极乐禁地

THE FRIDAY LIST

Every week, new books and eBooks are arriving at RLB Library! Below are a few highlighted titles that are placed in the 1st floor leisure reading kiosk. There you鈥檒l also find past The Friday List titles, but there are many more that we just don鈥檛 have room to show off. The last 30 days of new arrivals are listed at the bottom of this post, where you鈥檒l be sure to find something to read for class assignments, your own personal enrichment, or just to have some fun!

, by Aaron Robertson, 2024

How do the disillusioned, the forgotten, and the persecuted not merely hold on to life but expand its possibilities and preserve its beauty? What, in other words, does utopia look like in black? These questions animate Aaron Robertson鈥檚 exploration of Black Americans' efforts to remake the conditions of their lives. Writing in the tradition of Saidiya Hartman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robertson makes his way from his ancestral hometown of Promise Land, Tennessee, to Detroit鈥攖he city where he was born, and where one of the country鈥檚 most remarkable Black utopian experiments got its start. Founded by the brilliant preacher Albert Cleage Jr., the Shrine of the Black Madonna combined Afrocentric Christian practice with radical social projects to transform the self-conception of its members. Central to this endeavor was the Shrine鈥檚 chancel mural of a Black Virgin and child, the icon of a nationwide liberation movement that would come to be known as Black Christian Nationalism. The Shrine鈥檚 members opened bookstores and co-ops, created a self-defense force, and raised their children communally, eventually working to establish the country鈥檚 largest Black-owned farm, where attempts to create an earthly paradise for Black people continues today.

, by Glenn Adamson, 2024

Never not working : why the always-on culture is bad for business, and how to fix it, by Malissa Clark, 2024

Finally, a book that looks at overwork and burnout not just from the individual's perspective but from an organizational perspective, too. Clark delivers a comprehensive, nuanced definition of workaholism, busting myths along the way-such as the idea that the number of hours worked is the strongest predictor of workaholic tendencies. (It's not.) She also helps you see if you're creating workaholics in your organization or if you're falling prey to the phenomenon yourself. Clark shows you how to escape the trap of putting work at the center of everything and thus losing your well-being-or your company's performance, in the process. Deeply researched and written for everyone from leaders to individual contributors, Never Not Working is the essential guide to identifying workaholism in yourself and others and starting on the road to recovery.

Recoding America : why government is failing in the digital age and how we can do better, by Jennifer Pahlka, 2023

A bold call to reexamine how our government operates-and sometimes fails to-from President Obama's former deputy chief technology officer and the founder of Code for America. Just when we most need our government to work-to decarbonize our infrastructure and economy, to help the vulnerable through a pandemic, to defend ourselves against global threats-it is faltering. Government at all levels has limped into the digital age, offering online services that can feel even more cumbersome than the paperwork that preceded them and widening the gap between the policy outcomes we intend and what we get. But it's not more money or more tech we need. Government is hamstrung by a rigid, industrial-era culture, in which elites dictate policy from on high, disconnected from and too often disdainful of the details of implementation. Lofty goals morph unrecognizably as they cascade through a complex hierarchy. But there is an approach taking hold that keeps pace with today's world and reclaims government for the people it is supposed to serve. Jennifer Pahlka shows why we must stop trying to move the government we have today onto new technology and instead consider what it would mean to truly recode American government.

New Arrivals in the last 30 days:

(Arrivals are sorted by recency and then alphabetically)