On Wednesday 18th November 2026, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of the Rebecca Solnit’s collection of essays, “No Straight Road Takes You There” . We will meet at Borderless Books, 4 London Road, Stroud, GL5 2AG. Entry is free but please bring some cash if you can afford to donate to cover venue costs.

“In her latest essay collection, the award-winning author explores climate change, feminism, democracy, hope, and power and its abuse. Throughout she asks us to heed the stories we tell or have been told, and the ways those stories can be, or should be changed. Solnit offers a reappraisal of the value of indirect consequences, an embrace of unpredictability, slowness, and imperfection in the politics of how to change the world.” (from Storygraph)

The book is available from Borderless Books for £15.29 (a 10% discount on the RRP). Below in our resources section you can find links to free text, audio and video resources – including 10 of the 21 essays in the collection. There is also more information about the book (including content warnings), author, and Stroud Radical Reading Group events.

Anyone interested in the book can join us. We do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before. We recommend reading the book but you don’t need to in order to come along and listen or ask questions. You also do not need to have attended any of our previous sessions.

Content warnings (submitted by Storygraph users):

• Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
• Moderate: Abortion, Classism, Deportation
• Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Police brutality

More information about the book (taken from Storygraph):

In the spirit of her bestselling book, Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit explores how our actions can shape the future and the liberatory possibilities of embracing uncertainty.

“I’ve tried to find other ways of seeing and to prize the migratory routes ideas take,” Solnit writes in the introduction, “the way that hope is most often grounded in memory, because you can’t see the future but you can understand the patterns and possibilities if you know the past.”

Beginning with an essay about a three-hundred-year-old violin and what it can tell us about forests, abundance, and climate, and ending with an essay about ice in seven long sentences, No Straight Road Takes You There deftly bridges the political and the literary, offering unique insights, nuanced understanding, and inspiration for the challenging work ahead.

About the author (from Wikipedia):

Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) is an American writer and activist. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art.

Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than 25 books, including Orwell’s Roses, Hope in the Dark (published in 2004 and the focus for an SRRG discussion in 2017), Men Explain Things to Me, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, and A Field Guide to Getting Lost. A longtime climate and human rights activist, she serves on the boards of Oil Change International and Third Act.

“This is a book of fierce and poetic thinking—and a guide for navigating a rapidly changing, non-linear, living world.”
—Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life

“With her deep sense of the movement of history, her agile intellect, hope in the possibilities of action and nimble prose, Solnit continues to surprise and delight. This new collection of essays is a tonic in dark times.”
—Lisa Appignanesi, author of Everyday Madness

Resources

• Read 10 of the 21 essays in the book for free online – titles are as they are in the book and vary in online publications:
  • A Truce with the Trees,
  • On Letting Go of Certainty in a Story That Never Ends,
  • In Praise of the Meander,
  • Despair Is a Luxury,
  • On Not Meeting Nazis Halfway,
  • In the Shadow of Silicon Valley (also available as a 42 minute audio),
  • Masculinity As Radical Selfishness,
  • Abortion Is an Economic Issue,
  • The Storykiller and His Sentence,
  • Hope on Far Horizons.
• Watch Julia George talking to Rebecca Solnit, as co-editor (with Thelma Young Lutunatabua) of “Not Too Late: changing the climate story from despair to possibility” (25 minutes, embedded below)
• Listen to a 1 hour podcast episode: “The Revolution Will Be Incremental with Rebecca Solnit” (How To Survive The End Of The World Podcast with sisters Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown)
• Rebecca Solnit’s website – including a link to sign up to her newsletter

About our events

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash if you can afford it (a few pounds would be great).

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

About the venue

The venue for this session is Borderless Books – an independent bookshop established in February 2026. The shop is “particularly passionate about international literature, including fiction in translation, memoir, and travel writing.” It is based in central Stroud, close to the train station and bus station, with nearby stands to lock bikes (Sub Rooms), and parking for cars nearby at Brunel Mall multistorey or the Parliament St car park. There is step-free access to the ground floor where we will meet. There is a toilet, air conditioning, and basic folding chairs. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub (around the corner) for anyone who wants to continue chatting after 9.30pm.