The books listed here are broken down by category. There's a link to Libby below so you can check out the physical, audio, or downloadable file from your local library as well as Bookshop.org which supports independent bookstores worldwide!
Libby
Instant Digital Library Card
Whether you have multiple library cards or need one, Libby gets you started borrowing for both in person and digital library books.
Bookshop.org
Support Indie bookshops around the world!
Non-Fiction Community Organizing/Disability/Social Justice
brown, adrienne marie. (2017).Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. Chico, CA: AK PRESS.
Emergent Strategy is in many ways a community social justice primer. Throughout the book, brown calls on community action and engagement to herald and strengthen ties to social justice and includes lists, charts, and various strategizing methods to give anyone who wants to begin or enhance social justices causes on a personal, local, or greater community scale.
Invalid, Sins. (2017). Skin, Tooth, and Bone - The Basis of Movement is Our People: A Disability Justice Primer.
There are disability rights, but now there is also disability justice. In this ground zero book, Berne and others highlight the differences between rights and justice, especially for queer, black and brown disabled communities. As the name suggests, disability justice takes much of its philosophy from more grassroots social justice movements, but disability rights are not diametrically opposed. Rather there is a call to incorporate more voices and experiences than just the standard ‘default’ ‘white, cis, straight male’. By envisioning a more intersectional movement, Sins Invalid is calling for a reckoning for how communities and individual’s experiences can be better served through on the ground engagement and not just litigation.
Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. L. (2018). Care work: Dreaming disability justice. Vancouver: Arsenal Press.
As the name suggests, this book is about care, and how it works and is work for anyone with a disability. Piepzna outlines the ways in which the medical industrial complex can fail or be prohibitive to those who need care, and offers instead ways that we can all take care of each other. They bring out the idea of carewebs—networks of friends and family, even strangers who can help out when needed. By bridging the gaps that are left from a more punative system Piepzna illustrates the ways in which care can manifest and thrive.
Kafai, S. (2021). Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid. Vancouver: Arsenal Press.
Set up as a primer and love letter to Sins Invalid, Kafai interviews the founders of Sins Invalid and countless others to explore the ways in which Sins Invalid live its values and speak directly to the ten tenents of Disability Justice as explored in Skin, Tooth, and Bone (2017). It is especially bittersweet to read the words of Patty Berne, rest in power, who died in May 2025. The crip ancestors have gained what we have lost. If you are unfamiliar with the idea of crip ancestors, it is the notion that anyone who has fought, taught, spoken about disability justice and our right to exist, has now become our ancestor to honor and whose name and work continues with those of us who are still on this side of the earth. A wonderful, human book about the ways art and community help us thrive.
Non-Fiction Disability History
Catapano, P., & Garland-Thomson, R. (2019). About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times. Liveright Publishing.
As the title outlines, these essays are collected from the New York Times column that invited different disabled voices to share experiences and challenges. The column itself had some detractors as there was not always context given to what the topics were, and how they were relevant to readers who may not have any experience with disability or the topics presented. Nevertheless, these essays offer insight and food for thought about disability history, lived experience, and human rights.
Shapiro, Joseph P. (1993). No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.
One of the foundational texts of disability studies, Shapiro chronicles the ups and downs of the struggles and formulation of the passages of Section 504, IDEA and the ADA. He highlights many of the cases and situations that make up the history of disability in the United States, most notably perhaps Buck v. Bell and much like Geraldo Rivera’s expose on Willowbrook, takes the part of advocate and herald for the existence of and rights of the disabled. A unique account perhaps because it is so freshly written on the heels of the passage of the ADA, many of the issues and viewpoints Shapiro includes can feel in the present day to be of a bygone era. Nevertheless, the accounts herein are of value to understand how far the disability movement has come.
Mattlin, Ben. (2022). Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World. Boston: Beacon Press.
