Books for Radicals, Dreamers, Poets, Lovers, Artists, Thinkers, Activists, and We, the People.

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Swing Time by Zadie Smith The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany Swing Time follows two McDaniel young black women who grow up together in If someone told you they working-class northwest were the devil would you London in the 1980s, where believe them? Fielding Bliss music and especially dance did. He was only thirteen become the focus of their when the devil came to childhoods. As adults they town the summer of 1984, take two different paths in but even as an old man life, along with two different he will never forget how paths with dance, but this experience changed always remain connected. the trajectory of his life. While one is considered successful by going to school Reminiscent of the classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, Tiffany and maintaining a job, the other is left behind in her McDaniel creates her own story about two young dreams. Smith challenges the reader, leaving her to boys, one black and one white, come to face one of question whether the narrator is more successful than the hottest summers in history, where everything they her former friend in the end. – Morgan once knew to be solid, even their ways of life, melted. – Morgan

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan Set in sunny Jamaica, the lives of Thandi, Margot, Mansoor, covered in blood, and their mother, Delores, is walking home through are anything but. While the markets of Delhi, as Jamaica is known for its passers-by gossip about the The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead tourism and great resort bombing that just occurred offerings, many who live while oblivious to one of The devil’s in the details of Colson Whitehead’s there are living opposite its victims right in their Underground Railroad. Taking direction from the life that is shown midst. This is one from a American slave narratives, the novel confronts in a Jamaican vacation series of scenes that opens the linked heritage of slaveocracy and democracy brochure. Though Thandi is Karan Mahajan’s sophomore seeking to ensnare the fugitive teenage orphan, the youngest in the family, this does not stop her from effort, The Association of Cora. Cora’s flight from a Georgia plantation and being a savior to her mother and Margot. According Small Bombs. Mahajan examines the personal and from the slave catcher, Ridgeway, propels her to her mother and sister, Thandi’s excellent grades are the political –– and the hairline divide between the towards fleeting notions of freedom on both sides going to get her family out of the poverty that mires two –– with tart effectiveness. Without flinching from of the Mason-Dixon Line. As a subversive text, the the rest of the island. Delores sells trinkets to tourists India’s sundry social divisions and political conflicts, novel undermines historical fiction with its fantastic and Margot is one of the best workers in a local resort, Mahajan also writes a novel that doesn’t drift from a literal dimension of locomotives, train tracks, and both to provide for their home and Thandi’s private very human-scale viewpoint, and that’s what makes the subterranean stations; it also outdoes the historical education. Their hard work seems like it will pay off, story’s gradual unraveling so engrossing. – Justin S Underground Railroad’s metaphorical network literally, but does it? – Morgan of passageways, covert conductors, and secret safe houses. Colson’s ornate craft deftly depicts America’s reign of terror, inspiring reconciliation. – Marc P. The Sellout by Paul Beatty

In this riotous and impassioned satirical novel, Beatty takes aim at nearly all the sacred cows present in American culture to expose the racist id of America’s national psyche. The book’s unnamed African-American protagonist resides in Dickens, a fictional Los Angeles neighborhood that has recently been erased off the city’s maps and road signs, probably because as a poor, gang-ridden, exclusively minority enclave, even seeing the name Dickens might disabuse one of the notion that America is a post-racial, egalitarian society. Our narrator was reared by a radical sociologist father who parents according to the dictates of “liberation psychology”. As an adult he works as an artisanal watermelon and marijuana farmer, but when his father is murdered by the police, he becomes a modern-day school segregationist and slaveholder. What’s so tenacious and brilliant about this book is how it refuses to let the reader forget the she lives in a white supremacist “democracy” where racism colors so many aspects of our quotidian existence. – Justin B. Fiction

