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Hello hello, nonfiction friends! I have spent much of this week watching the Olympics, checking in on sports that I only watch every four years like speed skating and cross country skiing. Truthfully, the thing I love the most is when they switch to family and friends watching at home – makes me tear up every single time.
Before sharing some nonfiction news, I want to follow up on the topic of last Friday’s newsletter – a Tennessee school board banning Art Spiegelman’s Maus – with a few additional Book Riot resources on book bans and censorship that can help you take meaningful action in these areas:
- One common argument around book bans is that banning books will actually make them more popular because they’re forbidden. Danika Ellis explains this idea – the Streisand effect – and why it doesn’t hold up when we talk about censorship.
- For some specific and practical tips, I highly recommend this article from Kelly Jensen– How to Fight Book Bans and Challenges: An Anti-Censorship Tool Kit
- This week, Kelly also shared tips for how to use FOIA (the Freedom of Information Act) to learn about book challenges. These are excellent tips that show how simple it is to request information from a local government entity. But keep in mind, many of the things you might want – meeting agendas or minutes, for example – might already be publicly available if you dig just a little bit.
And with that, let’s share some additional nonfiction news from the last couple of weeks:
Two highly-anticipated cookbooks are likely sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after the container they were in was swept off a ship during transport. The two affected authors, Mason Hereford and Melissa Clark, have some funny comments in the linked article that I truly appreciate… but gosh, what ridiculous luck.
Inventing Anna, the Shonda Rhimes-created Netflix show about the Soho Scammer, is available starting today… and there’s already been some interesting commentary about it. Anna herself wrote a piece for Insider that has a real tone of aggrievement that I’m not sure is warranted. And then Rachel DeLoache Williams, Anna’s former best friend, condemned the show “as an attempt to rehabilitate the image of the convicted scammer.” So much delicious drama!
And finally, a couple of exciting memoir announcements to share:
- Spice Girl Mel C (aka Sporty Spice) will be releasing a memoir, Who I Am: My Story, on September 22.
- Alice Wong, founder of the Disability Visibility project, will release her memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life on September 6.
Make sure to get your own Read Harder Book Journal from Book Riot to track your reading for the year!
One Thing I Like
In an effort to keep my hands busy instead of scrolling on my phone, I’ve been making a renewed effort at knitting. This weekend I started my first sock, which feels like a true level up in my extremely basic knitting skills. There are many, many memoirs centered around the benefits of crafting. One that came to mind that I read and enjoyed was The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater: Essays on Crafting by Alanna Okun. It’s a very charming, warm book about lessons learned from knitting and making.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Finally! Don’t forget to check out our new line of bookish, Wordle-inspired merch! There are mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, and more. The campaign is temporary, so order yours now!
For more nonfiction reads, head over to the podcast service of your choice and download For Real, which I co-host with my dear friend Alice. If you have any questions/comments/book suggestions, you can find me on social media @kimthedork. Happy weekend!