Gary Tyler with Ellen Bravo. Stiching Freedom: A True Story of Injustice, Defiance, and Hope in Angola Prison. October 2025. Published by One Signal, an imprint of Atria, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Hardback $29.00. 288 pages. 9781668097328. Adult.
Summary: Stitching for Freedom tells the story of Gary Tyler, who at seventeen became the youngest prisoner on death row in the United States after being wrongfully convicted of killing a white teenager in 1974. Subjected to decades of injustice—including brutal prison conditions, fabricated evidence, and repeated denial of clemency—Gary spent over forty years behind bars before his release in 2016. This book allows him to reclaim his story, confront systemic injustices, and seek personal exoneration. During his incarceration, Tyler refused to let the system break his spirit. He became an actor, playwright, and director, and, most notably, discovered purpose through quilting and textile art.
Trigger Warnings: Wrongful conviction, death row, racial injustice, prison abuse, fabricated evidence, political oppression, trauma, long-term incarceration.
Sensitivity Note: This memoir deals with extreme legal and racial injustices and the psychological and physical toll of long-term imprisonment. Readers may find depictions of trauma, abuse, and systemic racism deeply affecting.
Bill Ayers. When Freedom Is the Question, Abolition Is the Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation. September 2024. Published by Beacon Press. Paperback $15.95. 168 pages. 9780807020340. Ages 1Adult.
Summary: Summary: In When Freedom Is the Question, Abolition Is the Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation, Bill Ayers reflects on decades of activism, education, and resistance, arguing that true freedom requires dismantling oppressive systems rather than reforming them. Drawing on history, personal experience, and political theory, Ayers explores abolition as a framework not only for prisons and policing, but for confronting racism, capitalism, militarism, and inequality. The book calls for collective action, imagination, and solidarity in the pursuit of a more just and humane world.
Trigger Warnings: Discussions of systemic racism, state violence, incarceration, political oppression, and social injustice.
Sensitivity Note: This book presents a radical critique of existing social and political systems and may challenge readers’ beliefs about justice, reform, and abolition. Its discussions of violence and oppression are contextual and analytical but may be emotionally intense for some readers.
Jeff Hobbs. Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America. February 2025. Published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Publishings. Hardback $29.99. 336 pages. 9781668034828. Adult.
Summary: Seeking Shelter follows Evelyn and her children as they navigate homelessness in Los Angeles after poverty and domestic violence upend their lives. Despite working full time, Evelyn is unable to secure stable housing or access meaningful assistance, yet remains determined to keep her children in school and dreaming of a better future. The story unfolds through the perspectives of Evelyn, her teenage son Orlando, and Wendi, a newly trained social worker with her own history of housing insecurity. Their intersecting lives offer a deeply empathetic look at homelessness, education, and the enduring power of a mother’s love.
Trigger Warnings: Domestic violence, homelessness, poverty, housing insecurity, family separation risk, emotional distress.
Sensitivity Note: This book portrays the realities of systemic inequality and trauma with emotional realism. Readers sensitive to depictions of homelessness, family instability, or abuse may find the content challenging.
Scott Payne with Michelle Shephard. Code Name: Pale Horse: How I Went Undercover to Expose America’s Nazis: How I Went Undercover to expose America’s NAZIs. April 2025. Published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Adult Publishing, a division of Simon and Schuster. Paperback $28.99. 256 pages. 9781668032909. Adult.
Summary: This gripping true story follows Scott Payne, a retired FBI agent who risked his life infiltrating The Base, one of the most dangerous neo-Nazi groups in the United States. Known as the “Hillbilly Donnie Brasco,” Payne recounts his undercover operations, including a harrowing Halloween night in 2019 when he tried to save a goat from a ritual sacrifice without blowing his cover. The book offers a firsthand look at the inner workings of extremist groups and the personal and professional dangers of undercover work.
Trigger Warnings: Neo-Nazism, extremist violence, animal cruelty, hate crimes, threats to personal safety, graphic depictions of criminal activity.Sensitivity Note: The book contains detailed accounts of extremist ideology, violent rituals, and dangerous undercover operations. Some readers may find depictions of hate groups, animal harm, and personal risk distressing.
Noliwe Rooks. Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children. March 2025. Published by Pantheon, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House. Hardback $28.00. 240 pages. 9780553387391. Ages Adult.
Summary: This book critically examines the legacy of school integration in the United States, arguing that while Brown v. Board of Education was a legal milestone, its implementation often harmed Black communities. Rooks shows how integration led to the mass firing of Black educators, the closure of thriving community schools, and the displacement of Black students into hostile, racist environments. Rather than guaranteeing equal education, these systemic failures frequently produced trauma and contributed to inequities such as the school-to-prison pipeline. The book also highlights alternative, community-centered models of education that prioritized Black students’ well-being and success.
Trigger Warnings: Racism, systemic discrimination, educational trauma, violence and harassment against Black students, historical injustice.
Sensitivity Note: This text offers a critical reassessment of widely accepted civil rights narratives and discusses real-world harm experienced by Black communities. Readers may find its exploration of institutional racism and educational inequity emotionally challenging.
Tricia Rose. Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives-and How we Break Free. April 2025. Published by Beacon Press. Hardback $30.00. 168 pages. 9780807020340. Ages 14 & Up.
Summary: In Metaracism, scholar Tricia Rose offers a clear, incisive explanation of systemic racism and why public conversations about racial inequality often fall short. She introduces the concept of “metaracism” to show how interconnected policies across housing, education, criminal justice, and other systems work together—often under the guise of being “color-blind”—to disproportionately harm Black people. By mapping these overlapping structures, Rose exposes how racism operates beyond individual acts and argues for more informed, collective strategies to challenge it.
Trigger Warnings: Racism, systemic discrimination, discussions of criminal justice and incarceration, social and economic inequality.
Sensitivity Note: This book critically examines entrenched systems of power and may be challenging for readers due to its direct discussion of structural racism and its impacts on Black communities.
Sarah Smarsh. Bone of the Bone. September 2024. Published by Scribner Publishers. Paperback $20.00. 352 pages. 9781668055601. Adult.
Summary: Summary: In Bone of the Bone, Sarah Smarsh blends personal narrative and cultural critique to examine the forces shaping contemporary life, including class inequality, political division, gender injustice, environmental crisis, media bias, and the rural–urban divide. Drawing from her experiences growing up on a Kansas wheat farm and becoming the first in her family to graduate from college, Smarsh offers more than thirty previously published essays (2013–2024) that reflect a career rooted in amplifying overlooked perspectives. Together, the collection provides a sharp, compassionate exploration of the social tensions influencing our shared future.
Trigger Warnings: Classism, political conflict, gender inequality, environmental degradation, media bias, discussions of social injustice.
Sensitivity Note: This collection engages deeply with systemic inequities and cultural divides and may be challenging for readers sensitive to discussions of political polarization, economic hardship, or gender-based injustice.
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