2025: Book about impacts of u.s. actions taken in name of “war on terror” & cost of u.s. “freedom”
Book recommendations/suggestions for the Read, Seed, Water, Feed 2025 book challenge. Find your next book!
read, seed, water, feed book challenge - about prompt support posts
about prompt support posts
All of the prompt support posts (those that begin with "2025: Book written by...", for example) are organized similar to each other.
Each of these posts was created to support the Read, Seed, Water Feed book challenge on Storygraph that I am hosting. They were also created to support learning outside of the university, collective educational efforts, finding new authors to read, finding books, and more.
For each book challenge prompt, I will share the following sections:
- one or more slides with books I have read or am currently reading that I recommend for the prompt
- a list of additional books from my TBR (to-be-read) list for the prompt
- a text listing of the books that I shared in the slides
I might share one or more of the following in addition, depending on capacity and other factors:
- other supportive text as appropriate, such as countries included
- some quotes, notes, and/or reflections about one or more of the books
- links to other posts on the site where I discuss the books or prompt in more detail
I did many things to minimize hierarchy within these posts, and there will still be some things that might feel odd, such as split galleries of slides, which was a choice made to address current limitations in how the galleries work.
If interested, find bingo cards, more background on the prompts, and other reflections, on the Reading Challenge page and if on Storygraph, join the challenge.
Mostly, my goal for prompt support posts is to share books for each prompt, as suggestions and as examples. This section will be first on every post and may be skipped.
Thank you for reading.
Recommended Books
Books I've read or am currently reading that I recommend for this prompt.
Read, Seed, Water, Feed 2025 reading challenge prompt and description, showing books recommended that I have read or am currently reading. All recommended books are listed lower in the post in the section “Recommended Books in a List.”
More Books from my TBR List
For some prompts, I’m trying to diversify what I read; for others, deepening my knowledge while also growing my perspective. For some prompts, there are definitely more books on my to-be-read (TBR) list than the ones I share that I have read or am currently reading. Here are some of those books:
Nonfiction
- The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison (2007) by Andy Worthington
- Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11 (2021) by Maha Hilal
Memoirs
- The Mauritanian (2015) by Mohamedou Ould Slahi
- Witnesses of the Unseen: Seven Years in Guantanamo (2017) by Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir
Graphic novels
- Guantánamo Kid: The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani (2018) Jérôme Tubiana with Alexandre Franc (Illustrator)
- Huda F Are You? (2021) by Huda Fahmy
Some notes
repeated notes..
For the book challenge, I am aware that the books I shared are not sufficient as examples of what books might fall within an expansive view of the impacts. I am re-copying here the two notes from the slides in case they were missed. There is so much more I want to write and share, but it will be separate.
- The book can be fiction or nonfiction. The category assumes an expansive view of impacts, including those to humans, environment, and more, within the u.s. and globally. The book could also be about the actions of u.s. allies taken in the name of the "war on terror" and their impacts.
- While defunding social services and anything not around policing, military, prisons, or surveillance, is connected, please consider a book that focuses on, is about, and/or is written by the communities who are most impacted specifically through the "war on terror" and its accompanying racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, dehumanization, etc.
study guide for Jasbir Puar’s The Right to Maim
I have deep gratitude to the decolonial feminist collective for introducing me to both Jasbir Puar, and The Right to Maim, and Erica Edwards, and The Other Side of Terror, among other books I’ll discuss eventually, through their collective study sessions. They shared a study guide for Jasbir Puar’s The Right to Maim, which came out of collective study sessions that the decolonial feminist collective (DFC) co-hosted with the conflicted womanist (TCW) in winter 2023/24 and their work to put it together (study guide). Please follow and support both on their social media.
final notes
For me, this is beyond a book challenge, but part of learning outside of the media, outside of university, outside of state-sponsored propaganda on the causes and impacts of the u.s.' so-called "war on terrorism." There is so much more I want to write here. But continuing.. For many, formal education is not possible. For many, too much trauma can impact the ability to learn, or retain what is learned, and the need to keep learning never ends.
I started to write more about these books and the topic, as well as the difficulty and complexity of dense reading, and why I think it may not be fully possible to avoid, though maybe also not beyond mitigation, which cannot also be separated from imagination. An example is the above study guide and the related collective study sessions. Once I finish the other prompt support posts, I will return to writing. In solidarity.
Recommended Books in a List
As a list, books I've read or am currently reading that I recommend for this prompt:
Nonfiction
No Good Men Among the Living (2014) by Anand Gopal
The Other Side of Terror: Black Women and the Culture of Us Empire (2021) by Erica R. Edwards
The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability (2017) by Jasbir K. Puar
Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (2007/there is a 10th anniversary expanded 2017 edition) by Jasbir K. Puar
Memoir
Don't Forget Us Here : Lost and Found at Guantánamo (2021) by Mansoor Adayfi
Get any/all of these books wherever you get your books.
Please support libraries however you can. Find out many ways to get involved in supporting libraries at Libraries for the People.
Please consider purchasing books when they are available from Workshops 4 Gaza's bookstore. When I share books that are available for purchase there at the time of posting, I will list them here after the link.
Thank you for reading.
