Category: True Story

It’s Friday, nonfiction friends! It’s also the last edition of this newsletter in 2019… how on earth did this happen? At the moment, I’m just hanging on through my last few days of work before taking next week off for a much-needed vacation and disconnect. I’m heading up to my parents’ house where I plan to read, eat, and nap as much as possible.

Picking out the books I want to bring on a vacation is one of my favorite things! I always try to pull together a mix of fiction and nonfiction that covers a range of topics and moods and styles. I haven’t settled on anything officially yet, but I anticipate The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Powers will be on my pile, along with a book I just picked up at the library, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal. But we’ll see, vacation reads are always a moving target until the moment I get out the door!

Given the impending holidays, it’s been a generally quiet week in the world of publishing news. I decided to use this last newsletter to bundle up a bunch of specific “best of the year” nonfiction lists all in one place:

• Time: Best Nonfiction Books of 2019
• Paste: The 19 Best Nonfiction Books of 2019
• Kirkus Review: Best Nonfiction of 2019 By Category
• CS Monitor: The best nonfiction books of 2019 pull you into other lives
• Esquire: The Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 Span Everything from True Crime to Scammer Culture
• Amazon Book Review: The best nonfiction books of 2019

I also wanted to point out the winners of this year’s 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards, which I usually like a lot because there’s such a variety of nonfiction represented in the different categories. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed in the nonfiction winners this year:

• Humor: Dear Girls by Ali Wong
• Nonfiction: Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis
• Memoir and Autobiography: Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness
• History and Biography: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold
• Science and Technology: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty
• Food and Cookbooks: Antoni in the Kitchen by Antoni Porowski

I’m not sure what about that list is rubbing me the wrong way. I think maybe there’s just not much there that’s surprising or feels particularly innovative. C’est la vie.

And if that’s not enough, I also admire the work that went into LitHub’s ultimate list of best books of 2019, which tallies up multiple lists to find the ultimate winners. I was excited to see a few nonfiction books on a majority of the lists, including In the Dream House and Trick Mirror on 16 lists and Say Nothing on 14 lists.

And that’s all you’ll hear from me in 2019! Thank you, again, for inviting me into your inbox twice each week. I’ll be back with more new nonfiction and nonfiction news on Friday, January 3. In the mean time, 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

Hello and happiest of Wednesdays, nonfiction friends! Given the dates of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays this year, this will be my last Monday newsletter until 2020. This make it feel like the perfect time to dive into some of my favorite reads of the year.

A quick caveat – this is definitely not a “best books of the year” list. I never read enough to really be able to do a list like that. Instead, I can just speak to my own idiosyncratic and limited reading over the last 12 months. These are just 10 of the books that meant the most to me this year, listed in the order I finished them.

Parkland: Birth of a Movement by Dave Cullen – This book is an account of the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and the student activists who have emerged in the wake of the tragedy. It’s an empathetic, meticulously reported book that I couldn’t put down. It’s also a fascinating companion to Cullen’s other major book, Columbine, another one I highly recommend.

 

 

Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein – This memoir is about how Kwame Onwuachi went from being a kid in the Bronx to a celebrated chef in Washington D.C. His path took him all over, from New York to Nigeria to the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. I loved how honest he was about his choices (both good and bad), and appreciated hearing about his perspective and experiences as a black man in a largely white industry.

 

Good Talk by Mira Jacob – This graphic memoir is about “American identity, interracial families, and the realities that divide us.” It’s heavy, but also really funny, and increasingly relevant as political divides become even more stark. I’m not sure I read a more heartbreaking or relevant book this year, which I say in the best way possible. Go read this one!

 

 

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang – This book is a collection of autobiographical essays about what it’s like to struggle with both mental illness and a chronic illness. Esmé Weijun Wang begins with her initial diagnosis with a “schizoaffective disorder,” then goes on to look at arguments about labeling and diagnosis procedures, how schizophrenia manifests, and other misconceptions surrounding her diagnosis. It’s fascinating and beautifully written.

No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder – Each day around the world, 137 women are killed by familial violence. And 54 percent of mass shootings in America today involve domestic violence. These statistics are at the core of the argument in this book: that domestic violence isn’t a private problem, it’s an urgent matter of public health. Rachel Louise Snyder explores big questions about domestic violence with really precise, articulate, and confident reporting. It’s remarkable and so very important.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski – If I had to pick the book that had the biggest impact on me personally this year, it’d be this one. This spring and summer, I realized that I was experiencing many of the symptoms of burnout and needed to do something about it. This book changed my outlook, specifically looking at what stress is like for women and offering concrete steps to address it in both the short and long term. Lightbulbs!