Behold the Dreamers by Sweetbitter by Stephanie Imbolo Mbue Danler

Imbolo Mbue’s debut The protagonist of this novel Behold the Dreamers autobiographical novel is quintessential African is a young woman who immigrant literature graduates from college in because of its main the Midwest and moves concern: leaving and finding to New York City, where home. Imbolo Mbue, a she soon finds work in Cameroonian immigrant, one of the city’s most beautifully captures the renowned restaurants. unbridled optimism, Working there with a uncertainty and challenges motley crew of artists, that comes with creating a new life in a new land. The actors and restaurant industry veterans, she learns hard novel’s central characters, the Jongas, are Cameroonian lessons about adulthood amid the bright lights and immigrants during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. expensive plates of the city’s fine dining scene. Danler’s Juxtaposing them with the wealthy Edwards family experience working in the industry (she got her start at they work for, the novel succeeds in a clear depiction Danny Meyer’s renowned Union Square Café) is evident of two different families experiencing two different as she writes beautifully about the tastes of all manner types of economic realities. The novel reaches far and of food and spirits, and accurately depicts the cutthroat wide when painting this picture, and demonstrates the managerial practices of the restaurant industry, and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi obvious and not-so-obvious panic from different rungs how the camaraderie between waiters and other staff of the social ladder. Behold the Dreamers hits the mark enables them to endure the many stresses of their jobs. Ambitious in scope and impressive in execution, in raising an important question: can America deliver on The protagonist’s torrid affair with an older bartender Homegoing begins in eighteenth-century Ghana its promise for those who dare to dream? – Marybeth undergirds the book’s dramatic arc, and while this with the stories of Esi and Effia, half-sisters—though element of the narrative makes it a great plane or beach they don’t know that—whose lives take wildly read, there are also profound meditations here on how different paths. Deftly charting parallel histories, the hard lessons of early adulthood teach us resilience debut novelist Yaa Gyasi follows Esi as she is in the end. – Justin B. captured by British slave-traders, taken across the Atlantic, and sold into bondage, and, without missing a beat, also traces Effia’s more materially comfortable fate as the wife of the white British governor in charge of overseeing operations related to the export of human chattel. The narrative chronicles both sides of the women’s sundered Graphic Novels family, tracing their descendants through seven generations and three hundred years of American and Ghanaian history. In alternating perspectives, The Black Panther by Ta- March Trilogy: Box Set by Gyasi introduces Esi’s and Effia’s many children, Nehisi Coates Congressman John Lewis, cousins, and spouses, narrating their various Andrew Aydin and Nate experiences and fortunes. These richly told episodes Ta-Nehisi Coates could Powell could stand alone as satisfying short stories; as have done many things parts of Gyasi’s colorful epic-scale project, they after winning the National The March Trilogy is one echo larger themes in telling and surprising ways. Book Award for Between of the most important The combination of Gyasi’s often lyrical prose, the the World and Me, his graphic novels created. A brutal events and lasting joys she recounts, and superb meditation on superbly told history of the diverse, personable characters, make this a racial injustice and white the civil rights movement, haunting and powerful tale of African American life supremacy in 21st Century John Lewis’s personal from the collapse of the ancient Ashanti Empire America. Instead of pursuing account of the actions and the callousness of European colonialism to the any number of projects, he of individuals and Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and post- chose to write the relaunch organizations throughout colonial Ghana. of Marvel’s The Black Panther comic. In it, the Black the South (but focused largely in Alabama) is a gripping, Panther character is the superhero alter ego of T’Challa, passionate, and richly detailed narrative of the events the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. that would eventually lead to the signing of landmark Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation legislation—The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting on Earth, yet is struggling to combat an insurgency Rights Act of 1965. Lewis and Andrew Aydin tell this on its borders and a sense of unease even in the story in three perfectly paced volumes, with a focus prosperous capital. What is so stunning here is how on Lewis’s personal involvement that emphasizes the Gift Cards are available in any within the frame of a superhero comic book, Coates is reality that civil rights activists faced throughout this denomination and can be used able to ponder profound questions about the meaning struggle. The factual recounting of events is dramatic, online or in the store. of freedom in a semi-autocratic society, the obligation of engaging, and heartrending. The story is beautifully the rulers towards the ruled, and whether technological drawn by Nate Powell who delivers moments of quiet progress is possible without hierarchy and some degree and introspection alongside powerful and brutal of coercion. Brian Stelfreeze’s art gorgeously depicts moments. Finally complete, March is a powerful story, the environs of Wakanda and provides a lush, cinematic made more evocative by the issues we continue to face backdrop for Coates’ storytelling. – Justin B. today. – Adam Essays