In Disability Pride, Mattlin takes a look back at where we started, or perhaps, where Shapiro left off, and the real work of the ADA began. It is an essential read to understand how much has been acheived and what is still at stake when it comes to both disability rights and how disability justice and disability pride are integral to that continued work. The idea in itself of disability pride is something that the ADA made possible. Rights regarding personhood gives us more space to exist and take others to task for not meeting our needs. Unlike Shapiro's work that, while called No Pity definitely highlighted the lens of pity in terms of how society viewed disability, Mattlin shows us a different perspective that disability is part of the fabric of what makes us human, whether you have a disability or not, disability has been and is something worth celebrating. He also outlines the work still to be done and the ways in which the ADA itself is still not enough. It also has an extensive note section so if there are sections or anything that piques your interest, he has you covered for more resources to explore.
Non-Fiction Covid
Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. L. (2022). The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press.
This is a book about Covid, about the changing, shifting, real-time landscape of what it means to be disabled, in need, in loss, with a global pandemic that was not handled to minimize damage, but instead to maximize profit for those who would get better at the expense of those who were written off as loss. Piepzna is angry, and scared, and vulnerable, but still persists in outlining the ways that disabled communities can thrive and how the resilience of disabled communities can pave the way for how anyone newly disabled or finding themselves suddenly thrown into the ‘disabled’ pit can draw strength and understanding from their circumstances.
Ed. Smith, T. K., & Freeman, J. (2021). There’s a revolution outside, my love : letters from a crisis. Vintage Books, A Division Of Penguin Random House, Llc.
Published in concurrent response to Covid at its height, these collected essays and poems bring together a myriad of voices from different marginalized communities to address the personal fears and determinations to fight for social justice in the midst of real-time chaos. Covid as a mass disabling event is front and center, but the contributors are not all disabled themselves, rather the essays and poems collected speak to how disability functions not just on a personal level, but on a social scale, and how the essayists respond to this new perspective.
Ed. Chung, Nicole and Ortile, Matt.(2022). Body Language: Writers on Identity, Physicality, and Making Space for Ourselves. New York, NY: Catapult.
Not every story in this book is about Covid. Not every essay is about, by, or centered on disability in this collection. Despite this, Catapult's book collection of essays from their online magazine has a place among this archive because each one is grappling with what it means to be human and live bodily in the world. One of the interesting parts of this collection is how many of the narratives highlight internalized ableism without necessarily addressing it. In other words, some of the issues raised are issues in part because of the prevalence of ableism as a standard so that the author feels a lack or challenge to their autonomy that is based on this standard, rather than their own needs. When we talk about ableism (and especially in conjunction with Covid), there can often be a disconnect between our own needs and the 'needs' of society that we must 'earn' our place in. It's easy to say ableism is bad, it is harder to acknowledge and address how internalized ableism affects us and our perceptions of ourselves and others. The more perspectives we encounter and stories we tell, the more we can shed socially imposed narratives that no longer serve us.
Non-Fiction Politics/Academic Theory/Education
Dolmage, Jay. (2017) Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Dolmage is relentless in this polemic against the foundations of academic institutions into the present day. Piece by piece and angle by angle he delves in to the eugenic foundations of ‘institutions’, how they were often paired with nearby medical ‘institutions’ in order to supply a stream of subjects for doctors and professors, and even looks at the physical spaces to expose the very physical barriers created by the buildings themselves. He then turns his attention to curriculums, student populations, faculty and reputation to expose all the ways in which ableism is not just a casual byproduct, but a manufactured and perpetual product of the academy.
Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist Queer Crip. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
The intersection of feminist, queer, and disability studies meet in Kafer’s book that calls for a much more considered understanding of how these lens can not only work together, but also inform each other. Rather than silo theory and practice between these groups, she interrogates how the frameworks of feminism and queer theory are steeped in an otherness that disability studies or ‘crip’ studies as she coins them needs to acknowledge and incorporate. Disability studies are and can be academic, crip studies are and can be raw and human and accessible in a way that more reflects the needs and challenges of the disabled community.
Russell, Marta. Ed. Rosenthal, Keith.(2019) Capitalism and Disability. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.
In these selected essays, Russell is ruthless in the pursuit of exposing the systemic underpinnings and mechanisms of capitalism and how it thrives off the existence of disability as both a control and lever of oppression. Most damning perhaps are the essays which pick apart the rulings of certain Supreme Court cases and shows again and again that even the most liberal of judges will side with corporate interests. Russell calls for a reckoning and each essay is incredibly persuasive in making even the staunchest capitalist pause.
