Recommended Books
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Author:
Matthew Desmond
ISBN 13:
978-0553447453
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • ONE OF TIME ’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES ’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY One of the most acclaimed books of our time, this modern classic “has set a new standard for reporting on poverty” (Barbara Ehrenreich, The New York Times Book Review ). In Evicted , Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” ( The Nation ), “vivid and unsettling” ( New York Review of Books ), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: President Barack Obama, The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Esquire, BuzzFeed, Fortune, San Francisco Chronicle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Politico, The Week, Chicago Public Library, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Shelf Awareness WINNER OF: The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction • The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism • The PEN/New England Award • The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE AND THE KIRKUS PRIZE “ Evicted stands among the very best of the social justice books.” —Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto and Commonwealth “Gripping and moving—tragic, too.” —Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones “ Evicted is that rare work that has something genuinely new to say about poverty.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Wounded in House of a Friend
Author:
Sonia Sanchez
ISBN 13:
978-0807068267
Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence
Author:
Patrick Sharkey
ISBN 13:
978-0393356540
“Admirably connects two stories about the criminal legal system that are usually told separately. One is that the country that Americans live in is safer than it has been for a long time. The other story is that for some citizens, especially African-American men, the country that they live in is not free.” ―Paul Butler, New York Times Book Review From the late ’90s to the mid-2010s, American cities experienced an astonishing drop in violent crime, dramatically changing urban life. In many cases, places once characterized by decay and abandonment are now thriving, the fear of death by gunshot wound replaced by concern about skyrocketing rents. In Uneasy Peace , Patrick Sharkey, “the leading young scholar of urban crime and concentrated poverty” (Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis ) reveals the striking effects: improved school test scores, because children are better able to learn when not traumatized by nearby violence; better chances that poor children will rise into the middle class; and a marked increase in the life expectancy of African American men. Some of the forces that brought about safer streets―such as the intensive efforts made by local organizations to confront violence in their own communities―have been positive, Sharkey explains. But the drop in violent crime has also come at the high cost of aggressive policing and mass incarceration. From Harlem to South Los Angeles, Sharkey draws on original data and textured accounts of neighborhoods across the country to document the most successful proven strategies for combating violent crime and to lay out innovative and necessary approaches to the problem of violence. At a time when crime is rising again, the issue of police brutality has taken center stage, and powerful political forces seek to disinvest in cities, the insights in this book are indispensable.
No Matter the Wreckage
Authors:
Sarah Kay
,
Sophia Janowitz
ISBN 13:
978-1938912481
"Sarah Kay is a fearsomely open and generous talent. In this collection she will give you moments so intimate and beautifully rendered you will come to know them as your own. An unalloyed joy from beginning to end." --Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist of Broadway's In the Heights "Nowhere have I found such humble honesty laced with such beauty. Nowhere, such boundless grace. Sarah Kay writes with a particular and rare magic, evoking emotions we may have forgotten we possess. No Matter the Wreckage is both spare and dense, uproarious and healing. An enchanting collection, imbued with courage, wisdom, lament, and triumph." --Jeanann Verlee, Author of Racing Hummingbirds 2011 TED speaker (recording has been viewed 3 million times online) First book, "B" was ranked #1 Bestselling Poetry Book on Amazon Featured on HBO, American Public Radio, Huffington Post, CNN.com Founder and Co-Director of Project VOICE Following the success of her breakout poem, "B", Sarah Kay, in collaboration with illustrator Sophia Janowitz, released her debut collection of poetry featuring work from the first decade of her career. “Forgive yourself for the decisions you have made, the ones you still call mistakes when you tuck them in at night” No Matter the Wreckage presents readers with new and beloved poetry that showcases Kay's talent for celebrating family, love, travel, and unlikely romance between inanimate objects ("The Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire"). Both fresh and wise, Kay's poetry allows readers to join her on the journey of discovering herself and the world around her. It is an honest and powerful collection.