Contemporary Cultural Criticism

Hanging Out : The Radical Power of Killing Time

by Sheila Liming

available now, hardcover, Melville House Starting with the assumption that play is to children as hanging out is to adults, Liming makes a brilliant case for the necessity of unstructured social time as a key element of our cultural vitality. The book asks questions like what is hanging out? why is it important? why do we do it? how do we do it? and examines the various ways we hang out—in groups, online, at parties, at work.

Saving Time : Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock

by Jenny Odell

available in March, hardcover, Random House Saving Time tugs at the seams of reality as we know it—the way we experience time itself—and rearranges it, imagining a world not centered on work, the office clock, or the profit motive. If we can “save” time by imagining a life, identity, and source of meaning outside these things, time might also save us.