Good Trouble in Every Chapter

By:
Marialuisa Monda

These days seem uncertain and scary. We got you.  

Here’s a collection of powerful reads that celebrate those who’ve dared to speak up, stand out, and push for change. These stories, some true and others imagined (plus a handful in-between) highlight trailblazers, rebels, and everyday people who chose courage over comfort. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, perspective, or a spark to act, these books remind us that “good trouble” can shape a better world. 

Here’s to voices that challenge, uplift, and lead the way. 

This was supposed to be a short list, but there are so many reads that have given hope, comfort, and security during these days! After all, books have always been patient companions.

Cover of FRED KOREMATSU SPEAKS UP

The Moon That Turns You Back | Hala Alyan  

Speak | Laurie Halse Anderson 
Here's the graphic novel adaption. 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | Maya Angelou 

Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis | Jabari Asim; illustrated by E.B. Lewis  

Fred Korematsu Speaks Up | Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi; illustrations by Yutaka Houlette 

The Annotated Pride & Prejudice | Jane Austen; annotated and edited, with an introduction, by David M. Shapard

Cover of NOISEMAKERS

Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World | Pénélope Bagieu; English translation by Montana Kane 

Fearless And Free: A Memoir | Josephine Baker; translated from the French by Anam Zafar and Sophie Lewis; foreword by Ijeoma Oluo 

The Personal Librarian | Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray  

The Dark Night of Resistance | Daniel Berrigan 

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis |Jonathan Blitzer  

A Bear Called Paddington | Michael Bond; with drawings by Peggy Fortnum 
CD also available

Noisemakers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices & Changed the World: A Graphic Collection From Kazoo | Erin Bried, Editor in Chief Kazoo Magazine 

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World | His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with Douglas Abrams 

Cover of a boxed set of the HUNGER GAMES books by Suzanne Collins

The Uses of Literature: Essays | Italo Calvino; translated by Patrick Creagh 

Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales | edited by Angela Carter; illustrated by Corinna Sargood; afterword by Marina Warner 

All Because You Matter | Tami Charles; illustrated by Caldecott Honor winner Bryan Collier 

Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian's Legacy | edited by Erica Ciallela and Philip S. Palmer; foreword by Colin B. Bailey; afterword by Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty; essays by Julia S. Charles-Linen, Erica Ciallela, Rhonda Evans, Anne-Marie Eze, Daria Rose Foner, Gail Levin, Philip S. Palmer, Deborah Parker, Deborah Willis 

Let the Children March | Monica Clark-Robinson; illustrated by Frank Morrison 

Between the World and Me | Ta-Nehisi Coates 
E-book included here. 

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream | Paulo Coelho; translated by Alan R. Clarke 

The Hunger Games series  | Suzanne Collins  
This includes audio and e-book platforms. 

The Power of One | Bryce Courtenay 

Cover of PLANTING STORIES

Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work | Edwidge Danticat 

We Still Belong | Christine Day 

Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré | Anika Aldamuy Denise; illustrations by Paola Escobar 

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This | Omar El Akkad  
Ebook included too.

Cover of BETWEEN TWO MOONS by Aisha Abdel Gawad

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music | poem by Margarita Engle; illustrations by Rafael López 

Future Home of the Living God: A Novel | Louise Erdrich 

The Diary of a Young Girl | Anne Frank; translated from the Dutch by B.M. Mooyaart-Doubleday; with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt 

Between Two Moons: A Novel | Aisha Abdel Gawad 

The Book Of Delights | Ross Gay 

As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, From Colonization to Standing Rock | Dina Gilio-Whitaker 

Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America's First Bookmobile | Sharlee Glenn 

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times | Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams with Gail Hudson

Cover of THAT LIBRARIAN by Amanda Jones

The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway 

The Book of Unknown Americans | Cristina Henríquez 

Harlem Grown and Saturdays at Harlem Grown | Tony Hillery; illustrated by Jessie Hartland 

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning | Cathy Park Hong 

All About Love: New Visions | bell hooks 

The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever | H. Joseph Hopkins; illustrated by Jill McElmurry 

Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art | Lewis Hyde 

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America | Amanda Jones 

Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked The Civil Rights Movement | Angela Joy; illustrated by Janelle Washington 

The Phantom Tollbooth | Norton Juster; illustrated by Jules Feiffer
Audiobook and ebook included. 

Cover of GENDER QUEER by Maia Kobabe

Call Us What We Carry: Poems | Amanda Gorman  
Read her other work here, including picture books! 

Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts Of People Who Think In Pictures, Patterns, And Abstractions | Temple Grandin; with Betsy Lerner 

In Search of a Beautiful Freedom: New And Selected Essays | Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin  
Bonus read: Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life And Literature 

The Humans: A Novel | Matt Haig 

A Story, A Story: An African Tale | retold and illustrated by Gail E. Haley 

The Girl Who Spun Gold | Virginia Hamilton; illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon 

Poet Warrior: A Memoir | Joy Harjo 

The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State In Central-Eastern Europe | Václav Havel, et al.; introduction by Steven Lukes; edited by John Keane 

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants | Robin Wall Kimmerer  
There's a YA edition here too. 

Annie John | Jamaica Kincaid 

Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community? | Martin Luther King Jr. 
More of his work here

Gender Queer: A Memoir | Maia Kobabe; colors by Phoebe Kobabe 

Yellowface: A Novel | R.F. Kuang  
E-book included here too. 

Cover of Nelson Mandela's LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness | Tony Kushner

A World Of Fairy Tales | retold by Andrew Lang; illustrated by Henry Justice Ford; selected and introduced by Neil Philip 

Pachinko | Min Jin Lee 
E-book included here too. 

My favorite book from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | C.S. Lewis; illustrated by Pauline Baynes 

Carry On: Reflections For A New Generation | John Lewis with Kabir Sehgal; foreword by Ambassador Andrew Young 
You can read more here. 

We Are Water Protectors | Carole Lindstrom; illustrated by Michaela Goade 

Julián Is A Mermaid | Jessica Love 

My three picks by the beloved anti-apartheid activist and politician Nelson Mandela: Conversations With Myself (foreword by Barack Obama),  Favorite African Folktales, and Long Walk To Freedom

Life of Pi: A Novel | Yann Martel  
CD is available here

My Friends: A Novel | Hisham Matar 

Complete Poems | Claude McKay; edited and with an introduction by William J. Maxwell 

Cover of OUTFOXING FEAR

My Mother Goose: A Collection of Favorite Rhymes, Songs, and Concepts | David McPhail 

CURLFRIENDS: New In Town | Sharee Miller; coloring by Luke Healy 

The House At Pooh Corner | A.A. Milne; decorations by Ernest H. Shepard 

Like a Love Story | Abdi Nazemian

Good Trouble: Lessons from the Civil Rights Playbook | Christopher Noxon 

House of Light | Mary Oliver 

Homage To Catalonia | George Orwell 

The Overstory: A Novel | Richard Powers 

Ishmael | Daniel Quinn 

Outfoxing Fear: Folktales from Around the World | edited by Kathleen Ragan; with an introduction by Jack Zipes) and read about Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters from around the world!  

Rick Riordan's books, especially the Percy Jackson series. 

Cover of Timothy Snyder's ON TYRANNY

A Girl's Guide to Love & Magic | Debbie Rigaud 

Fred Rogers: The Last Interview and Other Conversations | Fred Rogers; with an introduction by David Bianculli 

A Harvest of World Folk Tales | edited by Milton Rugoff; with illustrations & decorations by Joseph Low 

Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 | Sarah Schulman
also available as an e-book

Not Quite Narwhal | Jessie Sima 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: A Novel | Betty Smith 

If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World's People | David J. Smith; illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong 

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century | Timothy Snyder 

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption | Bryan Stevenson 

Cover of THE JOY LUCK CLUB by Amy Tan

This Time Will Be Different | Misa Sugiura 

The Joy Luck Club | Amy Tan 
Large print available. 

Finding My Dance | Ria Thundercloud; illustrated by Kalila J. Fuller 

They Called Us Enemy | George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott; art by Harmony Becker 

The Heroine With 1,001 Faces | Maria Tatar 

The Hate U Give | Angie Thomas
E-books and audiobooks included. 

Death Of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America |  Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson 

Anything by J.R.R. Tolkien (after all, he's my favorite writer) 

The Color Purple | Alice Walker
Large print is available. 

The NIGHT trilogy by Elie Wiesel

Other Words for Home | Jasmine Warga 

Charlotte's Web | E.B. White; pictures by Garth Williams 
Audiobook here

The Night Trilogy | Elie Wiesel 

Mumbet's Declaration of Independence | Gretchen Woelfle; Illustrated by Alix Delinois 

The World Belonged To Us | Jacqueline Woodson; illustrated by Leo Espinosa 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: A Novel | Satoshi Yagisawa; translated from the Japanese by Eric Ozawa 
Sequel here

Favorite Folktales From Around the World | edited by Jane Yolen  
For the young readers: Once There Was a Story: Tales From Around the World, Perfect for Sharing | Jane Yolen; illustrated by Jane Dyer 

Malala's Magic Pencil | Malala Yousafzai; illustrated by Kerascoët 

Solito: A Memoir | Javier Zamora 

Crying in H Mart: A Memoir | Michelle Zauner 

The Book Thief | Markus Zusak
The audio book is included. 

As the late Civil rights activist and politician John Lewis - who has inspired this post - once said:  

“You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light....And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.”  

(The full quote is in his book Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America.)