|
|
Popular Book Club Titles: Nonfiction April 2026 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
by Brian Goldstone
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE ATLANTIC'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR - Through the revelatory and gut-wrenching (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend--the dramatic rise of the working homeless in cities across America. An exceptional feat of reporting, full of an immediacy that calls to mind Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family and Matthew Desmond's Evicted.--The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, AND THE BERNSTEIN AWARD - A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Elle, New America, BookPage, Shelf Awareness The working homeless. In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling phenomenon: People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America's booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one. In this gripping and deeply reported book, Brian Goldstone plunges readers into the lives of five Atlanta families struggling to remain housed in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city. Maurice and Natalia make a fresh start in the country's Black Mecca after being priced out of DC. Kara dreams of starting her own cleaning business while mopping floors at a public hospital. Britt scores a coveted housing voucher. Michelle is in school to become a social worker. Celeste toils at her warehouse job while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Each of them aspires to provide a decent life for their children--and each of them, one by one, joins the ranks of the nation's working homeless. Through intimate, novelistic portraits, Goldstone reveals the human cost of this crisis, following parents and their kids as they go to sleep in cars, or in squalid extended-stay hotel rooms, and head out to their jobs and schools the next morning. These are the nation's hidden homeless--omitted from official statistics, and proof that overflowing shelters and street encampments are only the most visible manifestation of a far more pervasive problem. By turns heartbreaking and urgent, There Is No Place for Us illuminates the true magnitude, causes, and consequences of the new American homelessness--and shows that it won't be solved until housing is treated as a fundamental human right.
|
|
|
|
Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education
by Stephanie Land
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Good Morning America Book Club Pick A New York Times Most Anticipated Books of Fall From the New York Times bestselling author who inspired the hit Netflix series about a struggling mother barely making ends meet as a housecleaner, a raw and inspiring (People) memoir about college, motherhood, poverty, and life after Maid. When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, he called it an unflinching look at America's class divide...and a reminder of the dignity of all work. Later, it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by sixty-seven million households and was Netflix's fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanie's escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions. Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, food insecurity, the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn't understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line--Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties. Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America's educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother's triumph against all odds.
|
|
|
|
Homeschooled: A New York Times Bestselling Memoir and Read with Jenna Pick
by Stefan Merrill Block
Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were 'stifling his creativity.' Hungry for more time with her boy who was growing up too quickly, she began to instruct Stefan in the family's living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother's erratic whims, such as her project to recapture her twelve-year-old son's early years by bleaching his hair and putting him on a crawling regimen. Years before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother's increasingly eccentric theories and projects. [So] when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening--
|
|
|
|
The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA
by Liza Mundy
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A rip-roaring (Steve Coll), staggeringly well-researched (The New York Times) history of three generations at the CIA, electric with revelations (Booklist) about the women who fought to become operatives, transformed spycraft, and tracked down Osama bin Laden, from the bestselling author of Code Girls A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - A FOREIGN POLICY AND SMITHSONIAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEARIn development as a series from Lionsgate Television, executive produced by Scott Delman (Station Eleven) Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. Women sent cables, made dead drops, and maintained the agency's secrets. Despite discrimination--even because of it--women who started as clerks, secretaries, or unpaid spouses rose to become some of the CIA's shrewdest operatives. They were unlikely spies--and that's exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva, and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA's critical archives--first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn't see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda--though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside. After the 9/11 attacks, more women joined the agency as a new job, targeter, came to prominence. They showed that data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape--an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA's successful effort to track down bin Laden in his Pakistani compound. Propelled by the same meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling that infused Code Girls, The Sisterhood offers a riveting new perspective on history, revealing how women at the CIA ushered in the modern intelligence age, and how their silencing made the world more dangerous
|
|
|
|
The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy
by James Patterson
The murders of four innocent college students attending the University of Idaho left us all with so many questions. Now, after more than 300 interviews, James Patterson and ... journalist Vicky Ward finally have some answers. We know what it was like to live in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022, the day of the cold-blooded killings. We know what the local police and FBI did right. And what they did wrong. We've learned so much about the four heartbroken families--the Mogens, Goncalveses, Kernodles, and Chapins. And we have the backstory for Bryan Kohberger--brilliant grad student, loner, apparent incel--now indicted and facing trial. Now you are the jury. The evidence is in--
|
|
|
|
On Animals
by Susan Orlean
A lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals--
|
|
|
|
Burn Book: A Tech Love Story
by Kara Swisher
Part memoir, part history, Burn Book is a necessary chronicle of tech;s most powerful players. This is the inside story we've all been waiting for about modern Silicon Valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in the history of the world--
|
|
|
|
Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy
by Mary Roach
An Instant New York Times Bestseller A BEST BOOK OF 2025: TIME - SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN - SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - KiRKUS - SHELF AWARENESS - CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY A Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee From the New York Times best-selling author of Stiff and Fuzz, a rollicking exploration of the quest to re-create the impossible complexities of human anatomy.
