Editors’ Picks for April 2025

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice.

Posted on April 10, 2025 in Editors' Picks

Whether one agrees with Austin’s thesis, readers will be provoked toward a deep understanding of the issues as a result of reading this short but thought-provoking book.

—A. Jaeger, Benedictine College

Austin, Michael W. American Christian nationalism: neither American nor Christian. Eerdmans, 2024. 130p bibl index ISBN 9780802884350 pbk, $17.99; ISBN 9781467468596 ebook, $9.99.

In American Christian Nationalism, Austin (Eastern Kentucky Univ.) argues that the recent movement in Christianity toward an unreflective nationalism is—as the title of his book suggests—neither true to an authentic expression of American principles nor to an authentic expression of Christianity. This short, insightful monograph raises questions that will cause readers to stop and examine their own foundations. Austin asks his readers to reflect on the possibility that American Christian nationalism is actually just a mirrored image of the ideology they are seeking to oppose. This book will be of great interest to those who are seeking to better understand the relationship between Church and state, Christianity and the founding of America, and whether contemporary political efforts are aligned with a Christian way of life (along with its virtues of faith, hope, and especially charity). Whether one agrees with Austin’s thesis, readers will be provoked toward a deep understanding of the issues as a result of reading this short but thought-provoking book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —A. Jaeger, Benedictine College

This book is a must read for anyone in the library profession.

—J. D. Whifill, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

Cultural humility in libraries: a call to action and strategies for success, ed. by Shannon D. Jones and Beverly Murphy. Rowman & Littlefield, 2024. 196p bibl index ISBN 9781538162149, $95.00; ISBN 9781538162156 pbk, $39.00; ISBN 9781538162163 ebook, $37.00

Cultural Humility in Libraries packs a lot of information in a slim volume. Divided into three sections, the first explores cultural humility, what it is, its role in history, how it differs from cultural competence, and its role in both health care and health literacy. As with many other aspects of being human, developing cultural humility is a lifelong process that forces us to look inside ourselves and analyze our beliefs and biases. This is especially important in healthcare where, on a daily basis, we treat and interact with patients with a broad variety of cultural and belief patterns that are frequently different from our own. The second section focuses on cultural humility in libraries and how it can affect not only face-to-face encounters with students, patients, and providers, but also librarian practices regarding literature searches and systematic review searches for their clients. The third section shares stories from various voices, some frequently silenced, others not so much. Perspectives on cultural humility from the viewpoint of a white cis-woman, a Black man, a trans person, a refugee, a disabled individual, and others are clearly written and extremely eye-opening. This book is a must read for anyone in the library profession. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —J. D. Whifill, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

The book is an excellent resource for aspiring and practicing teachers as well as teacher educators and leaders.

—R. M. Fischer, Montana State University

Fonger, Nicole L. Making algebra meaningful: a visual approach to math literacy for all. Teachers College Press, 2024. 192p bibl index ISBN 9780807769973, $126.00; ISBN 9780807769966 pbk, $41.95; ISBN 9780807782521 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Making Algebra Meaningful is a thoughtful, impeccably researched, and inspiring work. Fonger (Syracuse Univ.) invites readers to reflect on their teaching practice using a clever approach called “sketchnotes,” described as a tool to improve communication between different stakeholders in education. Fonger explains their relevance and provides basic instruction in making meaningful sketches. The book is peppered with prompts for creating sketchnotes as a means of engaging with the text in a unique way. Fonger uses multiple lenses to “zoom in” on students’ algebra learning in terms of achievement and access to meaningful algebra. Drawing on existing research, Fonger also provides guidance for teachers wishing to find mathematical content in social, racial, and environmental justice issues. This surprising and accessible way to connect these areas is a welcome contribution to the literature. The book is an excellent resource for aspiring and practicing teachers as well as teacher educators and leaders. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —R. M. Fischer, Montana State University

Giving an overview of each theologians’ life and works and a brief run through of the nature and grace debate since the Reformation, Irdi spends the majority of the book tracing the thought of Milbank and Ratzinger as twin, yet distinct, disciples of Henri de Lubac, who saw themselves charged with answering present questions that de Lubac could only have guessed at.

