Category: True Story

Hello friends! This week I’m doing a bit of service journalism by bringing you a round-up of some nonfiction favorites that have come out in paperback over the last several months. Yay, paperbacks!

Before we jump in, a quick reminder to come share the ins-n-outs of your reading life in our Fall Reader Survey!

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Sponsored by Yellow Pear Press

In THE WRONG DOG, New York Times bestselling author David Elliot Cohen tells the humorous, engaging story of what happens when puppy pick-up instructions go disastrously awry and aboisterous rough-and-tumble ball of energy bursts onto the family scene. So begins the chronicle of the unexpected love between a big family and their giant lug of a high-spirited Lab that culminates in a once-in-a-lifetime road trip and revels in the glories of the human-canine relationship.

THE WRONG DOG is an insightful story filled with historical and geographic trivia and told with self-deprecating wit and mature perception.

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1. The World Broke in Two by Bill Goldstein – A look at the year 1922, the birth of modernism, and and the intersecting lives of Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster and D.H. Lawrence.
2. Grit by Angela Duckworth – An argument for passion and persistence rather than talent as indicators of success.
3. The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women by Elizabeth Norton – A look at the life cycles of Tudor women, based on the lives and examples of women like Elizabeth Tudor, Mary Howard, and Elizabeth Boleyn.
4. The Hot One by Carolyn Murnick – A memoir of “friendship, sex, and murder” where a young woman investigates the death of a childhood friend she’d grown apart from.
5. This Is Just My Face by Gabourey Sidibe – A memoir about growing up with a polygamous father, working as a phone sex “talker,” and an unconventional rise to fame as a movie star.
6. A Light So Lovely by Sarah Arthur – A biography of beloved children’s author Madeleine L’Engle, including “her imagination, her faith, (and) her pattern of defying categories.”
7. Morningstar by Ann Hood – A memoir about the transformative power of literature and an author’s most beloved novels.
8. My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg – A collection of writings and speeches from the Notorious RBG herself.
9. Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi – A memoir about “food and family, survival and triumph” that traces a path from an immigrant childhood to life in the spotlight.
10. Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser – A Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie series.
11. American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee – The story of the rise of O-Six, an alpha female in a pack of wolves who live in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley.
12. Ranger Games by Ben Blum – A journalist investigates how a young cousin, an Army Ranger, could become involved in an armed robbery.
13. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay – A memoir of “food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself” from the queen herself.
14. Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give by Ada Calhoun – A slim collection of essays on the truth of relationships and the challenges of marriage and modern coupledom.
15. The Far Away Brothers by Lauren Markham – A story of twin brothers who leave El Salvador for California at 17, trying to make a new life after fleeing violence.
16. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance – A memoir and exploration of white, working-class America written by a man who grew up poor in a Rust Belt town.
17. The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan – The story of the Biltmore Estate, the largest and most impressive private residence in America, and a peek at life in the Gilded Age United States.
18. The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell – I’ll let the subtitle do the talking… “tales of a 6’4”, African American, heterosexual, cisgender, left-leaning, asthmatic, black and proud blerd, mama’s boy, dad, and stand-up comedian.”
19. Hourglass by Dani Shapiro – A memoir about marriage, time, and how we make marriage last today.
20. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann – The story of the birth of the FBI amidst the investigation of a series of murders in the Osage Nation, a group of Native Americans made wealthy after oil was discovered on their land.
21. City of Light, City of Poison by Holly Tucker – A true crime story of witches, poisoners, and priests who secretly influenced Paris in the 1600s and the first police chief tasked with stopping them.
22. I Can’t Make This Up by Kevin Hart – Life lessons from a comedian who grew up poor in North Philadelphia and now sells out football stadiums.
23. The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel – The story of a Massachusetts man who left his home in 1986 to disappear into the woods, not speaking to another human for 27 years.
24. American Fire by Monica Hesse – A true crime story about a series of arsons in a rural Virginia County, the communities affected, and the strange love story at the center of the crimes.
25. I Was Told to Come Alone by Souad Mekhennet – A Muslim reporter who grew up in Germany goes behind the lines of jihad to understand the terrorists and freedom fighters behind the headlines.
26. The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich – A young lawyer explores her ideas about the death penalty and her own childhood trauma in this haunting true crime memoir.
27. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui – An illustrated memoir of a family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam to the United States in the 1970s.
28. My Life With Bob by Pamela Paul – The editor of the New York Times Book Review shares the story of her life in books through the notebook she’s kept for 28 years, listing every single book she’s ever read.
29. The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy – A stunning memoir by a writer who, after years of adventure and living her own life, loses both her marriage and her unborn baby in a moment.
30. The Family Gene by Joselin Linder – After a mysterious illness ravages members of her family, a young woman tries to discover and the genetic mutation that explains their baffling symptoms.
31. Cake: A Slice of History by Alysa Levene – A history of cake! What is not to love about this?
32. How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana – A memoir of a young girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo who survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and addressed her trauma “through art and activism.”
33. Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant – An exploration of adversity, resilience, and joy in the face of immense loss.
34. The Storied City by Charlie English – The story of Timbuktu, a city with a rich history and a history of those coming to it seeking riches for themselves.
35. Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood – A memoir of a poet who returns home as an adult and her unconventional father, a Catholic priest who “lounges in boxer shorts, loves action movies” and jams on the guitar.

