FUTURIST BOOK CLUB: "The Ministry for the Future"

Join our Futurist Book Club

Hey y’all!

I’m coming at you today with an additional post to let you know about The Futurist Book Club! There are 20+ of us that have been reading futurist-minded books over the last few months and scheduling occasional Zoom calls to discuss. We’ve kept most of this on Google Groups and, briefly, on Slack.

However, given that regular Zoom meetings can get tough for folks, as the coordinator of this, I’ve decided to pivot and expand the book club through Cramming for the Apocalypse.

It’s appropriate given this project of mine is all about re-envisioning the future. It’s a futurist project. I started the Futurist Book Club because the research I was doing was leading me to books and resources that were about re-envisioning the future. Some of this is through science fiction and speculative fiction, and some of it was through creative nonfiction. And I wanted desperately to talk with others about these books with others.

And so The Futurist Book Club was born. Since we started reading and meeting last Fall, we’ve read Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae. So that some of you who might be interested in these might be able to catch up, I’ll post about these eventually.

With that, the next book club book is The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Jonathan Lethem’s blurb from the cover describes it all: “The best science fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.”

It’s a long one, though—563 pages in paperback! The Libby app wait from my local library was weeks long (and when you get it, it’s a good 20 hours of listening), so this might be one to consider purchasing or you can come back to the posts with the prompts when you’re done.

Here are some FAQs about The Futurist Book Club:

How will this book club thing work?

I’ll keep a more or less similar schedule to the books that I did when we were meeting live. Meaning, we’ll choose a new book every 2 months or so. That’ll give folks time to read it and participate in future digital “discussions.”

Then, I’ll post prompts right here on Cramming for the Apocalypse after we’ve had enough time to read it that you can answer in the comments. OR you are also welcome to post your own questions there

What about the books you already read?

I’ll do a once-a-month post with prompts and my reflections on the books we’ve already read so that we don’t forget about them. They were amazing and mind-expanding and I can’t wait to read what people got from them as well.

Can I help choose the next book?

For sure! In fact, you can help us narrow down the next book(s) by responding to this survey with your top 2 book choices. This list was created collaboratively with the core Futurist Book Club group. You can read about the books here and see the full list here.

Can I add books to that list?

Yes! Just comment with your ideas below and I’ll add them to the Google sheet.

In the meantime, happy reading and can’t wait to discuss with y’all!