—J. Sienkiewicz, Benedictine College

Irdi, Christian C. Nature, grace, and secular culture: a comparative study of John Milbank and Joseph Ratzinger. Pickwick, 2024. 364p bibl index ISBN 9781666760477, $66.00; ISBN 9781666760460 pbk, $46.00; ISBN 9781666760484 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Nature, Grace, and Secular Culture is a fascinating comparative study from two of the most insightful and important theological minds asking questions concerning faith and modern nihilistic culture today. These questions have a relevance that cannot be underestimated and, yet, often are. Irdi (independent scholar) explains that the two minds at hand, John Milbank and Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), approach the problem from the same vantage point and commitment to traditional Christian orthodoxy, yet differ as to “methodologies” and, most importantly, “their ultimate conclusions” (p. xx). Giving an overview of each theologians’ life and works and a brief run through of the nature and grace debate since the Reformation, Irdi spends the majority of the book tracing the thought of Milbank and Ratzinger as twin, yet distinct, disciples of Henri de Lubac, who saw themselves charged with answering present questions that de Lubac could only have guessed at. Irdi’s final conclusions clarify the deep judgments both theologians’ give about the postmodern West in an attempt to help bring to the fore some gesture toward an answer to what Charles Taylor refers to as our “malaise” (p. 19). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —J. Sienkiewicz, Benedictine College

The book, which sits between an art book and a literary work, accompanies the exhibition at Hayward Gallery’s Southbank Center and includes handsome matte color illustrations.

—R. Hackemann, Kansas State University

Judah, Hettie. Acts of creation: on art and motherhood. Thames & Hudson, 2024. 272p bibl index ISBN 9780500027868, $39.95.

Acts of Creation contains analysis and contextualization of a variety of well-known examples of artists’ works whose subject matter engage the theme of motherhood. This includes the depiction of mother and child through time in art, the politicization of childbearing, and the myth of the mother and child as archetype across art history dating as far back as 6000 BC. The pregnant body is explored, as are a slew of contemporary works, including multimedia, photography, painting, and film, by artists such as Renee Cox, Louise Bourgeois, and Gunvor Nelson. Another chapter analyzes mother’s work such as invisible maintenance work, as well as the artist as mother and the “monsterous” child. The book, which sits between an art book and a literary work, accompanies the exhibition at Hayward Gallery’s Southbank Center and includes handsome matte color illustrations. Some might argue, however, that it is spread too thin by including such a vast time period, omitting seminal artists such as Katharina Bosse and Joe Spence, whose work engages this subject; other works are all too familiar. Yet they are placed in a unique theoretical and critical context, presenting a complicated and complex artistic feminist perspective on a much ignored subject in art and the history of labor. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —R. Hackemann, Kansas State University

The uniqueness of this book lies in its effort to accentuate creative writing by Muslim authors, from the Rohingya people in Myanmar to the Uyghur community in China.

—H. Bahri, The City University of New York, York College

Kanwal, Aroosa. Rehumanizing Muslim subjectivities: postcolonial geographies, postcolonial ethics. Routledge, 2024. 182p bibl index ISBN 9781032008844, $144.00; ISBN 9781003176244 ebook, contact publisher for price.

In Rehumanizing Muslim Subjectivities, Kanwal (Quaid-e-Azam Univ., Pakistan) dissects ongoing major global human tragedies, such as unimpeded genocide, torture, violence, and discrimination in China, Iraq, Kashmir, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Palestine. The author confronts the international community’s utter silence and exposes its rare lip service to systemic victimization, dehumanization, body-crushing, and total annihilation of Muslim communities. Deploying various critical theoretical approaches, Kanwal’s book highlights the overlooked literary works of writers who, in their turn, arduously endeavor to make visible the agony of the invisible and give voice to the voiceless. Kanwal shares key narratives from plays, novels, autobiographies, reportage, and diaries, and deftly conducts a contextualized analysis of critical themes: citizenship, refugees, asylum, camps/encampments, human rights, dispossession, loss (including mourning non-human structures), violence, and the de-subjectification of refugees and their traumas. The uniqueness of this book lies in its effort to accentuate creative writing by Muslim authors, from the Rohingya people in Myanmar to the Uyghur community in China. The writers share a personal stake in their experience of dehumanization enterprises and tell their own harrowing stories. Learned and stylistically accessible, this book serves as an important reference for postcolonial, ethnic, and cultural studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —H. Bahri, The City University of New York, York College

It is precisely through appropriation of modernist techniques and negotiation with institutional arrangement that Pacific Islander authors have articulated their Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, and subjectivities and developed their own visions and versions of modernism.

—Y. Shu, Texas Tech University

Long, Maebh. The rise of Pacific literature: decolonization, radical campuses, and modernism, by Mbaebh Long and Matthew Hayward. Columbia, 2024. 312p bibl index ISBN 9780231217446, $140.00; ISBN 9780231217453 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780231561730 ebook, $34.99.

