Category: True Story

Hello hello nonfiction lovers! It was a big week in the bookish world – the Pulitzer Prizes were announced!

---

Sponsored by Atlantic Monthly Press

From “master of narrative journalism” (New York Times) and #1 bestselling author Mark Bowden, comes a gripping true crime story about the disappearance of the two Lyon sisters in 1975, and the extraordinary effort—40 years later—to bring their kidnapper to justice. “A riveting, serpentine story about the dogged pursuit of truth.” –NPR “A stirring, suspenseful, thoughtful story that, miraculously, neither oversimplifies the details nor gets lost in the thicket of a four-decade case file.” –New York Times

---

We’ve got three exciting winners in the nonfiction categories:

• History: Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight
• Biography: The New Negro by Jeffrey C. Stewart (also winner of the National Book Award)
• General Nonfiction: Amity and Prosperity by Eliza Griswold

I haven’t read any of them, but I checked out Amity and Prosperity from the library and hope to get to it this weekend. I say this every year, but if you’re looking for something else to read check out the journalism awards, especially the feature writing winners/finalists. There are pieces on Salvadoran immigrants, racial injustice in South Carolina, a reflection on “the exile of a teen sexual assault victim in Texas.”

And with that, let’s move on to some other news this week:

Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist and Hunger) is partnering with Tressie McMillan Cottom (Thick) on a podcast! According to Gay’s tweet about it, “there will be an advice component where we talk about your problems cuz we know stuff.” Amazing. Click through to find out how to submit your questions.

Amy Adams is set to star in Netflix’s adaptation of J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy. The film is being directed by Ron Howard and is “a modern exploration of the American Dream (that) follows three generations of an Appalachian family as told by its youngest member, a Yale Law student forced to return to his hometown.” I still haven’t read this book, but I suppose I’m going to have to before the movie is released.

Speaking of Netflix adaptations, the streaming service is also set to make a television series of Comfort Me With Apples, food critic Ruth Reichl’s memoir about her decision to abandon her career as a chef to become a food writer. It’s a great memoir, I can’t wait for this one!

I’m a little late sharing this one – in March, Axios did a deep dive into books about Trump’s Washington written by journalists, specifically about the most recent Supreme Court confirmation fight. According to the article, publishers are paying advances of close to $1 million or more for some of these titles. It’s a fascinating list of books that I am not sure I have the stomach to read just yet.

And that’s all for this week. 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 hello, and happy Wednesday! I am happy to report that I (and the rest of the Midwest) have survived an April blizzard and spring is in sight. But, let’s not dwell on the weather when there are books to enjoy.

In keeping with April’s theme of ALL THE BOOKS, I’ve got a full newsletter again today — five titles highlighted in a bit of detail, then a few more that should be on your radar at the end. Yay, books!

---

Sponsored by The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London—the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that “the Ripper” preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time—but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.

---

The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality by Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein – Two historians look at the intersecting personal and political lives of John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, as they grappled with politics in early America.

 

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis – A collection of essays “on marriage and manners, thank-you notes and three-ways, ghosts, gunshots, gynecology, and the Calgon-scented, onion-dipped, monogrammed art of living as a Southern Lady.”

 

 

Magical Realism for Nonbelievers: A Memoir of Finding Family by Anika Fajardo – At 21 years old, Anika Fajardo boarded a plane to Colombia to visit the birthplace of the father she’s never known while uncovering the story of her parents’ marriage and her own experiences as parent.

 

 

The House of the Pain of Others: Chronicle of a Small Genocide by Julián Herbert, translated by Christina MacSweeney – In 1911, around 300 Chinese immigrants were massacred over the course of three days in the Mexican city of Torreón. In this book, Herbert tries to understand this horrific incident and put it in context within the history of Mexico and the Americas.

The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall by Mark Moffett – This book looks at the history of human civilization from chimpanzee communities to today’s sprawling civilizations. Drawing on biology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, Mark Moffett tries to explain the social adaptations that bind us together.

