#forthcoming books

"Something is deeply rotten at the Supreme Court. How did we get here and what can we do about it? Crooked Media podcast host Leah Litman shines a light on the unabashed lawlessness embraced by conservative Supreme Court justices and shows us how to fight back.

With the gravitas of Joan Biskupic and the irreverence of Elie Mystal, Leah Litman brings her signature wit to the question of what’s gone wrong at One First Street. In Lawless, she argues that the Supreme Court is no longer practicing law; it’s running on vibes. By “vibes,” Litman means legal-ish claims that repackage the politics of conservative grievance and dress them up in robes. Major decisions adopt the language and posture of the law, while in fact displaying a commitment to protecting a single minority: the religious conservatives and Republican officials whose views are no longer shared by a majority of the country. Dahlia Lithwick’s Lady Justice meets Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad as Litman employs pop culture references and the latest decisions to deliver a funny, zeitgeisty, pulls-no-punches cri de coeur undergirded by impeccable scholarship. She gives us the tools we need to understand the law, the dynamics of courts, and the stakes of this current moment—even as she makes us chuckle on every page and emerge empowered to fight for a better future."

Endorsements

“A refreshingly accessible and outrageously funny indictment of robed partisans drunk on power. Leah Litman is the ideal guide for this tour of the Supreme Court's assault on democracy and civil rights: She's wise, witty, and totally fearless in reading the justices for filth. Lawless is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand how our judiciary became the most dangerous branch—and how we can fight back.” —Mark Stern, senior writer and Supreme Court correspondent, Slate

"This impressive book tells the story of the ethical and intellectual collapse of the Supreme Court. But just as right-wing politics has wrecked the possibility of real justice on the Court, democratic politics can give us a chance to remake the Court and restore what has been lost." —U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, Democratic leader on the House Judiciary Committee and bestselling author of Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy

“This is the book you have to read if you’re bummed about our country and worried that the Supreme Court is wrecking it with legalistic pseudo-reasoning that masks its right-wing agenda. With brilliant wit and impeccable analysis, Litman rips off the mask, lays bare the illogic, and arms you with the tools you’ll need to replace confusion and despair with clarity and determination.” —Laurence Tribe, author of Uncertain Justice

“A scathing takedown of the Roberts court. . . . Litman ingeniously mines the past half century of conservative politics for comedy gold as she builds her case that the movement’s bugbears are now driving the court….. A clear-eyed and alarming view of a court captured by far-right conspiracy theories.” –Publishers Weekly

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2296468226

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1245916148

Electronic ARC provided by NetGalley.

I have loved Tamora Pierce since I first discovered the Alanna books as a kid (shortly after the series was finished I believe).  I still think she's one of the best young adult writers for female fantasy characters; I really can't overstate how big an impression it made on me to see Alanna dealing with things like safe sex and getting her period while also dealing with becoming a warrior.  I also loved Daine and the Immortals books, and Numair was a big part of that.  I've been waiting to read "Tempests and Slaughter" ever since it was first announced, and I'm happy to say that my only real disappointment after having read it is the knowledge that now I have to wait for book two.  

"Tempests and Slaughter" deals with Arram's (Numair's) first years at the Imperial Academy in Carthak.  This is not a book that relies on action and huge plot developments, but rather on character and relationship building.  Personally I found it fascinating to see how Numair's friendships with Ozorne and Varice developed.  You don't have to have read the Immortals Quartet to read this book, but I do suggest it as the relationships here take on an entirely different tone when you know where all of the characters eventually end up.  I don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers, but this book made me like Ozorne and Varice more then I expected that I would.  You can see why Arram cares so much for them.  You can also see hints, especially in Ozorne's speech and behavior, of who he will become later in life.  

This is Tamora Pierce's first book from a solely male viewpoint, and you can tell that she tried very hard to make it as genuine an experience in being an adolescent boy as she always did with girls.  There are some awkward sections dealing with puberty; I can't say exactly how well Pierce has down because obviously I've never been a teen boy, but it feels accurate, and I can only hope that young boys reading this will be as drawn in by Arram as young girls were by Alanna.  

A new generation of artists is redefining contemporary abstraction by merging sculpture, painting, photography, and performance. Originating from an influential exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch’s Los Angeles gallery, this book spotlights more than forty innovative artists who push the boundaries of process and materiality while exploring identity, culture, and politics through deeply personal and resonant narratives. Building on California’s influential history of abstract art—from the Light and Space movement and Finish Fetish to the rise of geometric abstraction and conceptual art—these artists bring fresh perspectives to a long-standing creative lineage. Their work is shaped by a wide range of inspirations, including art-historical references, global events, environmental shifts, space exploration, and rapid advances in science and technology. Together, they demonstrate how abstraction can evolve in response to a rapidly changing world while remaining a powerful language for discovery and expression. Featuring artists from Europe, South America, Africa, and across the United States, this volume presents a truly international view of abstraction today. This global lens underscores the continued relevance of abstract art as a method of inquiry and communication—one that transcends geography and offers insight into human experience across cultures, eras, and perspectives. The book reveals how the next wave of abstract artists is shaping the future of contemporary art, expanding what abstraction can be and what it can mean.

