recommended summer reading

Aww! No TEDx Salem until Jan­u­ary? Don’t wor­ry, we have 10 books to get you ready for rev­o­lu­tion by win­ter.

TEDxSalem asked sto­ry­tellers and speak­ers to share their favorite read­ing based on this year’s theme: Rev­o­lu­tions. The beau­ty is that it can mean any­thing from a polit­i­cal upris­ing to rethink­ing pover­ty. Two read­ers rec­om­mend­ed books by an author renowned for spread­ing peace, a rev­o­lu­tion­ary idea indeed.

Check out their rec­om­men­da­tions, and feel free to share your own.

1.  The Hole in the Flag: A Roman­ian Exile’s Sto­ry of Return and Rev­o­lu­tion by Andrei Codres­cu.

Codres­cu tracks his jour­ney as a self-exiled Roman­ian liv­ing in New York back to Roma­nia just days before the 1989 rev­o­lu­tion. Roma­ni­ans from all walks of life came togeth­er and top­pled the Ceause­cu regime. Codres­cu is wit­ty, artic­u­late, sen­si­tive and exam­ines not only how the rev­o­lu­tion hap­pened but how Roma­nia found itself in a state where rev­o­lu­tion was absolute­ly nec­es­sary.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er Gina Ochsner, an award-win­ning author and writer in res­i­dence at Cor­ban Uni­ver­si­ty

2. The Pover­ty Indus­try: The Exploita­tion of America’s Most Vul­ner­a­ble Cit­i­zens by Daniel L. Hatch­er

Hatch­er sug­gests that the prob­lems plagu­ing pro­grams such as fos­ter care and Med­ic­aid are deep­er and more trou­bling than most real­ize. Hatch­er, is also a pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Baltimore’s School of Law. In today’s protests for #Black­Lives­Mat­ter most activists focus on the root caus­es of pover­ty and state-sanc­tioned dis­crim­i­na­tion.  This book seems to sup­port sev­er­al the­o­ries and expe­ri­ences of those most vul­ner­a­ble lead­ers on the front line.
Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er Ter­es­sa Raiford, a con­tem­po­rary civ­il rights leader and com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

It is a great dystopi­an sto­ry that blurs the lines of good guys and bad guys. It’s dis­turb­ing but also pret­ty real­is­tic in the sense that there’s a lot of nuance in the issues of our days. Even the peo­ple who appear to rep­re­sent you might have cyn­i­cal motives to attain pow­er. Also, Kat­niss Everdeen is a great, com­plex char­ac­ter who helps you under­stand post-trau­mat­ic stress.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem sto­ry­teller Saerom Yoo, an award-win­ning jour­nal­ist

 4. The Mind­ful­ness Rev­o­lu­tion: Lead­ing Psy­chol­o­gists, Sci­en­tists, Artists, and Med­i­ta­tion Teach­ers on the Pow­er of Mind­ful­ness in Dai­ly Life by Bar­ry Boyce

This is a col­lec­tion of essays on mind­ful­ness, explain­ing what it is as well as how and why we should prac­tice it in dai­ly life.

 5. The Art of Pow­er by Thich Nhat Hanh

This book does not men­tion rev­o­lu­tion, and yet it is about per­son­al pow­er and that is where the rev­o­lu­tion begins!

Num­ber 4 and 5 rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er Jer­ry Braza, For­mer pro­fes­sor, Bud­dhist teacher, author and con­sul­tant

 6. Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

Some­times a rev­o­lu­tion doesn’t erupt in a crash of mor­tar fire or artillery shells. Some­times it’s the qui­et shift­ing of every­thing inside a sin­gle per­son. This book was that rev­o­lu­tion for me. It’s where I final­ly under­stood that peace doesn’t come from the absence of suf­fer­ing, but in the face of it. Zen mas­ter Thich Nhat Hanh shares sim­ple ways to prac­tice mind­ful­ness in every­day life.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem sto­ry­teller Ste­fanie Knowl­ton, award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and bel­ly­dancer

7. Loop of Jade by Sarah Howe

Sev­er­al crit­ics have sug­gest­ed that Howe is rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing British poet­ry by includ­ing strong ele­ments from Chi­na (she has an Anglo-Chi­nese back­ground). The selec­tion of this book for the T.S. Eliot Prize ear­li­er this year has been chal­lenged by some in a male-dom­i­nat­ed estab­lish­ment. A num­ber of women (and men) have come to her defense in response. These gen­der dynam­ics, too, remind us of the rev­o­lu­tion with­in the lit­er­ary estab­lish­ment as more women join men as poets, crit­ics, and prizewin­ners as we gain more con­trol over our life choic­es.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er War­ren Bin­ford, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Law at Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty, Direc­tor of the Clin­i­cal Law Pro­gram

8. The Book of Float­ing: Explor­ing the Pri­vate Sea by Michael Hutchi­son

I have been inter­est­ed in sen­so­ry depri­va­tion tanks, (float­ing) for at least 5 years, but did­n’t try it until last fall just before my first 10-day silent med­i­ta­tion retreat. Float­ing takes away all of your sen­so­ry inputs and helps you focus your mind inward. When you’re float­ing in 800 to 1,000 pounds of Epsom salt and water that’s the same tem­per­a­ture as your body while in com­plete dark­ness, you quick­ly lose where you are in time and space. It sounds kind of woo woo, but it is tru­ly an amaz­ing and unique expe­ri­ence. This book talks about all the ben­e­fits float­ing has on your mind and body. It has a ton of sci­ence, too, so that helps legit­imize the woo-woo fac­tor. One float shop has opened in Salem this year and anoth­er is open­ing in August. It is def­i­nite­ly start­ing to become a rev­o­lu­tion!

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem co-cura­tor Bri­an Hart, half of the dynam­ic duo that brought TEDx to Salem

9. Jonathon Liv­ingston Seag­ull by Richard Bach

I believe that this book rev­o­lu­tion­izes the way we think. It encour­ages mankind to find a bet­ter world through knowl­edge. It teach­es us that it is impor­tant to pur­sue your pas­sion no mat­ter what, even if it makes you an out­cast. It is through this love of learn­ing and explo­ration that we reach enlight­en­ment and bet­ter under­stand who we are and what we are meant for. I rec­om­mend this book because it inspired me to think in dif­fer­ent ways to face the prob­lems I encounter.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er Megha Joshi, stu­dent and inven­tor

10. The Art of Ask­ing: How I learned to Stop Wor­ry­ing and Let Peo­ple Help by Aman­da Palmer

Aman­da Palmer is an incred­i­ble, cre­ative per­son and her book is just a small look into the life of an artist. Snip­pets of music fills the space between chap­ters and sto­ries in the audio book, mak­ing this more than just a “read­ing” expe­ri­ence. I found myself wak­ing ear­ly for my morn­ing walk and los­ing myself rapt in her words. I felt like she was speak­ing to me, singing for me, play­ing at me. There were days my walks went extra long just because I did­n’t want the book to stop, and when it came to the end, there was almost a sad­ness that it was over because it tru­ly was one of those moments you just want to go on for­ev­er.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem co-cura­tor Car­lee Wright, the oth­er half of the dynam­ic duo that brought TEDx to Salem

Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Read­ing

1 The Hole in the Flag: A Roman­ian Exile’s Sto­ry of Return and Rev­o­lu­tion by Andrei Codres­cu 2. The Pover­ty Indus­try: The Exploita­tion of America’s Most Vul­ner­a­ble Cit­i­zens by Daniel L. Hatch­er

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. The Mind­ful­ness Rev­o­lu­tion: Lead­ing Psy­chol­o­gists, Sci­en­tists, Artists, and Med­i­ta­tion Teach­ers on the Pow­er of Mind­ful­ness in Dai­ly Life by Bar­ry Boyce
5. The Art of Pow­er by Thich Nhat Hanh
6. Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
7. Loop of Jadeby Sarah Howe
8. The Book of Float­ing: Explor­ing the Pri­vate Sea by Michael Hutchi­son
9. Jonathon Liv­ingston Seag­ull by Richard Bach
10. The Art of Ask­ing: How I learned to Stop Wor­ry­ing and Let Peo­ple Help by Aman­da Palmer

TEDxSalem

TEDxSalem will be held Jan. 7, 2017 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Dis­count­ed advance tick­ets go on sale Sun­day, Aug. 7, 2016. Reg­u­lar tick­et prices begin Aug. 21.. Watch the blog for details. E‑mail partners@tedxsalem.us to learn about spon­sor­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties or Mindie@tedxsalem.us to vol­un­teer.

What is TEDx

About TEDx, x = inde­pen­dent­ly orga­nized event

In the spir­it of ideas worth spread­ing, TEDx is a pro­gram of local, self-orga­nized events that bring peo­ple togeth­er to share a TED-like expe­ri­ence. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speak­ers com­bine to spark deep dis­cus­sion and con­nec­tion in a small group. These local, self-orga­nized events are brand­ed TEDx, where x = inde­pen­dent­ly orga­nized TED event. The TED Con­fer­ence pro­vides gen­er­al guid­ance for the TEDx pro­gram, but indi­vid­ual TEDx events are self-orga­nized. (Sub­ject to cer­tain rules and reg­u­la­tions.)