At Cozzee we’re always trying to keep up with what is unfolding in the world around us. Outside of Coffee, you might say it’s our greatest passion.

Of course, there is no way to realistically keep up with every single event going on. That’s a pipe dream and an expectation that is simply ridiculous. But, in that same light, we look to educate ourselves as much as possible.

Now, we haven’t read every book in the world, nor do we claim to know all the best books to read. Nonetheless, here is a selection of 7 books that will get you started on your quest to broaden your social consciousness.

1. There Was and There Was Not by Meline Toumani showcases how different cultural views of an event shape and guide our present and future. Toumani, a Turkish author writes about the Armenian genocide of 1915 and how both the Turkish and the Armenians have perceived and reacted to it. It is insightful, frightening and an eye-opening look on the crafting of the human narrative within a group that doesn’t get much attention.

2. Dreamland: The true tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones is a journey into the rabbit hole of an emergent American drug culture. Quinones, an American journalist explores a myriad of levels on prescription drug abuse, Rust Belt problems, Heroin overdose and Heroin smuggling. Dreamland is an insightful and thorough way to introduce yourself to a epidemic that has manifested within our country socially and medically, causing no end of problems.

3. The Child Catchers by Kathryn Joyce is a gut-wrenching look at international adoption as a true form of Human trafficking. Joyce uses investigative reporting to expose and vilify practices of kidnapping and human trafficking within the international adoption community. A practice that is becoming more and more common.

This book, it should be noted, has created quite a controversy. There are those that say that none of the facts within it are attributed. There are those that agree with it completely. Regardless, it is an insight to a problem that is happening, perhaps not exactly as it is laid out here, but Joyce has given a strong focus to a problem that needs to be addressed, of that there is no doubt.

4. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is essentially an examination of the inhumanity of the American Justice System. Stevenson, an attorney, explores a number of heart-rending cases for people imprisoned as early as age 14 who have unfairly been convicted. The central focus of his book is on a single man named Walter McMillan. McMillan, a black man convicted of killing a young white woman, claimed his innocence with scores of alibi witnesses but was railroaded into a conviction and a death sentence by prosecutors more concerned with protecting their political positions than finding justice. Stevenson worked for years, staying connected to Mcmillan attempting to get him a retrial and eventually redemption.

McMillan’s case is the tip of the iceberg and Stevenson uses that narrative to show an appreciation for the enormity of this terrible truth.

5. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander examines the continuation of the “Racial Caste” that has so eagerly been pushed under the rug. Alexander, a legal scholar, argues that “We have not ended the racial caste in America, we have merely redesigned it.” Specifically citing The War on Drugs as a means to incarcerate a lower caste of the American population, labeling them as felons. Alexander argues that all the justice system has done is trade one set of racist laws for a more updated and acceptable set. The New Jim Crow operates as a bit of a truth-saying call to action against a perceived notion of societal colorblindness and a wake-up call to those that might argue the inclusion of the black celebrity means that the race as a whole has ‘made it.” within an ugly system.

6. Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Larry Siems is Slahi’s diary of his life before and during his imprisonment in the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay. Slahi has been imprisoned since 2002 without ever having been charged with a crime. What’s better is that he was ordered released by a federal judge, and still has not been set free.

His diary as edited by Siems is an account of a life affected by America’s War on Terror and the humanity it is attempting to leech from cultures around the world.

7. Missoula by Jon Krakauer is an examination of rape culture expanding on college campuses. Krakauer tells the story of several women dealing with the horror and reality of their struggle to find justice set in and around The University of Montana. He follows the course of two separate cases through their various twists and turns culminating in very different very real outcomes. Krakauer excels by personifying the threat of sexual assault, painting a vivid portrait of why the crime is so easily dismissed from a social, political, and judicial standpoint.