Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists: Social Issues

Through the ravages of endless police killings, to the border and its desperate migrants, and through the stories of corrupt politicians and dirty cops, readers of If I Am Coming to Your Town, Something Terrible Has Happened will see through writing what most people never see: the seams of an entire country tearing apart in front of them.
(Description from NoveList)

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, multimillion-copy bestselling classic Guns, Germs and Steel, a landmark study of leadership across politics, religion, business, and sports--seeking to decode how and why leaders matter.
(Description from NoveList)

Geographer McDonald debuts with a sweeping reappraisal of the notion of historical progress. He examines frequently cited evidence of progress, including falling global poverty rates and increased lifespans, and dismisses it as “cherry-picked” data. Arguing instead that progress is a political myth used to naturalize inequality in the present by promising a better society in the future.
(Description from NoveList)

The author, who grew up poor in Urbana, Ohio, in the 70s and 80s, faces the darkness that has recently gripped her family and community, people she loves wholeheartedly, even the ones she sometimes struggles to like, and in facing difficult truths finds sparks of human dignity.
(Description from NoveList)

Dorothy Roberts grew up in a deeply segregated Chicago of the 1960s where relationships barely crossed the "colorline." Yet inside her own home, where her father was white and her mother a Black Jamaican immigrant, interracial marriage wasn't just a part of her upbringing, it was a shared mission.
(Description from NoveList)

Combining the incisive reporting of Evicted with the beautifully rendered introspection of The Empathy Exams, Aging Out is an intimate and unflinching exploration of what it means to age in this country and why Americans--including Schiller herself--are so terrified of getting old.
(Description from NoveList)

For twenty-five years Martha Raddatz has witnessed the grit and resilience of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have been fighting America's wars since 9/11. The Hero Next Door offers a dozen portraits of servicemen and women who are every bit as inspiring as those of the Greatest Generation.
(Description from NoveList)

Funt chronicles the history of sports gambling laws, detailing how an exemption for fantasy leagues in the early 2000s led to a “gray market” that allowed for the rise of FanDuel and DraftKings, platforms on which users competed to win money by drafting a team of athletes and earning points based on their real-world performances.
(Description from NoveList)

The National Book Award-winning historian of Stamped from the Beginning charts how great replacement theory has moved from the margins to become the most dominant politcal theory of our time - and what we can do to safeguard democracy from this insidious threat.
(Description from NoveList)

On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, law professor, legal analyst, and bestselling author of The Indispensable Right Jonathan Turley explores how the unique origins of American democracy set it apart from other revolutions, whether it can survive and thrive in the 21st century, and how the unfinished story of the revolution will play out in a rapidly changing world.
(Description from NoveList)

For years, a small group of billionaires has amassed increasing power, steering American politics for their own benefit. There is only one word to describe such extreme levels of wealth, and political control: Oligarchy. From China to Russia to Saudi Arabia and beyond, many of these men have cultivated alliances with America's most notorious adversaries, transforming American policy and American politics into their own private fiefdoms, regardless of what Americans actually want.
(Description from NoveList)

From one of the most successful Democratic strategists of the last decade, a revelatory account of what you--yes, you--can do to defeat Trumpism.
(Description from NoveList)

Recounts the deeds of whom the authors believe the worst people in history: Genghis Khan, the Roman Emperor Caligula, Henry VIII, the collective evil of the 19th century slave traders, and more.
(Description from NoveList)

NBC's Senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley takes us inside the Trump White House to show how Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Tom Homan, and other anti-immigration hardliners are executing the administration's mass deportation plan, seemingly prioritizing spectacle and punishment over security and legal constraints.
(Description from NoveList)

Drawing from never-before-seen archival materials, legal files, and more, Heather Ann Thompson shines surprising new light on an infamous 1984 New York subway shooting that would unveil simmering racial resentments and would lead, in unexpected ways, to a fractured future and a new era of rage and violence.
(Description from NoveList)

As Americans, we are told a rose-tinted story about our criminal courts - that these are the hallowed halls of justice, that the purpose of our legal process is to find the truth, and that those who enforce the law are both equitable and heroic. But what if the reality is purposefully obscured to hide something rotten at the system's core?
(Description from NoveList)

The working homeless, trapped by skyrocketing rents and stagnant wages in gentrifying cities, are examined through the lens of five families in Atlanta, showing the human cost of homelessness for people with full-time jobs, revealing the extent and causes of a crisis where housing is treated as a privilege.
(Description from NoveList)

Presents a compelling account of Evelyn, a single mother of six navigating the realities of homelessness in Los Angeles amid a housing crisis, as she strives to keep her children in school and safe while working as a waitress and transforms her life through her relationship with a compassionate social worker.
(Description from NoveList)

In 2017, Brooke Nevils made a confidential HR complaint about one of the most powerful and familiar faces in media. Twenty-four hours later, the highest paid morning news anchor in history was fired, stunning millions of Americans in one of the MeToo era's defining stories.
(Description from NoveList)

Retired Marine Johnny Joey Jones brings to life dramatic res­cues, heart-wrenching losses, and awe-inspiring acts of courage. He delves deep into what drives these brave men and women, offering an intimate look at their personal and professional lives.
(Description from NoveList)

This fascinating no-bullsh*t account of twenty years in waste management paints a vivid portrait of the heroic labor, anarchic spirit, and violent conditions of the people who keep our cities clean.
(Description from NoveList)