If that didn’t topple your TBR, then there’s not much else I can do for you. You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

Last week, 81-year-old Senator John McCain passed away after a brief battle with brain cancer. McCain’s political legacy is complicated, and I won’t pretend to be an expert, but he does leave a lifetime of work and several books to his name.

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Sponsored by Elizabeth Warren: Her Fight. Her Work. Her Life by Antonia Felix.

Elizabeth Warren’s rise as one of America’s most powerful women is a stirring lesson in persistence. From her fierce support of the middle class to her unapologetic response to political bullies, Warren is known as a passionate yet plain-speaking champion of equity and fairness. In the wake of one fellow senator’s effort to silence her in 2016, three words became a rallying cry across the country:

Nevertheless, she persisted . . .

In this breakthrough biography, bestselling author Antonia Felix reveals how Warren brought her expertise to Washington to become an icon of progressive politics in a deeply divided nation, and weaves together never-before-told stories from those who have journeyed with Warren, from Oklahoma to the halls of power.

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In the wake of his death, McCain’s most recent book, The Restless Wave, climbed on to several bestseller lists. The book was released in May, after McCain’s cancer diagnosis, and was again co-written by his former chief of staff, Mark Salter.

In the Christian Science Monitor, one writer remembered McCain as an “active and passionate fellow reader,” comparing him to another political bibliophile, Teddy Roosevelt. The books mentioned in the piece are overwhelmingly written by white men, but it’s still a nice angle on a memorial. (For a more diverse reading list from a politician, check out Barack Obama’s summer reading recommendations. So good.)

New Books!

And with that, let’s dive into new books coming out this week. There are a bunch of good ones.

Small Animals by Kim Brooks – On a mild afternoon, Kim Brooks made the decision to leave her son in the car while she ran into a store. A bystander called the police, setting of years of legal trouble for the family. Brooks uses that experience as a jumping off point to explore “the broader role America’s culture of fear plays in parenthood.” You can get a peek of her style in this Salon article Brooks wrote about the initial incident in 2014.

Boom Town by Sam Anderson – The subtitle of this book is what sold me on reading it… “the fantastical saga of Oklahoma City, its chaotic founding… its purloined basketball team, and the dream of becoming a world-class metropolis.” It just sounds incredibly fun.

Not Quite Not White by Sharmila Sen – As a 12-year-old, first generation immigrant from India, Sharmila Sen struggled with her “not quite-ness” – “not quite white, not quite black, not quite Asian.” This memoir is a story of her teenaged attempts to blend in with American whiteness and an argument about what that actually means.

The Imposter by Javier Cercas – In 2005, an elderly man living in Barcelona who claimed to be a Holocaust survivor was exposed as a fraud… he’d never been in a Nazi concentration camp, making his decades of honors and recognition false. This book seeks to unravel his story and understand what led to such an enormous deception.

Attention by Joshua Cohen – This book is the “culmination of two decades of writing and thoughts about life in the digital age,” a collection of assorted writings that explore a range of issues of modern life and how to exist in a world that is saturated with information.

Elizabeth Warren by Antonia Felix – Political memoirs and biographies released ahead of a possible run for president don’t usually interest me, but this one about Elizabeth Warren is probably of interest to other Book Riot readers. Reviews suggest the book is a generally positive portrayal, but I am interested in the idea of exploring the cultural and media coverage that Warren gets.

Around the Riot!

