Category Archives: Social Science

Accountable

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Hardcover
496 pages • $20.99
ISBN: 9780374314347

The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed

Dashka Slater

“This is a compelling and contemporary cautionary tale that should be required reading for any teen before they create, comment, or even like a media post.”

—Booklist, starred review

When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults—educators and parents—whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse. In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean? Award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices.

Dashka Slater is an Award-winning journalist, she has written for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Salon, and Mother Jones. Her New York Times-bestselling young-adult true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the Stonewall Book Award, the California Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. It was a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist and an LA Times Book Award Finalist, in addition to receiving four starred reviews and being named to more than 20 separate lists of the year’s best books, including ones compiled by The Washington Post, the New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. In 2021, The 57 Bus was named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. The author of fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults, Dashka teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She lives and writes in Oakland, California.

Dream Town

Henry Holt and Co.
Hardcover
400 pages • $31.99
ISBN: 9781250834416

Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity

Laura Meckler

In this searing and intimate examination of the ideals and realities of racial integration, award-winning Washington Post journalist Laura Meckler tells the story of a decades-long pursuit in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and uncovers the roadblocks that have threatened progress time and again—in housing, in education, and in the promise of shared community. In the late 1950s, Shaker Heights began groundbreaking work that would make it a national model for housing integration. And beginning in the seventies, it was known as a crown jewel in the national move to racially integrate schools. The school district built a reputation for academic excellence and diversity, serving as a model for how white and Black Americans can thrive together. Meckler—herself a product of Shaker Heights—takes a deeper look into the place that shaped her, investigating its complicated history and its ongoing challenges in order to untangle myth from truth. She confronts an enduring, and troubling, question—if Shaker Heights has worked so hard at racial equity, why does a racial academic achievement gap persist? In telling the stories of the Shakerites who have built and lived in this community, Meckler asks: What will it take to fulfill the promise of racial integration in America? What compromises are people of all races willing to make? What does success look like, and has Shaker achieved it? The result is a complex and masterfully reported portrait of a place that, while never perfect, has achieved more than most and a road map for communities that seek to do the same.

Laura Meckler is national education writer for The Washington Post, where she covers the news, politics, policies, and people shaping American schools. She previously reported on the White House, presidential politics, immigration, and health care for The Wall Street Journal, as well as on health and social policy for the Associated Press. Her honors include a Nieman Fellowship and a Livingston Award for National Reporting, and she was part of a team that won the George Polk Award for Justice Reporting. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.

Dark Days

Graywolf Press
Hardcover
232 pages • $26.00
ISBN: 9781644452417

Fugitive Essays

Roger Reeves

“Stunning . . . Reeves captures the sorrows inherent in the way we live today even while keeping a keen eye toward opportunity for joy.”

— Maris Kreizman, Vulture

In his debut work of nonfiction, award-winning poet Roger Reeves finds new meaning in silence, protest, fugitivity, freedom, and ecstasy. Braiding memoir, theory, and criticism, Reeves juxtaposes the images of an opera singer breaking the state-mandated silence curfew by singing out into the streets of Santiago, Chile, and a father teaching his daughter to laugh out loud at the planes dropping bombs on them in Aleppo, Syria. He describes the history of the hush harbor—places where enslaved people could steal away to find silence and court ecstasy, to the side of their impossible conditions. In other essays, Reeves highlights a chapter in Toni Morrison’s Beloved to locate common purpose between Black and Indigenous peoples; he visits the realities of enslaved people on McLeod Plantation, where some of the descendants of those formerly enslaved lived into the 1990s; and he explores his own family history, his learning to read closely through the Pentecostal church tradition, and his passing on of reading as a pleasure, freedom, and solace to his daughter, who is frightened the police will gun them down. Together, these groundbreaking essays build a profound vision for how to see and experience the world in our present moment, and how to strive toward an alternative existence in intentional community underground. “The peace we fight and search for,” Reeves writes, “begins and ends with being still.”

Roger Reeves is the author of two poetry collections, King Me and Best Barbarian. His essays have appeared in Granta, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and teaches at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Meth Lunches

St. Martin’s Press
Hardcover
240 pages • $30.00
ISBN: 9781250278777

Food and Longing in an American City

Kim Foster

Food is a conduit for connection; we envision smiling families gathered around a table—eating, happy, content. But what happens when poverty, mental illness, homelessness, and addiction claim a seat at that table? In The Meth Lunches, Kim Foster peers behind the polished visions of perfectly curated dinners and charming families to reveal the complex reality when poverty and food intersect. Whether it’s heirloom vegetables or a block of neon-yellow government cheese, food is both a basic necessity and a nuanced litmus test: what and how we eat reflects our communities, our cultures, and our place in the world. The Meth Lunches gives a glimpse into the lives of people living in Foster’s Las Vegas community—the grocery store cashier who feels safer surrounded by food after surviving a childhood of hunger; the inmate baking a birthday cake with coffee creamer and Sprite; the unhoused woman growing scallions in the slice of sunlight on her passenger seat. This is what food looks like in the lives of real people. The Meth Lunches reveals stories of dysfunction intertwined with hope, of the insurmountable obstacles and fierce determination all playing out on the plates of ordinary Americans.

Kim Foster is a James Beard Award-winning food writer. She writes about people at the intersection of food and mental illness, family separation, poverty, addiction, trauma, and incarceration. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband, David, their four kids, and many animals.

Our Migrant Souls

MCD
Hardcover
256 pages • $27.00
ISBN: 9780374609900

A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino”

Héctor Tobar

“Our Migrant Souls is likely to be a resonant and deeply affecting book, one that often holds up a mirror to our lives.”

—Francisco Cantú, The New York Times Book Review

In Our Migrant Souls, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Héctor Tobar delivers a definitive and personal exploration of what it means to be Latino in the United States right now. “Latino” is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States, and also one of the most rapidly growing. Composed as a direct address to the young people who identify or have been classified as “Latino,” Our Migrant Souls is the first account of the historical and social forces that define Latino identity. Taking on the impacts of colonialism, public policy, immigration, media, and pop culture, Our Migrant Souls decodes the meaning of “Latino” as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and gives voice to the anger and the hopes of young Latino people who have seen Latinidad transformed into hateful tropes and who have faced insult and division—a story as old as this country itself. Tobar translates his experience as not only a journalist and novelist but also a mentor, a leader, and an educator. He interweaves his own story, and that of his parents’ migration to the United States from Guatemala, into his account of his journey across the country to uncover something expansive, inspiring, true, and alive about the meaning of “Latino” in the twenty-first century.

Héctor Tobar is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and a novelist. He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller Deep Down Dark, as well as The Last Great Road Bum, The Barbarian Nurseries, Translation Nation, and The Tattooed Soldier. Tobar has been a contributing writer for The New York Times opinion section and is a professor at the University of California, Irvine. He has written for The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. His short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, Los Angeles Noir, Zyzzyva, and Slate. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his family.

One Person, No Vote

Bloomsbury Publishing
Paperback
368 pages • $18.00
ISBN: 9781635571394

How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

Carol Anderson

“Anderson’s tone, at turns urgent and indignant, seems to arise from the ease with which she can document abundantly—via investigative journalism, popular history and historical scholarship—the GOP’s determined efforts to purge American citizens and cull and homogenize the electorate.”

—Walton Muyumba, Los Angeles Times

In her New York Times bestseller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice. Focusing on the aftermath of Shelby, Anderson follows the astonishing story of government-dictated racial discrimination unfolding before our very eyes as more and more states adopt voter suppression laws. In gripping, enlightening detail she explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans.

Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University. She is the author of One Person, No Vote, longlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award; White Rage, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; Bourgeois Radicals; and Eyes off the Prize. She was named a Guggenheim Fellow for Constitutional Studies and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

How We Ended Racism

Sounds True
Paperback
304 pages • $19.99
ISBN: 9781683648864

Realizing a New Possibility in One Generation

Justin Michael Williams and Shelly Tygielski

“It’s the year 2050 . . . and racism has ended.” Could this really be our future? If so, what must happen now, in the early part of the 21st century, to cause this outcome? In How We Ended Racism, Justin Michael Williams and Shelly Tygielski reveal a path to creating this possibility—not just talking about it, studying it, or making small steps, but actually ending racism in one generation. Williams and Tygielski have taught about and researched the conditions that allow for rapid, large-scale transformation. With scientifically-backed practices, they show us how to shift our perspective and enact lasting change in our families, workplaces, communities, and beyond—including techniques for inner healing, talking across divides, shadow work, forgiveness, calling one another forward instead of calling out, and more. Here is a book that dares to envision a world beyond diversity, equity, and inclusion while providing tools and action steps for a vision of humanity united—so that our descendants can look back at this era as the time when we decided to end racism once and for all.

Justin Michael Williams is a pioneering transformational voice for diversity, inclusion, and wellness. He is an award-winning speaker, Grammy®-nominated recording artist and author of Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us.

Shelly Tygielski is a trauma-informed mindfulness teacher, speaker, and activist. She founded the CNN Hero-featured global grassroots organization Pandemic of Love and is the author of Sit Down to Rise Up.

Correction

Flatiron Books
Hardcover
336 pages • $29.99
ISBN: 9781250758804

Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change

Ben Austen

“This is everything you could hope for in a book: an engrossing narrative of two men doing hard time, a deeply-researched history of incarceration in America, and a damn good read. Austen’s exhaustive reporting forces us to consider anew the nature of violence, the capriciousness of the justice system, our belief in second chances, and the purpose of punishment altogether. Correction ranks among the very best books on life inside and outside of prison I have ever read.”

―Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted

The United States, a single country, locks up a quarter of the world’s incarcerated population. More than 850,000 Americans are currently on parole. Yet the parole system is opaque, a confounding process riddled with inequities. Few understand parole as the extraordinary pivot point it is—both in the country’s changing conceptions of justice and in the cycle of mass incarceration. Through its portraits of two men imprisoned for murder, and the parole board that holds their freedom in the balance, Correction offers a behind-the-curtain look at the process of parole. Austen’s engaging storytelling forces a reckoning with some of the most profound questions underlying the country’s values around crime and punishment: What must someone who commits a terrible act do to get a second chance? What does incarceration seek to accomplish? An illuminating work of narrative nonfiction, Correction challenges us to consider for ourselves why and whom we punish—and how we might find a way out of an era of mass imprisonment.

Ben Austen Ben Austen is a journalist from Chicago. He is the author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and The Fate of American Public Housing, which was long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and named one of the best books of 2018 by Booklist, Mother Jones, and the public libraries of Chicago and St. Louis. A former editor at Harper’s Magazine, Ben is the cohost of the podcast Some of My Best Friends Are. His feature writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Wired, and many other publications.

An Other World

Page Two
Paperback
240 pages • $19.95
ISBN: 9781774583319

Teaching Guide

The Fight for Freedom, Joy, and Belonging

Hanif Fazal

“Hanif Fazal’s authenticity, passion, and commitment to building a world where not only his daughter but all of us can truly belong is compelling. In this book he has managed to use his own story to provide the reader with actionable tools that, if used, clear the pathway to ‘an other’ world.”

—Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO, Feeding America

An Other World alternates between heart-wrenching but hopeful letters to Hanif Fazal’s daughter Amina, reflections on Fazal’s formative life experiences and lessons on identity, Black and Brown relationships, and a unique type of freedom that could be available to all of us. In this moving blend of social commentary and memoir with a call to action, Fazal—co-founder of the Center for Equity and Inclusion—documents his journey toward Black and Brown joy, freedom, and belonging. This timely book traces Fazal’s relationships with Black and Brown family members, professional colleagues, and close friends as they attempt to thrive at home, school, and work in the all-consuming whiteness of Portland, Oregon, and the broader United States landscape. Addressing the leaders of today and tomorrow, Fazal pinpoints how educational and professional diversity frameworks often perform surface-level inclusion but refuse to invest fully in the complex realities of their BIPOC learners and employees. He also stares down the myth of “making it” and invites BIPOC communities to reflect and redefine success on their own terms.

Hanif Fazal is a co-founder and managing partner of the Center for Equity and Inclusion. For over twenty years, Fazal has developed and delivered innovative equity and inclusion programs across the corporate, education, philanthropic, public, and non-profit sectors. Fazal spends most of his professional time speaking, training DEI professionals, and coaching executives and executive teams. He currently lives with his daughter in Portland, Oregon.

Hidden Genius

Harriman House
Hardcover
252 pages • $27.99
ISBN: 9781804090039

The Secret Ways of Thinking That Power the World’s Most Successful People

Polina Marinova Pompliano

“This book is enjoyable and packed with wisdom on each page. Each chapter is centered around an idea and features an eclectic mix of perspectives, from astronauts to movie stars to investors, on that particular idea.”

—Kyle Westaway, Forbes

What distinguishes the truly exceptional from the merely great? After five years of writing The Profile, Polina Marinova Pompliano has studied thousands of the most successful and interesting people in the world and examined how they reason their way through problems, unleash their creativity, and perform under extreme pressure. The highest performers don’t use tricks or hacks to achieve greatness. They use mental frameworks that fundamentally change the way they see the world. They’ve learned how to unlock their hidden genius in order to reach their full potential. This book will help you do the same. After learning from the world’s most successful people featured inside, you will have a mental toolkit to help you tackle thorny problems, navigate relationships, and use creativity and resilience in times of uncertainty.

Polina Marinova Pompliano is the founder of The Profile, a new media company that features longform profiles of successful people and companies each week. Previously, she spent five years at Fortune where she wrote more than 1,300 articles and earned the trust of prominent investors and entrepreneurs. As the author and editor of Term Sheet, Fortune’s industry-leading deal-making newsletter, Polina interviewed the industry’s most influential dealmakers, including Melinda Gates, Steve Case, Chamath Palihapitiya, Alexis Ohanian, and more.