Sponsored by To Be Honest by Michael Leviton, published by Abrams Press.
To Be Honest is Michael Leviton’s extraordinary account of being raised in a family he calls a “little honesty cult.” For young Michael, his parents’ core philosophy to never lie, to never withhold the truth or fail to speak your mind, felt liberating. But this honesty had consequences—in friendships, on dates, and at job interviews. And when honesty slowly poisoned a great romance, Michael decided there had to be something to lying after all. To Be Honest is a tender and darkly comic memoir about what it means and how it feels to tell more than the truth.
We’re starting 2021 off with a bang with some A+ new release nonfiction. Get ready to add to your TBR:
White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind by Koa Beck
This book is so good! Beck looks at “how elitism and racial prejudice has driven the narrative of feminist discourse.” The way I keep talking about it is that it’s made me reeeeally examine my own assumptions about feminism and women’s history and how those were put in place initially. It’s informative, it’s thought-provoking, get into it.
The Battle of Hastings: The Fall of the Anglo-Saxons and the Rise of the Normans by Jim Bradbury
I confess to including this at least partially because it’s published by Pegasus Books, which has an endearing history of publishing nerdy history books. The Battle of Hastings was that pivotal 1066 battle when the Normans booted out the Anglo-Saxons and William the Conqueror became King of England. This looks at who the Normans were, who the Saxons were, and apparently gets reeeeal into battle specifics, so be aware if you’re not into military tactics.
Baseball’s Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues by Andrea Williams
Effa Manley, the first and only woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, was the co-owner of the Newark Eagles, who won the Negro League World Series in 1946.
“[J]ust as her Eagles reached their pinnacle, so did calls to integrate baseball, a move that would all but extinguish the Negro Leagues.” This tells her story and the story of the “teams coached by Black managers, cheered on by Black fans, and often run by Black owners.”
Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
I cannot tell you how excited I was to see this title coming out. If you’re like a lot of people in America, you at some point have been anxious that you’re not DOING enough. Price’s book “explores the psychological underpinnings of the ‘laziness lie,’ including its origins from the Puritans and how it has continued to proliferate as digital work tools have blurred the boundaries between work and life. Using in-depth research, Price explains that people today do far more work than nearly any other humans in history yet most of us often still feel we are not doing enough.” Should we all read this? Probably.
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.