“An exacting look at gentrification” (New York Times Book Review)—and the lives devastated in the process

The term gentrification has become a buzzword to describe the changes in urban neighborhoods across the country, but we don’t realize just how threatening it is. It means more than the arrival of trendy shops, much-maligned hipsters, and expensive lattes. The very future of American cities as vibrant, equitable spaces hangs in the balance. 

A vigorous exposé revealing who holds power in our cities, How to Kill a City uncovers the massive systemic forces behind gentrification in New Orleans, Detroit, San Francisco, and New York. Now with a new preface reflecting on the present-day political landscape surrounding the housing crisis, How to Kill a City is essential reading for anyone who cares about the fate of our cities and our nation.

How to Kill a City By PE Moskowitz, Read By Hayden Bishop (Audiobook Excerpt)

From the bestselling author of Holy Hot Mess, a laugh-out-loud look at what happens when life goes a direction we didn't expect and we are forced to reconsider the beliefs, assumptions, and stories that have always steered our course. 

Mary Katherine Backstrom grew up the most basic of all youth group kids—pH level 14—and her faith only grew as she led youth ministry, served as a missionary, and went on to become a bestselling Christian author. She knew all the practiced, perfect Sunday school answers and was driving happily down the straight and narrow, until one day her young son asked a simple question: will my Jewish best friend go to hell?

In the months and years that followed, that single question continued to snowball. MK challenged and reconsidered every part of the faith she’d been raised to accept so completely. Not That Wheel, Jesus! is Mary Katherine’s hilarious journey from certainty to doubt to going nuclear on the socials (“it was my heresy era”), and then of slowly and painfully finding her way back to a different, less defined faith.

It’s the heartfelt and achingly honest story of a spirituality that went off the road and crashed and burned in spectacular fashion, right before God and everybody. And then, slowly, through grace and plenty of therapy, grew richer and deeper than she ever could have imagined.

Not That Wheel, Jesus! By Mary Katherine Backstrom (Audiobook Excerpt)

From #1 New York Times bestselling author James Patterson, six kidnappers pursue a whopping ten-figure payout in this thrilling novel featuring “breakneck pacing and loop-the-loop plotting” (Publishers Weekly).

Five members of a billionaire’s family. In different locations. All kidnapped at the same moment.
Two children taken from a private-school bus. A film producer and a movie star grabbed at a hideaway resort. A beautiful wife whisked off the streets of Beverly Hills. 
A patriarch wants his family back. The cash, gold, jewels, are crypto are all ready.
There’s only one problem: a brilliant, very stubborn FBI agent. Special Agent Nicky Gordon doesn’t want to pay the kidnappers. 

Not a dime.

Billion-Dollar Ransom By James Patterson & Duane Swierczynski, Read By Cynthia Farrell (Audiobook Excerpt)

The Last Soul Among Wolves is the brilliant second installment in Melissa Caruso's Echo Archives series, a whip-smart adventure fantasy featuring cursed relics, sapphic romance, and a magical murder mystery. 

All Kembral Thorne wants is to finish her maternity leave in peace. But when her best friend asks for help, she can’t say no, even if it means a visit to a run-down mansion on an isolated island for a will reading. She arrives to find an unexpected reunion of her childhood friends—plus her once-rival, now-girlfriend Rika Nonesuch, there on a mysterious job. Then the will is read, and everything goes sideways.

Eight potential heirs, half of them Kem’s oldest friends.

Three cursed relics.

The rules: one by one, the heirs will die.

The prize for the lone survivor: A wish. And wishes are always bad business.

To save their friends, Kem and Rika must race against the clock and descend into other realities once more. But the mansion is full of old secrets and new schemes, and soon the game becomes far more dangerous—and more personal—than they could have imagined.

The Last Soul Among Wolves By Melissa Caruso, Read By Moira Quirk (Audiobook Excerpt)

In early October 2023, Palestinian Plestia Alaqad was a recent university graduate dreaming of a career as a journalist. But by the end of November, her homeland was unrecognizable—and she was broadcasting videos of violence and destruction to millions online, known across the world as "The Eyes of Gaza."

On the morning of October 7, 2023, 21-year-old Plestia Alaqad wakes to a flurry of messages and headlines: Gaza under bombardment. Civilians flee waves of Israeli strikes. In a few short days, she and her family will be at the epicenter of a violence that is all too familiar for Palestinians—but this time, she knows, things will never be the same.

A series of diary extracts from the weeks following October 7, The Eyes of Gaza is a gutting, on-the-ground record of the turmoil and destruction endured by the men, women, and children of Palestine. As Alaqad flees from neighborhood to neighborhood, from hospital to hospital, she documents all she sees—the destruction of beloved homes, the waves of bombs, and most of all, the boundless bravery and generosity of her people—all the while trying to memorize the faces of those around her "so somebody will have known them before the end," wondering if, one day, her own journal will be discovered admist the rubble.

A document of the indomitable Palestinian spirit, told through the voice of one ordinary young woman, The Eyes of Gaza is a tribute to Alaqad's beloved Gaza, a paean to the courage and endurance of Palestine, and a manifesto of hope for its future.

The Eyes of Gaza By Plestia Alaqad (Audiobook Excerpt)

The story of Boudicca, the notorious warrior queen who led a legendary rebellion in 60 CE against the Roman Empire in Britain. This book by acclaimed Wolf Den Trilogy author Elodie Harper follows Boudicca's meteoric rise and devastating fall through the eyes of her youngest daughter, Solina, who seeks revenge against Rome.
 
Boudicca—infamous warrior, queen of the British Iceni tribe, and mastermind of one of history’s greatest revolts. Her defeat spelled ruin for her people, yet still her name is enough to strike fear into Roman hearts.

But what of the woman who grew up in her shadow? The woman who has her mother's looks and cunning and her father’s druidic gifts, but a spirit all of her own? The woman whose desperate bid for survival will take her from Britain’s sacred marshlands to the glittering facades of Nero’s Roman Empire . . .

The narrative arc and emotional heart of the book is Solina's complex relationship with Rome, and what resistance means in the radically different world she finds herself in after her mother's fall. After she is taken to the Empire's capital by the ruthless Roman general Paulinus, she will have to decide what it truly means to be Boudicca's daughter.

Forced to fight. Determined to succeed. Meet Solina. Boudicca’s daughter.
 
This epic and emotional novel is perfect for fans of Madeleine Miller’s Circe and Constanza Casati’s Clytemnestra.

Boudicca's Daughter By Elodie Harper, Read By Nathalie Emmanuel & Elodie Harper (Audiobook Excerpt)

A guide to talk to your kids about tough, existential topics like climate change, war, pandemics, and more, in order to create a healthy home, and process your emotions so that you can take meaningful action. 

Everyone—especially young children, teenagers and young adults—now reports higher levels of anxiety than ever before. Yet there's no playbook for parenting today. From the climate crisis to gun violence to political upheaval to racism, parenting in these times means bearing witness to chronic levels of uncertainty amidst societal and planetary transformation. Many are succumbing to fears and despair by becoming cynical “Doomers” (those who are extremely pessimistic or fatalist about global problems such as climate change and pollution).    

In Raising Anti‑Doomers, psychotherapist Ariella Cook‑Shonkoff reveals that Doomerism is nothing more than fear or despair gone wild. We have a choice in breeding this response further into our culture—or not. Her book helps parents help themselves, and in doing so, help children, and future generations. Ultimately, when we reset our parenting dials to respond to present day needs and circumstances, we breathe hope back into the world by raising resilient generations to come—this book offers that hope at a time when we are desperately in need.

Raising Anti-Doomers By Ariella Cook-Shonkoff, Read By Rebecca Gibel (Audiobook Excerpt)

From a groundbreaking neuroscientist, a book that will reshape the way we understand how our brain perceives the world around us—for readers of Adam Grant's Think Again and Lisa Genova's Remember.

How does your brain decide what it's seeing, from the physical world to other people? For decades, scientists have tried to understand how our brains work, not realizing that the answer lies much closer to home. New research in neuroscience and psychology suggests that the brain is doing the same thing that the scientists are: using past experiences to build theories of how the world works, and using these models to predict and make sense of it. Through this process, your brain constructs the reality that you live in.

Daniel Yon takes the research one step further, uncovering how your brain colors your perception of the world, the judgements you make about other people, and the beliefs you form about yourself. These mental processes help us navigate the world—but can also lead us astray, causing us to believe outlandish conspiracy theories or to see things that aren’t really there. By understanding the ways each of our brains construct our realities, we can better engage with other communities and make more informed approaches about mental illness. With cutting-edge research and transformative practical applications, A Trick of the Mind will revolutionize the way you think.