I’m Judging You: The Do- Known and Strange Things Better Manual by Luvvie by Teju Cole Ajayi This can be read as a Luvvie Ajayi, popular blogger collection of essays, or as at Awesomelyluvvie.com, a diagnostic look at how brings her wit, irreverent individuals, communities, views, and fierce humor to and countries can work with her collection, I’m Judging one another. Known and You: The Do-Better Manual. Strange Things might be, In her collection of insightful at its core, a series of travel essays, Ajayi ridicules the essays focused on the social spectacle of pop culture, and political. Cole’s duty is from the never-ending to question what it is we iterations of The Real Housewives series to click-bait think we see: in one essay, “Blind Spot,” Cole worries headlines driving fake news. This is Ajayi’s guidebook for a waitress might think he is illiterate, not knowing navigating our super-connected digital world. However, about his eyesight. The idea here, as in the rest of the it’s not all jokes in this poignant debut. Ajayi shines collection, is being misread. Cole is aware of both how brightest when she takes on racial justice. In a moving he might be seen, but also how others are seen without essay about the story of Sandra Bland and policing in context. In Known and Strange Things, Cole is inviting America, Ajayi gets at the core of what is so jarring you to take a journey of discovery; a trip around the about the current state of the country. It’s a brilliant world without a passport. Just know, when you arrive, strategy; by discussing the ludicrous, Ajayi creates a you might see terrible, beautiful, or strange things. bond with the reader, allowing space for more difficult – Marybeth and transformative conversations. In a world full of judgment, Luvvie is here to remind us of our flaws, our mistakes, and how we are in need of deep reflection. More than anything, she’s here to remind us there is still a space, and hope, for meaningful connection, and we can still laugh while doing it. – Marybeth The Fire This Time edited by Jesmyn Ward

Following in the footsteps of James Baldwin and his Upstream by Mary Oliver collection of essays, The Fire Next Time, Jesmyn Ward gathers the essays by today’s leading black authors, “I would say that there exist a thousand breakable links between each of us and including Claudia Rankine, Edwidge Danticat, Isabel everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one,” so writes Mary Wilkerson, and many others, to discuss current race Oliver in an essay on the hope that lies within winter’s darkness. It is a sentiment relations in America. Between the essays on Rachel expressed everywhere in Mary Oliver’s deceptively simple poetry. And so too Dolezal, the murals made to guide New Yorkers on in her deceptively simple prose, as is clear in her collection of essays, Upstream. what to do if they witness police brutality, and pieces In meditations on the natural world and on the everyday sensibilities contained of poetry, the title essay and its reference to Baldwin’s within daily life, she notes those breakable links as well as the underlying bonds masterwork reminds readers that the black community of oneness. Oliver explores this further in critical essays on writers who serve continues to experience the same treatment now as it as her forerunners—Emerson, Whitman, Wordsworth—and in an essay on Poe did in the past. Each page is filled with history, critical whose pessimism might seem to stand opposite the affirmation that defines her thought, and a glimpse of what it means to be a part work. But in his work she sees the same transcendental linkages between life and of the black community. This book does not copy nor death, despair and hope, the same striving to overcome the artifice of writing by repeat Baldwin’s original work, but draws from the grasping the real. She continues in the passage quoted above: powerful writer and expands on his thought in a new “The farthest star and the mud at our feet are family; and there is no decency or way. – Morgan sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves -- we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together. We are each other’s destiny.”

