Here are 11 books that Coming Up Short fans have personally recommended if you like
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I enjoy reading mysteries for relaxation, and it is always pure pleasure to find a literary mystery. Irish writer Tana French, whom I just discovered this year, is a brilliant author. Her books are not formula mysteries but beautifully crafted novels with complex plots and characters. In the The Witch Elm, a tree is rendered with the strength of a character. From beginning to end, French's writing flows with a command of psychological drama, nuance, poetic phrases, and surprising metaphors that create her story's environment, mood, and suspense. I couldn't put it down!
Named a New York Times Notable Book of 2018 and a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, The New York Times Book Review, Amazon, The Boston Globe, LitHub, Vulture, Slate, Elle, Vox, and Electric Literature
“Tana French’s best and most intricately nuanced novel yet.” —The New York Times
An “extraordinary” (Stephen King) and “mesmerizing” (LA Times) new standalone novel from the master of crime and suspense and author of the forthcoming novel The Searcher.
From the writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, “absolutely mesmerizing” by Gillian Flynn, and…
Insurrection offers a profound and incisive analysis of the underlying factors that culminated in the assault on Washington, DC’s Capitol Building on that fateful day: January 6th, 2021.
Going far beyond mere journalistic accounts, the book delves into structural trends within the United States, providing a broader and deeper context…
David R. Yale’s novel, Getting Back Our Stolen Bootstraps, has everything—murder, class warfare, struggle for justice, romance, and sex, including one of the most sensuous love scenes you’ll ever read. With a cast of characters headed by 19-year-old Paul Mckinen, who is remarkably wise with leadership qualities beyond his age, Yale takes us into a Minnesota community called Shingle Creek during one winter month in 1972 where working-class people are struggling to improve their socioeconomic condition by taking on the age-old challenge often hurled at minorities and women to be more self-reliant: “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” Although dating back to the 19th century when it had a different meaning, this expression has come to be a metaphor for achieving success through your own individual efforts without external help. A totally impossible feat, as we all need the help of others in some form. So “bootstraps.” But what if…
Illegal harassment doesn't stop essential workers from organizing for their rights. So business owners attack them with an unlawful militia, provoking a general strike. The Shingle Creek community continues its campaign for workers' rights despite illegal harassment. So panicking wealthy Fat Cats step up their bullying. Cops kill Fred, an influential community ally. Jail Creekers illegally. And Remove Creekers' lawsuits from court dockets. Creekers use their press contacts to break through news blackouts and get favorable worldwide coverage. Fat Cats then ban Creekers' meetings from the school. So they meet in a church. And start building a huge meeting hall.…
A recently discovered journal from one of America's most iconic writers, Joan Didion, the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights.
In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had 'a rough few years'. She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne.
For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions…
An eyewitness account of the first major international war-crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials, Twilight of Impunity is a gripping guide to the prosecution of Slobodan Milošević for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed during nearly a decade of wars in the former Yugoslavia.
A revelatory biography of Robert Redford, written in close collaboration with the extraordinary actor and director himself, revealing the complex man beneath the Hollywood façade.
“As incisive a biography of Redford as there is ever likely to be.” —The New York Times
Among the most widely admired Hollywood stars of his generation, Redford has appeared onstage and on-screen, in front of and behind the camera, earning Academy, Golden Globe, and a multitude of other awards and nominations for acting, directing, and producing, and for his contributions to the arts. His Sundance Film Festival transformed the world of filmmaking; his films…
In this definitive book on revenge, psychiatry researcher James Kimmel, Jr. exposes the unseen neurobiological cause of violence—a compulsive desire for retribution—and offers a profound new understanding of human behavior and breakthrough framework for making our lives and communities safer.
“This riveting, science-based exploration of why we feel pleasure from other people’s pain is a must-read.”—Anna Lembke, MD, author of Dopamine Nation
A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read
There is a hidden addiction plaguing humanity right now: revenge. Researchers have identified retaliation in response to real and imagined grievances as the root cause of most forms of human aggression and…
This book traces the journey of the original Uncle Tom from Maryland to Canada and his efforts to bring other enslaved people to freedom! The story of an amazing life and a courageous man!
Josiah Henson was born into slavery in La Plata, Maryland, and auctioned off as a child to pay his owner's debt. After numerous trials and abuse, he earned the trust of his slaveholder by exhibiting intelligence and skill.
Daringly, he escaped to Canada with his wife and children. There he established a settlement and school for fugitives and repeatedly returned to the United States to help lead others to freedom along the Underground Railroad. He published a bestselling autobiography and became a popular preacher, lecturer, and international celebrity. He is immortalized as the inspiration for the title character in Harriet…
Michael Patrick Lynch is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Provost Professor of the Humanities at the University of Connecticut. His books have been translated into a dozen languages and include On Truth in Politics: Why Democracy Demands It, The Internet of Us, True to Life (Editor’s Choice, The New York Times Sunday Book Review), and Know-it-All Society (winner of the 2019 George Orwell Award). Lynch’s work has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Nature, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and many other publications worldwide; his 2017 TED talk has been viewed nearly 2 million times. He lives in CT with his family and one very philosophical dog.
This book has become a touchstone in conversations about democratic erosion. What I found most compelling was how it uses global and historical patterns to explain how democracies can slide into authoritarianism—slowly, and often legally. It helped me connect institutional changes in the U.S. to larger global trends in democratic backsliding.
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that today’s democracies rarely collapse through sudden coups. Instead, they are gradually weakened from within by elected leaders who stretch or disregard institutional norms to expand their own power. These changes frequently occur under the appearance of legality, making democratic decay harder to detect.
Drawing on historical and global examples, the authors show how democracies slide into authoritarianism when two foundational norms begin to erode: mutual toleration (the recognition that political rivals are legitimate) and institutional forbearance (the practice of exercising restraint even when one holds legal authority). When those norms break down,…
'The most important book of the Trump era' The Economist
How does a democracy die? What can we do to save our own? What lessons does history teach us?
In the 21st century democracy is threatened like never before.
Drawing insightful lessons from across history - from Pinochet's murderous Chilean regime to Erdogan's quiet dismantling in Turkey - Levitsky and Ziblatt explain why democracies fail, how leaders like Trump subvert them today and what each of us can do to protect our democratic rights.
'This book looks to history to provide a guide for defending democratic norms when they are…
Carr explains the neuroscience behind what I watched happen: children losing the ability to think deeply. Our brains rewire based on what we do repeatedly. Six hours daily of clicking and scrolling optimizes young brains for distraction, not deep thinking. The capacity for sustained focus and complex thought literally atrophies. This isn't recreational screen time, it's mandatory, starting in kindergarten. We're not preparing kids for the future; we're rewiring their brains to struggle with thinking itself.
Nicholas Carr's bestseller The Shallows has become a foundational book in one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the internet's bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? This 10th-anniversary edition includes a new afterword that brings the story up to date, with a deep examination of the cognitive and behavioral effects of smartphones and social media.
I am passionate about integrating individual, organizational, and community needs to create a better world for the benefit of us all. I am an author and founder of organizations in the career and workforce development fields. My four books (Affiliation in the Workplace, Building Workforce Strength, Business Behaving Well, and How to Build a Nontraditional Career Path) and much of my career explored bringing work to life for those close to us, for ourselves, for our organizations, and for our communities. My social activism has been expressed through community volunteer work and promoting a range of social causes. I hope you enjoy the books I have chosen for you!
Some books reach me on an emotional level, while with others, it is in their intellectual reach and research rigor. This book is of the latter kind.
I was captivated by the breadth of ideas presented and the depth of research involved. It affirmed for me the dangerous trajectory of growing financial inequality that is unfolding and why that is important. This book is a monumental work.
A New York Times #1 Bestseller An Amazon #1 Bestseller A Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller A USA Today Bestseller A Sunday Times Bestseller A Guardian Best Book of the 21st Century Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Winner of the British Academy Medal Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard…
By ten years old, I had lived in four countries and endured the repercussions of revolution, exile, military coup d’état, and emigration. That explains my life-long passion for history. I pursued a Ph.D. in Latin American history to make sense of the forces that shaped my and my family’s lives. My seven previous books explored diverse topics in Caribbean history within its broader Atlantic context. Momentous domestic and global events, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic and an explosion of racial and political violence in the U.S. pushed me to broaden my scholarly attention and become a Creators Syndicate’s weekly columnist, and publish a collection of columns with the title When the World Turned Upside Down.
Many people know that American democracy and capitalism have been on a downward spiral for decades. The system is rigged, former Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich sounds the alarm throughout his excellent book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. He goes deep into these questions as he supports the provocative thesis that despite acrimonious partisan polarization, the real contest is not between the right and left but between democracy and oligarchy; and that the vast majority of citizens (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents) are getting poorer and wield “near-zero” political power. Oligarchs—JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon is their embodiment—have amassed enormous sums of capital and political power, which allows them to further rig the system through campaign contributions, successful lobbying, and even criminal actions for which, if caught, they only pay nominal fines.
'Understanding what is happening in our country is critical if we want to fix it and Robert Reich is an exceptional teacher.' - Senator Bernie Sanders
Millions of Americans have lost confidence in their political and economic system. After years of stagnant wages, volatile job markets, and an unwillingness by those in power to deal with profound threats such as climate change, there is a mounting sense that the system is fixed, serving only those select few with enough money to secure a controlling stake.
In The System Robert B. Reich shows how wealth and power have interacted to install…
