The Corgis love a good snack of blueberries, and I’ve been into making blueberry lemon muffins. Spring is a great time for trying lighter recipes with fresh ingredients. And you bet Dylan and Gwen are more than happy to assist. While I’m baking, cooking, or spring cleaning, I always have an audiobook playing to keep my mind entertained. For me, nonfiction works especially well for when I’m walking the Corgis or doing household chores. So today, we’re going to look at a couple of books I picked up a couple springs ago, which are perfect for folks looking to entertain themselves during everyday tasks.
Bookish Goods
Book Lover Glass, Iced Coffee Cup with Lid and Straw by Wild Outdoor Creation
Glassware for book nerds is all the rage! I love this cute glass, complete with wooden lid and glass straw. It’s so cute! $16
New Releases
I Can’t Save You: A Memoir by Anthony Chin-Quee
Anthony Chin-Quee writes about his experience working hard to achieve his goal of becoming an otolaryngologist. But outside his career, Chin-Quee struggled with his relationships, particularly when it came to finding a way to connect with others. As a multiracial Black man, he didn’t easily fit into any one category. His memoir examines the way human beings struggle to connect with others.
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
Timothy Egan examines the history of the KKK, not just in the South, but across the nation. The Ku Klux Klan became a mainstream organization, making violent racism a norm that many white communities were all too willing to accept. But a woman made it her mission to push back. This is her story.
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh
E.J. Koh grew up with her grandparents in the U.S. while her parents moved back to Korea to work and send money to their kids. Koh received letters from her mother written in Korean. In the Magical Language of Others is written while Koh is translating her mother’s letters and processing her relationship with her parents who she didn’t see for long stretches of time. Koh has a way of bringing the reader into her state of mind and the intimate process of trying to find a way to communicate with her mother through language and cultural barriers.
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara
Mallory O’Meara tells the story of Milicent Patrick, one of the designers who worked on the monster design for The Creature of the Black Lagoon. O’Meara describes the early years of Patrick’s Hollywood career, giving us a picture of what it was like to be a woman working in the movie industry during the middle of the 19th century. As we learn more of the prospects of women monster costume designers at the time, we also gain more perspective on Hollywood as a whole, delving into the weird career politics happening at the time. I’m usually not interested in the history of Hollywood, but I enjoyed learning more about classic monster costume design and how it developed throughout the 20th century.
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That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave or over on Instagram @kdwinchester. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
Happy reading, Friends!
~ Kendra