The Parable duology by Octavia E. Butler

We were considering to read a classic over the summer, but the book we picked is actually a somewhat "contemporary" story (and perhaps not yet a classic); not because it was very recently written, but because the story is set in our time and our immediate future. This future is thus described as a post-apocalyptic earth heavily affected by climate change and social inequality. According to reviews the books gets some stuff eerily right, indicating that the author had a good insight into human nature. The first book, in which society in the United States has grown unstable due to climate change, growing wealth inequality, and corporate greed, takes the form of a journal kept by Lauren Oya Olamina, an African American teenager. The second book, which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, is set in a near future where United States that has come under the grip of a Christian fundamentalist denomination called "Christian America" led by President Andrew Steele Jarret. Seeking to restore American power and prestige, and using the slogan "Make America Great Again", Jarret embarks on a crusade to cleanse America of non-Christian faiths.

The combined length of the two books is is some 665 pages, and the combined listening time is approximately 27 hours and 30 minutes.

As it was a bit difficult to find a date on the spot, we decided to try to doodle it. Please vote for suitable weeks at https://doodle.com/group-poll/participate/b2DwA3Me, and then we can decide on the day!