2024

A Pedagogy of Kindness

by Catherine J. Denial

Part manifesto, part teaching memoir, part how-to guide, this book articulates a fresh vision for teaching, one that focuses on ensuring justice, believing people, and believing in people. Offering evidence-based insights and drawing from her own rich experiences as a professor, the author offers practical tips for reshaping syllabi, assessing student performance, and creating trust and belonging in the classroom.

You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It’s Making the World a Weirder Place

by Janelle Shane

We rely on AI every day, trusting it for matters both big and small, from unlocking our phones to hospital care. But how smart is AI really? Scientist and author Janelle Shane. In this book she shows how these machines learn, fail, and adapt—and how they reflect both the best and worst of humanity.

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

by Johnathan Haidt

THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“[an] important new book… The shift in kids’ energy and attention from the physical world to the virtual one, Haidt shows, has been catastrophic, especially for girls.” —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times.

A Palestinian Theology of Liberation: The Bible, Justice, and the Palestine-Israel Conflict

by Naim Stifan Ateek

Addressing what many consider the world’s most controversial conflict, Naim Ateek offers a succinct primer on liberation theology in the context of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination. Beginning with the historical roots of this struggle, he shows how the memory of the Holocaust served to trump the claims and aspirations of the native inhabitants of Palestine, and how later Israeli occupation and settlements in the West Bank have contributed to their suffering and oppression. Supported by many Western Christians, Israeli claims to the land rely on a particular exclusivist reading of the Bible. In contrast, a Palestinian theology of liberation responds with a counter-strategy for biblical interpretation, emphasizing the prophetic themes of inclusivity and justice. Ateek concludes by providing principles for achieving security, peace, and justice for all peoples in Israel/Palestine.

Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto

by Tricia Hersey

***INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER***

Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.

What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine level pace –– feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit.