Recent anthologies of interest:
GRABBED: Poets and Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment, and Healing, edited by Richard Blanco et al. (Beacon, paper, $15.) Inspired by the #MeToo movement, the editors asked poets and other writers to reflect on their own experiences as assault survivors.
TOO MANY TIMES: How to End Gun Violence in a Divided America, edited by Melville House. (Melville House, paper, $16.99.) From Pamela Coloff and Jill Lepore to Ibram X. Kendi and Common Cause, journalists, academics and nonprofit groups address the problem of gun violence and propose a series of solutions.
VOICES FROM THE VALLEY: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do — and How They Do It, edited by Ben Tarnoff and Moira Weigel. (FSG Originals, paper, $15.) Tarnoff and Weigel, tech writers who founded Logic magazine , here offer in-depth interviews with anonymous tech industry workers about their jobs.
WHICH SIDE OF HISTORY? How Technology Is Reshaping Democracy and Our Lives, edited by James P. Steyer. (Chronicle Prism, $17.95.) Essays on the real-world consequences of technology, for better and worse, from Kara Swisher, Aaron Sorkin, Chelsea Clinton and others.
THE FRAGILE EARTH: Writing From The New Yorker on Climate Change, edited by David Remnick and Henry Finder. (Ecco, $29.99.) The magazine has long been a force in climate reporting: See Bill McKibben on greenhouse gases in 1989.
What we’re reading:
What if Alice didn’t fall down the rabbit hole and instead joined TaskRabbit? That’s the vibe you get with Hilary Leichter’s novel TEMPORARY a deeply hilarious, surreal manifesto against late-stage capitalism, all wrapped up in a mushroom trip. So, you know, exactly what we need in 2020. The story follows an unnamed gig worker as she navigates a series of absurd temp jobs: ghost pal, pirate, assassin’s assistant. Everything is work now, from motherhood and family to dating and sex, with no line between one’s personal and professional lives. (Uh, sound familiar?) I stumbled onto the book in early quarantine as many of us settled into our new lives of endless Zooms and Slacks, and as our main character takes a gig as a barnacle — no, not a hanger-on to a corporate structure, a literal barnacle, clinging to a rock in the sea — I felt as if Leichter knew just what this year had in store for us.
—Tim Herrera, Smarter Living editor
