Deep-Dive Reads

We hear about “crimes and misdemeanors” but what are misdemeanors? Natapoff “reveals the inner workings of a massive petty offense system that produces over 13 million cases each year” and punishes people before they’re convicted, many of them poor and people of color.

This history of cancer treatment and research won the Pulitzer and is on approximately one million lists for best nonfiction. Mukherjee starts in Egypt 4,600 years ago and continues all the way to the 21st century. He also covers the history of hospice and palliative medicine. This one’s massive, but worth it.

Popular culture over the past century has portrayed Native American history as ending in the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Treuer, a member of the Ojibwe nation, shows how “the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention.”

My friend pointed me to this 2019 release about the impact of environmental racism. Just TWO facts from it: “Nearly two of every five African American homes in Baltimore are plagued by lead-based paint. Almost all of the 37,500 Baltimore children who suffered lead poisoning between 2003 and 2015 were African American.” Get a thorough grounding in the effects of environmental racism and what can be done to remedy it.