New Book Releases | January 13
Change is a recurring theme in this week's best new releases. An often profound practicality is another.
Do More in Four: Why It's Time for a Shorter Workweek by Joe O’Connor, Jared Lindzon, Harvard Business Review Press
An impassioned—and data-driven—case for a four-day workweek.
The five-day workweek is a pillar of modern life, but it isn't backed by science, ancient wisdom, or divine decree. It's simply a relic of the industrial age—and it's time for an upgrade. What if we could accomplish more while working fewer days?
A shortened workweek once seemed like a radical idea. Today, it's embraced by innovative business leaders, forward-thinking politicians, and a new generation of workers demanding more meaningful work.
In Do More in Four, Joe O'Connor, a pioneer in designing and leading four-day-workweek pilots around the globe, and journalist Jared Lindzon, whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Fortune, and TIME magazine, present a groundbreaking, data-driven exploration of why a four-day workweek isn't merely possible—it's necessary in the age of artificial intelligence.
O'Connor and Lindzon draw on extensive research, compelling case studies, and personal interviews with experts—including a Nobel Prize–winning economist and Bill Gates—to reveal how organizations are reimagining work. From a consumer products giant in New Zealand to a global nonprofit, a Canadian law firm, and a Midwestern architecture firm, they take readers inside the companies transforming their work models to improve employee outcomes while driving revenue growth.
Do More in Four offers a battle-tested blueprint for a smarter, more humane approach to work.
The Invention of the Future: A History of Cities in the Modern World by Bruno Carvalho, published by Princeton University Press
A kaleidoscopic and original new history of urbanization—from Lisbon to New York, Paris to Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires to Lagos.
For the past three centuries, urban dwellers and planners have imagined future cities that would be radically different from those of the past. Planners pursued progress, whether focused on flying vehicles above, sewage systems below, or daily life in between. Yet, as Bruno Carvalho shows in this original and wide-ranging history, which features some sixty illustrations, modern cities continuously defied predictions. Visionary designs and technological innovations created dramatic, unforeseen outcomes, and the ongoing urban boom is a story of continuity as well as rupture. A compelling history of imagined futures and the transformation of urban life, The Invention of the Future also suggests what we might learn from the stories of our cities as we shape them for the twenty-first century.
Moving between large-scale changes and detailed examples, this captivating narrative tells the story of key moments and turning points: the rebuilding of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake; the 1811 Commissioners’ Plan for Manhattan; Parisian reforms from 1853 to 1870; Le Corbusier’s plans for South American cities in the 1920s and 1930s; the postwar victory of the car; the utopian capital of Brasília; and urban growth in Africa.
In recent decades, Carvalho argues, the capacity to invent urban futures has become increasingly constrained. Social and environmental challenges loom large. But the story is not over. While cities helped create current problems, compact and transit-rich urbanization might be our best hope to combine high living standards with sustainability. Sometimes, moving forward can involve reaching back to the future.
The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans by Maya Shankar, published by Riverhead Books
A revelatory exploration of how we can find meaning in the tumult of change, from a renowned cognitive scientist and host of the critically acclaimed podcast A Slight Change of Plans.
Life has a way of thwarting our best-laid plans. Out of nowhere, we’re confronting the end of a relationship, an unexpected diagnosis, the loss of a job, or some other twist of fate. In these moments, it can feel like we’re free-falling into the unknown.
As a cognitive scientist, Maya Shankar has spent decades studying the human mind. When an unwanted change in her own life left her reeling, she sought out people who had navigated major disruptions. In The Other Side of Change, Shankar tells their riveting, singular stories and weaves in scientific insights to illuminate universal lessons hidden within them. The result is a rich portrait of our complex reactions to change and a deep well of wisdom we can draw from during these experiences.
Shankar invites us to rethink our relationship with change altogether. When a big change happens to us, it can lead to profound change within us. The unique stresses and demands of being thrust into a new reality can lead us to uncover new abilities, perspectives, and values, transforming us in extraordinary ways. What if we saw moments of upheaval as an opportunity to reimagine who we can be, rather than as something to just endure? What potential could we unlock within ourselves?
Whether you're processing a past change, grappling with a present one, or bracing for a future one, this book is a wise and thought-provoking companion to help you discover who you can become on the other side of change.
When It's Darkness on the Delta: How America's Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land by W. Ralph Eubanks, published by Beacon Press
For readers of The Sum of Us and South to America, an essential new look at the roots of American inequality—and the seeds of its transformation.
Once the powerhouse of a fledgling country’s economy, the Mississippi Delta has been consigned to a narrative of destitution. It is often faulted for the sins of the South, portrayed as a regional backwater that willfully cleaved itself from the modern world. But buried beneath the weight of good ol’ boy politics and white-washed histories lies the Delta’s true story.
Mississippi native and award-winning writer W. Ralph Eubanks unearths the region’s buried history, revealing a microcosm of economic oppression in the US. He traverses the Delta, examining its bellwether efforts to combat income inequality through vivid portraits of key figures like:
- Theodore G. Bilbo and William Whittington, segregationist congressmen who sabotaged federal reparations for former sharecroppers in the 1940s and ’50s
- Gloria Carter Dickerson, founder of the Emmett Till Academy, whose parents were instrumental in desegregating schools in Drew, MS, where Till was murdered
- Calvin Head, a community organizer who runs a farming co-op in Mileston, who revived the legacy of his hometown, the only Black resettlement community in Mississippi
Eubanks delivers a powerful and insightful examination of how racism and economic instability have shaped life in the Mississippi Delta. He traces the enduring consequences of political decisions that have entrenched inequality across generations. At the same time, he brings attention to the resilience of local communities and the grassroots movements working toward meaningful change. The book offers a thoughtful framework for policy reform and community investment, underscoring the need to support those who have long sustained the region through their labor and lived experience.
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The Porchlight staff members choosing new books each week are Porchlight's Managing Director, Sally Haldorson, and the marketing team of Gabriella Cisneros and Dylan Schleicher.
Unless otherwise noted, all book descriptions are from the publisher.