– Kurt Coloring Book

Avie’s Dreams: an Afro-Feminist Coloring Book by Makeda Lewis

This is the one adult coloring book that stands out from the rest. Part poetic exploration of self, and part surrealist coloring book, Avie’s Dreams captures, in brief, powerful, statements and wildly exploratory woman-centered drawings, a mesmerizing narrative about race, gender, sexuality and body image. Dedicated to exploring Afro-centricity, gender dynamics and Black womanhood, Makeda Lewis’s Afro- feminist coloring book is a must have. – Adam Memoirs

Invisible Man, Got the The Emancipation of Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance Whole World Watching by Cecily McMillan by Cecily Mychal Denzel Smith McMillan The publication of J.D. Vance’s memoir could not Smith’s memoir starts with Few book accounts of have been more timely. him trying to answer the Occupy Wall Street give In his account of growing question of how he defines any kind of in-depth look up in a so-called hillbilly himself as a black man at the movement and family, Vance offers a deeply in America. He finds his the controversies that personal, loving but clear- college years at Hampton swirl around it. And it eyed view of his people, University during Obama’s is equally rare to read poor whites of Scots-Irish first race to the presidency first-hand accounts of descent, endangered not help him answer this women imprisoned at New only by economic forces question. These years of York’s Rikers Island. The beyond their control, but his life causes him to evaluate respectability politics, Emancipation of Cecily McMillan does both and the by their own fierce insularity and resistance to outside homophobia, sexism, transphobia, and the taboo of book would be worthy of reading on that account alone. influences. Vance writes of his grandparents’ relocation mental health in the black community that have caused But her memoir provides more. McMillan describes from Kentucky in a wave of migration north to find work him to redefine what masculinity means to him. His her upbringing and youth in Texas and Georgia, family in the steel mills of Ohio, and the family’s subsequent memoir doesn’t only ask questions of himself, but will difficulties, financial hard times leading her brother in struggle to hold on to middle class stability amid the also leave the reader asking questions of how they prison for drugs, her to political engagement—and on to decline following the closure of those same steel define their identity as well. – Morgan New York and Occupy, the swirl of activism striving to be mills. Vance also gives us indelible portraits of family effectual without giving up its values. She recounts how members: a mother struggling with addiction, an absent that commitment led to her victimization by police and father’s strict adherence to conservative Christianity, Birth of a Dream Weaver by by a legal system that has long abjured the notion of and, most movingly, of his grandmother, known as Ngugi Wa Thiong’o innocent before proven guilty—and thus to her stint in “Mamaw,” an awesome, gun-owning matriarch who prison. There she comes to a deeper appreciation of the provided the only real stability he knew. Hillbilly Elegy is A small scene in Birth of lives and struggles of others, a deeper appreciation of an engrossing, readable memoir, as well as a necessary a Dream Weaver has the herself. McMillan becomes a voice for women rendered perspective on the failure of the promise of American author refusing to drink silent, not speaking for them but rather through them prosperity. – Anne a beer just