The Pursuit of Happiness
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The pursuit of happiness—whether through education,
love, marriage, immigration, health, or work—dominates
this season’s offerings.
In Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own, Kate Bolick offers a timely look
at why she (along with millions of American women) have chosen to remain
unmarried. Meanwhile, on the other sign of that coin, marriage equality for
gay and lesbian couples has seen a major lift over the past year. But in It’s
Not Over: Getting Beyond Tolerance, Defeating Homophobia, and
Winning True Equality, prominent LGBTQ activist Michelangelo
Signorile reminds us how far we have to go.
Matthew B. Crawford, bestselling author of Shop Class as Soulcraft, takes
on our digitally driven “crisis of attention” in The World Beyond Your
Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction. And in
Spring Chicken: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying) journalist Bill
Gifford explores the world of anti-aging science—and hucksterism.
Whitney Phillips delves into the world of online trolling with This Is
Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between
Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. And New York Times columnist
David Brooks explores values once again in The Road to Character: The
Humble Journey to an Excellent Life.
In his too-short life, hacktivist Aaron Swartz (who committed suicide in
2013, at age 26) virtually reshaped the Internet. His writings are collected
in The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron
Swartz, with an introduction by Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor.
One of Swartz’s passions—education—plays a key role in three solid offerings this spring. Kevin Carey delivers a “paradigm-changing examination”
of the college experience in The End of College: Creating the Future of
Learning and the University of Everywhere. And in Creative Schools: The
Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education, Ken Robinson and
Lou Aronica ask how we can better educate young people. Where You Go
Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania,
by Frank Bruni, is a critique of the frenzied college admissions process. In it,
the New York Times op-ed columnist and bestselling author dismantles the
myth that people’s future success hinges on what schools they get in to.
SOCIAL SCIENCE
SPRING 2015 ADULT
ANNOUNCEMENTS
