Reviews & Commentary
Book Review: Anticipatory Social Work: Foresight Approaches and Tools for Social Imagining and Collective Praxis
For me, a clinical faculty member who has sought to first understand, then convey social work principles at all systems levels, this text is more than another title on the shelf. This book is alive. Read our review of Anticipatory Social Work.
Film Review—Sheepdog: The Cost of Combat, the Urgency of Post Traumatic Growth
In Sheepdog, Grayhm covers turf other films have examined—the trauma of military service, where you must learn to kill, as well as the trauma of returning home, where you are expected to live, love, and work as if brutality and murder never happened.
Book Review: 101 Things To Do With a Social Work Degree
There is strength in storytelling. This book shows just how broad social work is and the many possibilities. You don't have to choose the traditional roles. Read our book review of 101 Things To Do With a Social Work Degree.
Book Review: College Mental Health 101
College Mental Health 101 succeeds in translating complex mental health concepts into practical and compassionate guidance for students, parents, and the professionals who support them. Read our book review.
Book Review: Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools
Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools takes a look at a suburban public high school that appears to be the utopia of racial equity to understand the disconnect between good intentions and real world outcomes.
Book Review: The Women
Social workers who work with veterans of the Vietnam War must have knowledge and sensitivity to the unique features of this particular war, including the trauma of service, as well as return. Read our review of The Women.
Film Review—Wicked: For Good
While Part One is a vehicle for Elphaba’s character development, For Good is Grande/Glinda’s turf, with glaring emphasis on the continuum between the personal and the political. Read our review of Wicked: For Good.
Book Review—Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Solidarity is the key to “fighting for someone you don't know as much as fighting for yourself.” This is an important work that all social workers should read, considering current events.
Film Review: The Roses—The Life or Death of a Marriage
I must say how grateful I am that the marriage counselor in The Roses is not portrayed as a social worker. But her ineptness is integral to the satire of the film. Read our review.
Book Review—The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
In The Serviceberry, Kimmerer proposes a new paradigm for our participation in the world, one that utilizes a gift economy approach. Read our review.
REVIEW—The Pitt: A Medical Setting as Reflection of Societal Pitfalls
Does The Pitt accurately portray issues in an ER, including medical social work and child abuse reporting? Read our series review.
Book Review: The Black Therapist’s Guide to Private Practice and Entrepreneurship
The Black Therapist’s Guide to Private Practice and Entrepreneurship is a powerful, step-by-step resource for Black therapists who aspire to launch, build, and sustain a private practice or business ownership in behavioral health. Read our review.
Book Review: More or Less Maddy
More or Less Maddy is a novel that describes the journey of a young college student who experiences first depressive symptoms and then mania before a formal bipolar diagnosis. Read our review of best-selling author Lisa Genova's latest book.
Book Review: I’m Not Alone—A Teen’s Guide to Living With a Parent Who Has a Mental Illness or History of Trauma
I’m Not Alone is a valuable resource for psychotherapists working with children and adolescents to help them understand mental illness and trauma from a parent’s perspective. Read our book review.
Book Review: Early Sobrieties
Michael Deagler’s novel “Early Sobrieties” follows 26-year-old Monk—Dennis Monk—along his sober quest for identity after nine years of blackout drinking. Read our review.
Book Review: The Social Work Career Guidebook
The Social Work Career Guidebook is a modern, realistic take on how to navigate the social work profession for current social work students, entry-level, and seasoned practitioners alike. Read our review.
Series Review: Dying for Sex—A Captivating Journey Toward Love
When have you viewed a superb screening where a social worker is presented in full dimension, front and center, in script formulation? Read our review of Dying for Sex.
Book Review—The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing
Social workers will find The Grieving Body a valuable resource for the development of bereavement interventions on micro, macro, and mezzo levels. Read The New Social Worker’s book review.
Book Review: The Blind Man Game
The Blind Man Game is a memoir about the challenges faced by a psychologist who was diagnosed with Stargardt Disease at the age of 21. Read our review.
Book Review: Help Wanted—A Novel
Help Wanted, a work of fiction, is a social commentary on the gig economy and the plight of part-time workers. Set in upstate New York, Town Square is a big box store, likely recognizable to most readers.
