Sponsored by the new book WOODY GUTHRIE, published by Chronicle Books.
America’s greatest folk singer and songwriter, Woody Guthrie wrote 3,000 songs in his 55-year lifetime. He was also a poet, painter, illustrator, novelist, philosopher, and more. Woody Guthrie: Songs and Art • Words and Wisdom is an intimate, unprecedented look at his expansive work, life, and legacy – the lyrics, art, ideas, politics, writing, photos, and letters that defined him. Curated by his daughter Nora Guthrie and music historian Robert Santelli, readers will get to know Woody like never before – in his own words.
Holidays! What a minefield. I find the holidays can bring you closer to certain books, because sometimes you just have to lock yourself in a room away from other people and save your sanity by reading. And then you love those books forever, because they were There for You.
That being said, I hope your holidays are stress-free, but still filled with books. Maybe some of these new releases! Let’s look at ’em:
Dark Tourist: Essays by Hasanthika Sirisena
Sirisena is an English professor who was born in Sri Lanka but grew up in North Carolina. In her essay collection, she looks at the places where personal identity meets history, including “the 1961 plane crash that left a nuclear warhead buried near her North Carolina hometown, juxtaposed with reflections on her father’s stroke,” her coming to grips with her queer identity while in Chicago, and “the ways that the permanent aftereffects of a severe eye injury have shaped her thinking about disability and self-worth.” This looks really, really good, and side note: I love the cover.
Disorientation: Being Black in the World by Ian Williams
Williams is a Canadian poet and author of fiction and nonfiction, as well as a professor at the University of British Columbia. I know I just said I loved the cover of the previous new release, but I love this one too! Excellent job, designers. Williams was “[s]purred by the police killings and street protests of 2020” and here “offers a perspective that is distinct from that of U.S. writers addressing similar themes. Williams has lived in Trinidad (where he was never the only Black person in the room), in Canada (where he often was), and in the United States (where as a Black man from the Caribbean, he was a different kind of ‘only’).” These experiences all lend to his views on living life as a Black man in different environments.
Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts by Nadine Akkerman
Yeah, like I’m not gonna include an obscure history new release in this list. Elizabeth Stuart was the daughter of James VI and I, the first monarch to reign over a united England and Scotland. She married someone who became King of Bohemia, but only for a year, garnering her the nickname “the Winter Queen” due to her husband’s reign lasting one winter (harsh but fair). Anyway, this is a bio of her, so if that’s your sort of thing, have at it!
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
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For more nonfiction reads, check out the For Real podcast which I co-host with the excellent Kim here at Book Riot. And don’t miss Book Riot’s new podcast Adaptation Nation, all about TV and film adaptations of awesome books. If you have any questions/comments/book suggestions, you can find me on social media @itsalicetime. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.