Manda Scott's Annual Picks: Best Books, Poetry & Podcasts

Annual Recommendations Overview

• 💡 Manda Scott presents her annual selection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, podcasts, and a magazine that stood out to her throughout the year.
• 🎯 The goal is to recommend items that can shape a future to be proud of and serve as thoughtful gifts.

Engaging Fiction Selections

• 📚 Recommended authors include Rachel Neumeier (Tuyo series, Eight Doors from Dawn to Midnight), praised for prolific self-publishing and emotional literacy.
• ✨ Natasha Pulley's The Hymn to Dionysus is highlighted for its genius-level writing and beautiful narrative, despite initial reservations about Greek myth retellings.
• 📖 Other notable fiction includes Antonia Hodgson's The Raven Scholar, Katherine Addison's The Tomb of Dragons (part of the Cemeteries of Amalo series), and Amal El-Mohtar's The River Has Roots, celebrated for its language and myth-making.
• 🚀 Additional mentions are Wild Folk by Jacqui Morris and Tamsin Abbott, Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan, and Becky Chambers' A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.

Powerful Poetry

• ⚡ Andrea Gibson's You Better Be Lightning is recommended for its moving poetry, with emphasis on performance poetry and profound language.
• 🗺️ Joy Harjo's A Map to the Next World is presented as language that helps shift perspectives, with Harjo being the 23rd US Poet Laureate and first of the first peoples.

Transformative Non-Fiction

• 🧠 Protocols for Post Capitalist Expression by the Economic Space Agency is noted as a cutting-edge work for moving beyond predatory capitalism.
• 🌱 Releasing Our Burdens by Richard Schwartz and Thomas Hübl combines Internal Family Systems (IFS) with presencing to heal individual, ancestral, and collective trauma.
• 🌍 The Nature Embedded Mind by Julie Brahms and Co-creating with a Living Intelligent Earth by Justine Afra Huxley and Anna Kovasna are suggested for connecting with the more-than-human world and fostering kincentric leadership.
• ⚠️ If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares is deemed essential reading for its case against superintelligent AI.

Insightful Podcasts & Magazine

• 🎙️ Podcasts like Nate Hagens' The Great Simplification and Your Undivided Attention delve into the dangers of superintelligent AI, prompting critical thought on Silicon Valley perspectives.
• ✅ Other recommended podcasts include Upstream (Doughnut 3.0), Point of Relation (Becoming an Ally of Life), Love and Philosophy and Future Learning Design (education-focused), and Step Outside, Stand Still for daily reflection.
• 🌿 Permaculture Magazine is highlighted as a beautiful and insightful resource for articles on community, social technologies, and sustainable living.