Finally, there’s been some excellent nonfiction coverage over at Book Riot lately. Here’s a round up in case you missed anything:

• 8 Essay Collections to Look Out For This Fall by Laura Sackton
• 5 New Biographies About Mary Shelley by Ann Foster
• Black and Indigenous Authors You Should Be Reading
• 12 Books to Pierce the Filter Bubble by Alex Acks
• 8 Books to Read Before You Make Your New Year Resolutions List by Nicole Froio
• Some of the Best Books About World War I by Romeo Rosales
• Astronomy Books for Beginners by Amanda Kay Oaks
• 10 Microhistory Books to Read This Summer by Beulah Maud Devaney

You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

This week’s nonfiction news feels like déjà vu… a former Trump administration staff member has written an “explosive” memoir, full of juicy-but-questionable details about life at the White House, and Trump has reacted by threatening anyone and everyone he can think to yell at.

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Sponsored by Tragedy Plus Time by Adam Cayton-Holland

Unsentimental, unexpectedly funny, and incredibly honest, Tragedy Plus Time is a love letter to every family that has ever felt messy, complicated, or (even momentarily) magnificent. The Cayton-Holland siblings were a trio of brilliant, acerbic teenagers from Denver who were taught the injustice of the world from an early age. Adam chose to meet life’s cruel realities with comedy, his older sister chose law, while their youngest sister struggled with depression and ultimately took her own life. An unforgettable tribute to a lost sibling, this extraordinary memoir will have you reaching for the phone to call your brother or sister.

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Unhinged, a memoir by former White House aide and reality tv villain Omarosa Manigault Newman hit shelves last Tuesday to generally bad reviews. Her airing of Trump laundry gets pretty out there, to the point of nearly being unbelievable. The day before the book was released, the president’s legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster. Sound familiar?

Omarosa claims to have tapes of many of her conversations in the White House, so I guess we’ve got that to look forward to as well. Oh, 2018. Let’s move on to better news.

My Obama nostalgia continues. Over the weekend, The Guardian published an excerpt of Jeanne Marie Laskas’s upcoming book (To Obama) about the ten letters from American citizens that President Obama read every night. It’s a lovely piece that’s absolutely amping up my nostalgia for the world as it was three year ago. If you need a book about Obama’s practice of reading letters to read right now, I highly recommend Eli Saslow’s Ten Letters: the Stories Americans Tell Their President – it’s one of my favorites.

Nannette in a Memoir! Hannah Gadsby, the comic who has been blowing up Netflix with her amazing special, “Nanette,” is writing a memoir! Ten Steps to Nanette will be released in Australia and the United States next year. The memoir will be about “the funny and sometimes dark events of the Australian comedian’s life leading up to her realization that she had to quit comedy as she knew it.”

Dopesick coming to television! Dopesick, journalist Beth Macy’s book about the American opioid crisis, has been optioned for television. There aren’t many details yet, but I think this could be a pretty impressive piece of prestige television in the right hands.

More Just Mercy casting news! In the best news in awhile, Brie Larson has been cast in the upcoming adaptation of Just Mercy by civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, but there’s no word yet on her role. The film adaptation stars Michael B. Jordan (swoon) as Stevenson and Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian, a man who waited on death row for six years after being falsely convicted. Production is set to being this month!

Ebook deals and steals! Looking for some inexpensive biographies or memoirs? I’ve got you covered. Here are three Kindle deals to check out:

• America’s Women by Gail Collins for $1.99
• Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello for $1.99
• My Glory Was I Had Such Friends by Amy Silverstein for $1.99

Don’t forget! You can win 16 awesome books featured on the Recommended podcast! Enter here by August 31. You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

Hello, nonfiction lovers! This week I decided to borrow a phrase from super-reader Liberty Hardy and put together a megalist of early August nonfiction new releases. If I read the calendar correctly (which can be questionable), then all of these books should be out and available for your hot little hands. Let’s dive in!

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Sponsored by Amy B. Scher, author of This Is How I Save My Life.

Sometimes, you only find everything when you are willing to try anything …

The true story of a fiery young woman’s heartwarming and hilarious journey that takes her from near-death in California to a trip around the world in search of a cure for late-stage Lyme disease. Along the way, she discovers a world of cultural mayhem, radical medical treatment, an unexpected romance, and, most importantly, a piece of her life she never even knew she was missing. Praised by Vikas Swarup, New York Times bestselling author of Slumdog Millionaire as “an inspiring story that will change the way you look at life.”

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Dopesick by Beth Macy – A deep dive to the epicenter of America’s opioid addiction, from the introduction to OxyContin in 1996 to the first responders, families, and victims of opioid use today.

A Deal with the Devil by Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken – A investigation into a decades-long con that involved a French psychic targeting the elderly and emotionally vulnerable.

Nothing Good Can Come From This by Kristi Coulter – A “frank, funny, and feminist” essay collection by a woman who quit drinking alcohol and finally noticed the world around her.

Judas by Astrid Holleeder – A memoir, first published in the Netherlands, about a young woman who decides to testify against her brother, a crime kingpin, and what came after that.

All Happy Families by Jeanne McCulloch – At a 1983 wedding in East Hampton, the bride’s father dies from an alcoholism-related stroke… yet the wedding goes on.

The Black and the Blue by Matthew Horace and Ron Harris – A cop with more than 30 years on the force writes about his experiences and criticizes law enforcement culture and institutions.

Ticker by Mimi Swartz – An investigation and medical mystery looking at the 50 years of “false starts, abysmal failures and miraculous triumphs” in the quest to create an artificial heart.

Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins – A collection of essays by an Irish comic coming to America that ranges from everyday awkwardness to her immigrant experience.

Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf – A cognitive neuroscientist explores what a digital world is doing to the magic that happens to create our reading brain.

Life in Code by Ellen Ullman – A life-long coder and Silicon Valley expert tells the story of “digital technology’s loss of innocence as it entered the cultural mainstream.”

She Begat This by Joan Morgan – A deep dive into The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the artist, and her legacy 20 years after the release of that influential album.

A Girl’s Guide to Missiles by Karen Piper – A memoir about growing up “on one of the most secretive weapons installations on earth,” the China Lake missile range.

The Tangled Tree by David Quammen – An exploration of diversity at the molecular level and how genes have moved across species throughout history.

Be Everything at Once by Dami Lee – A collection of four-panel comics exploring everything from navigating identity as a South Korean kid in Texas to finding a voice drawing comics online.

Sons of Cain by Peter Vronsky – A history of serial killers that is probably too creepy for me to read… but might be good for you?

Don’t forget! You can win 16 awesome books featured on the Recommended podcast! Enter here by August 31. You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

Hillary Clinton is leading the charge to bring the suffragettes to the small screen! She’s teaming up with Steven Spielberg to put together an adaptation of The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the adaptation will be either a TV movie or a limited series, and likely run on a premium cable or streaming network.

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Sponsored by Girl Boner: The Good Girl’s Guide to Sexual Empowerment by August McLaughlin, a book on sexual joy, wellness, and empowerment.

In today’s world, sexual empowerment sells, from sex toys to soap. But what does sexual empowerment really mean for us in our own lives? A sexual wellness guide for the modern world, Girl Boner guides you through the process of sexual self-discovery, with insight from dozens of health and sexuality experts, true stories from women from all walks of life, and practical tips and journaling exercises. In the time of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, Girl Boner is the go-to companion for “good girls”—and everyone else—seeking the richer, more authentic, and pleasure-filled lives they deserve.

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This detail in the story is particularly great:

Sources say as Weiss was writing the book, she was struck by the parallels between women’s suffrage movement and the 2016 presidential election between Clinton and Donald Trump. It then became a priority for the author and journalist — whose work has appeared in multiple publications and on NPR — to get her book in Clinton’s hands. Eventually, she met a bookstore owner who delivered The Woman’s Hour to Clinton. Clinton, sources say, loved the contemporary and relevant issues the book tackled and felt it would be an important story to tell on TV while also creating strong roles for women.

I started The Woman’s Hour earlier this year and enjoyed it quite a bit. The book focuses on events in Nashville, Tennessee in August 1920, and the last push to get the 19th Amendment ratified. It takes places over the last six weeks of the campaign, when all of the major players in the battle to get women the vote were there. I think the compressed location and timeframe makes it a perfect candidate for a limited series run. I can’t even begin to dream cast the adaptation, given how many great roles for women it will offer.

We’re a bunch of worried people. According to Barnes & Noble, sales of books related to anxiety are up 25 percent in June compared to a year ago. The most popular books were workbooks and tool-kids about how to deal with anxiety. Sales of books related to “finding happiness” have also increased 83 percent over the past year. Is anyone surprised?

