Bookshelf

(St. Martin’s Press, 2025).

In 2020, Congress voted to rename nine military installations that honored Confederate leaders who had waged war in the name of maintaining a slave republic. Five years later, the Trump administration reversed course, reinstating the original names. This book by two members of the Naming Commission tells the stories of the 10 American heroes whose names they had selected.

(Cambridge University Press, 2025).

According to the publisher, “Beyond Coercion offers a new perspective on mechanisms of social control practiced by authoritarian regimes. Focusing on the Chinese state, Alexsia T. Chan presents an original theory and concept of political atomization, which explains how the state maintains social control and entrenches structural inequality.

(MIT Press, 2025).

An associate professor of computer science at the Colorado School of Mines and director of the Mines Interactive Robotics Research Lab, the author argues that robotics design has historically reinforced white supremacist and patriarchal systems of power. In this book, he explores what roboticists might do to subvert rather than reinforce those trends.

(Columbia University Press, 2025).

Bob Pigott has called New York City home since 1959. By trade, he is an attorney who served as section chief and bureau chief of the New York Attorney General’s Charities Bureau. He’s also a history buff. When reading a biography, he finds himself especially curious about one aspect of the subjects’ life — their first trip to New York City. What did they want to see? Where did they stay? What were their impressions?

(Sundress Publications, 2025).

The publisher provides this description: “Tales from Manila Ave. traces the joys and struggles of Filipino immigrants as they navigate life and ponder identity outside their motherland. Through touching reflections on community and memory, Patrick Joseph Caoile’s debut collection takes an honest yet playful look into the intricacies of longing and belonging. Tenants gather to swap meals and stories, workers strive to prove their worth, sons and daughters revisit their relationships with faith, patriotism, and their own parents. These connections span generations, and in crossing both time and distance, urge us to observe what is lost or changed in the translation.

(Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2025).

In a world where despotic sorcerers use their magic to control and intimidate, young Fiora Barrowling finds herself embroiled in the human resistance movement after a fateful encounter. At the resistance academy, she learns to fight and struggles with belonging, all while contending with a possible infiltrator leaking information to the sorcerers. Kirkus describes the book as “breathless” and “a lightning blast of futuristic fantasy.”

(self-published, 2025).

The author asks readers to ponder several questions:

Does your organization feel like it’s running but not really going anywhere?

Have you experienced any of the following: strategic plans that sit untouched in binders; an overflowing calendar yet a sense of an unaccomplished mission; a passionate team that burns out faster than it can recover; fundraising that looks good on paper, but with an impact that feels ... shallow?

(NASPA, 2025).

According to the publisher, “Well-Being Leadership in Higher Education is a groundbreaking guide that reimagines how colleges and universities can center well-being as a strategic priority to enhance student success and institutional effectiveness. Blending theory, research, and practice, this timely volume brings together a wide range of voices from across higher education — student affairs leaders, chief wellness officers, clinicians, and faculty — who share powerful insights and actionable strategies for leading transformative well-being initiatives. Readers will find field-tested approaches for assessing and evaluating outcomes, creating integrated models of care, and engaging students as key stakeholders in shaping campus cultures of health and wellness. As higher education continues to respond to the growing mental health crisis, this book offers a compelling call to action and a clear roadmap for embedding well-being into policies, programs, and daily practice.”

(Harper Muse, 2025).

“Uncle Dixon always told Rennie to tell the bees everything, but somewhere along the way, Rennie forgot. Now, with her life at its lowest, she begins to see the bees in a new light. Will she believe again in the magic of the hives, and will she listen as the bees try to guide her home?”

(Ascend Books, 2025).

People are like redwood trees? Dogs? Porcupines, even? Rabbi Michael Zedek shares how in a refreshing, humorous style that connects with young readers and their families. The illustrated stories in this slim volume inspire empathy and compassion as well as meaningful conversations that remind us we still have room and time to grow no matter our age.