 

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb – After a traumatic break-up, therapist Lori Gottlieb realized she needed some help in processing her thoughts and emotions. This book is all about therapy – what it’s like to go to therapy, what it’s like to be a therapist, and what it takes to really get the most out of therapy that you can. Gottlieb is open with her experiences, and writes about her own patients with an incredible sense of empathy. I was very moved by this book.

Make it Scream, Make it Burn by Leslie Jamison – This collection of essays from one of my favorite authors covers a huge range of subjects, from children with past-life memories to a lonely whale named 52 Blue, to the author’s feelings about becoming a stepmother and a mother. I appreciate how specifically Leslie Jamison interrogates her thoughts and feelings, and how the themes of connection and privilege and perspective play into her work. She’s a really interesting thinker.

 

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado – For many years, Carmen Maria Machado was part of an abusive queer relationship. In the book, she plays with format and narrative tropes to tell the story of that relationship and try to better understand queer domestic abuse more generally. I loved the way she used different storytelling techniques to see the relationship in different ways, and how each piece built on everything we’d already learned. It was utterly fascinating to read, and a book I’ve already recommended many times.

And there you have it, 10 of my favorite reads this year! It’s been such a great year of books, even if it feels like my reading pace has been positively glacial.

Come share your favorites with me! 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

Hello and happiest of Fridays, nonfiction readers! The terrible weather in Minnesota has been alleviated, a bit, but the arrival of one of my favorite tools: NPR’s Book Concierge. This is an amazing resource for book discovery that brings together more than 2,000 recommendations from staff across NPR. I love, love, love playing around with it to find books I missed or forgot I wanted to read. Check it out!

My nonfiction reading this week has been a bit slow, but I did manage to finish an excellent audiobook, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby! This collection of essays feels like it’s about a little bit of everything – budgets, The Bachelorette, awkward sex and loser exes, childhood trauma, poverty, and more. It was hilarious, gross, sad, and so very smart. I really liked it, but I feel like I have to be a little cautious in recommending it – it could be a little rough if you’re squeamish.

Yay, books! Let’s switch gears and get to this week’s nonfiction news:

Esmé Weijun Wang has landed a two-book deal with Riverhead Books! The deal includes a novel, Soft Animals, and a work of nonfiction, The Unexpected Shape, which explores “the balance between ambition and limitation in contemporary life.” Her 2019 essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias, is one of my favorites of the year, so I couldn’t be more thrilled for her.

The National Book Critics Circle has announced the finalists for their annual first book prize. The list includes several great nonfiction books: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden, and Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino. The winner will be announced at the NBCC awards ceremony in March 2020.

The American Library Association has announced the finalists for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, honoring nonfiction published for young adults. It’s another interesting list, although a little heavy on World War II-related nonfiction for my personal tastes.

Over at Book Riot

The 2020 Read Harder posts are starting to publish and I am very excited about it! Here are some great posts from over at Book Riot this week:

• Read Harder: A YA nonfiction book
• Read Harder: A graphic memoir
• 3 Books that Open Up Complex Conversations Around Interpersonal Violence
• 7 Books that Illustrate Life as a Woman in Politics

And that’s all for this week! You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello hello, nonfiction readers! Since the world of publishing slows down so much for the holidays, I’ve decided to bundle the rest of the 2019 books I’m excited about into a single newsletter. So, here are four more December releases to get on your radar before the decade ends and we jump into 2020:

World Begins: The History of the French Revolution by Jeremy Popkin (December 10) – Historian Jeremy Popkin’s account of the debates, violence, and upheaval of the French Revolution puts readers right in the middle of this significant time. This comprehensive account includes stories of scholars, the monarchy, women, and slaves demanding rights, and more. It looks like this is about a detailed a look as you can get, which actually sounds interesting to me.

 

The Great Democracy: How to Fix Our Politics, Unrig the Economy, and Unite America by Ganesh Sitaraman (December 10) – In this book, a progressive intellectual explores the two major eras of political history since the New Deal of the 1930s – the liberal era and the neoliberal era – and what might be coming next. Ganesh Sitaraman argues there are two possible eras coming – a nationalist oligarchy for the rich and powerful, or a great democracy that offers “political and economic power to all people.”

And Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood by Rachel Friedman (December 31) – As a child, Rachel Friedman was a serious violinist who attended the prestigious arts camp Interlochen. In college she quit music, but always wondered what it might have been like to pursue a creative life. To learn more about creativity, art, and adulthood, she reaches out to her young classmates to see how their early creative explorations have manifested in adult life. I think this sounds so interesting and fun.

