dream is rapidly fraying kept me totally compelled and frequently laughing all the way through.

They find land in Alaska and try to move their scene to the great North, but the realities of weather and wilderness don’t conform to their plans.