because it is a and discovering thereby a stronger sense of self to thing to do when setting accompany her commitment to activism. The book off to college. The moment concludes with a statement she made upon her release Born a Crime: Stories from a passes quickly, but it speaks that explains her memoir’s title: “The guards didn’t free South African Childhood by to the Ngugi’s ability to me that day, the women did. Their demands were my Trevor Noah resist pressures to conform emancipation proclamation.” – Kurt and serves as a precursor Let’s be honest: when a to his subsequent ability celebrity puts out a memoir to resist the dictates of those in power and resist You Can’t Touch My Hair it often seems nothing more pressure to compromise his writing. This third volume and Other Things I Still than an easy way to cash in of his memoirs covers his passage from village life Have to Explain by Phoebe on their moment. I confess to university, from British colonial subject to citizen Robinson I wasn’t expecting that of independent Kenya. Along the way he tells of the much from Trevor Noah’s brutality of British rule, of the racism of a settler Known for her hilarious Born a Crime outside of a colony and the cost of that legacy in the corruption Podcast, 2 Dope Queens, few laughs. I couldn’t have and violence of those who subsequently betrayed the Phoebe Robinson uses her been more wrong. Born promise of independence. Yet this is a writer’s memoir. comedic stylings in this a Crime is a revelation, and easily one of my favorite Ngugi’s first dramatic work provides a key to his later book of essays on what books of 2016. Noah tells his extraordinary story of novels as he comes to see literature as a form of social it feels like to be a black growing up bi-racial in apartheid South Africa, and while engagement, as a celebration of the lives of those trod woman today who still has there are gut-busting set pieces involving bad dates and underfoot. He pierces through the veil by combining to explain her existence cultural misunderstandings, the true heartbeat of this aspects of a European cultural inheritance with to the world around her. memoir is Noah’s complex and fiercely devoted mother elements of traditional West African culture. Ngugi’s An example of how the who guides him through a childhood of painful—and trenchant criticism of Isak Dinesen, nuanced reading personal becomes political, she shares her own life sometimes violent—situations. Superstar editor Chris of Joseph Conrad, meetings with Langston Hughes experiences as a way for others to learn more about Jackson (Just Mercy, Between the World and Me) has and Chinua Achebe, appreciation of Whitman, frame black women as a marginalized group by relating to worked his magic again—the prose here is raw and his work in a larger literary context. Birth of A Dream her life’s struggles and triumphs. Good for anyone who wrenchingly smart and it flows beautifully from one Weaver is a celebration of the dreams that produce art loves to read short, comical, yet smart and substantive section to the next. Born a Crime is the book to take that in turn produces dreams for a more just world. essays about black womanhood today. – Morgan on a family vacation this year: pass it all around the – Kurt cabin—everyone, from the pre-teen son to the family matriarch, will find something to connect to in this heartbreaking, hysterical, warm, and unforgettable book. – Liz Hottel Can’t find it on our shelves? Order your book online at www.politics-prose.com and collect from any P&P location with no delivery charge! Nonfiction

