Summer Reading (& Listening) with our Sparklers! 📚
A watercolor-stylized image of an open book, cup of coffee, and flowers placed on picnic blanket that is covering grass.
We’ve asked our Sparklers to look back and share some favorite reads and listens from the past year! If you are looking to crack open something new or return to an old favorite, join us as we reminisce about works that made us ponder, giggle, or tear.
Natalie Recommends Radiotopia’s Ear Hustle for stories from and by folks living inside and outside, post incarceration.
Check out Episode 50: Crew No.7, to learn about how incarcerated folks in California fight wildfires.
If you are looking to reflect and learn about mass incarceration in the United States, and dive into multi-layered intricacies and robust storytelling, this is the podcast for you. I’ve been a listener since 2019, but they’ve been on the airwaves since 2017, currently on their 13th season! The stories are immersive, from heartwarming to heart wrenching, I’ve become a steadfast fan. Hoping to get my hands on their recently published book, This is Ear Hustle, or at least an audio-version of the book.
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Michelle Recommends California Burning by Katherine Blunt
for a history lesson in investor owned utility founding plus journalistic coverage of the California wildfires that sent PG&E into bankruptcy in one palatable read
Blunt, a Wall Street Journalist, tells the story of how one of the largest utility companies in the nation was built (spoiler alert: land grabs amok) and struggles to maintain its existence. Through in-depth research and personal interviews, readers learn how PG&E must navigate, at the expense of California ratepayers, the impacts of climate change: a plight that they contributed to, but also are unprepared for. The narrative takes no prisoners for the negligence on the part of this massive investor owned utility, and the disastrous and life-ending impact they have had on communities. And yet, the book makes a fair effort to show the magnificent (and perhaps losing) challenge it is to regulate a private company providing a vital service to millions of Californians. A great read for those that want insight into the world of the regulated IOU in the context of a world on fire.
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Sooji Recommends All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
for enriching lessons about love and liberation
Not sure about you but I feel like we don’t talk or ponder enough about love in our efforts to practice racial justice in the energy industry. As bell hooks points out, our commitment to justice isn’t only rooted in fighting against the things we hate but also committing to a vision of self and community love. This commitment infers that love is an action, an active choice we can make to choose better for ourselves and for our communities. If you’re in the mood for love, I recommend picking this up!
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Suhaila Recommends Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
for a guide to embrace, allow, and grow your individual creativity
A book to reflect on your own relationship with creativity, and to grow it. Elizabeth Gilbert shares her own journey with creativity, how she suppressed it through suppressing fear and letting fear take over. This book takes a liberatory approach, teaching how creativity is for everyone and how to use fear to encourage creativity.
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Tanya Recommends Capitalism (Scene on Radio)
This podcast explores the concept of capitalism and how it came to be the foundation of the US economy and political system, as well as potential alternatives to meet the future needs of humanity.
We don’t all share the same understanding of capitalism. Some see it as the force behind what makes a society good and successful, while others see it as a system of oppression and extraction that will ultimately implode on itself. This podcast explores the beginnings of capitalist theory through the writings of early thinkers, how and why it has evolved through centuries, and what impact it will have on the future.
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Katie Recommends Healing Resistance by Kazu Haga
"Let us be honest about the escalated responses required to heal from the injury to our spirit in these times"
While I'm not able to recall many specific excerpts from Healing Resistance, what I felt while reading has persisted - curious, understood, and grounded. Haga shares some of the history of Kingian Nonviolence, a framework for nonviolent conflict reconciliation based on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, while simultaneously guiding readers through nonviolent practices to be employed in the pursuit of social justice. The book is both theoretical and practical, and one that I will revisit as my own practice of nonviolence continues.
Common Spark Consulting not only works externally with our clients and partners, but we also strive to work inwardly, recognizing that we must internalize the care, thoughtfulness, and intention we hope to represent as individuals and an organization. The Thought Library is where we share our ideas and thoughts, where we are at right now, on topics and issues that we hope will spark conversation for a brighter, more inclusive energy future.
