WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 51Review_NONFICTION
will be rewarded with a rich experience.
(Jan.)
Gay Like Me:
A Father Writes to His Son
Richie Jackson. Harper, $24.99 (160p)
ISBN 978-0-06-293977-7
Broadway producer Jackson chronicles
his life as a gay man in America over the
past 50 years in this heartfelt debut
written as a letter to his college-bound
gay son. Highlighting the differences
between older and younger generations
of the gay community, Jackson notes
that he came out to his mother in 1984,
at the height of the AIDS epidemic. He
chronicles early sexual experiences;
describes his
relationships
with his hus-
band, theater
owner Jordan
Roth, and his
son’s other
father, actor
B.D. Wong;
thanks such
mentors as actor
Harvey
Fierstein, who “modeled being a good
gay citizen”; and celebrates the LGBTQ
artists and writers who “showed me that
my own thread of otherness is part of a
great expanse of a bright human fabric.”
He stresses the importance of knowing
gay cultural and political history, and
warns that the gay community’s “brief
liberation has emboldened our adver-
saries,” including Donald Trump (who
was a guest at his wedding to Roth).
Jackson’s sincerity shines through, even
when he takes a back seat in his own
story to focus on the representative expe-
riences of his generation. LGBTQ readers
on both ends of the age spectrum will
value this earnest attempt to build a
bridge between generations. Agent:
Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, William Morris
Endeavor. (Jan.)
Journeys Out of Homelessness:
The Voices of Lived Experience
Jamie Rife and Donald W. Burnes. Lynne
Rienner, $29.95 trade paper (206p) ISBN 978-
1-62637-860-5
Antipoverty advocates Burnes (Ending
Homelessness) and Rife present nine case
studies of people who have lived through,
and emerged from, being homeless in this
deliberate, policy-driven account. Identified
by first names only, the individuals repre-
sent distinct versions of homelessness: for
example, teenager Tim left his abusive
father and “couch-surfed” (which Rife and
Burnes consider a form of homelessness)
until he was taken in by a foster family;
Marie’s parents
were unable to
navigate public
assistance pro-
grams due to
mental health
and substance
abuse issues
and her family
cycled between
motels and rel-
atives’ houses
for years; military veteran Leanne lost
her job and home in the 2008 economic
downturn. Rife and Burnes analyze each
story to identify crucial factors that help
people to secure stable housing. The
authors’ solutions include “housing first”
models that provide stability as people
search for jobs and address addiction and
mental health issues; using “human cap-
ital” to form support networks; client-
centered approaches that listen to indi-
viduals’ own assessments of their needs;
and a new cultural understanding that
poverty and homelessness aren’t indica-
tive of personal failings, but can happen
to anyone. The policy suggestions are
cogently presented and strengthened by
their close connection to individual success
stories. This commonsense guide is full
of insights for policy makers and social
workers confronting the problem of
homelessness. (Jan.)#MeToo in the Corporate World:
Power, Privilege, and the Path
Forward
Sylvia Ann Hewlett. HarperBusiness, $29.99
(256p) ISBN 978-0-06-289919-4
A strong entry-level “but what now?”
look at the #MeToo movement arrives
from economist and consultant Hewlett.
Making clear her personal stake in the
issue of workplace harassment, Hewlett
recounts how her early career was
derailed when her boss’s boss groped and
forcibly kissed her. She then takesreaders through
the #MeToo
movement’s
history, the
available statis-
tics on work-
place harass-
ment, and the
financial impact
on companies
that harbor
abusers. She has
good news to report on #MeToo’s effect
on industry; with the silence around
harassment broken, norms are shifting.
But the issue is far from resolved, she
notes, as demonstrated by the stories of
prominent “boomerang boys” who only
endured temporary ostracism for their
abusive actions. Setting out a full suite of
possible responses, Hewlett tells plain-
tiffs to seek legal redress in court, rather
than through arbitration, and advises cor-
porate boards that zero-tolerance policies,
though “not for the fainthearted,” are
effective ways to carry out sweeping
change. As such, it’s not immediately
clear whether the primary intended
audience for this otherwise well-explained
guide consists of people who have suffered
abuse or corporate board members trying
to protect their bottom lines, but frustrated
employees in need of ideas for actions to
take will find some solid suggestions
within. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich
Agency. (Jan.)The Passion Economy:
The New Rules for Thriving
in the Twenty-First Century
Adam Davidson. Knopf, $26.95 (336p)
ISBN 978-0-385-35352-6
Success in a downsizing, offshoring,
automating economy is about following
your passion, argues this exuberant and
detailed primer on newfangled entre-
preneurship. Davidson, a New Yorker
economics writer and cofounder of NPR’s
Planet Money podcast, warns readers to
abandon jobs and businesses that can be
automated or outcompeted by low-cost
Asian firms. Instead, he contends,
Americans should cultivate unique abili-
ties and interests into specialty products
and services for small markets accessed
with the internet and cheap global trans-
port. He illustrates his argument with