Shew, Ashley.(2024) Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement.New York, NY. W.W. Norton and Company.
In this honest, funny, and frank Norton Short, Shew, a professor of science, technology and society at Virginia Tech, challenges how we think of technology and how it relates to function and ability. You would be forgiven for thinking that the subject might be about the companies who profit off of disabled communities, or even a polemic about the pitfalls of trusting technology to be better than a human. Instead this book is focused on how to re-center disabled lived experience as a driver and consideration for how technology works *for* us and what we need rather than adapt to technologies that are made, marketed and designed by those who are removed from the daily needs of the technology they promote. And that's just the start. It's also worth mentioning (as she does in the intro) that there is a shirt born out of conversations she had online 'Make It Accessible Or Burn It Down' which is available on Teepublic Make It Accessible Or Burn It Down Which is just fun. The point is: Read. This. Book.
Puar, J.K.(2017) The Right to Maim. Durham, North Carolina:Duke University Press.
There is no getting around that this book is a hard, visceral read. But it is also extremely relevant (unfortunately) in our wider political moment. In this academic polemic Puar coins the term 'debility' which is defined as bodily injury and social exclusion brought on by economic and political factors. Puar also examines how this concept relates to the Israeli/ Palestine conflict. Keep in mind, this book was published in 2017 so is not current in terms of exactly what is happening now, but the analysis and relevance of precedent is clear. In true academic fashion, almost a quarter of the book is detailed notes, so if this is something you have more interest in there is plenty of research to explore. Pace yourself with this one, but it is worth the read.
Non-Fiction Memoir
Alshammari, Shahd. (2023). Head above Water. Feminist Press at CUNY.
A memoir of discovery and coming into one’s own, this beautifully written narrative handles how Alshammari reaches her goal of being a professor in spite of cultural pressure to the contrary, only to begin noticing changes with her body. Diagnosed with MS, she then has to navigate how to advocate and take care of her ever-shifting needs, whilst still teaching her students and guiding them through their own hopes and dreams.
Clare, E. (2017). Brilliant imperfection: Grappling with cure. Durham, North Carolina:
Duke University Press.
In this memoir cum poetry book, Clare talks about their life on a personal but also macro level. They use the framework of cure, delving into the various ways that society sets cure as a goal for almost any ill, and break down every way in which cure, while posited hopefully by those who don’t need one, can be a form of control and a leveraging of power to make the ‘uncurable’ or ‘sick’ feel subhuman without one. Interspersed with this polemic against cure culture are interludes of poetry written by Clare that relate back to nature which is used as a thematic metaphor in Clare’s life as a grounding place away from societal pressures. Clare also highlights the contradiction of cure insofar as chronic pain and illness can be overwhelming and even knowing the toxic positivity of cure culture, the desire to be free from pain or restraint can still exist.
Heumann, Judy. (2020) Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist. Boston, MA: Beacon Press
As the ‘godmother’ of the disability rights movement, perhaps no one is as deservedly feted as Judy Heumann. Her memoirs treads much of the by now familiar ground of the fight for disability rights, but she also talks about her childhood and her formative years at Camp Jened that helped her prepare for the Section 504 sit-ins and beyond. Her direct involvement in both the Clinton and Obama administrations in helping shape IDEA for education of disabled children, and her advocacy work with the United Nations and beyond, her life reads like a fairy tale of a social justice warrior whose cause was just, and whose poise and candor helped shape much of the current disability rights policies for the last thirty odd years.
ed.Wong, A. (2024). Disability Intimacy. Vintage.
Following the success of Disability Visibility (2020) in which Alice Wong compiled essays from contributors of her podcast of the same name to speak about various ways disability shapes the narrative of their lives, this new collection speaks to the more ‘taboo’ subject of intimacy and what being intimate means to the essayist. From sex, to kink, to the closeness of human touch without fear, and most importantly the bonds people share,these essays reveal how disability as capable of being/having/craving intimacy rather than anathema or taboo, are joyful, heartbreaking and human, just like anyone else.
