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True Story

New Releases: Balloonmania and Environmentalism

So, how ’bout them books?

I just finished Team of Rivals and MAN. Already missing Doris Kearns Goodwin, y’know? Also just having hours and hours of information about Lincoln and his cabinet in my brain every week. So I’ve started another Lincoln book! The Lincoln Conspiracy by DC Comics writer Brad Meltzer. In case it wasn’t clear, this book is very different than Goodwin’s.

I hope you’re experiencing your own fun Team of Rivals moments! Maybe some of these new releases will provide them; let’s see:

Lady Icarus cover

Lady Icarus: Balloonmania and the Brief, Bold Life of Sophie Blanchard by Deborah Haynes

Can you imagine seeing a crowd of people in a field and you ask an excited woman passing by what’s up and she says “it’s a mania! Balloonmania!” Sophie Blanchard was a French balloonist in the early nineteenth century who, you might not be surprised, died in a balloon accident. Learn more of her tale here!

Unbossed cover

Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way by Khristi Lauren Adams

Adams’s book profiles eight young Black women who are “leading, organizing, advocating, and creating.” These include Ssanyu Lukoma, who founded Brown Kids Read when she was thirteen years old and Hannah Lucas, a teenager who co-created a mental health app. What a balance to strike today between praising Gen Z for their excellent work and not making them feel like the weight of the future is on their shoulders! But I do love when we praise them. They are dealing with a lot.

Red Paint cover

Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha LaPointe

Coast Salish is “a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in British Columbia, Canada and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon.” Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe blends her Coast Salish heritage with her love of punk culture in her autobiography. LaPointe’s great-grandmother helped preserve the Indigenous language Lushootseed, which is super cool.

The Intersectional Environmentalist cover

The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet by Leah Thomas

Omg yeeeess give me this weird 1970s throwback cover! Thomas highlights the links between environmentalism, racism, and privilege, and how we cannot achieve real environmental progress “without uplifting the voices of its people — especially those most often unheard.” I can’t get over this cover. But also this message is important! Thomas founded the Intersectional Environmentalist platform, a “climate justice community and resource hub centering BIPOC and historically under-amplified voices in the environmental space.” Amazing.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!


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.