A rare, leather-bound copy of a notebook with the computer program written by Ada Lovelace sold at an auction for almost £95,000. The book contains a translated essay about a computing machine, Lovelace’s reflections on it, and the notes that led to her algorithm. It’s one of just six copies of the book! Lovelace was a friend of Charles Babbage, daughter of Lord Bryon, and perhaps the world’s first computer scientist.

The hosts of My Favorite Murder are writing a book, but the book isn’t going to be entirely about murder. According to their publisher it will focus on stories about depression, eating disorders, addiction, and other formative events in Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark’s lives – stories they’ve alluded to on the podcast, but haven’t shared. I haven’t listened to My Favorite Murder, but it’s pretty universally recommended.

A numbered list of numbered book lists. This week I was excited to find a sequential list of numerical book lists to add more titles to your towering TBR piles:

• 8 Books to Read When You’re Stuck in a Rut at Work via The Cut
• 9 Books to Help Your Pets Lead Happier Lives via Book Riot
• 10 Microhistory Books to Read This Summer via Book Riot
• 11 Nonfiction Books that Explain the Mysteries of the Human Body via Bustle
• 12 Top Nonfiction Audiobook Picks from Audible Editors via Goodreads

Finally, check out some of these great, cheap ebooks available right now:

• An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet van der Zijl for $2.99
• The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom by Helen Thorpe for $2.99
• Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Other Four-Letter Words by Michael Ausiello by $1.99

Don’t forget! You can win 16 awesome books featured on the Recommended podcast! Enter here by August 31.You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

Michael Lewis – author of The Big Short, The Blind Side, and many other books – is one of several authors experimenting with a new format, the Audible original.

In June, the New York Times reported that Lewis had left his magazine home, Vanity Fair, and signed a multi-year contract with Audible to write and produce four audio-first pieces for the service. His first piece, “The Coming Storm,” came out on Tuesday. As an FYI, it’s available free for Audible members through August 14, as well as available for purchase by non-members.

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We’re giving away 16 of the books featured on Recommended! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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“The Coming Storm” based on reporting from a series of essays Lewis originally wrote for Vanity Fair, and is a “timely story exploring the future of data, power, the weather, and the Trump Administration.” It’s pretty signature Michael Lewis – profiles of interesting people, connections between current events and historical trends, and sharp observations about people and their failures. I’m utterly fascinated learning about the role the Department of Commerce plays in the federal government – turns out, very little to do with business.

It’s an interesting approach. It feels a bit like taking the popularity of investigative podcasts like Serial or In the Dark and bringing it to a platform that has the potential to draw in revenue beyond just sponsorships or subscribers. I’m not sure “The Coming Storm” took full advantage of the audio format – there aren’t any recorded interviews or other editing effects that are common in podcasts – but it’s still been a good listen. I’ll be curious to see how many sales the piece gets outside of current Audible subscribers as a way to judge whether the existing audience of audiobook listeners or podcast subscribers will enjoy this format too.

It’s also a new way publicize an upcoming book ahead of time, potentially reaching an audience beyond traditional print readers. Lewis will be returning to the themes of “The Coming Storm” in his next big nonfiction anthology, The Fifth Risk, which is coming out in October. I’m certainly more interested in that book now that I’ve gotten a taste of it in this piece.

Bob Woodward is Writing about Trump

I didn’t think that there was a way to make me want to actually read a full book about what life is like inside the Trump Administration, but then Bob Woodward (one of the journalists who broke the Watergate story) announced his newest book, Fear: Trump in the White House. The book is scheduled for release on September 11, and according to the publisher, “reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies.” I don’t think there will be a way to fault the reporting on this one, which makes me extremely interested in what it actually says. And according to Politico… “everyone talked to Woodward.” Yikes,

New Books!

This week’s new books are all interesting memoirs by interesting women, basically the bread and butter of my reading right now.

Open Mic Night in Moscow by Audrey Murray – This book is a “raucous and surprisingly poignant story of a young, Russia-obsessed American writer and comedian who embarked on a solo tour of the former Soviet Republics” of Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Sibera. I think a travel and coming-of-age memoir in those places, written by a comedian, seems like a great end-of-summer book to dive into.

Jell-O Girls by Allie Rowbottom – A feminist history of Jell-O? Why yes, that sounds amazing. Allie Rowbottom’s great-great-great-uncle purchased the patent for Jell-O in 1899, a business decision that would benefit his family for generations. This book explores the history of Jell-O, the marketing of the product, and the “Jell-O curse” that seems to have haunted the women of the family, in particular. I love a good family portrait and a good microhistory, so this book is high on my list.