The Guilty Feminist: You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Overthrow the Patriarchy by Deborah Frances-White (December 31) – We all want to be great feminists, but also sometimes want to take a break. In this book, author and podcaster Deborah Frances-White argues that “we don’t have to be perfect to be a force for meaningful change.” In the book “she explodes the myth of the model activist and offers a realistic path toward changing the world.”

Backlist Bump: The premise of this book reminds me a bit of Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, which is definitely a positive comparison.

And that’s a wrap on new 2019 releases. I can’t even believe it! You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. This week, Alice and I talked about some of our favorite nonfiction of the decade. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello, nonfiction readers! Despite my interest in catching up on all of 2019’s great nonfiction, I spent most of my holiday weekend reading fiction – first, Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman, then The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, and finally The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.

But I am going to return to my first love, nonfiction, soon! I’m not quite sure what book it will be. I still want to pick up Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moaveni, but at the moment, Samantha Power’s memoir The Education of an Idealist feels like it’s calling my name. I’ve long found Obama administration memoirs inspiring, and so this one written by the youngest United States Ambassador to the United Nations feels like a good way to start wrapping up the year.

It’s been another relatively quiet week for nonfiction news, but there were three stories that piqued my interest:

“OK, boomer” is now going to be a book. Jill Filipovic, a 36-year-old journalist, is writing a book titled OK Boomer: Let’s Talk: Dispatches From a Generational Divide where she’ll take on issues like student debt, health care, and climate change. The book is scheduled for late 2020.

Netflix will be adapting Stephanie Land’s memoir, Maid, into a dramedy series! The series will “chronicle a single mother who turns to housekeeping to — barely — make ends meet as she battles against poverty, homelessness, and bureaucracy” and will be told from the point of view of the woman.

We might eventually know the identity of the anonymous White House whistleblower. In a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” the author of A Warning said: “I am not afraid to use my own name to express concern about the current occupant of the Oval Office. Donald Trump has not heard the last of me.” Honestly? I’ll believe it when I see it.

Over at Book Riot, It’s Read Harder Time

While it’s not specifically nonfiction-related, I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you know that Book Riot’s 2020 Read Harder Challenge has been announced! I failed pretty hard at completing the 2019 challenge, but I always feel reinvigorated going into the new year. And I’m especially excited for the nonfiction-specific tasks this year:

• Read a YA nonfiction book
• Read a graphic memoir
• Read a memoir by someone from a religious tradition (or lack of religious tradition) that is not your own

There are several other tasks that could also be filled with a nonfiction book, if you’d like. Perhaps digging through to make some recommendations will be a future newsletter!

Thanks again for letting me squeeze into your inbox for another week. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim

Happy Wednesday and welcome to December, nonfiction friends! I have to admit, I always struggle this time of year. The hustle of the holidays combined with the cold weather and increasingly short hours of daylight leaves me feeling tired and cranky more often than I’d like to admit. Anyone else feel that way?

Luckily, we still have a few more great books to look forward to this year… and a lot of best of lists to remind us of all the books we didn’t get a chance to read yet! This week’s new nonfiction includes some inspiration from Toni Morrison and classic television, plus a few more books you won’t want to miss. Let’s check them out!

The Measure of Our Lives: A Gathering of Wisdom by Toni Morrison – There are few writers who could craft sentences as beautifully as Toni Morrison, which means this collection of quotes and passages seems like an ideal holiday gift for the reader in your life (or, you know, yourself). According to the jacket copy, “this inspirational book juxtaposes quotations, one to a page, drawn from Toni Morrison’s entire body of work, both fiction and nonfiction … to tell a story of self-actualization.” It sounds gorgeous.

Backlist Bump: If you want an even deeper dive into the beauty that is Toni Morrison, grab her early 2019 essay collection, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations.

Cheaters Always Win: The Story of America by J.M. Fenster – I’m always in for a good social history, so I’m obviously going to call your attention to a book about how American history “has had its unfair share of rigged results.” The book looks at how ethics have weakened and cheating has prospered in our personal lives, financial institutions, sports, education, medicine, and more. I’m deeply curious about this one.

Backlist Bump: This one reminds me a lot of Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News by Kevin Young from 2017.

The Way We All Became the Brady Bunch: How the Canceled Sitcom Became the Beloved Pop Culture Icon We Are Still Talking About Today by Kimberly Potts – It’s been an interesting year for nonfiction on the history of television, although I don’t think I’ve featured much of it. In this book, pop culture writer Kimberly Potts looks at the history of The Brady Bunch, from behind-the-scenes interviews to contemporary adaptations to famous inspirations. This looks like a fun one to pick up!

Backlist Bump: For some behind-the-scenes at a more contemporary tv show, pick up The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae.

And finally, a few more books to check out if you’re still looking for more to read:

• Heaven on Earth: How Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo Discovered the Modern World by L.S. Fauber
• Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy
• Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother by Craig Shirley
• Plate Tectonics: An Illustrated Memoir by Margaux Motin
• Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography by Kate Bennett
• The Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt by Burt Solomon

Enjoy the rest of this week, friends! You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello and happy Black Friday, nonfiction friends! If you’re a person who gets out early to shop, I hope you found some good deals. If you’re a person who likes to stay home, I hope you’re still in sweatpants and enjoying a day on the couch. And if you’re a person who has to work, my thoughts are with you on this busy day.

This is the time of year where I feel like I’m scrambling to finish up some of the great books that came out and I missed earlier in the year. Last week, I flew through In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, a truly stunning and inventive memoir chronicling an abusive, queer relationship. This weekend, I want to dive into Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moaveni, “a gripping account of thirteen women who joined, endured, and, in some cases, escaped life in the Islamic State.” No light reading for me just yet!

As promised last week, this newsletter is primarily a deeper dive into this year’s National Book Award winner for nonfiction, The Yellow House by Sarah Broom. Here are a few links (older and newer) to get you even more hyped about the book:

• From Vulture: Sarah M Broom’s National Book Award Speech Will Make You Want to Call Your Mom – There’s a link at the bottom of this article that goes to the winning speeches. It’s on my list to watch this weekend.
• From The Cut: Sarah M. Broom Knows What You Think of Her Hometown – This Q&A with author Katelyn Greenidge is so, so interesting.
• From Esquire: The 2019 National Book Awards Prove a Once Insular Literary Institution Can Be Inclusive – The National Book Award is one of my favorites each year, so this piece reflecting on how it’s changed (and how it hasn’t) was a good read.
• The Atlantic: How to Write the Book No One Wants You to Write – I love this profile piece about Boom and the book too.

The Yellow House has also been named a top 10 book of the year by the New York Times and the Washington Post, one of (I think) just three books in common. This book has had a good year, and I’m annoyed I haven’t read it yet.

Over at Book Riot

And if that wasn’t quite enough links for you, here are a few of this week’s best posts from over at Book Riot:

• 10 of the Best Nonfiction Comics on Hoopla
• 20 Personal Development Books for Your Bet 2020
• 6 Books About Art Theft and Repatriation

I know it’s the day after Thanksgiving, but I want to wrap up this newsletter with a heartfelt thank you to all of you. Writing this newsletter is such a fun part of my week, and I appreciate the privilege of getting in your inbox twice a week.

You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello and happy early Thanksgiving, nonfiction readers! As I am writing this newsletter, the first significant winter storm of the season is barreling down on Minnesota. Early forecasts show six inches of snow and lots of wind, which sounds just great! I’m kidding, it does not!

Given the holiday, it’s a very quiet week for new books – I’ve only got three that I want to highlight for you this week. Let’s check them out!

America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee – In this book, award-winning historian Erica Lee gives a new perspective on our current immigration debates by exploring how “irrational fear, hatred, and hostility towards immigrants” has been embedded in our country since the beginning. The book explores how xenophobia works, why it continues, and why it’s a threat to our country.

 

JAY-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson – For the last decade, Michael Eric Dyson has taught JAY-Z’s lyrics as poetry, thought the rapper and artist doesn’t get the same recognition as other iconic American writers. In this book, Dyson explores the themes of JAY-Z’s career, his use of politics in his lyrics, and “his role in making this nation what it is today.”

 

 

The Girl in the Photograph: The True Story of a Native American Child, Lost and Found in America by Byron L. Dorgan – Using the story of Tamara, a five-year-old Native American girl who was abused while in foster care, this book offers a larger exploration around the “plight of children living on reservations – and offers hope for the future.” Byron Dorgan, a former U.S. Senator for North Dakota, has been an advocate in bringing the voices of Native American youth to policy discussions, and so offers much of that perspective in this book.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend, my friends! You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. This week, Alice and I offered some holiday gift suggestions, including a bunch of books to read if you need something happy and uplifting this holiday season. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello and happy Friday, dear nonfiction readers. My quest to finish Frederick Douglass ahead of my book club meeting in a few weeks is going… not well. I’ve read about five chapters, which is definitely not a pace to finish before the meeting. I commit to reading more by next Friday.

The problem is that there are just so many other books I want to be reading instead. My library hold for In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado came in on Monday, so I’m way more interested in spending time with that book. We’ll see what happens!

