Sponsored by Albatross Funnybooks
One of the greats in the field of true crime literature, Harold Schechter (Deviant, The Serial Killer Files, Hell’s Princess), teams with five-time Eisner Award-winning graphic novelist Eric Powell (The Goon, Big Man Plans, Hillbilly) to bring you the tale of one of the most notoriously deranged serial killers in American history, Ed Gein. Painstakingly researched and illustrated, Schechter and Powell’s true crime graphic novel takes the Gein story out of the realms of exploitation and gives the reader a fact-based dramatization of these tragic, psychotic and heartbreaking events. Because, in this case, the truth needs no embellishment to be horrifying.
We hit a bit of a slow week, so we’re doing “Cool-Looking New Releases from July 2021” and choosing to examine this week with a MACRO, more sort of month-centered type lens. Summer’s fleeting, just go with me on this.
This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
Does anyone else confuse Michael Palin with Michael Pollan? It’s easy to! Especially if you grew up hearing the former go “I’m Michael Palin! And you’re watching Comedy Central!” but with a British accent where Palin sounded like “Polin” for some reason. Ok anyway, for some time I thought the guy from Monty Python wrote nature books, and he does not (but he IS a travel writer). This book looks at “three plant-based drugs — opium, mescaline and caffeine” and how they appear in world culture, as well as their bodily effects.
Carry On: Reflections of a New Generation by John Lewis
The recent assault on voting rights makes me pretty emo about this one. This is a “brilliant and empowering collection of final reflections and words of wisdom from venerable civil rights champion, the late Congressman John Lewis at the end of his remarkable life.” Each section pivots around the word “on.” On Love, On Marriage, On Immigration, On Forgiveness. It sounds like a declaration (“on, forgiveness!”), and now I am even MORE emo.
I Have Always Been Me by Precious Brady-Davis
I don’t know how I missed this one! Look at that AMAZING cover. Brady-Davis is a trans advocate who grew up in the Omaha, Nebraska foster care system and the Pentecostal faith. Here, she “speaks to anyone who has ever tried to find their place in this world and imparts the wisdom that comes with surmounting odds and celebrating on the other side.” Times are hard and this is exactly the sort of book we should have out there.
The Belle Époque: A Cultural History, Paris and Beyond by Dominique Kalifa
Well, this one’s just fun. And a university press book! The Belle Époque is basically the movie Moulin Rouge (French historians don’t @ me). You get the Bohemian scene and Toulouse-Lautrec and ART and SCIENCE. Plus, according to Wikipedia, “a period characterized by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity, colonial expansion, and technological, scientific, and cultural innovations.” So vaguely like the ’90s, except not that. Also we weren’t optimistic in the ’90s, we were shielded by a thick layer of cynicism and a refusal to be vulnerable. But anyway! Learn about an in-retrospect Golden Age that took place from approximately 1871-1914!
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.