You’re More Powerful than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen
$25.00
It’s easy to feel powerless these days. It feels like our rights are being stripped away, like government figures are more accountable to corporations than citizens, like we’re just along for the ride as we barrel toward catastrophe. But, for others, this moment in time has proven to be a catalyst for change, motivating thousands upon thousands to organize, march, and make their voices heard.
You’re More Powerful than You Think encourages those change-seekers by offering new tools and ways of thinking, exploring how to affect change by reframing the argument, learning from your failures, and shifting the balance of power by realizing and creating your own power base. (Not all of these ideas are feasible without a hell of a lot of prep and ground work, to be fair.)
Liu offers numerous examples of those who managed to turn the tables on the power-hungry oppressors and opportunists, managing to walk a fine line by offering realistic solutions while still being optimistic about what can be done by concerned citizens, even in small numbers.
If you’re looking for a blueprint for resistance, You’re More Powerful than You Think is a decent place to start.
Additional information
| Publication Date | 2017-Mar-28 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hard |
| Publisher | PublicAffairs |
| Issue | June 2017 |
| Page Count | 222 pages |
| ASIN | 161039707X |
| ISBN | 9781610397070 |
| Star Count | 3.5 |
| Book Author | Eric Liu |
“You’re More Powerful than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen”
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Here’s to My Sweet Satan: How the Occult Haunted Music, Movies and Pop Culture, 1966-1980As a long-time fan of Dungeons & Dragons, it never ceases to amaze me that people link one of my favorite activities with devil worship and other nonsense. But in this day and age, it’s easy to discount just how familiar and commonplace occult imagery is.
Here’s To My Sweet Satan plumbs the source of that familiarity by exploring the initial impact, the ensuing fear, the declining influence, and the increasing homogenization of occult imagery and influence over two decades. From Helter Skelter to the mythical backward-masking of messages in music, from The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby to the McMartin Preschool and the Satanic Panic, George Case hits all of the high notes and the low points of occultism in the second half of the twentieth century.
And although Case recognizes how silly so many of these cultural overreactions appear in insight, he casts no judgment on the sincerity and passion behind each panic, making him a very capable narrator, voice of reason, and scholar all at once.
Here’s To My Sweet Satan explores what happens when people need to restore a bit of magic to the world, even if they have to resort to dark magic to do it.
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Godzilla in HellWell, that’s certainly a title that grabs you, isn’t it?
After battling aliens, legendary beasts, a certain famous film ape, and several robotic counterparts, it seems like Godzilla has conquered everyone and everything in the monster’s path. What terrors could the underworld have to offer the greatest monster of all? Plenty, as it turns out.
Godzilla in Hell is a miniseries allowing several authors and artists the chance to confront not only Godzilla’s fiercest foes, but all the weirdest, darkest imaginings Hell has to offer. It’s a visually stunning non-sequential experiment in storytelling, a curious exercise in exploring the beauty of violence, the limits of indomitability, and the power of myth writ large.
It’s hard to review this without spoiling the rich detail and sheer mindboggling creativity that went into each sumptuous vignette. When you consider that the protagonist of these stories can’t speak (other than a “skree-onnk” or a roar), it’s all the more impressive.
Part tribute to the monster and a glorious pantheon of enemies, part storytelling adventure that explores the enduring appeal of monsters in general and this monster in particular, and part gallery of dazzling art in several forms, Godzilla in Hell is wonderful.
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The Ninja Librarians: Sword in the StacksThey say adventures await you at the local library, but for Dorrie and Marcus, that has proven doubly true. Dorrie and Marcus uncover a secret clan of warrior librarians that not only travel the stacks, but through time itself by way of a magical library. Now they are serving as apprentice lybrarians, learning the ways of Petrarch’s Library. But with sinister forces at work, mistakes occurring across time, and rivalries forming between students, it’s going to be a steep learning curve!
Sword in the Stacks is the second novel inThe Ninja Librarians series, and it certainly doesn’t wait for new readers to catch up before plunging into several major plotlines and a half-dozen smaller character arcs. There is a huge cast of characters (from lybrarians and historical figures to the students themselves) and it seems like virtually everyone is up to something.
And although that could be overwhelming, it’s not. It’s madcap, bordering on full-blown chaos, but it’s the chaos of growing up, learning about responsibility, honesty, and doing what’s right. An inattentive reader may get lost, but most readers will muddle through just fine, latching onto favorite personalities and riding the waves through to the conclusion.
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Deadpool vs. ThanosThe mad titan Thanos is in love with Death, but he’s not the only one. The fourth wall-shattering merc with a mouth Deadpool also has a thing for the personification of the end of all things, and he’s not going to let phenomenal cosmic powers keep him from his bony bae. But when Death vanishes and creatures across the universe stop dying, Thanos reluctantly teams up with Deadpool to find her and set the universe back in order.
Okay, first off, this book is hilarious. Granted, you’d expect that from any Deadpool book, let alone one that gives him a straight man like the monstrous Thanos. But this book is also ambitious as hell, utterly grand in scope, exploring the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe and allowing for cameos as eclectic as Doctor Doom, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Mephisto.
Deadpool vs. Thanos asks hard questions about death and the meaning of life — appropriate when the protagonists are a man who can’t die and another literally in love with Death — and manages to both entertain and inform. Pretty good for a book as snarky as it is colorful.
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Heroes Reborn: Collection OneWhen Heroes premiered on NBC, it was a bona fide phenomenon, and although the later seasons never lived up to the promise of the first season, the show left a legacy of long-form storytelling behind. And now that the show has returned in ambitious (if under viewed) fashion, there are many new stories to tell.
Heroes Reborn: Collection One brings us three stories set in the Heroes Reborn universe: the first reimagines the pilot episode, the second takes us into the backstory of Father Mauricio, and the third explores one of the series’ new villains, as a corrupt cop and a drug dealer do battle, only to find themselves swept up in a greater conspiracy as the U.S. government’s Evo hunters cross paths with another shadowy force.
These three tales are an intriguing way to expand upon the universe of the reboot, but fans of the original series should be warned: these stories don’t have much in the way of ties to the original, save for an occasional namedrop here or there.
Although the third story is pretty take-it-or-leave-it, the first two complement the new series nicely, adding gentle touches and refreshing color to the world of the show.
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