Before we get going, I want to also acknowledge the big news of the week – Sarah Broom’s amazing memoir, The Yellow House, is the winner of the 2019 National Book Award for nonfiction! My deadline is too early to put more than this, but hopefully I can include some good links next week.

This week’s nonfiction news is a real grab bag – some best-of posts, some upcoming releases, and more adaptation news. Let’s dive in!

Slate has put together a list of the 50 best nonfiction books of the last 25 years, an interesting mix of “reporting, memoir, and argument.” I’ve only read 12 of the 50, but I think that says more about me than the quality of the list!

Scribner and the Washington Post are publishing an illustrated version of The Mueller Report. Out December 13, The Mueller Report Illustrated: The Obstruction Investigation will focus on Volume II of the report, which looked specifically at obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation. According to the Post, “The book provides a unique, graphic depiction of the report’s most scrutinized passages and pivotal moments, all contextualized with The Post’s original reporting.” I’m really curious about this.

Amazon has released its list of best nonfiction of 2019, headlined by Casey Cep’s Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. Their top 20 books of the year list includes seven nonfiction titles, most of which seemed a bit under-the-radar to me.

Restaurateur David Chang is writing a memoir! The first book of the two-book deal will be about “how the son of conservative Korean immigrants confronted his insecurities and depression, and discovered his talents and found fellowship in the kitchen.”

The James Comey miniseries coming to CBS officially has its Barack Obama. Kingsley Ben-Adir, star of The OA, will play the former president in a miniseries based on Comey’s best-selling memoir, A Higher Loyalty. The rest of the cast list, which I somehow missed, is interesting once you get beyond the fact that Jeff Daniels is playing Comey: “Brendan Gleeson as Donald Trump, Holly Hunter as Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, Michael Kelly as Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Jennifer Ehle as Patrice Comey, Peter Coyote as Robert Mueller, Steven Pasquale as Peter Strzok and Oona Chaplin as Lisa Page.”

Over at Book Riot

This week on Book Riot, we’ve had a few great nonfiction posts to check out:

• A Brief (and Admittedly Incomplete) History of Cookbooks
• The Nature Writing that Helped Me Fall in Love with the Outdoors
• 10 of the Best Nonfiction Comics on Hoopla
• 5 Works of Graphic Nonfiction About Artists and Activists for Your TBR
• The 21 Best Poker Books for Beginners, Experts, and Enthusiasts
• 20 Must-Read Works of Innovative Nonfiction from 2019

And that’s all for this week! You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello, nonfiction friends! It feels like this is the last truly quiet week of the year before we tumble into the rush of the holiday season. Publishing is also slowing down, although I’m still happy to suggest nine more books to add to the TBR before the end of the year.

This week’s featured books include essays by Elena Ferrante, a look at the rise of smart machines, and a peek behind the scenes at the world of debutantes. Let’s get going!

Incidental Inventions by Elena Ferrante, translated by Anna Goldstein – For one year, author Elena Ferrante published a weekly column in the Guardian on subjects ranging from first love to climate change. The weekly topics were a suggestion from the editors at the paper, and allowed Ferrante to test out new ideas and explore other aspects of her voice. This book collects the columns in one place, along with illustrations by Andrea Ucini.

Further Reading: Ferrante’s columns are all still available online, so you can scroll through them and find a few that seem like a good read.

User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play by Cliff Kuang with Robert Fabricant – In this book, Cliff Kuang and Robery Fabricant explore what it means that we all assume that machines should anticipate what we need. The book goes back over the changes of the last 100 years to unpack “the ways in which the world has been … remade according to the principles of the once-obscure discipline of user-experience design.”

Further Reading: Last spring, Kuang wrote an article about the “real war in driverless cars” and how the underlying story in this area is how we’re going to deal with all the changes coming in this industry.

The Season: A Social History of the Debutante by Kristen Richardson – “A social history” is another one of those phrases that always gets me in a subtitle. This book is a peek into the world of debutantes, a tradition that began in England 600 years ago “when wealthy fathers needed an efficient way to find appropriate husbands for their daughters.” Kirsten Richardson – who came from a family of debutants but chose not to participate – look s at the history of the custom and what it says about women and marriage today.

Further Reading: It’s a bit of a stretch, but Richardson is quoted in this New York Post piece about “The sensational debut and fall of the world’s first ‘celebutante’” that’s a fun read.

And finally, a few last exciting books coming out this week:

• Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises by Jodie Adams Krishner
• A Warning by Anonymous
• Radical Black: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter by Kerri K. Greenidge
• The Martyrdom of Collins Catch the Bear by Gerry Spence
• Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
• Snow: A Scientific and Cultural Exploration by Giles Whittell

That’s it for this week! You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim