Category: True Story

This is for ages 8 – 12! Which is extremely great because, as recently mentioned in this newsletter, it is v v difficult to get non-super-academic African history books in the US, and especially so for kids! This is about ten “real-life kings, queens, inventors, scholars, and visionaries who lived in Africa thousands of years ago and changed the world.” Ugh, so cool. Learn about Mansa Musa and Amanirenas and eight others!

The year is 1743. It’s prime smuggling time. The ship Rising Sun sells a group of enslaved people from Africa to the Dutch colony of Suriname and is sailing away when three of its sailors murder four people on board and mutiny, taking over the schooner. This is about the mutiny and “an international chocolate smuggling ring.” ALSO it’s from NYU Press, so it’s an academic press book!

The federal tipped minimum wage since 1991 (yes, that is thirty years) has been $2.13. Prior to COVID, six million people that we are aware of worked off this system, meaning when the pandemic hit, tons of them lost their jobs and the varied security that came with them. In Jayaraman’s newest book, she “shines a light on these workers, illustrating how the people left out of the fight for a fair minimum wage are society’s most marginalized: people of color, many of them immigrants; women, who form the majority of tipped workers; disabled workers; incarcerated workers; and youth workers.” Jayaraman is the director of the Food Labor Research Center at U-C Berkeley.

In 1799, the Rosetta Stone was discovered in Egypt. Carved in 196 BCE, it uses Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts, and also Ancient Greek. It is how we in the modern era could finally decipher Ancient Egyptian. DID the British steal it from Egypt in 1801 and haul it back to their country? Yes. It has been on display in the British Museum since 1802. Hm. But THIS book is about the translation itself and how two British and French guys decided to make it a big competition. It’s also about the culture of Egypt and I am a sucker for a book that talks about history and objects and dramatic happenings, even if those dramatic happenings were two dudes trying to be James Spader in Stargate.

Members of the Henrietta Lacks family have sued a biotech firm for using her cells for scientific research without permission. If you’re not familiar with the story of Henrietta Lacks, do yourself a favor and go get a copy of Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Read it, and then check out this story, which explains why her estate is suing Thermo Fisher Scientific for commercializing the HeLa line – with hints of more lawsuits on the way. This should be a fascinating story to watch develop.

I am excited that one of the National Book Award shortlisted titles came in for me from my local library this week – All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles. In the book, Miles traces the history of a family heirloom while also exploring “these women’s faint presence in archival records” and the story of slavery and life after in the United States. This one slipped off my radar when it came out earlier this summer, so I’m glad to have a chance at it now! 

Hossain grew up in Bangladesh, and never thought that she would almost die in childbirth in the United States, but she almost did. In this new release, she discusses how this experience “put her on a journey to explore, understand, and share how women—especially women of color—are dismissed to death by systemic sexism in American healthcare.” This is important!

The Howards! Just makes me remember how great Arrested Development is. Ron and his brother Clint’s memoir looks at their childhood on TV, including Andy Griffith and Happy Days. Kim and I were just talking about how dual memoirs can be so good because you get these two perspectives on what was going on and gets you a little closer to a true picture. Exciting.

I’m gonna throw some numbers at you: in the 1920s, American’s consumed 75% of the world’s rubber (primarily by having most of the cars), but America controlled 1% of the rubber supply. So, “to solve its conundrum, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company turned to a tiny West African nation, Liberia, founded in 1847 as a free Black republic” and turned it into America’s rubber empire through exploitation and environmental devastation. This is one of those things you don’t hear about, but which had a huge impact.

Law professor Hessick talks about “he unstoppable march of plea bargaining, which began to take hold during Prohibition and has skyrocketed since 1971, when it was affirmed as constitutional by the Supreme Court.” Read about the case against plea bargaining and how it can be reformed.

The history of Africa “has long been relegated to the remote outskirts of our global story. What if, instead, we put Africa and Africans at the very center of our thinking about the origins of modernity?” Author French is a professor at Columbia and was one of the New York Times‘s first Black correspondents, covering West and Central Africa in the ’90s. I am SUPER psyched for this book; there are not enough African history books published in the US.

