What it's about: how a dedicated group of American, Canadian, and Vietnamese scientists, activists, and veterans fought to make the United States government acknowledge its responsibility for the ongoing devastation wrought by the Vietnam War.
Why you might like it: Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Paris Peace Accords, this moving account explores themes of trauma, reconciliation, and healing.
October 12, 1984: British prime minister Margaret Thatcher narrowly escaped an attempt on her life when the Irish Republican Amy (IRA) bombed the Brighton hotel where she was attending a Conservative Party conference.
What's inside: interviews with politicians, law enforcement officials, bomb disposal experts, former IRA members, and more.
Who it's for: Fans of histories that read like thrillers will enjoy this nail-biting, you-are-there account of a pivotal moment during The Troubles.
What it is: Pulitzer Prize-winning Evicted author and sociologist Matthew Desmond's incisive look at why America has more poverty than any other country in the developed world.
Topics include: affluent Americans' complicity in perpetuating poverty; the racial wealth gap; solutions for how to ameliorate poverty.
Try this next: Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream by Alissa Quart.
What it's about: In 1920s Indiana, Ku Klux Klan leader and presidential hopeful D.C. Stephenson exerted a terrifying control over the state and local governments -- until he kidnapped, raped, and murdered his one-time employee, a young woman named Madge Oberholtzer.
What happened next: Oberholtzer's courageous deathbed testimony led to Stephenson's murder conviction and effectively ended Klan influence in Indiana politics.
What it's about: how three police departments in Stockton, CA, Longmont, CO, and LaGrange, GA implemented institutional reforms by replacing aggressive policies with ones that prioritize community building, racial justice, and de-escalation.
Author alert: Colby College sociologist Neil Gross is a former Berkeley, CA police officer.
Read it for: a hopeful look at how to address ongoing issues of police brutality.
What it's about: how gendered expectations of managing emotions for the benefit of others burden and exploit women, particularly women of color.
Why you might like it: This inspiring call to action challenges readers to acknowledge and celebrate the undervalued work women perform in their personal and professional lives.
Further reading: Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky.
What it is: a sobering exposé spotlighting how children in orphanages throughout North America, Europe, and Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries were subjected to horrific abuse and murder.
What's inside: firsthand accounts, court transcripts, and other documents that illuminate long-buried secrets.
Reviewers say: "A powerful work of sociological investigation and literary journalism" (Kirkus Reviews).
What it's about: In 1985 Gary, IN, four Black teenage girls stabbed 78-year-old white woman Ruth Pelke to death in her home. Fifteen-year-old Paula Cooper was the only one sentenced to death for the crime, becoming the youngest woman ever sentenced to death row.
What happened next: The case attracted global attention, with appeals made by Pelke's grandson and Pope John Paul II to not execute Cooper.
Read it for: a powerful story of advocacy, justice, and reconciliation.