Book Recommendations

Monthly Book Recommendations:

Some ideas we’re thinking about to build community. A few of our favorites and a few in the stack by our nightstand. Let’s READ!

• Finding Your Third Place, by Richard Kyte
  Do you have a third place? Your first place is home, your second place is work, and your third place is where you go to socialize and build friendships. Yet, for several reasons, many people today find themselves without a third place of their own. At a time when our nation is facing an epidemic of loneliness and communities are suffering from a loss of trust, low levels of engagement, despair, and political polarization, what if the answer to many of our problems lies in a simple idea? What if we just need to pay attention to the places where we find ourselves?
• Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg
  “Third places,” or “great good places,” are the many public places where people can gather, put aside the concerns of home and work (their first and second places), and hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation. They are the heart of a community’s social vitality and the grassroots of a democracy.
• Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories about the Great Good Places at the Heart of Our Communities by Ray Oldenburg
  The time has come to celebrate the many third places that dot the American landscape and foster civic life. With 20 black-and-white photographs, Celebrating the Third Place brings together fifteen firsthand accounts by proprietors of third places, as well as appreciations by fans who have made spending time at these hangouts a regular part of their lives.
• A Place to Belong: Celebrating Diversity & Kinship in the Home and Beyond by Amber O’Neal Johnston
  A guide for families of all backgrounds to celebrate cultural heritage and embrace inclusivity in the home and beyond. 
  Gone are the days when socially conscious parents felt comfortable teaching their children to merely tolerate others. Instead, they are looking for a way to authentically embrace the fullness of their diverse communities. A Place to Belong offers a path forward for families to honor their cultural heritage and champion diversity in the context of daily family life

• Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It by Jennifer Breheny Wallace
  In the ever more competitive race to secure the best possible future, today’s students face unprecedented pressure to succeed. The pressure to perform is not a matter of parental choice but baked in to our larger society and spurred by increasing income inequality and dwindling opportunities. As a result, children are increasingly absorbing the message that they have no value outside of their accomplishments, a message that is reinforced by the media and greater culture at large. In an ironic twist, kids who receive consistent feedback that they matter no matter what are more likely to have the resilience, self-confidence, and psychological security to thrive.