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WELCOME to this mid-week day of new nonfiction. Not to coin a new phrase, but boy, where did this month go? Oh right, it went into extreme stress and trauma, I remember (OR DO I). It’s been a time of it in general, but that’s when you grab a book and put the covers over your head. “Nothing exists in this world but me, this blanket, and this nonfiction new release!” you say to yourself. Which makes you hope those new releases are good that week. And they are!
Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells by Michelle Duster
Ok, this cover is stunning. Written by the great-granddaughter of Wells, this brief (less than 200 pages) biography is a “visual celebration of Wells’s life, and of the Black experience.” I particularly love this promo line: “In 1862, Ida B. Wells was born enslaved in Holly Springs, Mississippi. In 2020, she won a Pulitzer Prize.” A+.
Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty by Maurice Chammah
This is blurbed by Hidden Valley Road author Robert Kolker as “[r]emarkably intimate, fair-minded, and trustworthy reporting,” which as a nonfiction editor, I love to see. Chammah is a journalist for The Marshall Project. Here he looks at “the rise and fall of capital punishment through the eyes of those it touched,” by interviewing lawyers, judges, and death row prisoners.
Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness by Roy Richard Grinker
Anthropologist Grinker “chronicles the progress and setbacks in the struggle against mental-illness stigma” from the 17th century to the 21st. Looking at “cutting-edge science, historical archives, and cross-cultural research in Africa and Asia, Grinker takes readers on an international journey to discover the origins of, and variances in, our cultural response to neurodiversity.” Looks INteresting.
The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship by Deborah Willis
University press book! MacArthur fellow Willis examines over SEVENTY images of Black soldiers in the Civil War and not only dives into the lives of Black Union soldiers, but also includes stories of other African Americans involved with the struggle—from left-behind family members to female spies.
Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion
Everyone loves an essay collection. This gathers twelve Didion essays from 1968-2000 that range from the news to fabled William Randolph Hearst property San Simeon to the act of writing. My 2021 thing for this newsletter is going to be pointing out shorter nonfiction, and this clocks in at fewer than 200 pages.
For more nonfiction reads, check out the For Real podcast which I co-host with the excellent Kim here at Book Riot. If you have any questions/comments/book suggestions, you can find me on social media @itsalicetime. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.