I haven’t read Hurston’s nonfiction, so this travelogue written in the 1930s seems like it could be a lot of fun.

I feel like I should rename this section “Weekend Aspirations” because I have been consistently mentioning a book I’m jazzed about and then choosing to read something totally different. But I suppose that infinite choice is just the life of a reader, right? Anyway! This weekend I’m excited to pick up a book that just came out this week, Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef. This memoir is about the trials and triumphs of Diwan, an independent bookstore in Cairo with few peers in the city. The store was opened by three young friends who learned the ins and outs of bookselling to build a successful business “under the law of entropy.” It sounds so good!

A forgotten scandal and a title with a pun! Confession that this is by a professor from my college, but I didn’t know that until AFTER I picked it. You wouldn’t think this would influence my choice in any way more than ten years later, but I was one of those kids who spent most of her college free time in office hours, and I am FOND of the University of Illinois’s haunted English Building. Anyway! This is about an acclaimed turn of the century poet, her affair with a married man, and the deaths of all three.

Profiles of fifty notable American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people! This covers “the lives, stories, and contributions of Indigenous artists, activists, scientists, athletes, and other changemakers.” And it’s illustrated! It also includes “accessible primers on important Indigenous issues, from the legacy of colonialism and cultural appropriation to food sovereignty, land and water rights, and more.” Author Keene is a member of the Cherokee Nation and founder of the blog Native Appropriations.

If author Blain’s name looks familiar, it’s because she is co-editor of this year’s Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019. Hamer was a leader in the mid-20th century American civil rights movement, as well as organizer of Mississippi’s Freedom Summer, along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (aka SNCC). This bio “explores the Black activist’s ideas and political strategies, highlighting their relevance for tackling modern social issues including voter suppression, police violence, and economic inequality.” And it’s 200 pages! The length that all books should be.

It’s a university press book about Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia! It is a “full-length exploration of Carrie Fisher’s career as actress, writer, and advocate” and “Fisher’s entangled relationship with the iconic Princess Leia.” Contributors talk about Fisher’s memoirs, the use of Fisher/Leia references in the Women’s March, and her mental health advocacy, among other things. V exciting.

This book offers a revolutionary history of the contributions African American, Latinx, and Indigenous people have made to the history of the United States. By looking at history through those stories, the book “transforms US history into one of the working class organizing against imperialism.” This book is part of Beacon Press’s amazing Revisionist History series, which I just love.  

Jaquira Díaz grew up in housing projects in both Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, trying to balance her family’s disintegration (and her mother’s schizophrenia) with the connections she felt with her friends. Her story explores sexuality, mental illness, sexual assault within the context of trying to understand Puerto Rico’s colonial history and one girl’s place in it. This one is really beautiful!

When it comes to politics and political prognostication, it can be easy to lump entire groups of people into a single type or voting bloc. In this book, a Northwestern University professor explores how some Hispanic Americans have impacted national politics since the 1960s, particularly after being courted by Republicans during the Cold War. He also looks at how different cultural identities within the Latino community affect voting patterns.

Dan-El Padilla Peralta came to the United States with his family, seeking medical care for his mother. When their visas ran out, his father returned to Santo Domingo while Peralta and his mother remained in New York City. This memoir is about his experiences growing up homeless, getting a boost into private school, and navigating his dual life between Harlem and Manhattan as an undocumented immigrant.

One of my favorite nonfiction storytelling techniques is heading out on a road trip to gather stories from people around the county as a way of exploring big and complicated questions. In this book, journalist Paola Ramos sets out to understand how people define the term “Latinx” – particularly those who have been overlooked when we think about Latinos more generally. It’s a big group, and the stories she gathers are very moving. 

I’ve felt overwhelmed and scattered lately, which reminded me of a book that’s been on my TBR for a couple of years – How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. The book is about how to live in a world where “technology is designed to buy and sell our attention,” and our worth is determined by how productive we are. Odell argues that we need to protect our attention as our most valuable resource and connects this way of being with larger and more radical forms of political action. I am here for all of that.

