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What do Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Grace Kelly, and Rita Hayworth have in common? All of them were former residents of the Barbizon Hotel. Intended as a safe haven for the “Modern Woman” seeking a career in the arts, it became the place to stay for any ambitious young woman hoping for fame and fortune. This is the first history of New York’s most famous residential hotel, and the remarkable women who lived there.
I’m writing this on International Women’s Day, so happy belated International Women’s Day to you all! I don’t know about you, but my reading has been picking up lately. Maybe it’s the longer days? With more daylight, there’re more opportunities to sit by the window and read, as opposed to watching TV in your dark living room. It’s also getting warmer, which, as someone from the Midwest, thank God.
This week, we have some books I’ve been psyched about for a while, although you know this is coming from someone who started a book on the Norman Conquest last night and got real jazzed about it, soooo…there’s that. But no, due to publishing pushing dates of so many releases last year, we’re not even really having a dry spell for new releases; every week has something good. Which is bad news for everyone’s TBR shelf, but also, isn’t it better to have too much as opposed to too little? (yis) Okay, let’s go:
Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water by Kazim Ali
You know how when poets write nonfiction, it’s its own special kind of good? Great, ok, so Ali, who grew up in London, Canada, and the U.S., starts thinking about Jenpeg in Manitoba, which was a community that grew up around the construction of a dam, and where Ali lived for a few years. He goes back to find out if it still exists, and he finds a story of environmental harm suffered by the Pimicikamak community. This looks so good, check it out.
Dusk Night Dawn: On Revival and Courage by Anne Lamott
It’s a new Anne Lamott! And one that’s pretty perfect for the for-many one year anniversary of being in quarantine. It’s a rough time, and Lamott asks “How can we recapture the confidence we once had as we stumble through the dark times that seem increasingly bleak?” How inDEED. Tbh I could use an inspirational read right about now, so I’m psyched this is out.
Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul?: Essays by Jesse McCarthy
I started this and was like hu-ho, this is smart. Which makes sense, because it turns out McCarthy teaches in the English and African American Studies departments at Harvard. The title is reference to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s case for reparations, but he also covers art, music, literature, and politics in 20 essays. An example of what goes on in this book: “In ‘Back in the Day,’ McCarthy, a black American raised in France, evokes his childhood in Paris through an elegiac account of French rap in the 1990s.” So if that sounds like your jam, get into it.
A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon
Aghhh I am so excited about this book! It came out in the UK first a few months ago and I maybe (definitely) ordered a copy from there because I loved Emma Southon’s biography of Agrippina so much. She writes history how I would love everyone to write it: with humor, humanity, and a clear laying out of the facts. The subtitle kind of says it all for this one — she talks about murder in ancient Rome, how it was perceived, what it meant, how it shows up in the surviving texts, etc. If you like funny but solid history books, here you go.
For more nonfiction new releases, 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.