A large, circular library with reading desks and seating in the middle. Photo by Tamás Mészáros is licensed under CC BY 2.0 via pexels.

As TSP Graduate Student Board members, we’re constantly reading and sharing new books that spark conversations. And 2025 was no exception—our discussions spanned topics like youth mental health, race and labor, nationalism and democracy, and the cultural politics of guns, TV, and religion. Here are a few recent titles that sparked in-depth conversations—books we think are well worth picking up and maybe even adding to your collection.

Power, Politics, and Democracy

• Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy by Christophe Jaffrelot
• The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting Loyalties of Civil Servants Under Increasing Autocracy by Jaime Lee Kucinskas
• After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe But Not Abortion by David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe
• The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do it Again by Robert Putnam
• Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside America’s Gun Culture by David Yamane
• We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi

Race, Inequality, and Social Justice

• Who Pays for Diversity: Why Programs Fail at Racial Equity and What to Do About It
• The Souls of White Jokes by Raúl Pérez
• Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It by Adia Harvey Wingfield
• Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It by Tonika Lewis Johnson and Maria Krysan 
• Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States by Stephanie L Canizales

Culture, Identity, and Belonging

• True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us by Danielle J. Lindemann
• Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution by Amin Ghaziani
• Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America by Christian Smith
• Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net by Jessica Calarco
• A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith
• Bound by BDSM: Unexpected Lessons for Building a Happier Life by Alicia M. Walker and Arielle Kuperberg
• At Home with the Holocaust: Postmemory, Domestic Space, and Second-Generation Holocaust Narratives by Lucas Wilson
• Marriage Material: How an Enduring Institution is Changing Same-Sex Relationships by Abigail Ocobock 

Work, Mental Health, and Everyday Life

• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
• Life under Pressure: The Social Roots of Youth Suicide and What to Do About Them by Anna S. Mueller and Seth Abrutyn
• Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under Monopoly Capitalism by Michael Burawoy

Happy Reading!