Wong, A. (2022). Year of the Tiger. Vintage.
After so many years of championing the voices of others, Alice Wong finally writes her own story and shares how she has struggled and thrived through the years. She covers not only her upbringing, but also the circumstances and people she has met along the way who helped shape her advocacy and outlook. Throughout the narrative she uses the motif of the year of the tiger, the Chinese horoscope under which she was born. A tiger is a symbol of strength and power, but it is also one of pack and family. She demonstrates again and again, how it takes friends and family, as well as her own determination to keep persisting and existing, in a society that continually says she should not.
Non-Fiction Recovery/Healing
brown, adrienne marie. (2024). Loving Corrections. Emergent Strategy.
These essays handle topics such as racism, disability, and family, with a lens to view how we can have difficult conversations and be held accountable when we’ve caused harm or have hurt/been hurt by someone we know and care for.brown offers both personal experience and invites others to share how they have handled difficult situations where a relationship was worth saving, or worth ending to save oneself. How we engage with personal responsibility and accountability to others matters when we are trying to advocate and create change for something more than the status quo.
Dunn, L., & Gilbert, Z. (2021). A Wild and Precious Life. Unbound Publishing.
These contributions by mostly British writers address the challenges and circumstances of recovery and addiction specifically through the lens of writing. Poems, short stories, and essays blend with both being subject and inspiration for what writing while addicted/in recovery can look like, and how it affects the types of stories one writes. They also explore how writing can become expression of the desire that creates the addiction/drive the understanding of how they can recover.
HASSAN, S. (2022). SAVING OUR OWN LIVES : a liberatory practice of harm reduction. HAYMARKET BOOKS.
Harm reduction as a practice has had many layers of stigma attached to it. The stereotype of recovery/addict cycle or the twelve step program and relapse is not only reinforced as othering in society, but reified in mass media. In this remarkable book, Hassan shows how harm reduction from an inside perspective, of those who have been addicted/are addicted/need social supports can create systems that prioritize themselves rather than the current model of shame-based services. Similar but different to CareWork the idea of community led programs and advocacy is posited not only as a more socially positive approach, but also a more generative one. Using their own experience as an example, they guide the reader through how recovery and relapse do not need to be a vicious cycle.
Raffo, S. (2022). Liberated To the Bone. AK Press.
Susan Raffo is a bodyworker, but more than that she is a practitioner of community care. In this book she outlines not just how the body remembers trauma, but how the body remembers healing, and the ways in which how we practice care for ourselves and each other we generate more care. Using a community-based crisis response, where pain and healing have collective, not just individual consequence, can help re-contextualize how the concepts of pain and suffering v. wellness and thriving are not mutually exclusive opposing ideas. If we care for our communities and our past as well as our collective future, Raffo argues we will be able to benefit each other by our mutual support and intention.
Non-Fiction Storytelling
Fletcher, A. (2021). Wonderworks. Simon and Schuster.
In this interconnected work, Fletcher takes us through how different stories use frameworks and methods to prime our minds as readers to be receptive to the type of story we are being told. Whether it’s Edgar Allan Poe teaching us how to identify a mystery so we can sleuth our way through the story, or George Orwell helping us to understand how to identify propaganda, or Virginia Woolf calming us with the way she crafts a sentence, stories, Fletcher shows us, are more than just what we read. A fascinating understanding of the science of storytelling, this book is important as a guide to how we can use stories to create empathy and perspective shifts.
LeDuc, A. (2020). Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space.Toronto.Coach House Books.
Fairy Tales are everywhere in our cultures. Whether as cautionary tales, or dreams of what could be, the allure of make believe, especially the Disney version, is both simple and enduring. But who is a fairy tale for, and what does it mean if you see yourself as the monster if the 'monster' is disfigured, or otherwise shunned by the 'good townsfolk' or 'hero/ine'? Amanda LeDuc explores these themes in more, asking us to challenge and examine what it means to not have fairy tales of our own, and how to reclaim the narrative to be able to tell more inclusive stories, and re-evaluate what makes a vilian that is not solely based on deformity of difference from social 'norms'.