Sponsored by Zócalo Public Square.
You’re Invited: Authors David Blight and William Sturkey, Winner of Zócalo Book Prize. In the early 20th century, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was a city of opportunity for African Americans—as well as a place of systemic segregation and violent racism. How did Hattiesburg’s African American residents forge deep bonds amidst institutional oppression—helping to spark the Civil Rights movement? And why did many of those bonds fail to survive after segregation was outlawed? William Sturkey, winner of the 10th annual Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for Hattiesburg: An American City in Black and White, visits Zócalo to discuss Hattiesburg with historian David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.
Can you believe it’s May? Super weird. Release dates for books are shifting at a rapid pace, so if any books you were hoping for now have been pushed ahead, remember you can always pre-order. That’s fun because then you forget about it and months later you get a thing you wanted to read. Win-win (since pre-orders also help authors). And so! Here’re your new nonfiction release highlights for the week:
50 Drag Queens Who Changed the World by Dan Jones. Okay, sure, you know RuPaul and maybe Dame Edna or even Alaska and Latrice Royale, but do you know Amrou Al-Kadhi or Victoria Sin or historical queen Princess Seraphina? This guide is super colorful and gives you not just bios of each queen, but also fun illustrations. I love overview books like this because they can serve as a jumping off point to learn more about the people who stand out to you.
Elephants: Birth, Life, and Death in the World of Giants by Hannah Mumby. Who doesn’t love elephants? Probably the people who hunt them. Stop doing that. If you want to learn about elephant society (you should), Dr. Mumby has been studying it for over ten years and is here to share her findings. She “explains how elephants communicate with one another and demonstrates the connection between memory and trauma—how it affects individual elephants and their interactions with others in their herd.” Amazing.
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta. This is being pitched as akin to Sapiens, but bringing “a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability.” Yunkaporta is a member of the Apalech Clan in Far North Queensland, Australia. The title Sand Talk is the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. This looks awesome.
The Museum of Whales You Will Never See and Other Excursions to Iceland’s Most Unusual Museums by A. Kendra Greene. I LOVE A MUSEUM. The more specific the better. Iceland has one museum/public collection for every ten people, so why have we all not gone there?? Fortunately, we can stave off our impatience with this. Greene highlights some of the 265 museums and collections, including the Icelandic Phallological Museum, and the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft. Yesssss.
BACKLIST BONUS
For the backlist, I want to focus on Aboriginal books! Not enough of those. Let’s look at two:
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia ed. by Anita Heiss. Love an anthology! This one’s from 2018 and highlights 51 stories from Aboriginal people in Australia. They function as snapshots, memoirs, and, I’m gonna say it, poetic MUSings. If you live in Australia or not, these lives are worth hearing about and learning from.
Too Afraid to Cry: Memoir of a Stolen Childhood by Ali Cobby Eckermann. Eckermann is one of the Stolen Generations (also known as the Stolen Children): Australian Aboriginal people removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions. In her memoir, she discusses the “devastating effects of racist policies that tore apart Indigenous Australian communities” as well as her own reconciliation with her birth family.
As always! You can find me on Twitter @itsalicetime and co-hosting the For Real podcast with Kim here at Book Riot. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.