Evicted: Poverty and Profit Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Unstoppable: Harnessing in the American City by Dinner? A Story of Women Science to Change the Matthew Desmond and Economics by Katrine World by Bill Nye Marcal I was biking to work at Bill Nye’s new book our 5th and K location A recent article in the tackles one of the critical one morning when I saw Guardian about the U.K.’s issues confronting today’s the telltale signs of an economy, titled “Austerity world, climate change and eviction right around the effect hits women twice global warming. It is an corner from the store: as hard as it does men”, incontrovertible fact that the pile of furniture and explained that austerity the Earth becomes warmer personal effects disgorged measures there have every year and the polar on a sidewalk less than disproportionately affected ice caps are melting. If that a block away from the women. After reading doesn’t scare you enough, store, with armed, flak-jacketed US Marshals standing that piece, when I came across Katrine Marcal’s book the resources we need to survive are becoming more nearby. That morning, still shaken by the sight, I pulled it presented itself as a required read. Did you know and more scarce. Nye argues that we should all stop a copy of Matthew Desmond’s newly arrived book off that today almost 60% of American women are in the and rethink the way we live and try not to leave to the shelf. Desmond transforms what could have been workforce but they still hold less than 15% of top jobs future generations an Earth that is dirty, overheated, a thinly topical current affairs book into a masterwork and 62% of minimum-wage jobs? Marcal introduces and depleted of resources. By his own admission, Bill of reportage with the depth of an anthropological these startling statistics in the preface, and immediately Nye is an engineer and a tinkerer so he always looks study. As the book shifts between the narratives of in chapter one starts challenging the father of modern for technical solutions to a problem, and that is what the landlords and their tenants, Desmond maintains economics, Adam Smith, and his “economic man”, the this book offers. Among other things, he says we need profound empathy for all the individuals he portrays; idea that our actions are motivated by self-interest. She to find new sources of energy, new ways to store and yet he also undergirds these narratives with a flinty criticizes his exclusion of unpaid and caregiving work transmit that energy, and new ways to include our contempt for the ways in which structural inequality from economic modeling, an oversight that persists government and citizens everywhere in this immense keep so many in precarious housing situations. even today. This fast-paced and entertaining book undertaking. You don’t need to be a science nerd or – Justin S. illustrates how economic models work using examples to have a lot of knowledge on the topic to understand from Russia, China, the U.S., and even Dubai; she even this book. It is, after all Bill Nye, The Science Guy who uses comparisons with Robinson Crusoe, Goethe’s wrote it! He is undeniably unstoppable in his optimism Economics Rules: The Faustus and David Bowie to teach us about economics. and putting a positive spin on negative issues, and he Rights and Wrongs of the Oh, and spoiler alert… it was his mother. – Marija has a way of explaining things in a way that is both Dismal Science by Dani understandable and entertaining. – Marija Rodrik Future Sex by Emily Witt If you are at all curious Kill ‘Em and Leave: about Economics, when This book is part memoir, Searching for James it works and when it fails part meandering Brown and the American us, and how it needs to travelogue through Soul by James McBride be practiced, then the alternative sexuality in next book on your reading 21st century America. The Kill ‘Em and Leave: list should definitely be book starts as Witt turns 30 Searching for James Brown Economics Rules, by prize- and, newly single, moves and the American Soul winning economist Dani to San Francisco—the intertwines two of author Rodrik. From Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” to modern hotbed of alternative James McBride’s greatest day economic theories, Rodrik gives us a guide to better sexual culture in the U.S. passions and talents— understand the power and limitations of a social science today. In San Francisco writing and music—in this that affects every aspect of our lives. He evangelizes she focuses her work as a biography of legendary for the practical utility of economics: his main premise journalist on writing about soul singer James Brown. is that there are abundant, simple economic models novel forms of sexual expression cropping up in the To those of us who grew up listening to his music in that could be applied to different public problems, Internet age, and the new communities that embrace the 1960s, James Brown was the Godfather of Soul from combating disruptions in the global economy, to them. Witt visits polyamorous communities, a BDSM and the musical father of Black Pride. He did his own financing public transport, to fighting poverty. On the porn company, devotees of a practice called “orgasmic version of the moonwalk in high-heeled boots! He did other hand, he is well aware that economics often fails meditation”, and women who earn a living livestreaming the splits in a suit! He had faux fainting spells! And his us, and through analysis and examples shows us why their autoerotic acts, as well as other pioneers pushing cape! Brown had, the author contends, as profound an economists sometimes don’t get it right. And no, this the boundaries of human sexual expression. She also influence on American social history as Harriet Tubman book is not intended only for those with the background chronicles her own attempts to find love and lust or Frederick Douglass. But much of his reputation and in economics; it is written in a way that is approachable, through the brave new world of online dating. Witt’s legacy became tangled up in unflattering impressions funny and interesting. You can enjoy it and learn from forays into all of these strange landscapes remind us of and tragic incidents from his life, too often leaving it even if you’ve never heard about Adam Smith, Milton just how radically technological advances and evolving him marked and misinterpreted as more of a simple Friedman, or John Maynard Keynes before. – Marija social mores are re-writing the rules of nearly all social caricature than the complicated cultural icon and interactions today, perhaps most prominently those enormously talented artist he truly was. McBride, the involving our biologically hard-wired drives to find sex 2013 National Book Award winner for fiction (The Good and companionship. – Justin B. Lord Bird) tells Brown’s story, in one reviewer’s words, as “a furious ode.” – Lissa Muscatine Nonfiction

