Say the Right Thing

September 1, 2022

In Bloodbath Nation, Man Booker short-listed novelist Auster assays the history of gun violence in the United States from the time of the first white settlers through the current mass shootings that make the country the most violent in the Western world. A New York Times best-selling author (Unfair), law professor Benforado uses real-life portraits in A Minor Revolution to detail how the United States fails its children, with 11 million in poverty, 4 million lacking health insurance, thousands prosecuted as adults, and countless struggling in substandard public schools mere miles from the polished halls of elite private institutions. Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University, Bloom recapitulates one of Yale's most popular courses in Pysch, offering an up-to-date understanding of the mind's workings--particularly in the context of key contemporary moral and sociopolitical issues (75,000-copy first printing). CNN senior legal analyst Honig (Hatchet Man) challenges the two-tier justice system in the United States that allows the wealthy, the celebrated, and particularly the powerful to be Untouchable (35,000-copy first printing). In A Woman's Life Is a Human Life, historian Kornbluh (The Battle for Welfare Rights) offers a timely overview of a half-century's worth of fighting for reproductive rights. Having unearthed the dismal origins of climate change denial in Merchants of Doubt, Oreskes and Conway tackle another Big Myth, the magic of the marketplace, from the early 1900s business challenges to regulations through to the down-with-big-government cries still prevailing (150,000-copy first printing). Owens, a Black gay journalist with Forbes 30 Under 30 credentials, makes The Case for Cancel Culture by repositioning it not as suppression or put-down but as a key means of democratic expression and accountability (60,000-copy first printing). The mega-best-selling novelist Patterson joins with his Walk in My Combat Boots coauthor Eversmann and thriller writer Mooney to Walk the Blue Line, telling the true-life stories of police officers (300,000-copy first printing). Named by Nature among "10 People Who Mattered in Science in 2018," retired biologist and investigative genetic genealogist Rae-Venter explains in I Know Who You Are how she found a serial killer in 63 days after he had eluded authorities for 44 years. The New York Times reporter charged with covering the Federal Reserve, Smialek shows in Limitless how this formerly behind-the-curtains institution has been forced into greater transparency by rising inequality, falling global economic prospects, and the ravages of pandemic. A political reporter for the Daily Beast who has spent the last several years tracking QAnon, Sommer explains what it is, why it has gained traction, what dangers it poses, and how to shake adherents loose from its dogma in Trust the Plan (100,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for March 2022).Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law and executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, respectively, at NYU School of Law, Yoshino and Glasgow investigate how we can Say the Right Thing in an era when issues of race, gender equity, and LGBTQ+ inclusiveness are at the forefront.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2023
NYU law professors Yoshino (Covering) and Glasgow, who are also directors at the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, here provide compelling, practical advice and techniques for holding conversations with others about identity without feeling ashamed, whether in the workplace, in the classroom, or with family. The authors explain that everyone holds biases, and it is important to recognize them. This book draws on research and numerous scenarios and anecdotes to highlight how to listen attentively, lean on discomfort, recognize inclusive and non-inclusive behaviors, and seek guidance from others. Readers interested in communications specifically related to equity, diversity, and inclusion will find lots of relevant advice in this timely book, along with many opportunities to respectfully rethink and reframe interactions and disagreements with others across a spectrum of different identities, experiences, and perspectives.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from January 1, 2023
How to communicate better about our personal and collective differences. Yoshino and Glasgow, who founded the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the NYU School of Law, offer assistance on how to talk about the "social identities" we all demonstrate. "We are both gay men who spent our formative years in the closet," they write. "During that time, we were desperate to talk about our own identities, but the words felt unspeakable, even to the people who mattered most in our lives. That suffocating silence led us to search for a more powerful way of communicating." Their guiding assumption is that such conversations intimidate many people and that confusion about how to "say the right thing" has become an obstacle to empathy and mutual understanding. The authors skillfully explore seven key areas: how to avoid so-called "conversational traps," build resilience in dealing with differing points of view, cultivate curiosity about how others perceive the world, disagree respectfully when necessary, apologize authentically when wrongs are committed, apply the platinum rule (help others as they would prefer to be helped), and be generous to those who act in noninclusive ways. The authors' advice has been extensively field-tested, and they are admirably nuanced in their identification of specific challenges to the promotion of constructive dialogue. Particularly effective are the discussions of how privilege can operate along different dimensions, how particular verbal strategies can diffuse tension and build trust, and how wariness about others' judgements can be mitigated. The highlight of the book, however, is the chapter on apologies, which offers vivid illustrations of those that did not work (usually because they deflected responsibility and sometimes even compounded an original insult) and those that did (by opening collaborative possibilities for addressing harm and combatting ignorance). The authors successfully set forth a clear sense of how one might balance accountability for wrongs with compassion for those who have erred. A sensitive and sensible handbook for encouraging positive conversations about identity.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.