Join the Engaged Dharma Book Club 📚 2025 Picks

Read six political texts with like-minded spiritual community

Look at these beauties

I’m so excited to announce the 2025 Engaged Dharma Book Club lineup for paid subscribers! Over the course of the year, we’ll read six radical political texts, one every other month, all informed by the dharma. For each book, we’ll have a live two-hour Zoom discussion and weekly Chats on Substack.

I’ve also partnered up with my local bookstore, Sellers Books, in Jim Thorpe, PA to offer 20% off all orders! More info on this below.

To kick off the year, we’re reading Mindful Solidarity: A Secular Buddhist Democratic Socialist Dialogue by Mike Slott, a long-time labor organizer, adjunct professor of labor history at Rutgers University, and editor of the Secular Buddhism Network website. Mike does an awesome job at breaking down Buddhism’s core teachings, connecting it with radical social theory, and then giving VERY practical suggestions for integrating dharma and organizing. I’m also psyched to announce that Mike will be joining us for our live Zoom discussion on Thursday, January 16th 6:30-8:30pm ET.

There’s just one more book in the lineup that’s explicitly Buddhist (Norma Wong’s No Thing Works) and that’s somewhat purposeful. While I’m calling this the "Engaged Dharma Book Club," the focus isn’t on studying Buddhist teachings per se, but on exploring organizing best practices, abolition, and post-capitalism held by a dharmic worldview. Expanding our political education in a space informed by Buddhist practice just lands differently. We’re learning not only with our minds, but with our hearts and bodies.

Let’s get into the details!

How does this work?

For each book, we’ll meet for a two-hour discussion via Zoom. We’ll begin with introductions, followed by a 20-minute guided meditation, and then move into both small and large group discussion. The more people who join, the more likely I can invite the authors and offer them an honorarium.

We’ll also have Chats via the Substack app, where I’ll share my reading notes, thoughts on applying what I’ve learned to my own activism, and how it intersects with the dharma.

How do I join?

Become a paid subscriber! In addition to the book club, you’ll get access to all the Radical Change community offerings which you can see here. Below are the sliding scale tier options to join:

Sustainer Tier – $25/month or $250/year
Subsidized Tier – $15/month or $150/year
Supported Tier – $5/month or $50/year

The Sustainer tier ($25/month) reflects the actual cost of sustaining this work.

If you’re unsure which tier to choose, I offer guidance on my website (scroll down). If none of these tiers are accessible, please email me at ad@adrianadifazio.com and I’ll comp you a membership, no questions asked—I’m committed to making this work available regardless of finances.

How can I order the books?

Isn’t this the coziest little bookstore?

You can order one or all your books through Sellers Books by emailing Randall with the titles you'd like to purchase. Be sure to mention that you're with the "Engaged Dharma Book Club" to receive a 20% discount. I thought this would be a fun way to support my local bookstore in Pennsylvania. If you'd like to get a copy of Mindful Solidarity sooner rather than later, you can also order it directly from the publisher using the link below—I have the e-book version.

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Here’s the 2025 schedule

January 2025
Mindful Solidarity: A Secular Buddhist Democratic Socialist Dialogue

by Mike Slott

Encouraging political activists and Buddhist practitioners to connect with, and learn from each other, Mike Slott argues when we pursue individual and social transformation together we enrich the Buddhist path, making it more ethically and socially focused.

March 2025
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century

by Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs, a legendary figure in the struggle for justice in America, shrewdly assesses the current crisis—political, economical, and environmental—and shows how to create the radical social change we need to confront new realities.

May 2025
When No Thing Works: A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse

by Norma Wong

With wise and witty prose that wanders and turns, guides and reveals, Zen master and Indigenous Hawaiian leader Rōshi Norma Wong’s meditation holds our collective moment with gravity and tender care. She asks us to not only imagine but to live into a story beyond crisis and collapse—one that expands to meet our dreams of what (we hope) comes next, while facing with clarity and grace our here and now in the world we share today.

July 2025
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care

by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba

Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the convergence of mass protest and mass formations of mutual aid, and consider what this confluence of power can teach us about a future that will require mass acts of care, rescue and defense, in the face of both state violence and environmental disaster.

September 2025
We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition

by Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson

Abolitionists and organizers Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson bring together a remarkable collection of voices revealing the complex tapestry of ways people are living abolition in their daily lives through parenting and caregiving.

November 2025
Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism

by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira

Machado de Oliveira breaks down archetypes of cognitive dissonance—the do-gooder who does “good enough,” then retreats to business as usual; the incognito capitalist who, at first glance, may seem like a radical change-maker—and asks us to dig deeper and exist differently. She explains how our habits, behaviors, and belief systems hold us back . . . and why it’s time now to gradually disinvest.

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Last notes!

Have any other questions? Post a comment below or send me an email. Please share and invite your friends who might be interested in joining as well.

Though the year ahead will undoubtedly bring its share of gut-wrenching challenges, I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to read, reflect, and put into practice the wisdom of these incredible texts with all of you.

In love and solidarity,
Adriana