Another Day in the Death Pushout: The of America by Gary Younge Criminalization of Black Let’s talk books! Girls in Schools by A seasoned journalist in the Monique W. Morris Follow Politics & Prose on U.K., Gary Younge decided Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to see how many children Monique Morris’s book is @politicsprose in America were killed by a superb examination of gunfire over the course one the policies and cultural calendar day, November 23rd practices of our educational 2013. Heartbreaking and and criminal justice infuriating all at once, we systems that continue are allowed inside the lives to fail Black girls today. of parents who have lost Focused on the cultural their children too early in sexualization of black girls, life. Each story not only looks at the prevalence of gun Morris’s narrative is personal, powerful, and thoroughly culture in America, but also examines how our society researched. Michelle Alexander (author of The New writ-large either helps us or fails us, by researching the Jim Crow) called Pushout a “powerful indictment of the life circumstances of the ten children who died on that cultural beliefs, policies and practices that criminalize random day. This book is a good choice for anyone who and dehumanize Black girls in America.” Highlighting questions whether and how gun control measures can another side of persistent racial inequities, Morris’s reduce gun violence, and what the social realities are at book is an essential and important read. – Adam the heart of this contentious issue. – Morgan

History

White Trash by Nancy Blood in the Water: the Isenberg Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy by This informative tome Heather Ann Thompson retells American history, The Other Paris by Luc Sante showing how paradoxical This is the history of one attitudes towards the white of the most remarkable Paris has long held a special place in the imagination underclass have held firm prisoner uprisings in our as a city of beauty and glamour. There is a tendency over nearly 400 years. On country’s history. On in literature, film, and art to give the city a romantic the one hand, poor whites September 9, 1971, nearly aura. But behind that surface another Paris has long have long been seen as 1,300 inmates took over existed, a gritty place with its hidden corners that an undesirable group their facility in demand of lie a world apart from the dream city of tourists’ condemned by heredity to their most basic human imagination. Focusing on the 19th and first half of feeblemindedness, sloth, rights. Through dedication the 20th centuries, The Other Paris documents that and animalistic behavior. From the colonial period and a little luck, Heather Ann Thompson’s book draws world—a world of crime, drugs, drinking and violence; through the early 20th century elites used language on records that had been intentionally obscured from of poverty, labor revolt, anarchism and socialism; and of borrowed from animal husbandry to describe poor the public. She reveals new information about an old cabaret, popular entertainment, sex, and prostitution. whites as an inferior breed. This abhorrent classist struggle that’s particularly useful, as the issue of our Using literary works, memoirs, newspaper accounts, and bias culminated the emerging “science” of eugenics prison system and prisoner abuses is still alive: this contemporary photos and illustrations, Sante brings to and the Supreme Court infamously sanctioning fall, prisoners around the country held the largest life a way of life that was ever near the lives of wealth forcible sterilization in Buck vs. Bell (1927), a case that strike in our history, with many of the same demands and style shared by the elite, even if kept apart from was brought by a poor white maid who resisted the that prisoners in Attica made 45 years ago. The book them. Sante never patronize those whom he discusses, State of Virginia’s efforts to sterilize her. However in recounts details that challenge popular beliefs about and he does not romanticize the harshness of the life contradiction with the denigration and dehumanization the people we lock behind bars, and the government gone by. But his work is a reminder that in past times, of poor whites, they also have long been idealized, from we might expect to uphold basic human rights. Ann the poor at least had claim to the streets they inhabited. Jefferson’s belief in the innate nobility of America’s Thompson compellingly recounts the first definitive Today, poverty and wealth again sit side by side, but yeoman farmers through the examples of Presidents history of this event, interspersed with stories from the in Paris as elsewhere, those without are pushed away, like Jackson, Lincoln, and most recently Bill Clinton, who people involved. An excellent gift for someone engaged undermining even “high” culture. Sante has produced rose from humble origins in rural backwaters. Isenberg in the human rights struggles of our time, this book a book documenting that loss, alongside documenting also examines changing depictions of poor whites in the highlights many lessons we would benefit to take to resilience. – Kurt popular culture and media over the years, and when heart. – Allison eventually Sarah Palin and Honey Boo Boo find their way into this fascinating book, you won’t be surprised, given the historical continuities Isenberg so compellingly describes. – Justin B. Poetry

