Author: Kim Ukura

My plans for this week’s newsletter got totally scrapped on Monday following the news that Prince Harry is engaged to American actress Meghan Markle. There’s going to be another royal wedding!

My sister and I love to follow the royal family, and I’ve done my fair share of reading on the trials and tribulations of British monarchs. With that in mind, I want to share two biographies I’ve read and enjoyed, and two more books that jumped to the top of my TBR pile after Monday’s big news.

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Sponsored by Oxford University Press, publisher of The League of Exotic Dancers by Kaitlyn Regehr and Matilda Temperley

For more than four years, documentarian Kaitlyn Regehr and photographer Matilda Temperley embedded themselves within the Burlesque community-a group which continues to thrive sixty years past its supposed prime. At The Burlesque Hall of Fame reunion they found women, at times well into their 80s, subversively bumping and grinding away preconceptions about appropriate behavior for a pensioner. This collection of interviews and photographs is drawn from the dressing rooms, homes, and lives of this aging burlesque community, as well as the young neo-burlesque community who adore them. The authors present an inter-generational sisterhood that is unique and socially significant.

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Victoria: The Queen by Julia Baird — In this book, Julia Baird offers an intimate and personal biography of one of Britain’s longest serving monarchs. Victoria took the throne when she was just 18, after being brought up in a sheltered, isolated, and manipulative environment. Becoming queen gave her one of her first opportunities to make decisions for herself, and she very much became an adult in the spotlight. I love the way this biography shows Victoria in all of her many facets – impulsive teenager, passionate lover, curious intellectual, reluctant mother, and mourning widow. It’s a lovely book.

Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith — Few people expected that Elizabeth Alexandra May would be queen. She is the daughter of a second son who would have immediately lost her place in the line of succession if a brother were born. But then her uncle, Edward, abdicated in order to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson, making Elizabeth the heiress presumptive after her father. Elizabeth, who took the throne in 1952, is now the longest-reigning monarch in British history. The thing I loved best about this book is the way Sally Bedell Smith balances politics, personality, and gossip in the narrative. It’s a smart, warm, generous portrait of Elizabeth (although much less kind to some other family members) that’s worth picking up despite the heft.

Game of Crowns by Christopher Andersen — This book is described as a “compulsively readable look into the relationships and rivalries of Queen Elizabeth, Camilla Parker Bowles, and Kate Middleton.” These three women have very different background, yet each has her own place in the line of succession and the work of the monarchy. I’m really curious to learn more about their private lives as wives and mothers, as well as their differences in how they approach the responsibility of being part of the palace.

17 Carnations by Andrew Morton — This book had me at the subtitle – “The Royals, the Nazis, and the Biggest Cover-Up in History.” 17 Carnations is the story of Edward VII (Queen Elizabeth II’s uncle who abdicated shortly before World War II) and a “bizarre wartime Nazi plot to make him a puppet king.” The book explores alleged affairs, supposed cover ups, interference by Soviet spies, and so much more. This book is next on my TBR – it’s exactly the kind of juicy history I’m in the mood to read.

Links You’ll Love

I’m going to round out this week’s newsletter with a few links that caught my eye in the last couple of weeks:

• Host splendid dinner parties and holiday feasts with this round-up of wonderful cookbooks from Hachette Books.
• Dive into the wonderful world of weird science with these 10 books from Book Riot.
• Add even more books to your TBR with TIME’s top 10 nonfiction books of 2017.
• In sad news, despite a push to get kids to read more nonfiction, a recent report shows that children’s nonfiction reading is up less than 10 percent since 2009.
• And in news I didn’t know, parodies – even fake memoirs – will end up on the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction. SO WEIRD.

Thanks so much for reading and have a great week!

— Kim, @kimthedork, kim@riotnewmedia.com

In the past, I haven’t gotten super excited about the best of lists that crop up at the end of the year — I think they make me anxious about all of the books that I haven’t read and how much great stuff there is out there. But this spring I joined a local book club that reads the New York Times top 10 books of the previous year… and so now I’m super interested in best books lists because they’ll be dictating a chunk of my reading in 2018.

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Oxford University Press, publisher of A Farewell to Ice by Pater Wadhams

Peter Wadhams has observing for himself the changes in the Arctic over the course of nearly five decades. His conclusions are stark: the ice caps are melting. There is now the probability that within a few years the North Pole will be ice-free for the first time in 10,000 years, entering what some call the “Arctic death spiral.” A sobering but urgent and engaging book, A Farewell to Ice shows us ice’s role on our planet, its history, and the true dimensions of the current global crisis, offering readers concrete advice about what they can do.

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This week the Washington Post announced their best books of the year. Of the top 10, five were works of nonfiction:

• Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky
• The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
• I Can’t Breathe: A Killing On Bay Street by Matt Taibbi
• I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad by Souad Mckhennet
• Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama by David Garrow (this one still amazes me… 1,472 pages from before he was even president!)

In general, I think that’s a pretty interesting list. Three are books that have been on my radar and two — Behave and I Was Told to Come Alone — that are new-to-me, which is an exciting mix of familiarity and surprise.

The Post also put together two other lists that will be of interested to nonfiction readers — 50 notable works of nonfiction from 2017 and the five best memoirs of 2017. So many books, so little time. I’m curious to see what the other major lists will bring!

Mooch Ado About Nothing

The time when former White House communications director Anthony was shopping a memoir was almost as short as his tenure in the Trump administration. According to Newsweek, the Mooch has scrapped plans for a political memoir that he was shopping around this summer because publishers didn’t think his draft was very good. I wish I had something smart to say about this but all I can think is… good. (And salute to Book Riot’s own Jeff O’Neal for the punny headline!).

And In News About Books We Actually Want… 

Roxane Gay is editing and writing the forward for a new book is essays, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture. The publisher’s summary of the book says it will included pieces on “what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are ‘routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied’ for speaking out.” That summary is so good, and the list of contributors that Gay tweeted out is pretty incredible too.

Kindle Deals in History

The end of the year — and all of the long vacations that come with it — always make me want to sit down and dig into some good narrative history. Here are three ebooks deals that might fit the bill:

• Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose for $3.99
• A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead for $1.99
• First Women by Kate Andersen Brower for $1.99

And with that, we’ve come to the end. If you haven’t done it yet, but sure to hop over to the site where we’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Entries are open worldwide and will be accepted until 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26. Click here to enter.

Happy reading!

– Kim Ukura, @kimthedork and kim@riotnewmedia.com

On Wednesday, Masha Gessen’s The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, taking the top prize in a category full of political heavy-hitters.

In the spirit of that win, I decided to focus this month’s new books list specifically on true stories written by women that have been published or will be out soon.

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We’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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Spineless by Juli Berwald – I love nonfiction about strange science, so of course a book about jellyfish and climate change was going to make my list. I’ve read a few chapters of this one already and it’s a lot of fun. Berwald’s approach reminds me a bit of Mary Roach, which I like.

The Wine Lover’s Daughter by Anne Fadiman – In this memoir, Fadiman explores her relationship with her father, Clifton, “a renowned literary critic, editor, and radio host whose greatest love was wine.” Fadiman is one of my favorite writers, and I love wine, so I think this book will be right up my alley.

Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy by Hallie Lieberman – This is another book that reminds me a bit of Mary Roach. In Buzz, Lieberman offers a history of sex toys and explores how they went from taboo to socially acceptable. Plus, that cover is just A++

Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking by Deborah Cadbury – One of the things that intrigues me about Queen Victoria is the way she struggled to find what we’d now call work-life balance. As she aged, Victoria’s attention turned to marrying off her more than 30 grandchildren to guarantee matches with other powerful European royalty. But of course her grandchildren had plans of their own, pitting Victoria’s feelings as a grandmother with her obligations as a queen.

The Last Girl by Nadia Murad – In this memoir, Murad recounts the ISIS attack that massacred her village, her period as a slave to Islamic State fighters, and her eventual escape with the help of a family in Mosul. Her story is “a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.”

The Extra Woman by Joanna Scutts – Attitudes about single women are still pretty backwards, but for a period in the 1930s singledom was considered pretty glamorous. Scutts revisits that period to tell the story of Marjorie Hillis and the single women in the city that she inspired.

Mean by Myriam Gurba – Part true crime, part memoir, and part ghost story, this book is the story of Gurba’s “coming of age as a queer, mixed-race Chicana.”

The Newcomers by Helen Thorp – The subtitle of this one – “finding refuge, friendship, and hope in an American classroom” – is what really sold me. Thorp explores how teenage refugees learn English and become Americans at a public high school in Denver with a specific class designed to help them adapt.

And that’s all I’ve got for this week. Don’t forget, we’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Entries are open worldwide and will be accepted until 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26. Click here to enter.

Happy reading!

– Kim Ukura, @kimthedork and kim@riotnewmedia.com

Today, November 10, marks the anniversary of the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter that sank on Lake Superior in 1975. All 29 members of the crew died, and the ship remains the largest to have sunk on America’s Great Lakes.

