Category: True Story

Happy Friday, fellow readers! I wish I had something fun and pithy to open this newsletter with, but this week has just felt long… thanks, winter. This week’s been a little light on nonfiction news, but there’s still some interesting controversies brewing. Let’s dive in!

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Sponsored by I Am Yours: A Shared Memoir by Reema Zaman, from Amberjack Publishing.

To Speak is a Revolution. I Am Yours tells of Reema’s unwavering fight to free her voice from those who have sought to silence her. Moving from Bangladesh to Thailand, New York, and Oregon, it explores her struggles with racism, misogyny, abuse, and anorexia in incisive, poetic prose. I Am Yours is the first English-language memoir by a woman from Bangladesh that so powerfully explores the intersection of personal and political, for the sake of creating a world where all voices are welcome and respected. Because we’re in this together. You are mine, and I am yours.

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Merchants of Truth, a new book by former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson has been getting some bad press from a couple different angles. First, on notetaking… in an interview with The Cut, Abramson said that she never records interviews because “I’m a very fast note-taker” who has “an almost photographic memory.” While every journalist has their own process, the fact that Abramson didn’t record any of her interviews is eyebrow-raising, especially with the factual criticisms of the book that have already surfaced.

Second, on plagiarism… on Wednesday evening Michael Moynihan, a correspondent for Vice News Tonight, issued a Twitter thread pointing to several possible instances of plagiarism in the book. In a TV appearance, Abramson responded that the book has extensive footnotes, and suggested Moynihan was just upset because the book is critical of his organization. This is unfolding as I’m writing, so I’ll have to update on it next week.

If you loved reading John Carrerou’s Bad Blood, the true story of the rise and fall of a biotech startup in Silicon Valley, then this podcast will be of interest. The Dropout from ABC Radio is true crime podcast look at Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos, and “an unbelievable tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong.” I haven’t gotten to listen yet, so I’m not sure how overlaps there will be with Bad Blood, but it’s such a bananas story I imagine there’s a ton we don’t even know yet. It’s also going to be a documentary, if that’s more your jam.

The trailer for Hulu’s comedy Shrill, inspired by Lindy West’s Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman was released last week! The series stars Aidy Bryant as Annie, “a fat young woman who wants to change her life — but not her body. Annie is trying to start her career while juggling bad boyfriends, a sick parent, and a perfectionist boss.” Episodes will drop on March 15.

Finally, let’s close out this week with five great books you can get for cheap on Kindle right now:

• What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson for $2.99, a look at “the fraught conflict between conscience and politics – between morality and power – in addressing race.”
• Act Natural by Jennifer Traig for $1.99, a 2019 release about “the strange and often contradictory history of Western parenting.”
• To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace for $1.20, a look at the true stories of American heiresses “who staked their ground in England, swapping dollars of titles and marry peers of the British realm.”
• Bad Girls Throughout History by Ann Ahen for $1.20, the stories of 100 revolutionary women who changed the world.
• Prince of Darkness by Shanre White for $3.99, the larger-than-life story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, the first Black millionaire on Wall Street.

That’s all folks! 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 welcome to February! This Tuesday was the first really, really big new books day of the year, with so many great new nonfiction books to choose from – I’ve rounded up a dozen that caught my eye. Let’s go!

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The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang – A collection of personal essays by a woman struggling with the effects of mental and chronic illnesses, with pieces on diagnosis, labeling, institutions, and more. This is one of my most highly-anticipated books of the year.

I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening) by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth A. Silvers – A book from the co-hosts of the Pantsuit Politics podcast (“two working moms from opposite ends of the political spectrum”) share their tools and principles for having grace-filled political conversations.

No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge – An account of the Champawat Tiger, a Bengal tiger who killed 436 people in northern India and Nepal between 1900 and 1907, and the young man hired to stop her.

The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams – A posthumously-published memoir by a young woman who fled Vietnam in the 1970s, became a Harvard-educated lawyer in the United States, and mother of two children… and then was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer at 37. This one seems like a read on a day you need a good cry.

How to Be Loved by Eva Hagberg Fisher – A memoir about how “an isolated person’s life was ripped apart only to be gently stitched back together through friendship” after a devastating illness and recovery.

Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson – A look at the current state of the news business, specifically how  companies like the New York Times, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed and VICE Media, are coping with the digital revolution in news, written by the former executive editor at NYT. I expect this one will get a ton of media coverage.

