September 3, 2024

Finding the right book at the right time can transform your life or your organization. We help you discover your next great read by showcasing four recently released titles each week.

The books are chosen by Porchlight's Managing Director, Sally Haldorson, and the marketing team: Dylan Schleicher, Gabbi Cisneros, and Jasmine Gonzalez. (Book descriptions are provided by the publisher unless otherwise noted.)

This week, our choices are:

Jasmine’s pick: Blooming in the Ruins: How Mexican Philosophy Can Guide Us toward the Good Life by Carlos Alberto Sánchez, Oxford University Press

When we think of philosophy that can guide us in our everyday lives, we are more likely to think of Ancient Greece or Rome than we are 20th-century Mexico. But Mexican philosophy, which came into focus in the last century, following the Mexican Revolution, is a rich and wide-ranging tradition with much to offer readers today. Emerging in defiance of the Western philosophy bound up with colonial power—first brought to Mexico with the Augustinians in the 16th century, and, like so much else, imposed on Mexicans for centuries after that—it boasts a range of powerful ideas and advice for modern-day life. A tradition deeply tied to Mexico's history of colonization, revolution, resistance, and persistence through hardship, this philosophy has much to teach us.

Mexican philosophers had to grapple with questions particular to Mexico that have implications that anyone can and should learn from. Given the way we all must contend with life's unexpected twists and turns, how can we preserve a sense of ourselves, and a coherent way of thinking about the world? How can we deal with emotions that conflict with one another? How can we keep our spirits up when we feel like we are always on our way to a far-off goal? Mexican philosophy offers a specific, historically- and culturally-rooted way to think about these universal questions. We can appreciate the way its ideas followed from the accidents of history that created modern-day Mexico, while also appreciating that they are as universally profound as those passed down in the Western tradition.

Gabbi’s pick: Chaos Comes Calling: The Battle Against the Far-Right Takeover of Small-Town America by Sasha Abramsky, Bold Type Books

Donald Trump’s November 2016 electoral victory was the beginning of four years of demagogy, presidential name-calling, and—ten months into a pandemic—an incitement to violence that led a mob of thousands to descend on the Capitol in Washington, DC. Fueled by suspicion, conspiracy, and bigotry, a faction of Americans had decided to seize control. But the biggest effect of this right-wing wave may not have been on our national politics, but on the local governments of communities around the country.

In Chaos Comes Calling, Sasha Abramsky investigates the empowerment of the far-right over the past few years, stoked by the Trump presidency and the Covid-19 pandemic. He tells the parallel stories of two communities, Shasta County, California and Sequim, Washington, where toxic alliances of QAnoners, anti-vaxxers, Christian nationalists, militia supporters and other denizens of the far-right have worked to take control of the levers of power.

The trajectories of both communities expose the stark divisions and extremism that have come to define our political landscape over the past decade, and offer revealing glimpses of what the future may hold. While Sequim ultimately recalibrated in 2021, returning to rationality, Shasta County has descended further into a climate of intolerance and toxic divisiveness.

Chaos Comes Calling vividly captures both the regressive forces gaining momentum all over the country and the tireless efforts of citizens determined to organize against them.

Dylan’s pick: Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America's Largest Meatpacking Company by Alice Driver, Atria/One Signal Publishers

On June 27, 2011, a deadly chemical accident took place inside the Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Springdale, Arkansas, where the company is headquartered. The company quickly covered it up although the spill left their employees injured, sick, and terrified. Over the years, Arkansas-based reporter Alice Driver was able to gain the trust of the immigrant workers who survived the accident. They rewarded her persistence by giving her total access to their lives.

Having spent hours in their kitchens and accompanying them to doctor’s appointments, Driver has memorialized in these pages the dramatic lives of husband and wife Plácido and Angelina, who liked to spend weekends planting seeds from their native El Salvador in their garden; father and son Martín and Gabriel, who migrated from Mexico at different times and were trying to patch up their relationship; and many other immigrants who survived the chemical accident in Springdale that day.

During the course of Alice’s reporting, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the community, and the workers were forced to continue production in unsafe conditions, watching their colleagues get sick and die one by one. These essential workers, many of whom only speak Spanish and some of whom are illiterate—all of whom suffer the health consequences of Tyson’s negligence—somehow found the strength and courage to organize and fight back, culminating in a lawsuit against Tyson Foods, the largest meatpacking company in America.

Richly detailed, fiercely honest, and deeply reported, Life and Death of the American Worker will forever change the way we think about the people who prepare our food.

Sally’s pick: Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve by Alison Fragale, Doubleday

Over decades of research, speaking engagements, and mentorship, psychologist and professor Alison Fragale encountered recurring questions from high-powered and early-career women alike: How do women thread the needle of kindness and competence in the workplace? How can women earn credit for their accomplishments, negotiate better, and navigate complex office politics without losing the goodwill of their peers?

Fragale investigated and determined that many women's workplace issues boil down to what psychologists call status: the perception of them by others. No amount of power-- no degree, title, or paycheck-- will raise a woman's workplace stature unless it also affects how others see her. Acknowledging this roadblock, Fragale pulls back the curtain on how we can change how others see us by developing our standing as a "likeable badass." By cultivating perceptions of warmth and assertiveness, women can achieve the kind of reputation that leads to a seat at the table and a fulfilling career path.

Likeable Badass is equal parts behavioral science and life hacks, weaving together rigorous research with actionable advice and impactful stories from a diverse array of women. This is a warm, heartening book written for women, their allies, and anyone who struggles to rise, and wants evidence-based, practical strategies for success, served with a side of inspiration and humor.