I don’t normally make a practice of remembering the anniversary of shipwrecks, but a friend of mine, Erin, absolutely loves to read nonfiction about maritime disasters. She sends me pretty regular recommendations, so I thought I would open this week’s newsletter with two of her suggestions for genre classics, and throw in recommendation of my own.

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Sponsored by Unbound Worlds

Build your library with a collection of classic science fiction and fantasy novels from Unbound Worlds! Fall is in full swing, and it’s the perfect time to cozy up with some classics. Unbound Worlds is giving away thirty-two books from timeless sci-fi and fantasy authors like Philip K. Dick, T.H. White, Anne McCaffrey, and Samuel R. Delaney, plus some bookish swag from Out of Print! Enter for a chance to win.

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Her first suggestion is Deadliest Sea by Kalee Thompson, an account of “the greatest rescue in Coast Guard history.” In 2008, the fishing trawler Alaska Ranger sank in the Bering Sea. The distress signal set off a massive rescue operation to try and save the 47 crew members on the ship when it went down. Many didn’t even make it into a life raft, and those who did remained in peril due to frigid waters and stormy seas.

Her second suggestion is Wreck of the Carl D. by Michael Schumacher. This book covers the wreck of a 623-foot limestone carrier caught in one of the most violent storms in the history of Lake Michigan. Four members of the 35-member crew escaped to a raft, which they clung to until a rescue mission could be launched from the small town many of the crew members called home.

And finally, a book that I am reading right now, The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall. This book was originally published in the 1970s, but is being reissued ahead of a movie adaptation titled The Mercy. The book is an investigation into the disappearance of entrepreneur Donald Crowhurst, who entered a solo, around-the-world sailing competition using an untested boat of his own design. His race started out well, but eight months later his boat was discovered abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The book reconstructs what happened to Crowhurst, and explores themes of self-delusion, public deception, and madness.

A Couple of Book Awards

Awards season rolls on, including a lot of smaller awards that seem to recognize some interesting under-the-radar nonfiction. Here’s two that came out this week:

Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso by Kali Nicole Gross received the nonfiction prize in the juried awards for books by Black authors published in 2016 from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation. According to the judges,

This book is a marvel. It accomplishes the very difficult task of weaving together a brutal story of murder while simultaneously creating empathy for the circumstances of the killer – a black woman trying to negotiate her own position in a society that has in turn, brutalized her.

Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein was awarded the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. FT reported Goldstein is the first solo female winner of the award… which seems kind of bonkers. But, nevertheless, good for her!

That’s it for this week! I’ll be back next week with a November nonfiction new books megalist. And don’t forget, we’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Entries are open worldwide and will be accepted until 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26. Click here to enter. Happy reading!

Belated happy Halloween, nonfiction nerds! My two favorite costumes this year were both based on true stories. First, there are these three amazing sisters as the women of Hidden Figures. Mad props!

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Sponsored by Chicago Review Press

Pinball Wizards: Jackpots, Drains, and the Cult of the Silver Ball  by Adam Ruben tells the dynamic story about America’s quintessential arcade game. By visiting pinball museums, gaming conventions, pinball machine designers and even pinball factories, Adam attempts to discover what makes the world’s best players so good. The book also explores the history of the game, as well as its invention, defeat and recent resurgence in American culture today.

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And then there’s this little girl as “that funny astronaut” (Leland Melvin, author of Chasing Space). So good! 

I also saw someone dressed as Ruth Vader Ginsberg, which I found totally delightful but neglected to bookmark. C’est la vie.

Nonfiction Listicles

We’ve had a bunch of really good nonfiction lists up at Book Riot this week (and I’m not just saying that because I wrote a couple of them):

• Love essay collections? Rebecca Hussey has 20 from 2017 that you can pick up.
• Want to try some YA nonfiction? I rounded up 15 YA adaptations of best-selling adult nonfiction.
• Nonfiction for kids? Kathleen Keenan has 10 of of the best nonfiction picture books.
• Narrative nonfiction your jam? I rounded up 50 great examples of the genre, divided into science, global issues, history, classics, social issues, and contemporary reporting.
• Looking for love? Ashley Holstrom has recommendations for cute graphic memoirs about relationships.
• Not ready to let Halloween go? Cindy Butor has seven scary nonfiction books to titillate and terrify you.
• Fascinated by the Tudors? Ann Foster rounds up true stories about Henry VIII and his six wives.

A Bunch of People Are Writing Books

It feels like it’s also been a busy few weeks of new book announcements:

Rhetta, who I love from Parks and Recreation, is publishing a book of essays! So Close to Being the Sh*T, Y’all Don’t Even Know will be released in June 2018. I am EXCITED about this one.

John McCain will be publishing a memoir in April titled The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations. According to the Los Angeles Times, the book deal was finalized about five months before McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. McCain is co-writing the book with Mark Salter, a speechwriter and friend.

Football player Colin Kapernick landed a $1 million book deal, but so far there’s not much information on what it will actually be about. Kapernick, a free agent NFL quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers, made headlines as the first player to stage a protest during the playing of the national anthem. He’s still looking to play in the NFL, but no teams have shown interest this year.

Goodreads ‘Best Books of 2017’ Voting Opens

And finally, voting is open for the opening round of Goodreads Best Books of 2017 project. I’m glad they divide out nonfiction into a few different categories — Humor, Nonfiction, Memoir & Autobiography, History & Biography, Science & Technology, and Food & Cookbooks — but I also sometimes wonder about what ends up where. The Food & Cookbooks category is especially weird — how do you judge memoirs and food reporting against cookbooks? Anyway, pop over there and vote for your favorites — it’ll be interesting to see what shakes out over the next month.

We’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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And that’s it for this week. Check in with me on Twitter and Instagram as @kimthedork, or via e-mail at kim.ukura@riotnewmedia.com. Happy reading!

This week is the opening of one of my most anticipated movie adaptations this year, Thank You for Your Service. The film is based on David Finkel’s truly excellent 2013 book of the same name, and stars Miles Teller as Sgt. Adam Schumann and Haley Bennett as his wife, Saskia.

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Sponsored by Workman Publishing, publisher of Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

Looking back with fascination, horror, and a dash of dark humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are 67 outlandish, morbidly hilarious “treatments”, exploring their various uses and why they thankfully fell out of favor. With vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements throughout, Quackery seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.

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If you haven’t read Thank You for Your Service, I highly recommend it. The book chronicles the lives of soldiers in the 2-16 Infantry Battalion during the 2007 and 2008 “surge” in Iraq. Finkel embedded with the battalion during their deployment, and followed many of the men afterwards to show what it is like for many traumatized soldiers and their families after they come home. It’s a remarkable piece of reporting that offers a compelling portrait of the sacrifices we ask from soldiers and the less obvious sacrifices that a deployment can ask from others. It’s a remarkable piece of work.

Thinking about that movie reminded me that I have some nonfiction adaptation news saved up that I haven’t had a chance to include in a newsletter for awhile:

Production has begun on a movie adaptation of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba, a story about a young boy who builds a windmill that saves his African village from a famine. The movie stars newcomer Maxwell Simba as 13-year-old Kamkwamba and Chiwetel Ejiofor as his father. Ejiofor is also directing and writing the adaptation.

Universal Pictures

Felicity Jones is starring as Ruth Bader Ginsberg in an upcoming biopic titled On the Basis of Sex. The film will follow “a young Ginsburg as she fights for equal rights, from her time at Harvard University and Columbia Law School, to Washington, D.C.” The movie is set to be released in 2018.

A production company has acquired the rights to A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story, a memoir by Elaine Brown about her time as the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party. The company that acquired the rights is currently negotiating to find a writer.

And finally, Variety reported that “Fox has ordered a script for a drama series based on the book Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class.” The book by Lawrence Otis Graham includes interviews with members of some of America’s most prominent black families. The series will be a “a multi-generational family drama uncovering the lives of America’s black upper class by chronicling a dazzling Chicago dynasty with a dark secret threatening to rip it apart.”

New Releases on My Radar

An American Family by Khizir Khan – It seems a little fitting that a memoir by Khizir Khan, a member of the first Gold Star family that President Trump decided to attack, is coming out amidst criticism of his treatment of another Gold Star family. In the book, Khan recounts his childhood in Pakistan, his efforts to attend Harvard Law School, and the loss of his son in Iraq.

 

Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan – In this memoir, novelist Amy Tan writes about her traumatic and complicated childhood, her life as a writer, and “the symbiotic relationship between fiction and emotional memory.” I’ve never read any of Tan’s books, but memoirs by writers always fascinate me.

 

American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee – In the 1920s, wolves were hunted almost to extinction in the United States. Bringing back that population has sparked conflict between conservationists, hunters, ranchers, and others in the West. American Wolf explores that conflict through the story of O-Six, an alpha female beloved by naturalists and other wolf watchers.

Kindle Deals in Biography and Memoir

This week in ebook deals, I want to highlight four great memoirs by interesting women:

• Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller for $.99
• West with the Night by Beryl Markham for $1.99
• Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward for $1.99
• My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall for $.099

And don’t forget, we’re giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Click here to enter. Hit me up on Twitter or Instagram (@kimthedork) or via e-mail at kim@riotnewmedia.com with questions, comments, or reading suggestions!

This week’s newsletter is something a little different, a longer piece exploring the ins and outs of writing the kind of narrative, investigative nonfiction that I love to read.

Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century is a look into the growing number of transient older Americans that are helping boost large sectors of the seasonal economy. To tell their story, Bruder spent weeks at a time in an RV (an adapted 1995 GMC Vandura with a jaunty teal stripe) following these “workcampers” from months working in Amazon warehouses, at National Forest campgrounds, and in sugar beet harvests.

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Sponsored by The 57 Bus, a true story by Dashka Slater

One teenager in a skirt.

One teenager with a lighter.

One moment that changes both of their lives forever.

A single reckless act during an 8-minute bus ride leaves one teen severely burned and the other charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The 57 Bus is Dashka Slater’s true account of the case that garnered international attention and thrust both high school students into the spotlight.

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After I finished the book, I really wanted to know more…Where did this idea come from? What were the challenges in reporting? How did Bruder’s relationships with her subjects form and change? Luckily for me, Bruder was able to take a few minutes to answer my questions, which you can read below.

The Initial Idea

Bruder pointed to two articles that helped steer her towards the ideas that would become Nomadland – a 2011 piece in the Allentown Morning Call on the dangerous conditions inside an Amazon warehouse, and a 2012 Mother Jones article that briefly mentioned a program to hire retirees, CamperForce.

Photo by Todd Gray, via www.jessicabruder.com

In both cases, Bruder noticed something in the article that intrigued or alarmed her, then used that spark to dig deeper.

“Nobody ever wants to talk about the fact that the sausage is made that way, because the idea is like, somehow, we magically come up with everything in a hermetically sealed, pure, vacuum,” she said. “This stuff is in reach, you just have to pay attention.”

Although there are some retirees who still use RVs recreationally, Bruder said she slowly became aware of “a totally different strata of folks who were permanently on the road,” moving from seasonal employer to seasonal employer to make ends meet.

“That seemed kind of wild too because we’re in a workplace where ageism is so rampant, and then you’ve got this underground senior network of employers,” said Bruder. “A lot of the jobs are low-paid and pretty tough. (The story) hooked my subculture brain, it hooked my social justice brain, and I really wanted to learn more.”

Beginning the Story

Bruder was so intrigued by the idea that she used her hotel stipend from a conference to instead rent a car and drive out to Nevada to begin talking to seniors living in RV parks near an Amazon warehouse. After her initial reporting, Bruder pitched the story to Harper’s Magazine, who agreed to send her back out to Nevada to do a few more days of reporting.

“I got it in my mind that I wanted to go to this place called Quartzite, Arizona, which is where a lot of nomads kind of go financially dormant through the winter. You’ve got tens of thousands of people on the public lands, using solar panels, living super cheap. I borrowed a tent and went out there for a few weeks and wrote the story based on that,” she explained.

Photo Credit: www.jessicabruder.com

From Magazine to Book

Bruder’s story – “The End of Retirement” – was published in the August 2014 edition of the magazine. But Bruder said she felt like there was more to the story.

“I had so much B-roll, just buckets and buckets of things that didn’t fit,” she said. “And I still wanted to know what was going to happen to these people! I got to spend a little bit of time with them, and I really couldn’t stop thinking about them.”

Bruder used the advance from her book deal with W.W. Norton to purchase a van on Craigslist.

“A lot of people, when you’re doing your passion project, you have to do it on spec, and I don’t know if I could have done all of this like that,” Bruder said. “Getting a camper van, that’s an audacious thing to do!”

The van gave Bruder some additional flexibility for her reporting. Instead of just stopping by for a few days at a time, Bruder was able to spend weeks or months following the people she planned to write about, becoming a part of the community rather than just a journalist writing about their lives.

“I wish I were better at writing on the road and in the van, but all I could make myself do (on the road) was keep a daily reporter’s journal where I’m going through the notes I’ve written down and rehydrating them so they make sense,” said Bruder. “I did a lot of jump in, jump out reporting.”

Navigating Relationships

One of the challenges of spending so much time in a community is building relationships while also reporting on what you learn.

“In a normal situation, when I’m there everybody knows what I’m doing. Everyone knows I’m there as a reporter. If I worry somebody’s forgetting, sometimes I remind them,” Bruder said.

The book includes a couple of exceptions to this practice – Bruder went undercover in an Amazon warehouse and a sugar beet harvest – but Bruder said in those cases she made sure to focus on her experiences, rather than things she learned about other workers.

In one challenging instance, the subject she originally planned to make the main character of the Harper’s piece had to back out of the project. The man was hired to work full time at Amazon – something Bruder said she had never seen happen – and worried that his comments made as a seasonal employee would threaten his livelihood. After some discussion, Bruder had to find a new character for her magazine piece, but ended up using parts of his story in the book using a pseudonym.

“I’ve covered politics and I’ve covered policing, but these people are civilians,” Bruder said. “You want people to talk to you, but you want to make sure that they understand what you’re doing and why you’re there and how it all works. Narrative is messy because you come to like people – I know I did – and you’re all very human out there.”

On Narrative Nonfiction and Immersion Journalism

One of the challenges Bruder notes in the book was figuring out a satisfying ending for a story about people who have lives that extend beyond the confines of the book.

“When you’re doing nonfiction we’re really at the mercy of the world and what happens in it,” Bruder said. “As much as you shape elements of your story, you’re also sort of dragging off the back of the wagon the whole time and just hanging on.”

Bruder got to follow up on one thread from the book already, in an article for WIRED. The piece is billed as an adaptation of Nomadland, but it includes “a whole lot of new reporting,” Bruder said. She also hopes to do more writing on the criminalization of homelessness.

Bruder also noted that a big part of writing a book like this one, immersing in a subculture to understand it better, is just spending time with people.

“In the era of the accelerated news cycle and social media and so much quick hit reporting, if you want to do something like this you really have to be willing to marinate and spend a lot of time that’s not directed interview time with people,” she said. “In my mind, when you’re getting it right with subculture journalism, you’re going in and you’re learning about a group of people who may seem pretty different from the outside, but when you get close they have more in common with all of us than you may initially realize. My favorite journalism is the kind that helps promote that kind of empathy.”

And that’s the end for this week! Thanks for indulging me in something a little different for this newsletter. I’ll be back to a more regular format for next week, when I’m hoping to gather up some links on upcoming nonfiction adaptations to keep on your radar. Happy reading!

True confession: ever since I started writing about books online like eight years ago, I knew that fall is publishing’s big season, but I never really thought much about why. It just is, you know? This week I stumbled across a Vox article that points out some big reasons – the holiday shopping season, and book awards season. Well, duh!

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Sponsored by TarcherPerigee, publisher of Rescue Road by Peter Zheutlin

In the follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Rescue Road, acclaimed journalist Peter Zheutlin offers a heartwarming and often humorous new look into the world of rescue dogs. Sharing lessons from his own experiences adopting Labs with large personalities as well as stories and advice from dozens of families and rescue advocates, Zheutlin reveals the surprising and inspiring life lessons rescue dogs can teach us. For anyone who loves, lives with, or has ever wanted a dog, this charming book shows how the dogs whose lives we save can change ours for the better too.

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Point is, October is another month chock full of new books to add to your TBR (and perhaps to your holiday shopping plans?). Although it seems like the buzziest titles this month have been fiction, I’ve still got several nonfiction books I’m excited about from the first half of this month:

The Future is History by Masha Gessen – This book is a chunkster (528 pages!) about how Russia’s promise for democracy less than a generation ago have been crushed by emerging Russian totalitarianism.

From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty – America’s funniest mortician is back with a book exploring the different global rituals we have for caring for our dead. I’m a couple chapters into this one and really like it.

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates – This might be the buzziest nonfiction book of October. The book collects new and previously published essays reflect on the election of America’s first black president and the subsequent backlash that led to our current administration.

A Crime in the Family by Sacha Batthyany – A journalist confronts his family’s past as Nazi supporters and investigates what happened at a party, hosted by his great aunt in March 1945, where 180 enslaved Jewish laborers were shot and killed.

A Moonless, Starless Sky by Alexis Okeowo – A work of literary journalism exploring how ordinary Africans are resisting the wave of fundamentalism currently sweeping across Africa.

Code Girls by Liza Mundy – I think I’ve written about this one in the newsletter before, but oh well, it’s great. Mundy gets on the bandwagon of books on the contributions of women to science by looking at the female codebreakers of World War II.

Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga – A journalist sets out to document the lives and investigate the deaths of seven indigenous high school students found dead in Thunder Bay, Ontario between 2000 and 2011.

Grant by Ron Chernow – I’m not usually into giant biographies of old white dudes, but Ron Chernow’s next big project is always worth a mention. In this book he looks into the lesser-known facets of the life of Ulysses S. Grant, “whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.”

Nasty Women, edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding – There’s been a lot of excitement about this on one among the Book Riot community. The book features essays from an amazing array of women – Cheryl Strayed! Samantha Irby! Sarah Hepola! – looking at how we got to President Trump, and what we can do to move forward.

Periods Gone Public by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf – I didn’t know that I wanted to read a book on “menstruation in the current cultural and political landscape” that will “investigate the new wave of period activism taking the world by storm” until I saw it on a friend’s Instagram account. I’m so curious!

Nonfiction Over at the Riot

Looking to get into audiobooks? Or looking for some short books to fill a little bit of time? Emma Nichols recommends six short nonfiction audiobooks to expand your mind.

Love cooking and memoirs? Pierce Alquist has a roundup of 10 memoirs by women in the culinary world. Related, Dana Staves asks why there aren’t more LGBTQ food memoirs.

Into journaling? Hannah Engler writes about her experiment in keeping a journal inspired by David Sedaris’ newest book, Theft by Finding.

Want to learn more about athletes and protest? Shaun Manning has five suggested reads for you.

Love Bill Bryson? Emily Polson reflects on her discovery of Bryson’s work, and his status as “Iowa’s central claim to bookish fame.”

And that’s a wrap for this week’s newsletter. Catch up with me on Instagram and Twitter @kimthedork, or send an email to kim@riotnewmedia.com. Happy reading!

Now that it’s finally October, I’ve found myself turning towards nonfiction of the creepy variety. I’m kind of a chicken, but give me some good true crime or spooky history, and I’ll happily sleep with the light on so I can enjoy it. Two of my favorite seasonally-appropriate nonfiction books are The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

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The Poisoner’s Handbook, a tale of “murder and the birth of forensic science in Jazz Age New York,” follows chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler as they try to figure out the science behind murder by poison. This one will have you looking twice at the next cup of coffee your significant other serves you.

 

There’s a lot of spooky true crime out there, but In Cold Blood, Truman Capote’s original “nonfiction novel” on the murder of a family in Holcomb, Kansas is one that I distinctly remember kept me awake at night. His reconstruction of the crime from the point of view of the killers is chilling, and it’s clear why this book, in particular, has become a classic of the genre.

 

This year, I’ve got two new creepy books on my radar. The first is The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke (Oct. 10 from Del Ray). Mahnke, creator of the Lore podcast, is publishing his first book on the history of terrifying creatures like werewolves, poltergeists, vampires, and vengeful spirits. If you’re a fan of Lore, Rioter Katie McClain rounded up a few of her favorite creepy books, including three nonfiction titles.

And in true crime, I am looking forward to Black Dahlia, Red Rose by Piu Eatwell (Oct. 10 from Liveright). Eatwell uses new evidence and historical records to revisit the unsolved 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, “an aspiring starlet from Massachusetts who had been lured west by the siren call of Hollywood.” Her body was found, mutilated, in a public park, but despite the sensation of the case, her killer was never found.

I’m curious, dear readers – do you have any favorite creepy, crawly, or spooky topics you turn to during the fall season? Hit me up with your suggestions and recommendations. And with that, on to the news of the week.

Follow Up: H.H. Holmes Really is Dead

Earlier this year, experts planned to exhume the body of H.H. Holmes, the Chicago serial killer at the center of Erik Larson’s 2003 book The Devil in the White City. Descendants made the request as part of a History Channel show, looking into whether Holmes may have escaped death. Turns out, he didn’t. Dental records show that the body buried in a pine box that was filled with cement is actually Holmes. Whew.

Chicago Tribune photo

Already, Books Coming in 2018?

A couple of releases set for 2018 caught my attention recently. Journalists Michael Isikoff (chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News) and David Corn (Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones) will release a book on “the controversies surrounding Donald J. Trump, Vladimir Putin and Russia’s influence.” The book is tentatively called The Russian Connection. I’m intrigued, since the long history of Trump’s connections to Russia doesn’t seem to be getting the attention it may deserve.

The other book I had no idea was coming, but now I’m super curious about, is a true crime book written by Patton Oswalt’s late wife, Michelle McNamara. At the time of her unexpected death in 2016, McNarama was working to investigate the Golden State Killer, “an unknown assailant who police believe was responsible for 50 rapes and 10 murders in California in the 1970s and ’80s.” I’ll Be Gone in the Dark will include an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by Oswalt.

Kindle Deals in Politics and Social Science

This week, I’ve got some political and social science ebooks for you to check out:

Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea Ritchie for $1.99

The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke for $1.99

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward for $1.99

And that’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with an early October new books list – there are A LOT of titles coming out this month that I’m excited to highlight.

As always, you can catch me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and via email at kim@riotnewmedia.com. Happy October!

Fall is finally here, which means it’s finally time to cuddle up with some tea, a fuzzy blanket, and great books. Winter is probably my favorite reading season — I live in Minnesota, so there are many days of the year when it’s best to just never leave the house — but autumn is a close second. What’s your favorite season to read? You can share in this poll over at Book Riot.

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I thought I’d kick off fall with one of my favorite things: a giant, TBR-busting list of nonfiction favorites that are finally out in paperback. This list features some heavy-hitters, as well as some books that I missed when they first came out last year. As always, I hope you can find something awesome to read.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande — A look at medicine, aging and death.

The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams — A literary celebration of national parks and what they mean to us.

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer — Essays from a comic actress on growing up making people laugh.

Blood at the Root by Patrick Phillips — The history of Forsyth County, Georgia, and the violent means by which locals kept Forsyth ‘all white’ well into the 1990s.”

Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi — A history of “how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.”

Code Warriors by Stephen Budiansky — An inside look at the roots of the National Security Agendy.

Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre — The inside history of Britain’s elite Special Air Service.

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance — Memoir by a Yale Law School graduate about “growing up in a poor Rust Belt town.”

Sing for Your Life by Daniel Bergner — The story of a young black man’s journey from prison to life as a rising opera star.

White Rage by Carol Anderson — A history of how “social progress for African American was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition” from white America.

Urban Forests by Jill Jonnes — An exploration of how trees and urban green spaces contribute to public health and urban infrastructure.

Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton — An Oprah-endorsed memoir about confronting pain to build deeper, truer relationships. y of living your own truth.

Presence by Amy Cuddy — Techniques for improving confidence and performance through mind-body connections.

Around the Way Girl by Taraji P. Henson — A memoir of “family, friends, the hustle to make it from DC to Hollywood, and the joy of living your own truth.”

The Invention of Russia by Arkady Ostrovsky — A look at Russia’s nationalist movement and aggression against America.

You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessie Klein — Essays on growing up as a tomboy and becoming a woman.

I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This by Nadja Spiegelman — A memoir of mothers and daughters and the complexity of families.

A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston — A memoir by the star of Breaking Bad.

The Battle for Home by Marwa al-Sabouni — An eyewitness account of life in Syria by an architect.

Forty Autumns by Nina Willner — The true story of an American family separated by the Iron Curtain for more than 40 years.

Playing Dead by Elizabeth Greenwood — “A journey through the world of death fraud.”

Pilgrimage by Mark K. Shriver — A portrait of Pope Francis based on interviews from the people who knew him as Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick — Essays on life from a short, funny, introverted actress.

Never Look an American in the Eye by Okey Ndibe — “A memoir of flying turtles, colonial ghosts, and the making of Nigerian American.”

Books for Living by Will Schwalbe — A look at the books that can help answer life’s big and small questions.

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen — Rock star memoir!

In Such Good Company by Carol Burnett — A behind-the-scenes look at The Carol Burnett Show.

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston — An eyewitness account of following in the footsteps of a swashbuckling journalist in Honduras.

The Clancys of Queens by Tara Clancy — A Book Riot favorite, a memoir of growing up working class in Queens.

The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carré — A memoir from a legendary author who got his start in British Intelligence during the Cold War.

Messy by Tim Harford — An economist explores “the benefits that messiness has in our lives: why it’s important, why we resist it, and why we should embrace it instead.”

When We Rise by Cleve Jones — A memoir of life in the gay rights movement in the 1970s.

The Boys of Dunbar by Alejandro Danois — The true story of a Baltimore basketball coach whose undefeated team launched four players to the NBA.

Soul at the White Heat by Joyce Carol Oates — Critical and personal essays on the writing life.

Frantumaglia by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein — An invitation into Elena Ferrante’s workshop where she answers questions on the writing life.

Best. State. Ever. by Dave Barry — A humorous collection of essays on why Florida is just so damn weird.

And that’s all for this week! I hope the weather where you are is lovely, the books on your shelves are plentiful, and the people you live with don’t mind you spending the weekend with a good book! — Kim