Brown White Black by Nishta J. Mehra – A collection of essays on “motherhood, marriage, love, and acceptance” from a family that has had to push against America’s “rigid ideas of race, gender, and sexuality.” Mehra is the daughter of Indian immigrants, her wife is white, and their adopted child, Shiv, is black.

Hard to Love by Braillen Hopper – A collection of essays on the “loves and relationships beyond marriage, the ones that are often treated as invisible or seen as secondary” like friendship, adult siblings, care teams, and found families.

Figuring by Maria Popova – A book that “the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries” by the creator of Brain Pickings.

Brave, Not Perfect by Reshna Saujani – Based on a TED Talk, this book from the founder of Girls Who Code is about how girls and women can feel empowered by letting go of guilt and tiny mistakes, embracing decisions that lead to a bolder path.

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport – One blurb described this book as like Marie Kondo for technology, which made me laugh. In this book, thinker Cal Newport looks at people who don’t feel tethered to technology and offers suggestions for “a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.”

Fraternity by Alexandra Robbins – After spending a year looking at sororities in Pledged, journalist Alexandra Robbins is back with a look at a year in the life of a fraternity focusing on two young men, a freshman thinking of joining and a chapter president trying to keep his fraternity out of trouble.

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 talked about books for Black History Month and some true story podcasts we enjoy. Happy reading! – Kim

Welcome to February, fellow nonfiction nerds! As I’m typing this, I’m smack in the middle of the polar vortex, which means the temperature and wind chill where I live in Minnesota was so cold even the U.S. Postal Service suspended deliveries. It’s pretty awful, and I’m being kind of a grump about the whole thing.

What does that have to do with nonfiction? Not very much, but it’s about all I can think about right now as I cuddle up in my warmest sweatpants, shawl, and slippers while I hope my space heater is ready to work. But what you really want is some nonfiction news, so let’s get going.

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Sponsored by Flatiron Books

At the Wolf’s Table is the internationally bestselling novel based on the untold true story of the women conscripted to be Hitler’s food tasters, from Rosella Postorino. Germany, 1943: Twenty-six-year-old Rosa’s parents are gone, and her husband’s fighting in WWII. Impoverished and alone, she decides to leave war-torn Berlin for the countryside. But one morning, the SS come and say she’s been conscripted to be one of Hitler’s tasters: each day, she and nine other women go to his headquarters to eat his meals before he does. And as secrets and resentments grow, this unlikely sisterhood reaches a dramatic climax.

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Kiese Laymon’s memoir, Heavy, is this year’s winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in nonfiction. In the memoir, “Laymon recalls the traumas of his Mississippi youth; the depthless hunger that elevated his weight; his obsessive, corrective regime of diet and exercise; his gambling, teaching, activism, and trust in the power of writing.”

Two people you know – and one person you ought to know – have signed deals to publish political (or politics-adjacent) memoirs in the next year or so. The two you know… Jim Acosta, CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent, has a book about covering the Trump administration coming out June 11 titled The Enemy of the People. Bill Clinton is set to release a new book about his post-presidential life (no news on the title or contents yet).

And then the one you might not, and that I’m most excited about! Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has sold her debut memoir, This is What America Looks Like. Omar is a Somali refugee who now represents Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in the House. She represents a ton of firsts – first Muslim refugee in Congress, first woman of color to represent Minnesota, and the first person to wear a hijab in Congress. The book is set to publish in April 2020.

Another best-selling nonfiction book will be coming to Netflix. The company paid $45 million and tapped director Ron Howard to direct and produce an adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir about growing up in a working class Appalachian family. There’s no news on casting yet, but given how much cultural conversation there has been around this book, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some big names in contention.

Still as obsessed with Marie Kondo as I am? Bustle recommends 15 books like Tidying Up With Marie Kondo that can “help you get yourself and your household back on track.” Excuse me while I go add all of these to my TBR list.

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. Stay warm and safe, friends who are still in the middle of this cold snap. Happy reading! – Kim

Happy Tuesday, nonfiction lovers! I’m trying not to start every newsletter with a comment about the weather, but I live in Minnesota where that’s basically the entirety of our small talk. And this week it’s actually relevant! We’re in the middle of a historic cold snap, with high temperatures in the negatives. It’s awful, and makes me just want to curl up with a good book.

Luckily, there are even more to choose from! This week I’ve got three new books to feature, plus some nonfiction favorites recently out in paperback. Onward!

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New Books

All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf by Katharine Smyth – Books about books are such a beautiful thing. In this one, Katharine Smyth dives deep into Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, a novel she first read while living with her father. After his death, she returned to the book “as a way of wrestling with his memory and understanding her own grief.” The book offers a personal reading of the novel that mixes memoir, literary criticism, and biography.

Further Reading: Smyth published an essay in LitHub called “How Virginia Woolf Taught Me to Mourn” that I thought was lovely.

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig – Following up on a 2016 memoir about living with depression, Matt Haig looks at the ways the world and modern society contributed to his anxiety and panic disorders as an adult. This book collects observations about how some technological advances can hinder happiness and what we can do to change that.

Further Reading: Haig was interviewed about the book for Salon where he talked about the book’s structure, effective coping skills in a busy world, and more.

The Pope: Francis, Benedict, and the Decision that Shook the World by Anthony McCarten – In this book, a Hollywood screenwriter shares the story of how the resignation of conservative Pope Benedict XVI led to the unlikely choice of Francis, the first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years. The book explores a bunch of questions about this decision, but the one that intrigues me most is this: “If, as the Church teaches, the pope is infallible, how can two living popes who disagree on almost everything both be right?”

Future Watching: The book is being adapted for a film by Netflix, although I couldn’t find information on a release date. You can get a peek of Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce in costume though.

New in Paperback

Finally, I’m going to round out this newsletter with some nonfiction favorites recently out in paperback if you, like me, vastly prefer to read books in that format:

• The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison
• Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots by Nancy Goldstone
• Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff
• The Milk Lady of Bangalore: An Unexpected Adventure by Shoba Narayan
• The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers
• No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin

That’s all I’ve got for this new books Wednesday! 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 readers! Before jumping into links from the week, I want to take a quick little diversion into a recent nonfiction discussion that may cause ripples over the next several weeks.

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Jill Abramson, former executive editor of the New York Times, has a book coming out in early February, Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts. Journalists love writing about the media, so I think this book is going to get a lot of attention when it’s officially released. But, Abramson’s fact-checking in the book is already raising some critical concerns. This article in Vox does a good job of summing up the whole affair, but I’ll try to give a quick-and-dirty version here too.

After galleys – uncorrected review copies – began to circulate, several journalists started tweeting about errors in the book. Arielle Duhaime-Ross, a correspondent for HBO’s VICE News Tonight, issued a Twitter thread that pointed to six specific errors in a single paragraph. Abramson responded to this criticism and others (on Twitter) to say that the screencaps are from galleys, not from the finished book. So… basically wait and see what the finished version looks like before you get mad.

I’m not a publishing expert, but that feels like kicking the can down the road a bit since the errors are significant. It also brings attention to one of publishing’s sort of secrets – fact-checking isn’t really part of the process for the publication of nonfiction books, unless the author specifically chooses to do it. I’m very curious to see what the response is once critics have finished copies in their hands. Again, that Vox article sums everything up really well, so take a few minutes to read it!

And with that, on to some other news of note this week:

The finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced on Tuesday. On the nonfiction side, the awards recognize the best autobiography, biography, criticism, and nonfiction of 2018. The press release noted that the autobiography category was especially strong this year, resulting in six finalists rather than the usual five. It also has two of my favorites of the year, All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung and Educated by Tara Westover. I am disappointed, however, that there aren’t any female finalists on the nonfiction list (although there are many on each of the others). The winners will be announced on March 14.

Another one of my favorite books read in 2018, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, has gotten a YA adaptation. The book is specifically geared for readers ages 9 to 13, and definitely fills a gap of engaging, diverse nonfiction about people of color. The article also notes that the book has been optioned for the big screen – very cool!

Speaking of nonfiction for teens, last month Beacon Press announced they would be publishing a line of “radical histories for teens.” According to Publisher’s Weekly: “The series will debut in 2019 and draw from Beacon’s decade-old ReVisioning American History series, bringing forward youth-focused adaptations of titles that emphasize the stories of underrepresented groups in American history.”

I’m constantly in awe of the danger foreign correspondents put themselves in, so I can’t believe I missed including Prisoner by Jason Rezaian in Wednesday’s new releases newsletter. In the book, Rezaian recounts his 544 days as an Iranian prisoner, accused of being a spy for the United States. This week he was interviewed for Fresh Air, a piece that’s worth a read/listen.

There are a lot of pieces about New Year’s reading recommendations, but I particularly liked these recommended listens from Libro.fm. The five books are interesting picks that I haven’t seen repeated on other lists – LikeWar by P.W. Singer and Emerson Brooking is going in my audiobook queue ASAP.

