Porchlight has always been a company where employees are encouraged to say "yes" to new ideas and new approaches to bookselling. Saying "yes,” even when we weren’t sure how things would pan out, has been how we've developed and refined many of the services we offer today. But answering "no" on a few key occasions has also sharpened our focus and sustained our energy, and every company—indeed, every individual, community, economy, and country—needs to understand what they must say "no" to in order to persevere and prosper.

We are at an inflection point in human history, and as the title of Rebecca Solnit's latest book reminds us, The Beginning Comes After the End. The four books we're highlighting this week all focus on elements of our society we must question, grapple with, come to terms with, and maybe even reply with a firm "no" to and end in order to fix what has been broken, restore what has been lost, and begin building anew.

All four books are on local bookshop shelves now and are available for purchase online today. Interested in buying multiple copies for your team, book club, or neighbors? Follow the links below, give us a call to purchase the books, or check out our services for bulk book buyers to learn more about how we can help.

Unless otherwise noted, all descriptions of the books below come from the publisher.

Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry by JS Tan & Clarissa Redwine, published by Haymarket Books

As tech bosses fall in line with the right, tech workers are fighting back. This is the rousing inside story of their movement—and the way it spawned an anti-worker backlash now reshaping the industry.

After Donald Trump’s election in 2016, the tech industry sprang into action to oppose his right-wing agenda, with workers and CEOs alike joining mass mobilizations against the new president’s anti-immigrant policies. But it wasn’t long before the tech bosses started to fall in line with the new administration.

In response, tens of thousands of tech workers protested against their own employers for betraying the progressive values that once defined the industry—including organizing against military contracts, walking out to protest sexism, and even launching a wave of union drives. By the early 2020s, these workers had sparked what observers were calling the tech worker movement, one that seemed capable of checking the industry’s reckless growth and reactionary drift.

But as their struggle grew, so did the employers’ backlash. A new class consciousness took root among tech's billionaire owners. Hell-bent on stamping out any and all dissent, tech executives embraced Trumpism, fired organizers, and began lashing out against the “woke” ideology they blamed for turning their once loyal employees against them—and replacing the good tech jobs of the 2010s with incessant layoffs, grind culture, and a management style that treats workers as disposable.

Against Tech Oligarchy provides a gripping account of this inspiring workers' movement and the rise of the hostile labor politics that define Silicon Valley today.

"At a time when Silicon Valley is threatening the very foundations of democracy, this rallying cry could not have come soon enough." Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI

The Great Refusal: A New Vision of Resistance by Casey Gerald, published by Little, Brown and Company

In the spirit of American cultural prophecy—from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Rebecca Solnit—acclaimed writer Casey Gerald offers a groundbreaking work of joyous dissent and stunning vision, a survival guide to a society in crisis.

Most afternoons for the past three years, Casey Gerald took a walk. He would pass the compound that Elon Musk was building in his neighborhood; the burned-down Freedman's church; the little house where he and his lover Jack had seen a shooting star. He knew the world was crumbling, but he didn't fret. He had been promised: When it breaks, you'll be ready.

"There is a great unfolding going on," Gerald writes, "and all the clues for what's to come are planted in the people." In this quietly redemptive and lyrical book, Gerald shares his map for finding those clues, finding each other, and finding our way out of this dark and wearied time. On the other side of No, Gerald insists, there is a Yes—an embrace of what we really want, what we might finally claim once we refuse.

Calling forth a kaleidoscopic cast, from Odysseus to D'Angelo, Sun Tzu to Simone Biles, Black literati and desert mystics, Gerald implores us to take our power back and to remake the world together, on our terms. Written with Didion's cold eye and Baldwin's unflinching urgency, and with the dark humor of a man who’s seen too much but still wants to see what’s next, The Great Refusal is a lifeline from the other side of ruin.

“Stunning and revelatory, an affirmation of the possibilities that rest within us and a challenge yo be brave enough to seek them. The Great Refusal is an urgent love letter to a crumbling world and its lost inhabitants. Read this book to discover something greater about our shared dignity and the community—revolutionary and transcendent—we can build” —Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King

Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner by Joshua Specht, Princeton University Press

A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis.

From its very beginnings, the United States has defined itself by its relationship to land. Settlers saw the continent as the raw material for building a prosperous life while their leaders viewed it as a means for building a people. In the 1950s, the suburban home became a place for Americans to create a personal utopia of lawns and living rooms, of washing machines and dishwashers. Property Values traces how land and its ownership became inextricably tied to the American ideal of independence—and demonstrates why the Homestead Act and a thirty-year mortgage have far more in common than you think.

In this engaging book, Joshua Specht uncovers the history behind the American conviction that widespread land ownership is a fundamental requirement for a flourishing democratic society. We meet the nineteenth-century settler farmers whose dreams of new social and political forms were built on vast quantities of land taken from native peoples, and the European immigrants who came seeking a better life as land-owning citizens. For FDR, homeownership offered a path out of the depths of the Great Depression. For George W. Bush, it gave people a permanent stake in the American dream. Specht charts how the vision of plenty that first drew homesteaders westward gave way to one of scarcity and exclusion as new neighbors came to be seen as a threat to property values and a system meant to promote ownership put it squarely out of reach for many.

Taking readers from the rent wars of the early 1840s through the financial crisis of the late 2000s, Property Values reveals why housing affordability has posed significant challenges to the nation’s politics and promise since the founding, and why the American story has always been one about land.

"This riveting history of the land and home ownership policies that have benefitted some Americans at great cost to others can help us understand the housing crisis as a much larger story of American society and politics. By considering how property values have shaped national values, Specht prompts reflection on the kind of nation we want to build." Kristin L. Hoganson, author of The Heartland

Saying No to New: Why New Things Are Stealing Your Time, Money, and Happiness—And How to Take Back Your Life by Eric Athas, published by Balance

From New York Times editor Eric Athas comes a groundbreaking solution on how to rewire our impulses to consume new things and reclaim control of our lives and spending habits.

New things are everywhere—and they’re causing us to disconnect from what we value most in life. One of the biggest lies of modern times is that new is always better. A new phone is always better than the previous edition. A new pair of sunglasses is always better than the one you wore last summer. The new fitness app is always better than the one you already downloaded. Influencers are constantly promoting the latest trends, and retailers are designing frictionless experiences that optimize for speedy checkouts. Sooner or later, we can’t help but feel like a new product, trend, or fad is too good to resist.

Saying No to New recognizes that instead of improving our lives, new things often distract us from our goals. They steal our time, money and attention—and even our joy and happiness. As a solution to today’s challenges, Saying No to New will help you:

• Understand how your own brain may be pushing you to newness for brief dopamine hits
  
• Become knowledgeable about the landscape of new things and the forces pulling you in
  
• Master the art of detecting persuasion in humans and technology
  
• Make smarter decisions about what to embrace and what to deflect
  
• Develop a calmer, healthier, clutter-free lifestyle

In Saying No to New, Eric Athas draws upon his experiences and the latest research—as well as interviews with scientists, philosophers, tech insiders, happiness gurus, decision-making experts, and others—to provide a framework for reshaping your relationship with new things. You will learn how to break the flow of new things into your life and take a more intentional approach to the ones you do encounter.

"Saying No to New offers a guide to resisting the pull of endless novelty and unneeded innovations. Blending journalism, psychology, and practical wisdom, this book explores why we're so drawn to the new—and how ignoring that instinct can give us back our time, money, and joy." —Charlies Duhigg, New York Times bestselling author of Supercommunicators and The Power of Habit