American Prison by Shane Bauer – An investigative journalist gets hired in a for-profit prison as a guard and relates his experiences.
Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger by Soraya L. Chemaly – A discussion on how the rage of the #metoo movement should be converted to social activism.
The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties by Paul Collier – The renowned economist presents a candid diagnosis of the failures of capitalism while outlining pragmatic, ethical recommendations for healing economic, social, and cultural divides.
The Fires of Spring: A Post-Arab Spring Journey Through the Turbulent New Middle East by Shelly Culbertson – The first book to bring the post-Arab Spring world to light in a holistic context takes readers on a journey through Turkey, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia, navigating street life and peering into ministries, mosques and women’s worlds, while revealing the pain and dysfunction that still continues to plague some parts of the region.
We Say #Never Again: Reporting by the Parkland Student Journalists edited by MSD teachers Melissa Falkowski and Eric Garner – This collection of essays looks at the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and the fight for gun control– as told by the student reporters for the school’s newspaper and TV station.
Mr. Trump’s Wild Ride: The Thrills, Chills, Screams, and Occasional Blackouts of an Extraordinary Presidency by Major Garrett – A chronicle of the Trump administration from the inside perspective of a White House press correspondent.
Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rap Culture edited by Roxane Gay – Covering a vast array of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to accounts of child molestation, a series of authors, in this thought-provoking collection of first-person essays edited by the author of Bad Feminist, tackle rape, assault and harassment head on.
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Harari – How do we navigate a world with fast changing technology?
Prius or Pickup? How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide by Marc Hetherington & Jonathan Weiler – A discussion that posits Americans aren’t divided by politics but by basic personal preferences.
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Erin Klinenberg – An argument that public shared places are a basis of strength for democratic societies.
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis – A narrative account of the post-2016 election chaos that took over Washington to reveal how a small number of uninformed Trump appointees are triggering devastating world consequences.
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff – Considers the American university campus as a metaphor for American political polarization.
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy – Chronicles America’s more than twenty-year struggle with opioid addiction, from the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, through the spread of addiction in distressed communities in Central Appalachia, to the current national crisis.
Bodies in Person: An Account of Civilian Casualities in American Wars by Nick McDonell – Presents the story of civilians who have died as a result of America’s recent wars, introducing some of those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rescue workers who tried to save them, and the American soldiers coming to terms with their deaths.
On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by DeRay McKesson – An internationally recognized civil rights activist and popular host of Pod Save the People presents a meditative call to arms on resistance, justice and freedom on the front lines of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow – A story of an ex-white supremacist and how white supremacy has recently been normalized.
Trump, the Blue Collar President by Anthony Scaramucci – Scaramucci reflects on his relationship with President Trump and the economic condition of the nation under Trump.
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister – Explores the transformative power of female anger and its ability to transcend into a political movement, tracking the history of women’s anger as political fuel, from suffragettes campaigning for voting rights to the Women’s March and the #MeToo movement.
House of Trump, House of Putin by Craig Unger – A look at the relationship between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia.