Category: True Story

In this book, internet culture reporter Kaitlyn Tiffany dives deep into the world of superfandom, specifically the girls and young women who have shaped how we interact with the internet today. Tiffany herself is a fangirl of One Direction, so she brings the kind of insider-outsider perspective I love most in my reported nonfiction. I haven’t read any of this one, but from the description and reviews, my sense is that it’s a book that has fun with some of the most extreme examples of fandom while also giving it— and the women who participate— the kind of serious attention they deserve.

In 2018, Linda Villarosa published a blockbuster article exploring the maternal and infant mortality rates of Black mothers and their children. Although many studies had demonstrated these poor outcomes, her article was one of the first to bring them into popular discussion. This book expands on those ideas, looking at the larger forces in healthcare and society that mean Black people “live sicker and die quicker” due to many preventable causes. She also explores the public health impact of racism, a timely and important addition to this topic.

Fire Island has been the destination for generations of gay men. Jack Parlett tells the history and cultural significance of the island. He introduces us to the men who frequented Fire Island, giving the book a personal feel as we learn more about this queer space.

One of the hardest jobs as a parent or guardian is finding the words to explain difficult things to their kids. Using both scientific research and an added personal narrative, Kendi gives adults the tools they need to have important conversations around race in the United States.

I love when I find a book that explores a small aspect of history that I’ve never heard of before. In the case of this book, it’s the story behind Creek Nation, a Native tribe that “owned slaves and accepted Black people as full citizens” more than 200 years ago. Because of the work of Black Creek leaders, the U.S. government recognized citizenship for Black Creek members all the way back in 1866. However, tribal leaders revoked that citizenship in the 1970s, pitting two marginalized communities against each other in lawsuits that continue to this day. Journalist Caleb Gayle digs into all aspects of this story, trying to understand how the community formed, then fractured under the weight of white supremacy. 

This book is a coming-of-age memoir set in rural North Dakota, which author Tyler Brorby describes as “a place where there is no safety in a ravaged landscape of mining and fracking.” Brorby grew up on a farm, loved books, and realized at a young age that he was different from other boys because he was gay. Now an environmentalist, he uses fracking, a violent taking of natural resources from the land, as a metaphor to explore his sexuality and growing up in a community that wasn’t welcoming to people who are different. I love a good, rural Midwestern memoir, so of course this one is high on my list to read soon. 

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In Raising Antiracist Children, Britt Hawthorne approaches antiracist parenting by dividing her ideas into four sections: healthy bodies, radical minds, conscious shopping, and thriving communities. Then she discusses each topic to help parents make their parenting strategies. The book also includes tips, questionnaires, and stories to help people parent the kids in their life the best they can.

In this first biography of the famous essayist, screenwriter, and film director, Kristin Marguerite Doidge presents her portrait of Nora Ephron. Based on interviews with Ephron’s close family and friends, this biography gives readers a comprehensive look at her life. I’ve always wanted to know more about Nora Ephron and her work, so this seems like just the book I need.

Could there be anything more delightful than the story of “a fearless paleontologist, the founding of America’s most loved museums, and the race to find the largest dinosaurs on record”? I think not! This book is about the partnership between fossil hunter Barnum Brown and museum president Henry Fairfield Osborn, after Barnum found the first T-Rex fossil in Montana. Gilded Age history is full of amazing stories like this one, which sounds so fun!

This book offers a new history of modern medicine centered around the discovery of the circulatory system and the role that blood plays in our bodies. For centuries, physicians believed in the idea that blood was like the sea, moving back and forth within the body. After William Harvey proved that blood circulates, the entire understanding of life sciences was upended. Sethna shows how this discovery led to groundbreaking advances like cardiac imaging, bypass surgery, and more.

We’ve all heard stories of Ellis Island and the American immigration experience, but what do the facts really tell us? This is the result of years of research and debunks long-held myths. Also the cover is really pretty — look at those rays. A+.

It’s a Haymarket Books pick! Haymarket Books is in Chicago, so I have a soft spot for them. Did you know they’re a nonprofit and have sales ALL the time? Ok anyway, this new release looks at workers’ struggles around the world. I’m talking India, Kenya, Peru, and beyond. They also look at “debt cancellation, a wealth tax, austerity, the pandemic, the arms industry, the climate crisis, socialism, working-class social movements and much more.”

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In this book, critic Melissa Febos explores the narratives women are told about being female and how to get away from those stories. She begins with her body changing at 11, then follows with other experiences where she defined herself by her relationships and perceptions she had about herself. Eventually, she set about trying to reframe the ideas she had about safety, happiness, and freedom to reimagine relationships and herself.

This collection seeks to explore borders, the natural world, and the stories we tell ourselves through the lens of travel and movement. In one essay, Aminatta Forna writes about the charms of air travel (how nostalgic!). In another, she explores narratives and expectations for young Africans traveling to the United States for school. In others, she brings her perspective as an African person to issues of race in America. This is a beautiful collection!

If you’re thinking,’Wow, that cover looks familiar,’ I had the same thought! It’s v similar to the original cover of Furious Hours. Only this one has a coffin shape in the middle, which is fitting, given the subject matter. Wilde previously wrote Confessions of a Funeral Director. In this entry, he writes about what we know of the afterlife, examining cultural ideas and the science behind what we currently think we know. Among all this is also his work during the pandemic and how his business has been impacted by it.

This focuses on Rochester, New York and St. Catharines in Canada’s Niagara Region.These cities were the last stops on their section of the Underground Railroad, and both were home to large communities of free Black citizens, including luminaries like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Historian Broyld “investigates how the times and terms of emancipation affected Blacks on each side of the border, including their use of political agency to pit the United States and British Canada against one another for the best possible outcomes.”

I learned about the murder of Jane Stanford in one of my favorite books of 2020, Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller. The story of Stanford’s murder is a turning point for the protagonist of that story, and it made me deeply curious about the woman herself. In 1885, Jane and her husband, Leland, cofounded a university to honor their son, who had recently passed away. Jane was an eccentric and a spiritualist who expected the university to bend to her whims. In 1905 she was poisoned while on vacation in Hawaii. Leaders at the university tried to suggest it was natural causes, covering up the crime to protect their own interests. In this book, historian Richard White offers the first full account of Jane’s murder and the cover-up. 

I love young adult adaptations of nonfiction books! In this young readers edition of Professional Troublemaker, Luvvie Ajayi Jones encourages teens “to be their bravest, boldest, truest selves, in order to create a world they would be proud to live in.” Ajayi Jones gives teens permission to be troublemakers, encouraging them to use their voices for good while knowing that a good life is pushing through the things that are scary.

Just in time for the two year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd is this new biography, written by two Washington Post reporters. It is described as a “poignant and moving exploration of George Floyd’s America, revealing how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.”

A nineteenth century quest! Two grumpy Englishmen set out to find the source of the Nile and then argued about whether one of them found it. Historian Millard shares the story of another man whose name has mostly been left out of the story: Sidi Mubarak Bombay, an African guide who was enslaved and sent to India, was emancipated, returned to Africa, and became a guide for these expeditions.