Okay Fine Whatever by Courtenay Hameister – On the most recent episode of For Real, I talked about my love of a good stunt memoir. In this book, a woman decides to conquer her near-constant dread and anxiety by speaking a year doing little things that scare her, which the book jacket describes as “things that the average person might consider doing for a half second before deciding: ‘nope.’” This one sounds really funny, which is something I think we all need right now.

And finally, it wouldn’t be the end of a newsletter if I didn’t get to point you to an awesome Book Riot giveaway. Enter to win 16 awesome books featured on the Recommended podcast, open through August 31. You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

The big news of this week is a political memoir (again), this time from a former member of the Trump administration. On Tuesday, Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s memoir, The Briefing, was released to reviews that were… let’s just say not raves.

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We’re giving away $500 of the year’s best YA! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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Jonathan Karl’s review in the Wall Street Journal is particularly excellent (although to read it you need to click through to this Tweet, which should let you then click to read the review despite the WSJ paywall). My favorite quote from the book that Karl includes is this one: “(Trump’s) high-wire act is one that few could ever follow… he is a unicorn, riding a unicorn over a rainbow.” OMG.

Donald Trump’s first White House spokesman compares the president to a rock star, the Energizer Bunny and a unicorn. Jonathan Karl reviews ‘The Briefing’ by Sean Spicer. https://t.co/CFD7Q9sKFk pic.twitter.com/R6lyP9N7M4

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 24, 2018

At NPR, Annalisa Quinn notes that Spicer’s approach to writing about politics includes a moral double standard – criticizing the Clintons while also framing “former congressman Mark Foley as ‘smart and ambitious…and fun to be around’ — without mentioning that he solicited nude photos and sex from teenage boys employed as congressional pages.” Whoops.

Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple points out a section in which Spicer tries to argue that Trump’s use derogatory nicknames isn’t a flaw or behavior that diminishes the presidency. Instead, Spicer suggests that Trump “was a master of branding and psyched out his opponents by defining them with nicknames that stuck.” Right.

Overall, this one seems like a book that’ll be buzzy for a week while everyone reads the commentary about it, and then it’ll just fade away… and that’s ok with me.

With that out of the way, on to some actual good news:

A 2016 performance of Hamilton may be coming to the big screen! “unnamed Hollywood studios are bidding for the rights to a filmed performance of Hamilton from 2016 – when Miranda still headed the cast in the title role.”

A first-person account of the March for Our Lives movement will be published in October. Glimmer of Hope “chronicles in first person essays the events of February 14th and the creation of the March for our Lives from the founders of the movement.” I’m a sucker for oral histories, so I’m looking forward to this one.

Senator Kamala Harris will be releasing a book in January 2019, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. I am not generally a fan of the memoir/current event books that politicians put out while they’re still in office/running for office, but Harris does have an interesting personal story.

Director Ridley Scott and documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia will be adapting Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Sapiens is an ambitious book, about the journey of humans “from prehistoric creatures to the present.” The format for the adaptation is unclear, but I think there are a lot of cool things you could do with it.

Have a great weekend, friends! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

As I’m writing this newsletter, I’ve just finished reading Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, an account of “the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos,” a biotech startup led by a woman who was hailed as the next Steve Jobs. But then a Wall Street Journal reporter got a tip that the technology the company was using on patients and preparing to sell to major healthcare companies didn’t actually work, an investigation that revealed the company was built on lies.

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We’re giving away $500 of the year’s best YA! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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I’m not sure how this one completely missed my radar when it came out in May, but I ended up grabbing it at the recommendation of a friend and because of the chatter amongst the Book Riot editorial staff. And everyone was right – this book might be the most banapants work of nonfiction this year (that’s not about politics). The details about what went on inside Theranos, including the oddness of the CEO and the corruption among her supporters, seem almost too insane to be real. But it’s well researched and the reporting was rigorously managed, so I’m confident it’s accurate. So, so good!

Reading the book brought to mind a few other books on Silicon Valley that have been on my radar (or I’ve read) — Reset by Ellen Pao, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, and Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton, just to name a few. It’s an area ripe for great stories.

With that gushing out of the way, on to this week’s newsletter!

New Books!

This week’s new books are three titles that have me curious but, for a variety of reasons, a little bit skeptical. My skepticism might be your genre kryptonite through, we’ll see!

