Book Review: Books On Current Events (Various Authors)
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sex
Books on Current Events by various authors
c.2025, various publishers $28 – $30 various page counts
The world seems to be moving at lightning speed.
You can hardly keep up with work and family, so current events sometimes goes on the back burner – which is why you need these great books on things that are relevant to your life now, today…
So you say that you simply cannot understand the politics of those on the other side of the debate. In “What We Value” The Neuroscience of Choice & Change” by Emily Falk (W.W. Norton, $29.99), you’ll see what goes into our thinking.
How can we know what choice is right? And if we pick wrong, why is it so darn hard to change? Read this fascinating book and see how your brain and your experiences affect who you are and how you make decisions, which will also offer insight on others’ thought processes. This is a gentle book with a path to compassion.
And yet, you’re still butting heads, so reach for “Conflict Resilience” by Robert C. Bordone and Joel Salinas, M.D. (Harper Business, $29.99), a book about communicating when the gulf between two sides is almost insurmountable.
With this book, you’ll learn to understand issues that might appear hidden, and ways to address them or not. That last part is important; read this book to see why. It’s great for business people, teachers, activists, and, well, anyone.
So how did you all get to this point? In “Outraged: Why We Fight about Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground” by Kurt Gray (Pantheon, $28.00), you’ll learn how to see where your opponent comes from, in their beliefs about current events, and how our own credos were formed. There’s a surprisingly easy way to find common ground, says the author, and if we agree to try it, listen, and reciprocate, we may find out that our arguments aren’t as far apart as we believe they are.
And finally, all your efforts have been for naught and you’re not quite sure how to feel about it. In “The Power of Parting: Finding Peace and Freedom Through Family Estrangement” by Eamon Dolan (Putnam, $30), you’ll see how cutting ties may be the best thing for your own mental health. But reader beware: this is a very personal story of abuse and family trauma that may be triggering for some, while it will be triumphant to others.
Psychologists, says Dolan, often focus on the pain of estrangement but that’s not always the case; there may be joy and a sense of freedom in cutting ties. Here, he dives into how to deal with those who demand ill-conceived reconciliation, how to find your center, what to do with unresolved issues that may happen, and how to do this.
Read this book for yourself. Read it for a friend in this contentious climate.
And if these books aren’t enough, be sure to ask your favorite bookseller or librarian for help or for more on these subjects. They’ll know exactly what you need to help take a deep breath and slow things down.