 

 

And now five more books you could grab that I didn’t have a chance to write about in more detail:

• Left to Their Own Devices: How Digital Natives Are Reshaping the American Dream by Julie M Albright
• Down from the Mountain: The Life and Death of a Grizzly Bear by Bryce Andrews
• Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe by Ella Frances Sanders
• Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben
• The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story by Aaron Bobrow-Strain

And that’s it for this week! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@riotnewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. This week, Alice and I chatted books around the theme of “death and taxes,” which I promise is interesting. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello and happy Friday, fellow nonfiction lovers. I’m just going to get right into it this week with nine great nonfiction books finally out in paperback. If you missed any of these in hardcover, here’s your chance!

---

Sponsored by Nimbus Publishing

A murder, a missing body, and a sensational trial. Will Sandeson seemed like a model son. A member of the Dalhousie University track and field team, he was about to start classes at Dalhousie’s medical school. He was arrested for the first-degree murder of Taylor Samson, a fellow student who also seemed to be a model son. When the physics student disappeared without a trace, the focus turned to Sandeson. Through interviews with friends and relatives, as well as transcripts of the trial and Sandeson’s police interrogation, award-winning journalist Kayla Hounsell paints a complex portrait of both the victim and killer, two young men who seemed destined for bright futures. First Degree includes previously unpublished photos and details never made public until now.

---

I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell – A memoir about the 17 times Maggie O’Farrell has “stared death in the face–and lived to tell the tale,” from childhood illnesses to teenage disasters to the struggle to protect her vulnerable daughter.

Lead from the Outside by Stacey Abrams – A leadership handbook for outsiders, “written with an eye toward the challenges that hinder women, people of color, the working class, members of the LGBTQ community, and millennials ready to make change.”

God Save Texas by Lawrence Wright – A journey through “the most controversial state in America” that brings together historical perspectives and contemporary politics written by a Texas native.

Heavy by Kiese Laymon – An award-winning memoir about “what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse.”

The Woman’s Hour by Elaine Weiss – Final passage of the 19th Amendment, finally granting women the right to vote, came down to an August 1920 vote in Tennessee. This book explores the last weeks of the fight and the opposing forces who descended on Nashville to duke it out.

This Is Me by Chrissy Metz – The star of “This is Us” “shares how she has applied the lessons she learned from both setbacks and successes” and “offers practical applications of her hard-won insights.”

Raw: My Journey into the Wu-Tang by Lamont “U-God” Hawkins – A memoir by the “quiet one” of the Wu-Tang Clan, a look at growing up in New York City and what it took for a group of black boys to make “music their ticket out of the ghetto.”

Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien – The true story of five women who fought for the chance to prove themselves as airplane racers during the decade after World War I.

Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley – A collection of essays about “scaling active volcanoes, crashing shivas, befriending swingers, or staring down the barrel of the fertility gun” published 10 years after her first collection, I Was Told There’d Be Cake.

So many books, so little 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 hello, fellow nonfiction lovers. At the time I’m writing this newsletter, it’s sunny and in the 50s outside (joy!), but Minnesota (and a chunk of the Upper Midwest) is expected to get another dump of snow at midweek… so I’m feeling a little bit salty about that. If it were the weekend I’d just snuggle up at home with a book, but I’ll probably have to trek to work in a blizzard. In April. This is my face.

Anyway! Since April is still full of many new books, I’m taking the same approach as last week – I’ve picked five titles to highlight in a little more depth, then listed a few more to get on your radar at the end. Let’s dive in!

---

Sponsored by our $100 Amazon gift card giveaway! Enter here.

We’re giving away a $100 Amazon gift card in support of Swords and Spaceships, our sci-fi/fantasy newsletter! Just click here to sign up and enter.

---

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell – I am 100 percent in for all of the books about the untold contributions of women to major historical events. This book is about Virginia Hall, a socialite from Baltimore who became the first woman deployed behind enemy lines for the Allies, contributing to the French Resistance. She also had a fake leg, which doesn’t really matter but is an interesting detail and maybe would be good for spying? She sounds awesome.

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell – In addition to minimalism, I am very into books about doing fewer things because doing too much can be bad for us. In this, artist and critic Jenny Odell argues attention is our most important (and stretched) resource, taking away our chance to think big thoughts and make big changes. The book is also “an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techo-determinism,” which sounds pretty interesting.

Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi – Top Chef contestant Kwame Onwuachi grew up in the Bronx, but spent much of his childhood in Nigeria (where he was sent to “learn respect”). When he returned, he got his start in food, starting as a chef on board a Deepwater Horizon cleanup ship. His coming-of-age memoir tell those stories, and also looks at “the intersections of race, fame, and food.” I’m in the middle of this one right now and it is great!

Wolfpack: How to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and Change the Game by Abby Wambach – Based on a 2018 commencement address at Barnard College, this book by World Cup-winning soccer star Abby Wambach is about how women need to let go of old rules of leadership and work together “to change the landscape of their lives and world.” I’m inspired already.

Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer by Eve Lazarus – I’ll be honest, the reason this book initially got on my list is because of the tile. How great is that? But it also looks good. This book is the story of a 40-year-old woman murdered by her husband, a radio personality, via arsenic-laced milkshakes in the 1960s. Creepy!

And finally, five more books that should be on your radar:

• Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Shaped America by Jared Cohen
• Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies Beyond Quantum by Lee Smolin
• Radical Suburbs: Experimental Living no the Fringes of the American City by Amanda Kolson Hurley
• The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris by Mark Honigsbaum
• Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon

And there we go. I am 100 percent certain I missed a few books from the week, but I hope there’s something on the list to topple your TBR just a bit. 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

Happy Friday, fellow nonfiction nerds! On my trip last weekend I ended up listening to all six episodes of The Dropout from ABC Radio, a deep-ish dive into the story of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. I liked it quite a bit – it’s both a good follow up to Bad Blood by John Carreyrou and a good primer on the scandal if you’re not already familiar. So… basically good for everyone!

This week’s nonfiction news is all pretty interesting — upcoming adaptations for two books I loved, a secretive book announcement, and a celebration of the contributions women made during World War II (with a bookish connection). Let’s go!

---

Sponsored by Crazy Plant Lady, written and illustrated by Isabel Serna.

You know you’re a crazy plant lady when… Watering is a hobby You can’t resist a cute pot Just looking at your plants brings you happiness An illustrated celebration of the plant lady lifestyle, this charming little book proves that plant love is the joy that keeps growing.

---

The Minnesota Opera has commissioned a new work based on The Song Poet, an award-winning memoir by Kao Kalia Yang. The book tells the story of “her family and in particular, her song poet father Bee Yang, as war forces them from Laos into a Thai refugee camp and ultimately on to St Paul.” The opera is going to be part of the organization’s youth training program in 2021, and might be the first time a Hmong story will be presented in this format. I read this memoir last year and loved it – highly recommended.

Susan Orlean’s The Library Book, is going to be adapted for television. The book is an excellent account of the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library and exploration of contemporary public libraries, is going to be adapted for television. According to Variety, Orlean will adapt the book and serve as an executive producer on the project. I can’t quite figure out how an adaptation is going to work – the story of the fire is interesting, but seems a little slim for a tv series – but I do love the idea of a show that tells the story of libraries. So, we’ll see on this one.

Anderson Cooper is writing two more books! He’ll be partnering with historical fiction writer Katherine Howe on two works of nonfiction, the first scheduled for release in 2022. More to come here, I can only assume.

And finally, my favorite thing of this entire week (although it happened a few weeks ago). Last month, the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress hosted a reunion of World War II “Code Girls” – women recruited by the Army and Navy as secret code breakers during the war. Their story was shared in a 2017 book, Code Girls by Liza Mundy. So cool!

And that’s the end! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@riotnewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. In this week’s episode, Alice and I talked about con men, lobster races, and literary murders. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello hello, fellow nonfiction readers! I’m finishing up this newsletter on April Fool’s Day, which is one of those days that can be both fun and annoying all at the same time. My favorite joke was from Pizza Hut because it was a thing I actually wish would happen. And I also have to give a little hat tip to the American Library Association — support your local library!

To take a word from velocireader Liberty Hardy, April is a truly bananapants month for new books. To try and mention as many as possible, I decided to pick five to write about in a little more depth, then list others that seemed interesting near the end. Onward!

---

Sponsored by our $100 Amazon gift card giveaway! Enter here.

We’re giving away a $100 Amazon gift card in support of Swords and Spaceships, our sci-fi/fantasy newsletter! Just click here to sign up and enter.

---

Women’s Work: A Reckoning with Work and Home by Megan Stack – In this book, journalist Megan Stack seeks to understand the lives of the women she hired to help with childcare and housework while living and working abroad, looking at “the trade-offs they’d been forced to make as working mothers seeking upward mobility—and on the cost to the children who were left behind.”

We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood by Dani McClain – As a first-time mother, Dani McClain worked to understand how to raise her daughter in a world that can be unjust and hostile to black women, speaking with “mothers on the frontlines of movements for social, political, and cultural change who are grappling with the same questions.”

 

Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl – Ruth Reichl is one of the best people writing about food right now, so a new memoir from her is cause to celebrate! In this book, Reichl chronicles her time as editor in chief of Gourmet, a story about “a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul.” It’s also a peek into the peak of print magazines, and how the internet has turned that industry upside down.

Woman of Color by LaTonya Yvette – This book is a collection of essays and advice on “style, beauty, and motherhood” from a popular blogger. Each chapter covers a different topic, then ends with “thoughtful advice and lifestyle takeaways” for everyone, though the heart of the book is her experience “growing up as a woman of color in Brooklyn.”

Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris – If you are a grammar and punctuation geek, this this book will be right up your alley. Mary Norris has been a copy editor and proofreader at The New Yorker for more than 30 years. In this book, she writes about her “lifelong love affair with words and her solo adventures in the land of olive trees and ouzo.” This seems so charming.

And finally, 10 more new books out this week that you might want to check out:

• I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott
• Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
• The Honey Bus by Meredith May
• A Sin by Any Other Name by Robert W. Lee
• All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens
• Another Planet by Tracey Thorn
• Finding My Voice by Valerie Jarrett
• I’m Writing You From Tehran by Delphine Minoui
• Native Country of the Heart by Cherríe Moraga
• To Stop a Warlord by Shannon Sedgwick Davis

And that’s the end! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@riotnewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcasthere at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim

P.S. Don’t forget about Book Riot’s new podcast about children’s literature, KidLit These Days. On the show, co-hosts Karina Yan Glaser and Matthew Winner pair the best of children’s literature with what’s going on in the world today. Check it out!

Hello and happy Friday, nonfiction friends! As you’re reading this, I am probably still trying to decide what audiobook or podcast to queue up for a long drive this weekend. I just finished an epic re-listen of the Harry Potter series, so I’m craving something a bit different – I might finish up Becoming by Michelle Obama or take a deep dive into The Dropout from ABC Radio. We’ll see what fits my mood!

---

Sponsored by What’s Up in YA Giveaway of a $100 gift card to Amazon! Enter here.

We’re giving away a $100 gift card to Amazon in support of our YA newsletter, What’s Up in YA, about all things young adult literature! Sign up to enter here.

---

In this week’s nonfiction news, I get to share updates from several favorite authors – some prizes, some sales awards and some upcoming titles. Let’s dive in!

Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies, has been awarded the 2019 Lewis Thomas Prize, an annual award that honors scientists as inspirational writers. He’s a truly amazing writer, and I’ve recommended his biography of cancer to many, many people – don’t let the length deter you, it’s so worth it.

Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, may be the most successful memoir of all time. Last week, her publisher announced the book has sold almost 10 million copies, a number her publisher claims makes it the highest-selling memoir of all time. That’s pretty impressive. I’d be willing to put down some dollars that Barack Obama’s upcoming memoir (no title or release date yet) will challenge that number when it comes out – also super awesome.

Claudia Rankine, author of the amazing poetry collection Citizen: An American Lyric, will be publishing a new book with my favorite Minnesota publisher, Graywolf Press, in 2020. The essay collection is called Just Us: An American Conversation, and “takes place in transitionary spaces … where presumed neutrality gives way to American culture’s overwhelming whiteness.” Oooooo.

A book celebrating the life and career of the late Anthony Bourdain is set to be published this spring. The book, Anthony Bourdain Remembered was originally created by CNN as a keepsake for his daughter, but will now be released to the public. It includes “photos, memories and quotes from the late chef’s fans and famous collaborators.” I expect there will be waterworks reading this one.

And that’s all the nonfiction for this week! Before I wrap up, I also want to mention that Book Riot has launched a new podcast about children’s literature, KidLit These Days. On the show, co-hosts Karina Yan Glaser and Matthew Winner pair the best of children’s literature with what’s going on in the world today. Check it out!

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 happy end of March, fellow nonfiction readers! I spent a good bit of the last week trying to get my life in order, but mostly succeeded in feeling like I need to jettison some baggage — literally and figuratively — to feel more on top of everything. I suspect I’ll be finding some time to read Gretchen Rubin’s latest book, Outer Order, Inner Calm, to help with that.

One thing that’s not helping is the fact that there are still (still!) so many interesting new books coming out every week. This week’s list is full again with some graphic novels, memoirs, and historical stories I am very interested in diving into. Let’s take a peek!

---

Sponsored by What’s Up in YA Giveaway of a $100 gift card to Amazon! Enter here.

We’re giving away a $100 gift card to Amazon in support of our YA newsletter, What’s Up in YA, about all things young adult literature! Sign up to enter here.

---

Good Talk by Mira Jacob – A graphic memoir about having difficult conversations on race, color, sexuality, love, and more among families.

Murder by the Book by Claire Harman – The story of a Victorian-era murder in literary London that connects the grisly crime with the rise of the novel and popularity of sensational true crime stories.

American Messiahs by Adam Morris – A study of cult leaders in the United States and how their visions are “essential for understanding American history.”

Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski – A look at how women experience burnout differently than men and how to fight back against the societal pressures at work in this area.

Coders by Clive Thompson – In a world run by algorithms and computer code, a tech writer explores the world of computer programmers – who they are, how they think, how they become great, and how why we should be concerned.

This One Looks Like a Boy by Lorimer Shenher – A coming-of-age memoir where a Calgary detective “shares the story of his gender journey, from childhood gender dysphoria to teenage sexual experimentation to early-adult denial of his identity—and finally the acceptance that he is trans.”

No Happy Endings by Nora McInerny – A collection of essays about how the idea of “moving on” after unimaginable loss is ridiculous and the tension between finding happiness and holding space for the losses that shape us.

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young – “A provocative and humorous memoir-in-essays that explores the ever-shifting definitions of what it means to be Black (and male) in America.”

Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt – A look at unconscious bias and how “ingrained stereotypes can infect our visual perception, attention, memory, and behavior.”

How We Fight White Supremacy by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin – The editors of Colorlines have put together essays from “organizers, artists, journalists, comedians, and filmmakers” about how to fight against white supremacy.

It’s Theranos week! On Monday, HBO’s documentary about Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos, was released. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley relies on “extraordinary access to never-before-seen footage and testimony from key insiders” to tell the story of how the multi-billion dollar company fell apart.

---

Sponsored by What’s Up in YA Giveaway of a $100 gift card to Amazon! Enter here.

We’re giving away a $100 gift card to Amazon in support of our YA newsletter, What’s Up in YA, about all things young adult literature! Sign up to enter here.

---

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, the first book to really tell the full story of Theranos, was one of my favorites last year, so this documentary has been on my radar. Sadly, as of the time I’m writing this newsletter, I haven’t gotten to watch it yet. But, I’ve read a lot of articles about it… so that’s pretty close, right? Here are some good ones:

• On All Things Considered, NPR’s TV critic Eric Deggans called the film “a compelling and critical look at startup culture in Silicon Valley” with an “impressive narrative.”
• In Business Insider, director Alex Gibney shared some of the difficulties he encountered getting Theranos employees to speak with him for the film, given the heavyweight lawyers that Holmes employed.
• The WIRED review of the movie gives some details about how it was all stitched together and explores one of the central ideas of the documentary, hubris.
• The Guardian looks at why Americans are so fascinated with fraudsters (guilty as charged), and interviews Gibney about how he approached the film. Gibney’s take in this interview about Holmes’ general nobility is interesting, as well as the discussion of the role gender played in the scandal.
• And finally, another Business Insider story explains why Elizabeth Holmes wasn’t interviewed for the documentary, despite the director’s efforts to do so.

Changing gears… the Editors Buzz books are out! Earlier this month, BookExpo announced this year’s titles for their Editors Buzz panels, “which highlight forthcoming books expected to appeal to readers in the fall and winter.” There are two great memoirs on the adult list that are now definitely on my list too:

• How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones, a coming-of-age memoir about growing up young, black, and gay in the south.
• Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener, a memoir about a woman in the tech industry.

The editors behind these books will be on panels at BookExpo, the publishing industry’s annual conference in May.

And that’s all for this week! 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 there, nonfiction friends! I hope you survived St. Patrick’s Day weekend and are enjoying the first bits of spring in your area. This week’s new nonfiction releases have, I think, a little bit of something for everyone — some history, some contemporary politics, and some nature writing. Let’s dive in!

---

Sponsored by What’s Up in YA Giveaway of a $100 gift card to Amazon! Enter here.

We’re giving away a $100 gift card to Amazon in support of our YA newsletter, What’s Up in YA, about all things young adult literature! Sign up to enter here.

---

The Sakura Obsession by Naoko Abe – In 1907, an English gardener traveled to Japan and fell in love with the cherry blossom tree. He took hundreds of cuttings back to England and cultivated a garden of different tree varieties. When he learned the Great White Cherry has become extinct in Japan, he sent a cutting from his own collection to bring it back, eventually sending trees around the world. In addition to being a story about the gardener, this book is also a 1,200 year history of cherry blossom trees… which isn’t a thing I knew I wanted until now.

Further Reading: I didn’t have much luck finding examples of Naoko Abe’s writing to share, but I did enjoy this review of the book from The Guardian.

Doing Justice by Preet Bharara – Preet Bharara served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. In this book, he explores the way our justice system works and why “the rule of law is essential to our society.” In it, he looks at four phases of the legal system – inquiry, accusation, judgement, and punishment – and “how we all need to think about each stage of the process to achieve truth and justice in our daily lives.”

Further Reading/Listening: NPR interviewed Bharara about the book and his career in the U.S. Attorney’s office, and I thought it was a good read.

Horizon by Barry Lopez – Barry Lopez is an author, essayist and writer who explores humanity and the environment in his work. In this book, Lopez shares his travels across six regions of the world. In addition, he “probes the long history of humanity’s quests and explorations” from prehistoric peoples to colonialists to contemporary ecotourists. I don’t know much about this one, but that cover is so beautiful that I couldn’t not include it.

Further Reading: Lopez won the 1986 National Book Award for Nonfiction for Arctic Dreams, an exploration of the Far North. More recently, an excerpt from the book, titled “Polar Light,” was published in Harper’s.

And that’s all for the week! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@riotnewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Because we recorded this week’s episode on the Ides of March, Alice and I shared some true stories about assassinations. Happy reading! – Kim