Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work 
Matthew Crawford (Penguin) $15.00 
I hope you recall how we touted this when it first came out, and the buzz it gathered (including a “notable book” of the year award from the New York Time Book Review.)  This is beautiful, thoughtful, rousing—Crawford was a white-collar scholar at a think-tank who hated his job, and felt the disconnect between what he was doing and who he was becoming untenable.  He quit, opened a motorcycle repair shop, and offers here this extended meditation on shop classes, liberal arts, unhelpful education, working with one’s hands, and finding fulfillment in blue collar jobs. How many philosopher/mechanic’s do you know?  This is entertaining and profound, hoping to restore greater honor to the manual trades.