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Hello and happy Friday, fellow readers! I feel like I might be emerging from the reading slump that’s gripped me through all of July, which is welcome news going into a beautiful weekend. This week’s nonfiction news is a bit of a scattershot, but it all bodes well for future reading. Let’s get going!
Megan Rapinoe is writing a book, and my soul is deeply happy! Scheduled for fall 2020, Rapinoe said “I hope this book will inspire people to find what they can do, and in turn inspire other people around them to do the same.” She’ll also be talking about the political issues she’s been vocal about since the Women’s World Cup – LGBTQ rights and pay equity for women. So psyched!
A new exhibition based on Matthew Desmond’s Evicted will be on display in Milwaukee. To explore issues related to housing insecurity, “the exhibition incorporates audio slideshows, photos, and infographics. And there are powerful displays – such as a vacuum sealed stack of personal belonging.” The display was previously housed at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C.
This is not exactly nonfiction, but it delighted me anyway. The Library of Congress is looking for help transcribing nearly 16,000 pages of diaries, letters, speeches and other documents from suffragists. The original documents are available on By the People, “a crowdsourcing platform launched by the library in 2018.” This sounds so cool!
I really enjoyed this NPR interview with Michal Kranish, author of The World’s Fastest Man: The Extraordinary Life of Cyclist Major Taylor, America’s First Black Sports Hero. I love books that dive deep into sports I’m not super familiar with, so this seems up my alley. I’m bummed I missed out on this book when it came out back in May, but luckily my library had an ebook copy I could check out!
Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women, one of the nonfiction best-sellers of the summer, is going to Showtime. Taddeo “is attached to write and executive produce the drama.” The book centers around the stories of three women. The series “will reportedly revolve around women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.” One other Three Women-related note – although it’s been getting generally positive reviews, there have also been some criticisms. I appreciated this one from author Emily Nagoski, which offered a perspective I hadn’t thought about.
And that’ll close out another week. You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@riotnewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim