Sponsored by Educated, the runaway bestseller by Tara Westover.
Born to survivalists in the Idaho mountains, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she entered a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society, there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. But Tara taught herself enough math and English to take the ACT and apply to college. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her to Harvard and then to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Are you doing the 24 hour readathon this Saturday! My reading’s been way down lately, so I’m looking forward to it as a way to finish up some things I’ve been in the middle of for QUITE some time.
Speaking of, I demand more readathons. Every now and then, I host a 4-8 hour minithon, because I can never succeed at 24 hours, but! Those only happen once or twice a year, so please create more readathons or at least tell me about the ones that exist, amazing, thank you.
We continue with some excellent new releases this week! So get your TBR and wishlists ready, because here we go:
The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth by the Red Nation
The Red Nation is a coalition advocating Native liberation. Here they explain their platform and offer a toolkit for how we can unite and, in the next decade, work to avert climate disaster. They describe their work as “a program for Indigenous liberation, life, and land—an affirmation that colonialism and capitalism must be overturned for this planet to be habitable for human and other-than-human relatives to live dignified lives.”
Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther
Can you imagine having a life where you have weekly martini meetings at the Ritz? If you’re like me and not supes into alcohol, that would be weekly Shirley Temple meetings at the Ritz, but STILL. The hugely talented Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton met at a workshop and had a kind of up-and-down, friends/rivals/friends arc that involved aforementioned martini meetings. This talks about their friendship, their rivalry, and their literary acclaim. Both Plath and Sexton died by suicide, so be aware going in.
I Am a Girl from Africa by Elizabeth Nyamayaro
A memoir! Nyamayaro, a former senior adviser at the United Nations and co-founder of HeForShe (a solidarity movement for gender equality), grew up in Zimbabwe and went on to become a world-traveling humanitarian. Throughout the book is the “African concept of Ubuntu – ‘I am because we are'” and her story of creating change in communities around the world. Don’t you love reading about contemporary people’s career trajectories? Maybe that’s a me thing. Anyway, her work is amazing and you should check this out.
The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt by Audrey Clare Farley
Cooper Hewitt was an heiress whose grandfather founded The Cooper Union in NYC. The book begins with the story of her forced sterilization due to the actions of her mother, and then gets into eugenics and how the case against her mother and the medical professionals involved proceeded. The larger picture is how society’s perceptions of women changed in the 1930s and the evolving state of reproductive rights.
For more nonfiction new releases, check out the For Real podcast which I co-host with the excellent Kim here at Book Riot. If you have any questions/comments/book suggestions, you can find me on social media @itsalicetime. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.