Drawing on cutting-edge economic research and real-world experiments, the book presents a blueprint for reform that runs all the way through the system. Doleac seeks to empower readers with practical, achievable solutions, and demonstrates that we can have both public safety and a smaller, less intrusive justice system--without waiting for structural reforms that might never come.
(Description from NoveList)

In December 1969, the FBI, the Chicago Police Department, and the office of States Attorney, led by rising political star Edward V. Hanrahan, conspired to assassinate Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, and then flagrantly covered up their misconduct. Thirteen years later, Jackie Wilson was tortured by the same police department and wrongfully incarcerated for thirty-six years.
(Description from NoveList)

Reporter Jennifer Breheny Wallace investigates the deep roots of toxic achievement culture. Drawing on interviews with families, educators, and psychologists, she offers a humane view of the crisis plaguing today's teens and a practical framework for how to help.
(Description from catalog)

A riveting investigation into a school, a scam, and a notorious college admissions scandal that exposes the inequalities and racial segregation of American education, from two award-winning New York Times journalists.
(Description from NoveList)

Winner of the George Polk Award for his investigation that brought down Stanford's president, Theo Baker offers a revelatory and gripping account of Silicon Valley hubris.
(Description from NoveList)

An American lawyer's brilliant, propulsive story of witnessing and playing a part in the transformation of Russia under Yeltsin and Putin, a true tale of fascinating personalities, criminal intrigue, harrowing situations, audacious actions and international politics.
(Description from NoveList)

An award-winning novelist and immigrant to the West, after reporting on the War on Terror, Black Lives Matter protests, and the slaughter in Gaza, concludes that much of what the West promises is a lie--that there will always be groups outside the boundaries of privilege who won't be considered fully human.
(Description from NoveList)

The January 6th insurrection was a well-planned attack coordinated largely right out in the open. Through original interviews and reporting, this oral history offers a minute-by-minute account of the riots through the never-before-heard stories of those who were there.
(Description from NoveList)

Gladwell returns with a brilliant new work: an incisive investigation into gun violence, America's deadliest and most polarizing crisis. Why, when it comes to lethal violence, is America so different from the rest of the globe? The United States is wealthier, better educated, more technologically sophisticated, more religious than almost any of its peers in the developed world--all of which would suggest that it should also have the lowest levels of violence. Yet the opposite is true.
(Description from NoveList)

From two leading economists comes a groundbreaking new portrait of the hidden fortunes of Main Street business owners--ordinary Americans who built extraordinary wealth and are quietly rewriting the rules of money and power.
(Description from NoveList)

Blockers. It wasn't a compliment. In Trump's new Washington, it was the worst thing you could be--especially if you worked in the federal government and wanted to keep your job. A Blocker was a holdover, an impediment, someone who didn't get the message--and, most of all, someone who didn't belong.
(Description from NoveList)

Drawing on her own unlikely political journey from a lesbian Republican operative to the vanguard of the anti-MAGA movement, Longwell delivers a book that is equal parts war manual and pep talk--with her personal and professional story woven throughout.
(Description from NoveList)

One of the keystone inventions of the 21st century, Wikipedia is the largest repository of human knowledge ever made, with editions in 343 languages read by millions every day. Yet, its status as a "digital wonder of the world" is coupled with an odd complacency. We all use Wikipedia, but seldom think about what it is and where it came from. Richard Cooke explores the site's shifting role in establishing fact in a time of deep uncertainty about truth and authority.
(Description from NoveList)

Over its nearly 150 years, the United States Department of Justice became America's most consequential institution, determining the rules and limits of what makes us who we are as a country, down to our most revolutionary core principle: equal protection under the law. Rachel Maddow traces these triumphs and misdeeds through the founding and rise of the KKK, the Red Scare, civil rights violence, railroad barons' crushing of unions, the lawlessness of the Reagan Administration, and the collapse into thug rule in the Trump Administration.
(Description from NoveList)

Anna Lembke—Stanford professor, physician, and New York Times bestselling author of Dopamine Nation, with more than 1.5 million copies sold—offers readers inspiring stories and transformative tools for letting go in a world engineered for certainty and control.
(Description from Amazon)

A deeply personal book account of America's recent history, informed by O'Reilly's first-hand encounters and opinions about those people and their actions. O'Reilly reveals never-before-reported information about five presidential administrations, terrorism, crime, corruption, and famous people, including power media figures he has worked with and competed against.
(Description from NoveList)

Go inside the high-stakes world of sports ownership as New York Times bestselling author and owner of the Baltimore Orioles David M. Rubenstein reveals the financial strategies, leadership secrets, and billion-dollar deal-making behind championship franchises through conversations with America's most powerful owners.
(Description from Amazon)

A devastating reckoning with the people and institutions whose failure to stand up to Trump's brazen grab for authoritarian power has been particularly shocking and consequential. History will be particularly harsh to a subset of Trump enablers with a few key things in common: money and power. They represent intuitions that are central in determining whether America remains a free, functioning democracy or not. And they absolutely know better.
(Description from Amazon)

A fearless and urgent chronicle of the tech-authoritarian movement from its early days in San Francisco politics to its current moment on the international stage, exploring the wild and dystopian ambition of the technocrats at its center, and offering a road map to resistance.
(Description from NoveList)

As social media forces face-to-face interaction behind digital screens, communication gets outsourced to AI, and the world becomes more polarized than ever, our loneliness crisis shows no signs of slowing. To reveal how we can forge faster, stronger, and longer bonds, Grant offers groundbreaking studies, expert insights, and myth-busting stories.
(Description from NoveList)