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. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello hello, nonfiction lovers! This week, I’m highlighting some new nonfiction about the working poor, modern Native American history, and the discovery of family secrets.

Plus, I combed through this month’s Kindle deals to find some great biographies and memoirs to add to your ebook collection. Let’s dive in!

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New Books

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land – There’s been chatter about this book, pitched as Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed, since last summer when it was chosen as one of Book Expo’s Editor’s Buzz titles. In it, Stephanie Land writes about working as a housekeeper while going to college and writing at night, trying to build a better life for her daughter. It’s a book about what it’s like to be a member of the working poor, and what Land saw in “the underbelly of upper-middle class America.”

Further Reading: Land published an essay adapted from the book in the New York Times about one of her clients, an elderly woman dying of cancer. This Q&A with Bookselling This Week was also a good, especially if you’re interested in some behind the scenes about how a book is published.

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer – Most histories of Native Americans tend to stop around 1890 with the massacre at Wounded Knee, assuming that Native culture and civilization also ended. In this book David Treuer, an Ojibwe tribe member and anthropologist, shares a different narrative about how these cultures survived because of struggles “to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence.”

Further Listening: In October, Treuer was interviewed by On the Media where he discussed “the overlooked American Indian Movement that informed the viral 2016 protest at Standing Rock, and the means by which Indians have been fighting for social and political change for centuries.”

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro – In 2016, author Dani Shapiro submitted her DNA for genetic testing on a genealogy website. When the results came back, Shapiro learned that her father was not actually her biological father. Since both her parents were already dead, Shapiro was left to investigate this family secret on her own in this “gripping genetic detective story” and “meditation on the meaning of parenthood and family.”

Further Reading: Dani Shapiro’s By the Book interview is a good read. Her recommendation of a book for the president to read made me laugh out loud (and then sigh because, well…).

Bookish Deals in Biographies and Memoirs

Since this week was a little lighter on new releases, I’ll close out this email with a few awesome ebook deals so you can lighten your wallet without adding more to your actual bookshelves (I feel like Marie Kondo would approve?):

• The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower ($2.99)
• My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie by Todd Fischer ($1.99)
• The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders by Stuart Kells ($3.99)
• Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years by David Litt ($2.99)
• Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir by Padma Lakshmi ($1.99)
• After the Eclipse by Sarah Perry ($2.99)
• Fire Shut Up in my Bones by Charles M. Blow ($2.99)
• Stretched Too Thin: How Working Moms Can Lose the Guilt, Work Smarter, and Thrive by Jessica N. Turner ($1.99)

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 talked about some great nonfiction set in very cold places and very warm places. Happy reading! – Kim

As I’m writing this newsletter, I have the first episode of Netflix’s Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on the tv in front of me. I’m not sure how long that will last – I have a hard time writing with talking in the background – but I feel like it’s my duty as a person who writes about nonfiction news to see what the show’s all about.

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Sponsored by Help Me!: One Woman’s Quest to Find Out If Self-Help Really Can Change Your Life by Marianne Power, available now from Grove Press

For years Journalist Marianne Power lined her bookshelves with dog-eared copies of definitive guides on how to live your best life, dipping in and out of self-help books when she needed them most. Then, one day, she woke up to find that the life she hoped for and the life she was living were worlds apart—and she set out to make some big changes. Marianne Power’s Help Me! is the hilarious, thought-provoking, and unfailingly honest account of one woman’s year-long, often madcap, quest to find out if self help books really can change your life.

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As with most things on the Internet, it’s been interesting to watch the cycle of reviews, from the backlash to backlash-to-the-backlash, play out online around the show. When I sent last week’s newsletter, we were at the point in the cycle where people – particularly bookish people – were up in arms about the idea of using the KonMari method to get rid of books.

This week, we’re getting to the backlash-to-the-backlash phase with discussion about how many critiques of Kondo have both fundamentally misunderstood her point and have racist and classist undertones we ought to grapple with. That article linked above is an excellent recap, so please do read it if this is interesting to you.

Over at Book Riot, we’ve had some pieces on this issue too, including one about why Marie Kondo isn’t telling you to throw away your books, and one from a contributor who disagrees entirely with the KonMari method for books. If you are ready to KonMari your collection, Good Housekeeping has some suggestions about what to do with the books you’re planning to discard.

And with that, on to some other interesting nonfiction news of note from the week:

Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, is now one of the best-selling books of the decade. According to Amazon, the book has held the top spot on the best-seller list longer than any book since Fifty Shades of Grey in 2012. The book was at the top for 47 days, was briefly dethroned, and then returned to the top (followed closely by authors Marie Kondo and Rachel Hollis).

Essayist Leslie Jamison, one of my all-time favorites, previewed her upcoming essay collection, Make It Scream, Make It Burn. The collection, out September 24, is “an exploration of longing and obsession” that covers everything from whales to Civil War photography. At the Entertainment Weekly link above, Jamison writes about the process of writing the book – super meta and interesting.

Carmen Maria Machado shared the first details about her upcoming memoir, In the Dream House, releasing October 1 from Graywolf Press. The book is “an innovative memoir chronicling a relationship gone bad, and a dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse” (TW for queer domestic violence). Click through to see the cover, which is gorgeous.

Finally, Europa Editions is launching a new nonfiction imprint! Europa Compass will feature titles on “travel, contemporary culture, popular science, history, philosophy, and politics.” This is super great news for readers interested in reading more diverse nonfiction and nonfiction in translation, since that’s a specialty of Europa Editions more broadly. Fingers crossed that is reflected in their nonfiction list.

Man, that is all such exciting news. I’m feeling so jazzed about all the great nonfiction we have coming in 2019. 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 Wednesday, nonfiction nerds! Last week was a true bonanza of new books, so this week I’m catching up on a couple I missed along with a few more exciting titles out this week. Onward!

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Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married by Abby Ellin – Abby Ellin’s courtship with the Commander was a whirlwind. Six months after meeting – despite red flags like mysterious travel, stories about international espionage, and secrets from his family – the two were engaged. It eventually became apparent, however, that he was a liar and none of it was true. As she tried to make sense of her experience, Ellin discovered that habitual liars and confidence tricksters are more common than we realize, there’s an art and science to lying, and we all could stand to learn more.

Further Reading: Marie Claire ran an excerpt of the book – I Almost Married a Con Man – that will give you a good sense of the book’s style and tone.

It Was All a Dream: A New Generation Confronts the Broken Promise to Black America by Reniqua Allen – In this book, journalist Reniqua Allen explores what it’s like for Black millennials trying to realize the American dream of success, happiness, and freedom. It explores how Black millennials are “flipping the script and rejecting White America’s standards” to forge a path ahead.

Further Reading: BuzzFeed News published an excerpt from the book about a Black millennial and his $100,00 of student debt. It’s an interesting read, especially as a companion to the many, many pieces about millennials that reflect a largely white experience.

Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime that Wasn’t by Edward Humes – In 1989, a mother of three survived the tragic house fire that killed her children. Investigators said they found evidence the woman caused the fire, landing her in jail for life. Decades later, the science behind arson investigations showed that much of the evidence in 1989 was little more than guesswork, setting the stage for an appeal of her conviction.

Further Reading: Humes has written several other books including Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash and Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation.

None of the Above: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed, and the Criminalization of Educators by Shani Robinson and Anna Simonton – That is quite an amazing subtitle, isn’t it? This book is an insider account of a 2013 scandal in the Atlantic Public Schools where 35 educators were charged with racketeering and conspiracy for allegedly changing student answers on standardized tests. The book looks back at the history of disadvantage faced by black students in Atlanta thanks to corporations and policies that undermine public schools.

Further Reading: This case is still ongoing. In October, the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an update after two teachers who pled guilty entered prison, and included some commentary from Robinson.

Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII’s Most Highly Decorated Spy by Larry Loftis – Female spies! This book is the story of Odette Sansom, a British spy operating in Nazi-occupied France in World War II. While there, she fell in love with her commanding officer before being captured and imprisoned by the German secret police. A couple reviews have said this book reads like a novel, which is exactly what I want in WWII nonfiction.

Further Reading: Loftis is the another of another WWII spy book, Into the Lion’s Mouth, about a British double agent who became the inspiration for James Bond.

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. Happy reading! – Kim

Hello hello, nonfiction lovers! The big nonfiction news of this week was the release of Sen. Kamala Harris’ much-anticipated memoir, although the anticipation is really more about what the memoir says about her interest in running for president in 2020 than it is about the memoir as a memoir.

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The Truths We Hold is about her childhood, family, and political credentials, and specifically addresses her past as prosecutor (a possible sticking point for some Democrats). It’s also about “problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times,” which is just so generic and political memoir-y I can hardly stand it.

But, the release of the memoir did get me curious to read a bit more about political memoirs more generally. I thought this piece from Danielle Kurtzleben at NPR best gets at the difficulty of campaign books – they’re delivery devices, not stories; marketing tools, not memoirs; and glossy rather than entirely truthful. This bit is my favorite:

So is it a great book? No. No, it is not.

But that’s not a particularly interesting question, as campaign books are rarely great reads. The question is whether it’s an effective book.

On that count, Harris is more successful. In The Truths We Hold, Harris presents herself as a potentially formidable presidential candidate. Which is to say: She efficiently makes her case, like the prosecutor she is.

If you want a little more on political memoirs, Voice of America ran a story about all of the 2020 Democrats who have penned books recently that was a good read. This Book Riot piece about how to write your political memoir also made me laugh, both when it was written and re-reading it now.

Looking for some great true crime? Crime Reads put out a list of true crime coming out in January that has a bunch of titles that missed my radar. I’m psyched about Burned by Edward Humes, a look at “rapidly-evolving world of fire forensics” and the science of arson. So interesting!

There have also been a couple of exciting book announcements:

• Michael W. Twitty, author of The Cooking Gene, will release a new book at Hanukkah called Kosher/Soul. I couldn’t find anything else about it, but that’s exciting news!
• Karamo Brown, Queer Eye’s culture expert, will be releasing a book in March called Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing and Hope. His co-stars Antoni Porowski and Tan France both also have books coming out – a September cookbook for Porowski (Antoni in the Kitchen) and a May memoir for France (Naturally Tan).

Finally, the release of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix has resulted in another round of think pieces on the idea of decluttering and sparking joy. The critic at Esquire seems generally complementary about the show, although notes “the show itself lacks a certain entertainment factor—primarily because it’s not particularly enthralling to watch people sort through clothes and then fold them.”

The pieces about books have been kind of funny too – a writer at Oprah magazine said she’ll never get rid of her books, Twitter didn’t like the idea of decluttering books, and the Guardian argues we gain more from books than just sparking joy.

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 readers, and welcome to the first Wednesday edition of the True Story newsletter! My plan is to focus the Wednesday newsletter on weekly new releases and suggestions for related reading. Friday’s newsletter will be focused on links, news, and other backlist book discussion – that’s the plan for now, anyway.

This week’s new books include stories of anxiety, personal essays on race, a peek at a vanishing tribe in Indonesia, and a highly-anticipated political memoir. Let’s dive in!

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Kind of Coping: An Illustrated Look at Life with Anxiety by Maureen Marzi Wilson – I loved Marzi Wilson’s first book, Introvert Doodles, and have been eagerly awaiting her second. This collection of comics and doodles explores what it’s like to live with anxiety. She uses her own experiences and stories sourced from her social media followers to create comics that are supportive, encouraging, and funny. She reminds me of a gentler version of Allie Brosh (Hyperbole and a Half), who I also love.

Further Browsing: Wilson’s Instagram feed, @introvertdoodles, is a total delight for introverts and the people who love them.

Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom – This collection of eight essays explores “beautify, media, money, and more” by a leading modern, black, American feminist voice. Part of what intrigues me is the collection is described as “more genre-bending” than a typical collection. Rebecca Traister also called her one of “America’s most bracing thinkers on race, gender, and capitalism,” which is also an excellent endorsement.

Further Reading: You can browse all of McMillan Cottom’s writing on her website. This conversation about race and the idea of the “national black friend” was illuminating for me.

The Last Whalers: Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life by Doug Bock Clark – This book is the story of the Lamalerans, a tribe of about 1,500 hunter-gatherers who live on a remote island near Indonesia. They’re also the world’s last subsistence whalers who survive hunting whales with “with bamboo harpoons and handmade wooden boats powered by sails of woven palm fronds.” To write the book, Clark spent time living with the tribe over three years, learning their traditions and language so he could tell their story.

Further Reading: This is the author’s first book, but he’s published a lot of long-form writing, including a piece in The Atavist about the 1994 whale hunt that’s become a legend in the Lamalerans’ community.

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris – I feel like it’s kind of a joke that people who are considering running for president will put out a memoir articulating their point of view before officially going in. I’m often skeptical of these books, but I still think there’s a lot of anticipation for Sen. Kamala Harris’ entry into this genre. The Truths We Hold is about her life as the daughter of immigrants, her passion for justice as a prosecutor in California, and her emphasis on “smart on crime” approach change communities. The book is a lesson “in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times.”

Further Reading: Harris recently published an essay in the New York Times about her mother’s death and what it taught her about healthcare in America that was adapted from the book.

And that’s all for this week, fellow readers! 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’s episode is all about nonfiction to help with your “new year new you” resolutions. Happy reading! – Kim