Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, journalist Beth Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother's question -- why her only son died -- and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm....

In this book, David Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. Brooks looks at a range of people who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity and beauty of dependence. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner,...

Discusses how industrialization, urbanization, science, technology, and poverty have affected schools, and explains how schools can be restructured to improve education.

In this work, Ruha Benjamin calls on us to take imagination seriously as a site of struggle and a place of possibility for reshaping the future. A world without prisons? Ridiculous. Schools that foster the genius of every child? Impossible. Work that doesn't strangle the life out of people? Naive. A society where everyone has food, shelter, love? In your dreams. Exactly. Ruha Benjamin, Princeton University professor, insists that imagination isn't...

""An important new voice in the American theater."--Los Angeles Times "If there's a soul adrift--physically or spiritually--in the Gem State, chances are good he sprang from the fertile pen of Samuel D. Hunter."--Playbill "Mr. Hunter. writes with unusual insight into, and empathy for, people whose lives have settled into sad stasis, or strategic withdrawal. [He is] sure-footed when it comes to illuminating characters from within."--New York Times...

Discusses the main concerns of the protest movements of the 1960s and how those have evolved since; what's changed for the better, what might be worse, and where do we go from here.

"Author Julissa Arce brings readers a powerful polemic against the myth that assimilation leads to happiness and belonging for immigrants in America. Instead, she calls for a celebration of our uniqueness, our origins, our heritage, and the beauty of the differences that make us Americans. In You Sound Like a White Girl, Julissa offers a bold new promise: Belonging only comes through celebrating yourself, your history, your culture, and everything...

A chance encounter between two families, the Donaldsons and the Iranian-born Yasdans, at the Baltimore airport prompts an examination about what it means to be an American.

ZEN FOR NOTHING is a masterly immersion into life at a Japanese Zen monastery over three seasons. Swiss novice Sabine arrives at Antaiji and, after a brief welcome, she begins to learn the monastery rules: how to bow, sit in the meditation hall, carry out movements with chopsticks, etc. There’s more to life there than meditation, farming, and maintenance, however—there are picnics, music, and Wi-Fi. And after the last snow has melted away, the...

In the effort to make friends at her new school, Sofia gets involved with group of popular girls who dislike Brooklyn, a loner who they believe to be evil.