The Widower’s Notebook by Jonathan Santlofer – This book is a memoir about a man learning to live without his wife, who died unexpectedly and tragically after a routine operation. It’s been compared to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking or Joyce Carol Oates’ A Widow’s Story, except getting at this particular type of tragedy and grief from the perspective of a widower rather than a widow. One review I read suggested that his arguments about grief and gender rely on some old-fashioned cultural norms, but I’m curious anyway.

The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani – In this book, the former New York Times critic wonders “how truth became an endangered species in contemporary America” (as we all are…). She looks to the cultural forces like social media, television and politics, as well as trends from both political parties, to look at how we got where we are. This book feels like it’s slotting right into a trend – books on truth in a world that’s abandoned facts – but I’m generally here for it.

Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley by Adam Fisher – After finishing Bad Blood, my interest in books about Silicon Valley culture is pretty high. Adam Fisher grew up in Silicon Valley, but didn’t realize how unusual it was until he was an adult. Valley of Genius is an oral history of Silicon Valley that relies in more than 200 interviews with people who lead the technological revolution, and shares “the most told, retold, and talked-about stories in the Valley.” A skim of the contributors looks very full of dudes, which I suppose makes sense for a book on Silicon Valley, but still gives me a little pause.

Book Lists!

And finally, I’ll wrap this one up with a few recent book lists that look pretty excellent:

• Great American History Reads from Fascinating Historians via Book Riot
• 9 New True Crime Books That Should Definitely Be Movies via Bustle
• 6 Environmental Books You Don’t Want to Miss this Summer via Environmental Defense Fund
• 22 Creative Nonfiction Books that Will Make You Feel All the Feels via Book Riot

Don’t forget! We’re hosting an awesome giveaway of $500 of the year’s best young adult fiction and nonfiction so far, picked out by our resident YA expert Kelly Jensen. Hop over to this link before July 31 to enter: https://goo.gl/iZpwWZ

With that, have an awesome weekend! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

Hello hello! My body is back from vacation, but my brain is still on cabin time thanks to my Fourth of July week break to a lake in the woods. I managed to read six books, swam every day, and did more day drinking that might be advisable. But hey, that’s what vacation is all about!

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Sponsored by Beacon Press

“I have friends and family of color. I can’t be racist!” Have you ever said something like this when your assumptions about race have been challenged? Or “Racists are bad individuals, so you are saying that I am a bad person.” Or “If you knew me or understood me, you would know I can’t be racist.”

If this sounds familiar, you should read White Fragility.

In her New York Times best-selling book, antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when talking about race and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

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This week I’ve got some bookish news – more Obama team memoirs! America Ferrera’s essay collection! – plus three early July new releases that look especially exciting. We’re off!

There are a lot of Obama team memoirs coming out right now, and the New York Times is ON IT. Jokes aside, I enjoyed this comparison of several of the books, including how they take similar and different approaches to looking back on the Obama administration, and some speculation about why these books are so popular right now. P.S. If you don’t follow @NYTOnIt on Twitter, you are missing out.

Related, I am SO PSYCHED that Obama photographer Pete Souza is coming out with another book of photography titled Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents, based on his amazing Instagram posts throwing, well, shade, at our current commander-in-chief. Check out his Instagram feed and then pre-order that book stat.

America Ferrera is editing an essay anthology all about culture, with a truly stellar list of contributors. American Like Me will include “stories from those trying find an identity in a culture that often ‘underrepresents or ignores’ their experiences.” Contributors include Lin-Manuel Miranda, Roxane Gay, Michelle Kwan, Kal Penn, and so many more really interesting people. Look for this one in September.

Combine beach reading and self-improvement with Fast Company’s five summer beach reads that can make you happier at work. The article describe the selections as “easy-to-read yet extremely informative nonfiction titles,” which feels like about the perfect Venn diagram for my reading brain right now.

More memoirs? Yes, please! This 50 must-reads list of classic memoirs by writers of color – covering books from the 11th century through 1996 – from Rebecca over at Book Riot is so, so great. I will also give a hearty thumbs up to Electric Lit’s list of eight memoirs by women with unconventional jobs. All the memoirs!

Get motivated with Redbook’s list of 15 motivational books that’ll leave you feeling inspired, books that are “filled with words of wisdom that’ll get you revved up and ready to conquer the world.”

New Books!