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"Capitalism isn’t working. But is there a plausible alternative? The Blueprint lays one out: a system where workers control every lever of production, and competitive markets and state planning coexist side by side. Drawing on the history of socialist experiments and the economic debate over planning and markets, The Blueprint confronts the hardest questions about what went wrong in the past—and why it can go right in the future. The result is a socialism worthy of the twenty-first century."

Endorsements/Reviews

"The Blueprint takes the question of how socialism might actually work seriously enough to venture an answer. The argument is rigorous but not airless and is honest about the tradeoffs involved. A genuinely useful book for how to exit the current labyrinth." —GREG GRANDIN, author of America, América "It is rare indeed to find a book that so keenly matches the elegance of its arguments with the passion of its politics. Here we have an alternative economic blueprint for our time, a shining antidote to the crude bestiality of a fading and failing Trumpian regime." —DAVID HARVEY, author of The Story of Capital "Nothing is more urgently needed in our troubled world than a blueprint for socializing capital, democratizing workplaces, restoring the commons, decommodifying basic goods and harnessing markets to society’s needs. This book has arrived with perfect timing." —YANIS VAROUFAKIS, author of Technofeudalism "What would it mean to actually live under democratic socialism? This visionary book takes this critical and too-often-ignored question seriously. The result is thought-provoking, informative, and surprisingly entertaining." —ASTRA TAYLOR, author of The Age of Insecurity

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I look forward to reading it.

I have to express puzzlement though over how little writing I see on the left about the role of future a.i. This is all the more ironic given that,

a) a.i. might solve Hayek's information problem, the argument made against central planning by highlighting the inaccessibility to central planners of information about economic demand, the only solution to which, Hayek averred, was price signals in a market.

b) Even the staunchest evangelists of a.i. (see the Moonshots podcast, e.g.) speculate on how a.i. could deliver a post-capitalist economy. Artificial general intelligence or, further up a speculated a.i. capability gradient, artificial super intelligence, might make almost all human labor redundant and produce (so they hope) minimal cost abundance for everyone. (How this happens within environmental constraints is a question the Moonshots show hosts never deal with.) At least one left writer in Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto is thinking along these lines.

At the moment, however, the capitalists behind a.i. are their own worst enemy. Examples of data center water/air/noise/light pollution, eminent domain removal of people from their homes for data center construction, environmental damage, etc., are piling up, revealing another example of how capital arrogates to itself the right to trample communities and non-market values with impunity. This trend line of capitalist destructiveness and arrogance seems more consistent with a future techno-feudalism than a new age of a.i. mediated abundance.

versobooks.com/products/2974-everything-is-now

In J. Hoberman’s telling, there’s nothing easy about New York’s avant-garde. Much of the art described in Everything Is Now was difficult to be around, sometimes aggressively so. The Museum of Modern Art’s guards asked to wear sunglasses in the optically jarring 1965 exhibition “The Responsive Eye.” During a Village Vanguard performance that same year, LeRoi Jones and Archie Shepp told their “predominantly—predictably—white, liberal, middle-class” audience, according to Vivian Gornick’s write-up, that “the only thing you can do for me is die.” Openings involved midnight screenings, spectators vomiting, confusion. A flyer released by Yoko Ono and La Monte Young warned their audience to “come prepared to sit on the floor” of Ono’s unheated Chambers Street loft for a six-month series of concerts; it also emphasized in all caps that “THE PURPOSE OF THIS SERIES IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT.”

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Description

Two of the world’s most respected scientists reveal the forces behind the dangerous anti-science movement—and show us how to fight back

From pandemics to the climate crisis, humanity faces tougher challenges than ever. Whether it’s the health of our people or the health of our planet, we know we are on an unsustainable path. But our efforts to effectively tackle these existential crises are now hampered by a common threat: politically and ideologically motivated opposition to science.

Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez are two of the most respected and well-known scientists in the world and have spent the last twenty years on the front lines of the battle to convey accurate, reliable, and trustworthy information about science in the face of determined and nihilistic opposition.

A damning indictment of the private equity industry told through the stories of four American workers whose lives and communities were upended by the ruinous effects of private equity takeovers.

"Private equity runs our country, yet few Americans have any idea how ingrained it is in their lives. Private equity controls hospitals, daycare centers, supermarket chains, voting machine manufacturers, local newspapers, nursing home operators, fertility clinics, and prison service providers. The industry manages highways, municipal water systems, fire departments, emergency medical services, and owns a growing swath of commercial and residential real estate.

Private equity executives, meanwhile, are not only among the wealthiest people in American society, but also modern-day barons with outsized influence on our politics and legislation. Yet their firms have to disclose almost nothing about how they operate, leaving workers and communities on the hook when a company begins to flounder without warning. Twenty percent of companies acquired through private equity buyouts go bankrupt within ten years, accounting for forty percent of all U.S. bankruptcies and putting millions of workers’ jobs at risk. How did private equity firms become so good at making money for themselves and so damaging for the rest of society?

Acclaimed journalist Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company tells the hidden story of private equity through the experiences of four American workers who watched as private equity upended their employers and communities: a Toys R Us floor supervisor, a rural doctor, a local newspaper journalist, and an affordable housing organizer.