In light of a recent paradigm shift to Indigenous and transpacific studies, The Rise of Pacific Literature, by Long (Univ. of Waikato, New Zealand) and Hayward (The Univ. of the South Pacific, Fiji), offers a unique perspective on the formation and development of Pacific literature. Rather than focusing on local culture and form exclusively, the two authors begin by examining the influence of canonical British and American modernist authors such as Eliot, Pound, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, Hemingway, Wright, and Ellison on the formation and flowering of Pacific literature. Moreover, influenced by example of Albert Wendt (the scholarly grandfather of Pacific literature), the authors further explore how the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific have played a crucial role in developing the curriculum for the training of Pacific authors and educators, providing physical and intellectual spaces for the production of Oceanic writing and facilitating transnational connections that would share decolonial and Indigenous thinking among authors from Oceania, Africa, and South Asia. It is precisely through appropriation of modernist techniques and negotiation with institutional arrangement that Pacific Islander authors have articulated their Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, and subjectivities and developed their own visions and versions of modernism. Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —Y. Shu, Texas Tech University

Anyone who believes that creating a resilient, thriving culture within an organization is too difficult or impossible should reconsider and use this book, based on years of research, as a diagnostic tool and road map to determine what works for leaders and employees and how to focus efforts to make the desired changes within the organization. 

—C. Goodnight, Stockton University

Nabeel, Hani. Culture analytics: an evidence-based approach to company culture. Kogan Page, 2024. 360p bibl index ISBN 9781398617476, $134.00; ISBN 9781398617445 pbk, $41.99; ISBN 9781398617483 ebook, $41.99.

Culture Analytics is a veritable must read for anyone studying organizational culture. Nabeel (Chief Behavioural Scientist at iPsychTec in London, UK) has opened the door for a critical understanding of organizational culture and values. Written in plain language, which makes even difficult analysis and measurement of the topic seem elementary, the book also gives readers the tools to predict and interpret the results of organizational culture evaluations. Nabeel takes a challenging and often befuddling topic and, through clear explanations, numerous figures, and tables, provides readers with practical guidance on what organizational culture is and how to document and evaluate it. Anyone who believes that creating a resilient, thriving culture within an organization is too difficult or impossible should reconsider and use this book, based on years of research, as a diagnostic tool and road map to determine what works for leaders and employees and how to focus efforts to make the desired changes within the organization. Culture Analytics is the book for anyone trying to understand culture and workplace environments and make informed decisions or create feedback loops to boost organizational outcomes based on informative, adaptable research. Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —C. Goodnight, Stockton University

Her suggested solutions are policy directions to help keep democratic systems safe from rule by corporate technopolies.

—P. L. Kantor, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy

Schaake, Marietje. The tech coup: how to save democracy from Silicon Valley. Princeton, 2024. 336p bibl index ISBN 9780691241173, $27.95; ISBN 9780691241180 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Regular followers of tech news will be forgiven if they feel they have read this book before. It is very much in touch with current events. Unlike tech news sources, The Tech Coup aggregates all that news into one place, looking at patterns and relationships between those newsworthy items. Schaake—director of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, fellow at the Standford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019—has been in the thick of the debates around recent trends in technology. Her primary argument is that democratic governments have largely failed to regulate modern advances in computer technology. The “why” is a combination of technological enthusiasm, fear of falling behind authoritarian states, and lobbying from tech firms that have more wealth than most countries. Her suggested solutions are policy directions to help keep democratic systems safe from rule by corporate technopolies. Although the book does not explore the “how” of such solutions in very much depth, it is an excellent springboard for discussing the current politics of technological change. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. —P. L. Kantor, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy

An extremely useful work for sports psychologists.

—R. E. Osborne, Texas State University

Senecal, Gary. Navigating athletic identity, retirement transitions, and self-discovery: exiting the arena, by Gary Senecal and Christian Williams. Lexington Books, 2024. 234p bibl index ISBN 9781666929812, $105.00; ISBN 9781666929829 ebook, $45.00.

As someone who has taught a sports psychology course for over 20 years, this reviewer has heard more stories than he can count of athletes barely into their careers who are suddenly confronting the “who am I now?” question after a career-ending injury. Athletic identity, especially in those times of transition (injury, shifting roles, retirement, new coaches, etc.), is a seriously understudied area. This volume will go a long way toward filling that void. Senecal and Williams (both, Assumption Univ.) treat the topic with the care it deserves and strike the right balance between theory, research, and application such that topics are grounded in research but connected to actual athlete experiences and geared toward practical solutions and interventions. By calling on literature from diverse subdisciplines in psychology (developmental, social, and cognitive, to name a few), Senecal and Williams present a fairly holistic view of what is known about the impact of these transitions on athletic identity and, more importantly, what might be done to facilitate more successful transitions. An extremely useful work for sports psychologists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals. —R. E. Osborne, Texas State University

Related Posts