|
|
|
|
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation
by Andrew Ross Sorkin
With the depth of a classic history and the drama of a thriller, 1929 unravels the greed, blind optimism, and human folly that led to an era-defining collapse--one with ripple effects that still shape our society today. In 1929, the world watched in shock as the unstoppable Wall Street bull market went into a freefall, wiping out fortunes and igniting a depression that would reshape a generation. But behind the flashing ticker tapes and panicked traders, another drama unfolded--one of visionaries and fraudsters, titans and dreamers, euphoria and ruin. With unparalleled access to historical records and newly uncovered documents, ... Andrew Ross Sorkin takes readers inside the chaos of the crash, behind the scenes of a raging battle between Wall Street and Washington and the larger-than-life characters whose ambition and naivete in an endless boom led to disaster--
|
|
|
|
Finding My Way: A Memoir
by Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate and New York Times bestselling author of I Am Malala, shares the most private journey of her young life-a story of friendship and first love, of mental illness and self-discovery, and of trying to stay true to yourself when everyone wants to tell you who you are. In 2012, Malala Yousafzai was thrust onto the public stage at fifteen years old, after the Taliban's brutal attack on her life. Millions of people around the world were inspired by her courage and dedication to fighting for girls' education, lining up to meet her and filling stadiums to hear her speak. But away from the cameras and crowds, Malala was still a young woman struggling to find her place in the world. Now, in Finding My Way, Malala shares a breathtaking story of searching for identity, a candid exploration of coming of age in the spotlight, and an intimate look at her life today. With an accessible voice that showcases the parts of her life rarely shown in public, Malala traces her path from high school loner to reckless college student to a young woman at peace with her remarkable past and hopeful for the future--
|
|
|
|
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This: National Book Award
by Omar El Akkad
On October 25th, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: 'One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.' This tweet was viewed more than ten million times. [This book] chronicles the deep fracture that has occurred for Black, brown, [and] Indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in Western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse--
|
|
|
|
Mother Mary Comes to Me
by Arundhati Roy
Mother Mary Comes to Me draws on multiple strands of the author's early years, unveiling an empathetic and at the same time marvelously satirical portrait of an eccentric extended family with a fondness for spectacular family feuds. Roy's maternal lineage was saddled with a legacy of violence yet blessed with the gifts of education and English fluency. 'Mrs. Roy' formed the tempestuous foundation upon which Roy and her brother, 'LKC, ' raised themselves. A single mother who suffered from debilitating asthma and thunderous moods, Mary Roy founded a coeducational school--a revolutionary act in its time--and grew it into a spectacularly influential institution. The rage and unpredictability Mrs. Roy was known for was the secret to her success in a patriarchal society unaccustomed to seeing a woman soar to great heights while rejecting cultural roles designed to clip her wings--
|
|
|
|
Awake: A Memoir
by Jen Hatmaker
From Jen Hatmaker beloved New York Times bestselling author and host of the For the Love podcast a brutally honest, funny, and revealing memoir about the traumatic end of her twenty-six-year-long marriage, and the beginning of a different kind of love story.--
|
|
|
|
Dead and Alive: Essays
by Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects that have captured her attention in recent years. She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kara Walker, and Celia Paul. She invites us along to the movies, to see and to think about Tâar, and to New York to reflect on the spontaneous moments that connect us. She takes us on a walk down Kilburn High Road in her beloved North-West London and welcomes us to mourn with her the passing of writers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth, and Toni Morrison. She considers changes of government on both sides of the Atlantic--and the meaning of 'the commons' in all our lives--
|
|
|
|
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
by John Green
In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year. In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry's story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis. --]cProvided by publisher.
|
|
|
Pierce County Library System
3005 112th St. E, Tacoma, Washington 98446
253-548-3300mypcls.org |
|
|
|