Recommended Books

Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism (Outspoken by Pluto)
Author:
Amelia Horgan
ISBN 13:
978-0745340913
***Evening Standard's best non-fiction 2021*** "Horganâs suggestions will appeal to anyone who has ever done a job they hatedâŚ"â The Guardian âWork hard, get paidâ. It's simple. Self-evident. But it's also a lie - at least for most of us. For people today, the old assumptions are crumbling; hard work in school no longer guarantees a secure, well-paying job in the future. Far from a gateway to riches and fulfilment, 'work' means precarity, anxiety and alienation. Amelia Horgan poses three big questions here: what is work? How does it harm us? And what can we do about it? While abolishing work altogether is not the answer, Lost in Work shows that when we are able to take control of our workplaces, we become less miserable, and can work towards the transformative goal of experimenting with 'work' as we know it. Chapters include: *Work, capitalism and capitalist work *Contesting âworkâ *The paradox of new work *What does work to do us as individuals *What does work to do society *Phantoms and slackers: Resistance and work *Time off: Resistance to work For a new generation of workers dealing with Covid19, work from home, hybrid work, burnout, anxiety, and more, author Amelia Hogan offers a clear-eyed look at the work we do and suggests that in a new work in which work as we know it has changed dramatically, âwe might think that something needs to change.â Maybe change begins with reading this remarkably revelatory book, because Hogan articulates that gnawing feeling that we have at the office that something isnât right and that the systems of our civilization are designed to chain and subdue us.

Farewell to the Factory: Auto Workers in the Late Twentieth Century
Author:
Ruth Milkman
ISBN 13:
978-0520206786
This study exposes the human side of the decline of the U.S. auto industry, tracing the experiences of two key groups of General Motors workers: those who took a cash buyout and left the factory, and those who remained and felt the effects of new technology and other workplace changes. Milkman's extensive interviews and surveys of workers from the Linden, New Jersey, GM plant reveal their profound hatred for the factory regimeâa longstanding discontent made worse by the decline of the auto workers' union in the 1980s. One of the leading social historians of the auto industry, Ruth Milkman moves between changes in the wider industry and those in the Linden plant, bringing both a workers' perspective and a historical perspective to the study. Milkman finds that, contrary to the assumption in much of the literature on deindustrialization, the Linden buyout-takers express no nostalgia for the high-paying manufacturing jobs they left behind. Given the chance to make a new start in the late 1980s, they were eager to leave the plant with its authoritarian, prison-like conditions, and few have any regrets about their decision five years later. Despite the fact that the factory was retooled for robotics and that the management hoped to introduce a new participatory system of industrial relations, workers who remained express much less satisfaction with their lives and jobs. Milkman is adamant about allowing the workers to speak for themselves, and their hopes, frustrations, and insights add fresh and powerful perspectives to a debate that is often carried out over the heads of those whose lives are most affected by changes in the industry.

Confessions of the Fox: A Novel
Author:
Jordy Rosenberg
ISBN 13:
978-0399592287
A New York Times Editorsâ Choice: âA mind-bending romp through a gender-fluid, eighteenth century London . . . a joyous mash-up of literary genres shot through with queer theory and awash in sex, crime, and revolution.â NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker ⢠HuffPost ⢠Kirkus Reviews ⢠Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award ⢠Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize ⢠âA dazzling tale of queer romance and resistance.ââ Time Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of eighteenth-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscriptâa gender-defying exposĂŠ of Jack and Bessâs adventures. Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? As Dr. Voth is drawn deeper into Jack and Bessâs tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwinedâand only a miracle will save them all. Writing with the narrative mastery of Sarah Waters and the playful imagination of Nabokov, Jordy Rosenberg is an audacious storyteller of extraordinary talent. Praise for Confessions of the Fox âA cunning metafiction of vulpine versatility . . . an action-adventure tale with postmodern flourishes; an academic comedy spliced with period erotica; an intimate meditation on belonging.â âKaty Waldman, The New Yorker â Confessions of the Fox is so goddamned good. Reading it was like an out-of-body experience. I want to run through the streets screaming about it. It should be in the personal canon of every queer and non-cis person. Read it. â âCarmen Maria Machado, National Book Award finalist for Her Body and Other Parties âA hat tip to Moby-Dick . . . a running footnote hall of mirrors to rival Borges . . . one of the most trenchant calls for progressive action that I have read in a very long time.â â The New York Times Book Review âAn ambitious work of metafiction, a sexy queer love story . . . a bold first novel.â â Entertainment Weekly