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decision-making, getting others on board Get Money: Live the Life You Want, rience between the speakers, as when
with one’s plans, a reputation for reli- Not Just the Life You Can Afford Thompson recalls, “Loretta was a great
ability, and adaptability. Giving over Kristin Wong. Hachette, $16.99 trade paper ally as we moved forward on the Civil
plenty of space to reflections, questions, (320p) ISBN 978-0-316-51565-8 Rights front.” However, the many
and worksheets, the authors guide readers Personal-finance writer Wong provides fleeting references to both current events
through developing these characteristics thorough if uninspired advice for college and past historical touchstones, including
and applying them to different organiza- graduates entering the world of work and Jim Crow, residential redlining, and civil
tions. Botelho and Powell have created a money—and for their worried parents. rights protests, assume more prior knowl-
thought-provoking look at successful Having grown up broke, Wong speaks edge than many readers will possess.
leadership without the typical bluster. eloquently about how intricately a per- Eschewing moralizing, the speakers opt
Agent: Lorin Rees, Rees Literary Agency. son’s financial and emotional life are instead for practical suggestions for com-
(Mar.) interconnected; the emotions involved, bating inequality and finding hope in
and not just the finances, must be man- Americans’ renewed interest in politics.
From the Left: aged in order to make any progress. Many It’s unclear who the book would most
A Life in the Crossfire people, she writes, just don’t understand appeal to; the length suggests novices,
Bill Press. St. Martin’s/Dunne, $27.99 (288p) how money really works, which explains who will be lost with no context, but the
ISBN 978-1-250-14715-8 why so many Americans live paycheck to lack of depth will be disappointing to
In this breezy memoir Press, former paycheck. Getting control over one’s scholars. (Mar.)
cohost of CNN’s Crossfire and Spin Room, money ups the motivation to save, get out
recounts the many hats he’s worn in his of debt, and stick to a budget; to that end, ★ The Pleasure Shock:
career, among them Catholic seminarian, she walks readers through the basics of The Rise of Deep Brain Stimulation
environmental activist, political candi- setting financial goals and writing a and Its Forgotten Inventor
date, campaign director (including for budget, developing a frugal mind-set, fig- Lone Frank. Dutton, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-1-
Jerry Brown’s uring out the intricacies of credit and 101-98653-0
quixotic 1976 taxes, paying off debt, and investing Science writer Frank (My Beautiful
presidential retirement dollars. Wong shines in her Genome) takes a deep dive into the work
bid), and jour- encouraging direction to figure out finan- of a controversial “pioneer by accident,”
nalist. Press cial priorities to accomplish personal psychiatrist Robert G. Heath, whose use
reveals a knack goals, but the financial information itself of electrode stimulation to the brain’s
for being in the is fairly stale in both style and execution. “pleasure center” to treat schizophrenia
right place at This combination results in a sturdy but and depression in the 1950s and ’60s
the right time; overfamiliar approach to a much-covered horrified and fascinated academia, the
for instance, subject. (Mar.) CIA, and the U.S. Senate. This wide-
during a visit to ranging, thoughtful exploration of Heath’s
Nicaragua in A Perilous Path: Talking Race, complicated legacy combs through docu-
1986, he received an early tip-off about Inequality, and the Law ments, film footage, and interviews with
the Reagan administration’s secret arms Sherrilyn Ifill et al. New Press, $19.99 trade Heath’s colleagues, his son, and a patient.
supplies to the Contras. He comes across paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-62097-395-0 It begins with
as a broad-minded personality; despite his A symposium on racial injustice and the treatment
leftist perspective, he admires John law in the U.S. after the 2016 presidential of patient B-19,
McCain and was personally friendly with election, convened in celebration of the a gay man who
Pat Buchanan. Press is generally a clear establishment of NYU Law School’s was supposed
writer and fine raconteur, though at times Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, to be cured with
he is frustratingly cryptic, as when he unfolds here as a smoothly flowing but electrodes and a
describes persuading Governor Brown to less-than-revelatory conversation. prostitute; when
adopt his “California Urban Strategy” but Anthony C. Thompson, the center’s fac- Heath died in
doesn’t give more than a superficial expla- ulty director, moderates a panel composed 1999, his work
nation of what it entailed. In praising of Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal was largely
Bernie Sanders, Press lapses into hyper- Defense and Educational Fund; Loretta judged by that
bole, such as in confidently predicting Lynch, former U.S. attorney general; and perverse episode: “It seems as if he had a
that Sanders, had he been the Democratic Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the vision of something of which he could not
nominee, would have won the 2016 presi- Equal Justice Initiative. Each expert, clearly see the contours—quite simply
dential race. Press’s account of his life to steeped in their office’s history, articulates because science had not yet reached far
date will instruct and provide encourage- the various roles of federal, state, and local enough and the tools were still primitive.”
ment to his fellow embattled progressives. governments in combating discrimina- Though Heath’s work has been discred-
(Mar.) tion. Their dialogue is at times extempo- ited, he began an approach that’s getting a
raneous and warm, reflecting shared expe- new look from psychiatry and industry,

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