Collected Poems by E. Bestiary by Donika Kelly Ethelbert Miller A debut work, Donika Kelly’s E Ethelbert Miller’s poetry Bestiary is filled with poems reverberates. This is that of imaginary creatures, rare compilation of poetry of real animals acting in that allows readers to imagined ways -- yet her see the poet’s evolution words and vision remain as a voice of the human firmly rooted in the endless experience. His work is realm of possibility. Life is simple and sharp, and both filled with transformations; highly specific and widely those who try to freeze accessible. We witness moments (or people, or many voices, exploring and ideas, or relationships) fail developing a growing awareness of the crossroads of to understand the world of pain and yearning around the self and other, race, gender, individuality, history them -- a world that comes vividly alive in this slender and inheritance; in specific scenes of a 1970s DC volume. She says in the last stanza of her poem baring eerie resemblance to its 2016 self, or any urban “Commandments”: American city. In poems of loss of voice in suffering and of emergent power in the same breath, Ethelbert Miller Wings mean you are alive gives voice to America on the move and forever on the and someone is not. Alive means mend. The work invites all of us—our dreaming, hating, you swallow each day like a stone. Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur fearing, demanding, giving, laughing, suffering, hoping, and loving selves—to exhale our collective breath. This Nothing neat, nothing easy, nothing final. Instead we Kaur’s collection of poetry reflects her personal struggle collection offers powerful solace in the truth that we have poems that, though written in absolutely clarity, with learning what love is and what it isn’t. Kaur starts are, as a people of universal heritage, a nation with a are hard to grasp -- and thus last longer, and provoke the collection revealing the relationships she saw phoenix origin story. E Ethelbert Miller’s poetry reminds more reflection, than the repetition of simple verities. around her and how that affected her own views on us of our capacity for regeneration, and challenges us to – Kurt romance. Revolving around her twenty-first year, her rise once again. – Rachel poems and illustrations describes what happens when a young woman loses her first love but in the end learns to love herself. A great read for those who not only love poetry but stories of self-love and growth. – Morgan Spirituality

At Home in the World by Thich Nhat Hanh

While best known for his commitment to Zen Buddhism and nonviolence, Thich Nhat Hanh is also a prolific author. His latest is presented to us as his memoirs, but readers will soon discover that the book is less a straight-ahead autobiography than his accumulated 90 years of wisdom through vignettes of daily life and lessons learned. Thich Nhat Hanh takes us from his childhood in Vietnam and his days at a monk novice to the establishment of Plum Village in France and his international travels and meetings with Martin Luther King Jr. and Thomas Merton. However, these events themselves are always tangential to how they deepened his practice and furthered his commitment to building a true, lasting peace in the world. During a time where many of our customers have come in sharing feelings of deep anxiety over the recent political developments and in society’s collective ability to take care of all its members, many readers may appreciate the deep well of compassion and knowledge contained herein. – Justin S.

How to Live Boxed Set by Thich Nhat Hanh

Sitting, eating, walking, loving, relaxing—human enough behaviors with varying degrees of difficulty. Now, in this serenely packaged How to Live Boxed Set, mindfulness teacher Thich Nhat Hanh’s straight-forward advice for living in the present is even easier to access. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us to be still and to focus our attention on whatever act we are performing. Whether you are walking from your home to the metro, showing loving kindness for a friend, or simply listening to the sounds around you, stillness and openness will help you act with grace. – Jenny C.