In this week’s episode of For Real I talked about three recent books I’m excited about – Don’t You Ever by Mary Carter Bishop, Empress by Ruby Lal, and From the Corner of the Oval by Rebecca Dorey-Stein. Here are three more early July releases to put on your radar:

Give People Money by Annie Lowrey – In this book, economics writer Annie Lowrey looks at the idea of a universal basic income, a stipend given to every citizen, as a way to help reduce inequality around the world. Lowrey looks at countries that have implemented UBI, and what challenges we might face trying to implement it.

What to Read and Why by Francine Prose – Who wouldn’t want advice on what to read from a novelist, literary critic, and essayist like Francine Prose? This book “celebrates the pleasures of reading and pays homage to the works and writers (Prose) admires,” everyone from Jane Austen to Roberto Bolaño, through previously-published work and new pieces.

The Poisoned City by Anna Clark – In January 2016, the residents of Flint, Michigan were instructed to stop using tap water due to high levels of lead in their municipal water supply, two years after complaints started to come in about the tainted, dangerous water. This book is, I think, the first full look at this crisis, telling the story “through the people who caused it, suffered from it, and exposed it.”

And that’s all for this week, fellow nerds! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading!

Hello readers! Associate Editor Sharifah here, stepping in while Kim is away. And since I’m only around for a moment, I decided to take a detour from your regularly scheduled content to talk about some backlist nonfiction I’ve enjoyed recently, that might’ve gone under the radar.

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Sponsored by Lion Forge Comics.

Green Almonds: Letters from Palestine is the graphic novel collaboration and true story of two sisters. Anaële, a writer, leaves for Palestine volunteering in an aid program, swinging between her Palestinian friends and her Israeli friends. Delphine is an artist, left behind in Liège, Belgium. From their different sides of the world, they exchange letters.

Green Almonds is a personal look into a complex reality, through the prism of the experience of a young woman writing letters to her sister about her feelings and adventures in the occupied territories.

In stores July 10 from Lion Forge!

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Let’s get right into it!

Recently Read Backlist Favorites

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Basically, everyone at the Riot is reading this right now. Or maybe it just feels that way. Robin Wall Kimmerer–scientist, ecologist, professor, mother, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation–brings Indigenous stories to life, recounts powerful moments from history and her own past, and moves readers to consider the important connections between humans and nature. I read this one for the 2018 Read Harder Challenge (read a book about nature), and found myself compelled to get out of the apartment and into the great outdoors.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

I realized after listening to the full audiobook that there’s an abridged version, and that this significantly shorter version exists because you don’t get to the true crime part of the book until about eight hours in. But it didn’t matter. I got so wrapped up in the lives of Savannah, Georgia’s old money, new money, its eccentrics and powder kegs–I didn’t want to miss a second. John Berendt tells this true crime tale with such panache, I kept forgetting it wasn’t fictional. Pour yourself a martini, recline in your historic mansion, and enjoy.

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? by Alyssa Mastromonaco

I’d been hearing a lot about some funny books coming from Obama-era White House staffers and, feeling anything but up to reading those tell-all books coming out of this country’s current presidency, jumped into Alyssa Mastromonaco’s memoir about her work with Barack Obama before his run for presidency, and then as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. Mastromonaco is wry, super smart, hilarious, totally open about her experiences, and absolutely someone to look up to whether you’re a young woman considering a career path or an adult in search of empowering stories. I LOLed and I felt all the feels.

The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Óscar Martínez

This is a tough read. Especially with the recent, truly awful stories about families separated at the border. But Óscar Martínez took some incredible risks to tell these stories, giving a voice to those traveling the migrant trail from Central America and across the U.S. border. I found it as eye-opening as it was heartbreaking. Definitely take breaks while reading about the dangers these individuals face both at home and on their way out.

My Soul Looks Back by Jessica B. Harris

There’s a lot of name dropping around this book, but Harris’s prose and the pulsing life of the black intellectual scene in a bygone New York captivated me more than any one specific person in her social circle. Harris talks about a different era of activism, and what it was like to be a black artist and intellectual back when. She had a fascinating life, but I should note that she doesn’t take center stage in this book, even though it looks like a memoir at first glance. You end up hearing more about the people she knew, which included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison, and about her first love. I enjoyed Harris’ writing, and I hope she returns with a book focused on her life or around the culinary expertise for which she’s known and celebrated.

That’s it for me! Kim will be back for the next issue, and you can find me on Instagram at @szainabwilliams.

 

And don’t forget–we’re giving away $500 of this year’s best YA books (so far)! Click here to enter.