A Trick of the Mind By Daniel Yon (Audiobook Excerpt)

From the bestselling author of Unschooled, an exploration of new, low-cost K–12 learning models that favor individualized, learner-centered education

Across the United States, parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, and ordinary citizens are increasingly frustrated by the rigidity and standardization of modern schooling, and they are seeking alternatives. Openness to different learning models reached new heights during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to accelerate.

Entrepreneurial parents and teachers are responding to the growing demand for learning models that challenge the status quo. They are creating micro schools, learning pods, homeschooling collaboratives, online learning networks, and other flexible educational models that provide specialized, individualized education, often at a lower cost than traditional private schools. Joyful Learning shares the experiences of these everyday entrepreneurs who are reimagining learning in their communities, showing parents what is possible for their children and encouraging aspiring school founders to take their own enterprising leaps. Blending fresh storytelling with straightforward advice, Joyful Learning is an inspiring, relevant, and timely book for parents looking for different education options for their children, as well as would-be education entrepreneurs hoping to launch their own creative learning solutions. 

Joyful Learning By Kerry McDonald (Audiobook Excerpt)

Eels play an important ecological role in many rivers and streams, but they’re so eel-usive that even eel scientists have been challenged to observe them mating in the wild. Ellen Ruppel Shell is author of the 2024 book Slippery Beast: A True Crime Natural History, with Eels, and she sheds light on the eel’s murky ecology and path through the seafood industry.

And the relentless heating of the Earth is prompting people to move after climate-related catastrophes and amid more gradual changes. Journalist Abrahm Lustgarten is the author of On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America, about the northward migration he anticipates as Americans seek to escape punishing heat, fire, and drought.

Also stargazing has profoundly shaped who we are as human beings, and gave rise to science, religion, and origin stories from diverse traditions. Roberto Trotta, the author of the new book Starborn: How the Stars Made Us (And Who We Would Be Without Them) joins us to discuss how studying the night sky shaped science and why satellites now threaten our connection to the stars.


Slippery Beast: A True Crime Natural History, with Eels, Uprooted By Climate, Starborn: How the Stars Made Us and more.

The second <a href="http://everything2.com/title/Podcaster">Everything2 Podcast</a> of 2012, presented by <a href="http://everything2.com/title/Montag">Montag</a> and <a href="http://everything2.com/user/Evil+Catullus">Evil Catullus</a>. A mix of stories, poetry, songs and... other writing. Featuring:

*<a href="http://everything2.com/user/Tom+Rook">Tom Rook</a>, reading his own poem '<a href="http://everything2.com/title/the+wise+mapmaker+omits+his+home">the wise mapmaker omits his home</a>'
*<a href="http://everything2.com/user/bwerdmuller">Bwerdmuller</a>, reading <a href="http://everything2.com/user/Retina">Retina</a>'s '<a href="http://everything2.com/user/Retina/writeups/I+am+eighteen+years+old">I am 22 years old</a>'
*Bitriot, reading <a href="http://everything2.com/user/lblack">lblack's</a> '<a href="http://everything2.com/title/Do+not+attempt+to+stop+chain+with+your+hands+or+genitals">Do not attempt to stop chain with hands or genitals</a>'
*<a href="http://everything2.com/user/grundoon">grundoon</a>,  <a href="http://everything2.com/user/lizardinlaw">lizardinlaw</a> and general singular performing 'Mr. Noah' and '<a href="http://everything2.com/user/grundoon/writeups/Angel+from+Montgomery">Angel from Montgomery'
*<a href="http://everything2.com/user/StuartO%2529%2529%2529">StuartO)))</a> reading <a href="http://everything2.com/user/The+Custodian">The Custodian</a>'s '<a href="http://everything2.com/title/hymns+of+detonated+twilights+along+toxic+shores">hymns of detonated twilights along toxic shores</a>'
*<a href="http://everything2.com/user/Oolong">Oolong</a> reading his own poem '<a href="http://everything2.com/title/dark+chocolate">Dark Chocolate</a>'
*StuartO))) performing the collaborative sea shanty '<a href="http://everything2.com/title/The+Ballad+of+Mark+the+Kramer">The Ballad of Mark the Kramer</a>'

E2 Podcast 2012/ii

everything2

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