PositiveLibrary JournalJohnson weaves compelling twin tragedies into a searing narrative that details the escalating conflict between locals and Vietnamese newcomers that explodes into a deadly night in the tiny town of Seadrift in 1979, followed by Klan involvement and a lawsuit featuring Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center ... Two stories interweave, collide, and ripple for more than 40 years, and Johnson’s thorough, diligent research and brisk storytelling make this narrative compelling for those seeking thrills or truths. Recommended for readers interested in environmental or racial justice and the power of activism.
Keith O'Brien
RaveLibrary JournalO’Brien’s...meticulously researched and gripping history of the massive environmental disaster at Love Canal draws readers into the unrest, anxiety, and bewilderment of everyday people discovering their beloved neighborhood is poisoned and deadly ... This Love Canal story exposes the nation’s utter unpreparedness to respond to that public health crisis and is very timely during the COVID pandemic. This authoritative book deserves a wide audience and should provoke reflection on just how much we have progressed in the 45 years since the Love Canal disaster.
Andrew Ross
PositiveLibrary JournalThis book will have particular interest for libraries in the Sunbelt, but it’s not just about Florida: full-time minimum wage workers can barely afford rent anywhere in the nation. Ross calls to end market-driven housing and empower residents to make reform; for dwellers and policy-makers, reading this book may be a first step toward that empowerment.
Emma Brown
PositiveLibrary JournalBrown\'s reporting on a variety of such initiatives tempers the gut-punch of stories documenting the ubiquity and ugliness of sexual harassment and the harm of sexual violence to people of all genders. A groundbreaking exploration with clear recommendations on how to better raise and support boys.
Reuben Jonathan Miller
RaveLibrary Journal... an important, harrowing ethnographic study that reads like a keenly observed memoir, which, in part, it is ... By listening closely to his many subjects, Miller demonstrates what living with a criminal record is really like: debilitating, dehumanizing, marginalizing, and exhausting ... A worthy companion to the lauded Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, this is essential reading for all who care about justice in contemporary America.
Jeff Hobbs
RaveLibrary Journal... intimate, empathetic ... Hobbs arranges dozens of vignettes of these boys and their friends, foregrounding their experiences and centering their voice in a beautifully rendered group portrait of adolescents and of adolescence itself.
Jodie Adams Kirshner
PositiveLibrary JournalKirshner’s humane focus on individual stories illuminates underreported problems with housing, employment, and transportation. She calls for job creation, improvements to education and public transit, and support for entrepreneurs—reforms that could be paid for by reducing tax subsidies to private businesses whose building projects and job creation generally don’t benefit city residents ... With a foreword by Michael Eric Dyson, this book is an important read for policymakers and urban dwellers, locally and nationally.
Ben Westhoff
PositiveLibrary JournalCritiquing prohibition-oriented drug policy, Westhoff explores more pragmatic responses including grassroots harm-reduction activism and supervised injection facilities, needle exchanges, and treatment programs that could lower public-health costs and reduce fatalities. ... this book will assist policymakers, activists, and general readers in understanding better how to respond to the drug crisis that is only more intractable now.
Sarah M. Broom
RaveLibrary JournalThis ambitious, haunting memoir of home, movement, displacement, loss, and persistence allows Broom to offer an intimate, closely observed history of her family over nearly a hundred years ... Though largely a linear narrative, this debut memoir feels collage-like—impressionistic, cumulative, multisensory—imbued with ambivalence about leaving and wonder at the pull of home ... Recommended for all who enjoy family history or care to explore beyond the surface of place.
Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson
RaveLibrary Journal...a well-documented investigation of social, cultural, and economic realities that undergird declining birth rates and lengthening lifespans ... Compelling, convincing, and deserving of a very wide audience, from general readers to policymakers.
Katherine S. Newman
PositiveLibrary JournalPaired chapters contrasting impoverished Opelousas, LA, and middle-class Ogden, UT reveal striking similarities and vastly different outcomes between these two communities that share faith-based and familial connectivity, but diverge in policy, infrastructure, and the ravages of generational poverty and institutional racism. This bleak but not hopeless exploration concludes with a succinct call for pension reform ... Strongly recommended for policymakers, business and nonprofit leaders, and general readers concerned (and who isn\'t?) about their retirement.
Stephanie Land
PositiveLibrary JournalVivid and visceral yet nearly unrelenting ... Unfortunately, Land\'s personal narrative does not extend or speak to the larger realities of poverty and single motherhood, particularly for women of color. And while Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) provides an interesting foreword, it doesn\'t help enough to widen the book\'s lens ... Land has perhaps succeeded in having her story told by virtue of her eventual triumph in escaping the grind of poverty. Her journey offers an illuminating read that should inspire outrage, hope, and change.
