Latest
The Permanent Temp Economy
Jan 25, 2019 A chronicle of the rise of temporary work, from World War II to the present, shows how corporations maximize profit by dumping employees from payrolls.
Snooping Through Silicon Valley
Oct 19, 2018 This exploration of the tech industry "strings lights around the absurdities of the gig economy and the belief in Everyman entrepreneurial capacity."
Are We Losing Our Divinity?
Jun 22, 2018 Marilynne Robinson delivers some provocative but often frustrating writing on humanist education, history, and science versus theology.
‘The Good Fight’ Shows Us a Better Reality on TV
Jun 20, 2018 CBS All Access' legal dramedy plays like more of a fantasy in the current climate, but it’s just the show we need right now.
The Water Will Come
Nov 24, 2017 Jeff Goodell's cautionary book on sea level rise and climate change offers a modern history of arrogance in the face of evidence.
All the Single Ladies
Jun 24, 2016 Rebecca Traister excavates the economic, social and sexual options women have had historically in relation to marriage, and tracks how the growing numbers of unmarried women have advanced the fights for abolition, suffrage and labor rights.
Dog Whistle Politics
Feb 5, 2016 Ian Haney Lopez, the book's author, writes that many white Americans no longer see themselves as racist. He maintains, however, these people are manipulated by dog whistle politics -- coded racial language that "operates on two levels: inaudible and easily denied in one range, yet stimulating strong reactions in another."
Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster
Jun 12, 2015 A team of scientists and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist recount, in the new book "Fukushima," what happens when a catastrophe strikes that no one imagines. Early and often comes the warning: Hubris Ahead.
Being Mortal
Mar 21, 2015 Surgeon and public health expert Atul Gawande writes in his book on facing the final phase of life that "as people's capacities wane making their lives better often requires curbing our purely medical imperatives When should we try to fix and when should we not?".
The Sixth Extinction
Jul 26, 2014 Many now-extinct species had traits that were advantageous for millions of years, until some change made them lethal. Mostly, Homo sapiens are that change.