Recommendations requested: book about current events

[Christy]

Hello Goodreads Hive-Mind!
For another challenge I need to read a book about current events, and that is not exactly my wheelhouse so I thought I'd ask around. Do any of you have recommendations for books about current events that are interesting, informative, and... how to put this... not super likely to give me a panic attack about the end of the world? I'm willing to read about difficult subjects and perspectives very different from my own, but inflammatory rhetoric or doomsaying hit all of my anxiety buttons.
(I apologize if I posted this in the wrong folder or if this is an inappropriate use of the board.)

[Pat]

If you are in the states P J O'Rourke's How the Hell did this Happen? might resonate with you more than it did with me here in NZ!
Can't guarantee not needing sedatives....or anti-depressants :-):-)

[Chrissy]

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is excellent, and while it did activate my sense of justice, I didn't find it particularly anxiety inducing.

[Christy]

Chrissy wrote: "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is excellent, and while it did activate my sense of justice, I didn't find it particularly anxiety inducing."

I have already read that book and found it fascinating! If I hadn't already read it, my search would be done. ;-)

[Sara]

I'm not sure what specific current events you are interested in, and not sure what your perspective is, but I found Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis to be very enlightening.

[Shannon]

Sara wrote: "I'm not sure what specific current events you are interested in, and not sure what your perspective is, but I found Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis to be..."

I read that last year as well and thought it was very interesting.

[Tara]

Something that is a bit less apocalypses but no less important is Jon ronson's book "so you've been publicly shamed" looks at the phenomenon of social media lynch mobs that fuel each other's rage and often get pointed toward regular people who do or say something stupid on social media. Very interesting.

[Chinook]

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right?

[Debbie]

What about The Hate U Give? It's fiction, but so, so relevant right now.

[Chinook]

It was definitely an amazing book.