Did you watch Olivia Lux do a terrible job as Tabitha Brown on Drag Race season 13? That’s the first time I heard of Tabitha Brown, but she seems like a delight. She is a vegan and TikTok star! In her book, she talks about struggling with chronic autoimmune pain and “shares the wisdom she gained from her own journey, showing readers how to make a life for themselves that is rooted in nonjudgmental kindness and love, both for themselves and for others.”

It’s a book by Roxane Gay’s imprint, Tiny Reparations Books! And by the hilarious Phoebe Robinson. She shares “stories about her mom slow-poking before a visit with Mrs. Obama, the stupidly fake reassurances of zip-line attendants, her favorite things about dating a white person from the UK, and how the lack of Black women in leadership positions fueled her to become the Black lady boss of her dreams.” YAY.

What is it like to be a veterinarian! And what do you need to know. Schott answers this, as well as all-important topics like “the mysteries of catnip, dog flatulence, and duck erectile dysfunction.” Really just covers it all there. I hope I never have to examine a wolverine, but I am interested in HOW one does it.

Author and TV star Michaela Coel won an Emmy! She made history as the first Black woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special for her comedy-drama series I May Destroy You. Her first book, Misfits, came out just a couple weeks ago. The book is an adaptation of a speech Coel gave at the Edinburgh International Television Festival back in 2018. Congrats, Michaela!

I’ve been on a real fiction kick lately, but the National Book Award announcement has inspired me to pick up a book on the longlist that I started earlier this year, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. In the book, McGhee looks at how racist ideas impact the American economy, leading it to fail the public in significant ways. There’s a fascinating chapter on the history of public pools and how segregation ultimately led to almost no freely available public swimming facilities for anyone. It’s such an interesting look at how we’ve shifted from public goods to private luxuries, and how race plays into why that happens. I’m not sure if I’ll get much reading in this weekend, but I want to try!

Journalist Mouallem “travels to thirteen remarkable mosques and discovers the surprising history of their communities” across the Americas, from Canada to Brazil. He learns how Islam shaped the Americas, and, in the recent tradition of road trip nonfiction, learns a little something about himself.

This is one of the books I pre-ordered! Ok, I cannot explain why I love Elvira so much, except that her attitude is such a complete delight. Her combination of sex positivity and corny jokes just make for this enduring icon who has been around for literal decades and I love her extremely silly ’80s movie and I’m so glad she wrote a book.

Black Seminoles were “descendants of Seminole Indians, free Blacks, and escaped slaves who formed an alliance in Spanish Florida.” John Horse, whose life squarely occupied the nineteenth century, “defended his people from the US government, other tribes, and slave hunters.” This is a YA biography, which usually equates to just enough information for your daily life as opposed to the deep dive of adult nonfiction! Very exciting.

If you’re still not convinced, I can tell you she is just as funny to talk with as she is to read. In the interview we covered everything from her use of footnotes to how she almost wrote a chapter about tiger penises, with several great detours along the way. Her latest book, Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law is out this week. It’s a great read about what happens when nature and humans have conflict, and the people who are trying to find ways to improve those interactions. It’s really fun.

Paramount+ may be planning an adaptation of Yellow Bird by Sierra Crane Murdoch. The series is described as “a true crime show, a family drama and an immersive look at modern Native American life.” The main character, Lissa Yellowbird, returns to her reservation after time in jail, then finds herself investigating the disappearance of a young oil worker. That description is giving me real Mare of Easttown vibes and I am here for it.

I’ve had a great few weeks of picking up unexpected read from my local library. My grab from the new releases shelf this week is Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be by Nichole Perkins. This book is a collection of essays on pop culture and how big issues like “racism, wealth, poverty, beauty, inclusion, exclusion, and hope” are part of the media we consume. I’m just 100 percent in for all of those topics, especially when they’re being explored from a perspective that’s different from my own. I’ve already LOL’d quite a bit at this one, I can’t wait to finish it!