Hello and happy Friday, nonfiction readers. It has been a heavy week in the world, one of those times when it feels important to both pay attention and, when possible, find healthy time away. And time for books, which I’ve found to be a great distraction that makes me feel refreshed rather than numbed out by the news.
Before we jump in, I have a couple of small corrections from last week’s newsletter:
- You can read author Tracy Kidder’s essay about Dr. Paul Farmer online here.
- The author of Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present is Harriet A. Washington.
And now on to the news!
Esquire has compiled a list of the best nonfiction of 2022 (so far). It feels early for a list like that… but sure, let’s do it.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be releasing a book in May about the history of the right to vote in the United States. Our Unfinished March looks at the history of voting for three groups – white men, white women, and African Americans – as well as the challenges to voting today.
Britney Spears has signed a $15 million deal with Simon and Schuster for a memoir about her career, life, and family. The deal came after a bidding war (no surprise there), and is one of the biggest in history. Good for her!
Actor Elliot Page will be releasing a memoir in 2023 called Pageboy. According to Deadline, the memoir will be about Page’s efforts “ to find himself amidst a torrent of homophobic hatred, not only in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia but also in Hollywood.” I think this should be pretty amazing.
Claire Foy is set to play Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in a limited-series adaptationof An Ugly Truth by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang. This 2021 book tells the history of Facebook, with a particular emphasis on the years between 2016 and 2020 (intense times!). This was one of my favorite books last year, so I’m excited about an adaptation.
This fall, Matthew Perry will be releasing a memoir with Flatiron Books called Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. This could be interesting or it could be lame, hard to know!
Deborah Birx, the former White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, is set to release a memoir. The book is called Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late. I can’t decide whether to be interested in this or not.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
One Thing I Like
It’s time for a book recommendation! I just finished reading a great 2022 memoir, Tiffanie Drayton’s Black American Refugee: Escaping the Narcissism of the American Dream. As a kid, Drayon followed her mother from Trinidad and Tobago to New Jersey where the family hoped to pursue the American Dream. After several moves to communities across the country, Drayton eventually begins to see the ways systemic racism and trauma make it impossible for Black people to achieve that dream.
The book uses the framework of a narcissistic relationship to explore this dynamic, moving between Drayton’s personal experiences and the larger cultural and historical forces at play in her story. I thought it was a very moving story and enjoyed the structure she used around the symptoms of a narcissistic relationship. This is a thought-provoking read!
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!