Active Books
Reviews of Books and Movies about Homelessness, Human Rights, Social Issues
There is no question of whether artists or writers should influence society. They do. The only question is how consciously, how effectively, and in what way they use their influence.
I try to keep a record of books that raise the level of human dignity for all, as art and literature can often do more effectively than statistics and slogans.
Reviewed by Wes Browning:
- Surviving on the Streets by Ace Backwords
- The Outsider: a journey into my father’s struggle with madness by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer
Reviewed by Anitra Freeman:
- The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
- How collective decision-making works well — and how it goes wrong.
- Eyes of the Heart by Jean-Bertrand Aristide
- with additional links about Aristide, Haiti, and global economics
- Becoming Evil by James Waller
- How the conscience of a society becomes corrupt, until ordinary people can commit genocide and mass killing
Freethinkers and God's Politics- Susan Jacoby and Jim Wallis examine the role of religion in Amercan politics, from different angles. People of conscience seem to have a lot in common, whether or not we are people of faith.
- The Battle for God examined with Kindly Inquisitors
- An inquisition into the culture wars
- Humbows Not Hot Dogs! by Bob Santos
- Memoirs of a savvy street activist
- Outlaw Woman by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975
- Women and Madness by Phyllis Chesler
- The Post-Corporate World by David C. Korten
- Have A Great One! A Homeless Man's Story
by Laurie Anthony- Healing through relationship
- Grand Central Winter by Lee Stringer
- 12 years of life under Grand Central Station.
- The ILWU Story: Six Decades of Militant Unionism
- A history of the ILWU - the International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union.
- Take the Rich Off Welfare
- Who is really soaking the taxpayer?
- Merchants of Misery
- Profiteering off the poor.
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind
- Homeless children and families in rural America.
By others:
- Generation at the Crossroads
- Interview with Seattle writer and lecturer Paul Loeb
- Downsize This!
- by Michael Moore
- Each One Teach One
- Memoirs of a Street Activist: The Ron Casanova Story
- The Celling of America
- An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry
- The Human Zoo: A Death Row Collective
- Yukon Alone: The World’s Toughest Adventure Race
- by John Balzar
- New American Blues
- Sofa Surfing
Magazines
If you like Real Change:
Progressive Magazine
Looking interesting:
A Gathering of the Tribes
More
- Homeless Gifts
- Books & movies about homelessness, plus products from homeless people themselves
To help a little bit in finding the needle with a point on it for you
in all that hay out there, I make an ongoing project of compiling book
and website reviews. If you have a review, or a something you think we
ought to review, please let me know.
This site is an Amazon.com Associate. Besides the reviews here, you can
read reviews, and often excerpts, at Amazon. You can buy wherever you
choose. A percentage of whatever you buy at Amazon.com following a link
from this page goes to the Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project.
Evaluate for Yourself:
The QRibbon Campaign
Poetry
- Reflections
- The first Homeless Women's Forum poetry chapbook
- Seattle
Poets and Photographers:
A Millennium Reflection
Fiction
- The Homeless One
- by Esther Altshul Helfgott
- Reviewed by Ruth A. Fox
- IN THE NAME OF HELP
- A novel exposing psychiatric crimes.
- Reviewed by Anitra Freeman
- Fire in the Barrel by D.A. Dintzer
- A novel exploring homelessness
- Homeless Mysteries
- Homeless characters in mystery novels, and an interview with G.M. Ford
- Ghost Country
- Mystery novel by Sara Paretsky
- Homeless Fantasies
- Homeless people in fantasy and science fiction
- The Lorax by Dr. Suess
Space Merchants Classic science-fiction satire
((FREQUENCIES)) by Joshua Ortega
Alien Child by Mona Lee
Movies
- Gridlock'd
- Two Addicts Try to Fight Their Way into the System
- Reviewed by Bruce Triggs
- Homeless portrayals in film
Television
- On the Air and Outside
- Homeless people as portrayed on TV
Websites
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