POLITICS &
CURRENT EVENTS
CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL COMMENTARY
America in the Time of COVID
Letters to My White Male Friends
available in June, hardcover, Knopf
available in June, hardcover, St. Martin’s Press
Beginning with the absolutely critical first moments of the outbreak in China, and ending with an epilogue on the vaccine rollout and the unprecedented events between the election of Joseph Biden and his inauguration, Lawrence Wright’s The Plague Year surges forward with essential information—and fascinating historical parallels—examining the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic.
White men are finally realizing that simply not being racist isn’t enough to end racism. These men want deeper insight not only into how racism has harmed Black people, but, for the first time, into how it has harmed them. They are beginning to see that racism warps us all. Letters to My White Male Friends promises to help men who have said they are committed to change and to develop the capacity to see, feel and sustain that commitment so they can help secure racial justice for us all.
The Plague Year : by Lawrence Wright
Don’t Let It Get You Down :
Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body by Savala Nolan
available in July, hardcover, Simon & Schuster
Nolan knows what it means to live in the in-between. Descended from a Black and Mexican father and a white mother, Nolan’s mixed-race identity is obvious. At her mother’s encouragement, she began her first diet at the age of three and has been both fat and painfully thin throughout her life. She has experienced both the discomfort of generational poverty and the ease of wealth and privilege. It is these liminal spaces—of race, class, and body type—that the essays excavate, presenting a clear and nuanced understanding of our society’s most intractable points of tension.
Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery paperback, Atria Books
Smart writing and experimental humor take this collection of personal essays to the next level! This is not the kind of book you can nail to one genre—it will make you laugh, cry, contemplate life and give you a history lesson all in one go. –Chelanne
38
Summer 2021
by Dax-Devlon Ross
Nice Racism : How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin DiAngelo
available in June, hardcover, Beacon Press
In White Fragility, DiAngelo made a provocative claim: white progressives cause the most daily harm to people of color. In Nice Racism, her follow-up work, she explains how they do so. Drawing on her background as a sociologist and over 25 years working as an anti-racist educator, she picks up where White Fragility left off and moves the conversation forward.
Great Summer Reads! On Tyranny : Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
by Timothy Snyder
paperback, Random House
Though this book is pocket sized it is overflowing with important lessons from the past as we navigate the uncertainties of the present and the future. An easy but thoughtful and thought-provoking read. –Seda
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