Category: True Story

Happy new year, fellow nonfiction lovers! I always love the feeling of a new year, even if the idea of a fresh start for goals and plans and life changes is mostly just in my head.

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Part of getting in the zone for me is choosing a nonfiction book that will help set the stage for the year. In 2018, a year when I wanted to explore new things and stretch creatively, my first book was Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. This year’s first book is Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day by Ken Mogi because I’m hoping to spend time thinking about how the different pieces of my life fit together and help me feel fulfilled.

Have you ever deliberately picked a first book to help set the tone for your year? I’d love to hear about it!

Before we finally get going, one quick piece of newsletter-related news. Starting next week, you can expect to see True Story in your inboxes on both Wednesday and Friday mornings. Twice the bookish goodness!

This week, I want to play a little bit of catch up with some nonfiction news that almost got lost in the focus on favorites and best of lists at the end of 2018. There were some big memoirs and adaptations announced that I think you’ll find interesting, so let’s get going!

NPR put together a brief look at all of the political nonfiction that came out in 2018, noting that part of the reason it’s been such an unusual year for political nonfiction is that so many people leaving the White House have chosen to write books about what’s happening inside rather than just how they got there. The article also highlights the number of books on authoritarianism that came out in 2018 – an alarming trend if ever there were one.

YALSA has announced finalists for the 2019 Excellence in Nonfiction for Adults award. The list has an interesting range of titles – from a YA memoir of Sonia Sotomayor to a collection of stories about Syrian refugees – that I’ll be checking out, as part of my interest in reading more YA nonfiction. The winners will be announced in late January.

Speaking of young adult books, Katherine Johnson, “the pioneering NASA mathematician and computer scientist whose work was integral to the Apollo 11 mission to the moon,” will be releasing an autobiography for young readers this year! Reaching for the Moon will be targeted at middle grade readers, which seems perfect. Can’t wait? Make some time to read Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, in which Johnson is one of the main characters.

BuzzFeed collected their list of best nonfiction of 2018, which is another list that has several of my favorites and managed to surprise me with titles that I missed this year – Retablos by Octavio Solis, Passing for Human by Liana Finck, and Spying on Whales by Nick Pyenson, to just grab three.

Cher is writing a memoir! In early December, Cher tweeted that she’ll be sharing her life story in a book and biopic scheduled to come out in 2020. Apparently she also has a collection of essays called The First Time that was published in 1998. Excuse me while I go search for that one at the library…

The first eight episodes of Netflix’s Tidying Up with Marie Condo dropped on January 1. I haven’t seen much about it yet, but from the trailer it seems like this will fit right in with what Netflix is doing in the self-improvement show space.

If you’re someone who loves lists and data, LitHub has put together a massive collection of the biggest nonfiction bestsellers of the last 100 years, as well as the books we actually remember from each year instead. It’s big, long, and very full of white dudes, but still an interesting skim if you’ve got some time on your hands.

And that’s all for this week, fellow readers! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@rionewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Let me know how you’re kicking off your year of books! – Kim

Woo hoo! Since this is the last edition of True Story for the year, it’s finally time to share 10 of my favorite nonfiction reads of 2018 (mostly, but not necessarily, published in this year). Then, I’ll share some of the submissions that other True Story readers shared via email and on Twitter to round out this extravaganza of great nonfiction. Let’s go!

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Sponsored by Book Riot’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2018 Giveaway.

We’re giving away ten of our favorite works of nonfiction of the year! Click here to enter.

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All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung – Nicole Chung grew up never questioning the correctness of her adoption. Despite growing up as one of the only Asians in a predominantly white, rural community, Chung felt that she was where she was meant to be. But as the birth of her own daughter approached, she felt compelled to get in touch with her birth family. She shares the joy and complexity of that decision in this memoir, a thoughtful story about family, identity, and the stories we build about where we come from. I thought it was beautifully told.

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou – At one point, the young CEO of Theranos, a medical company in Silicon Valley, was seen as the next Steve Jobs. Soon after the company she built fell apart, leaving investors scrambling and the tech industry wondering what they had missed. This is the book I’ve recommend most often this year because it’s just so, so great. The truth behind the company is more bananas than I can describe here, the reporting is stellar, and the storytelling had me hooked from the first page.

Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan – This collection of personal essays about difficult conversations and why we need to have them anyway felt like it had a little bit of everything. The funny parts worked because Kelly Corrigan is so specific in her stories, and the heavy parts worked the storytelling in the funny parts is so excellent. One of the last essays in the book absolutely gutted me in the best possible way.

One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson – Historian Carol Anderson looks at America’s history of voter suppression since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and how new techniques have emerged since that law was gutted in 2013. This book was enlightening, infuriating, and relevant given what we saw happen in Novembers midterm elections.

No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol – When a book arrives at exactly the right moment, it can be a special sort of magic. That was the case for this memoir about the year Glynnis MacNicol turned 40 and grappled with the idea that there was no accepted narrative for her life as an uncoupled and childless woman. It was thoughtful, funny, feminist, and inspiring in equal measure.

Educated by Tara Westover – This book was my pick for Book Riot’s Best Books of 2018 collection, so I’ll just point you there for my thoughts. It’s stellar, read it.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean – It is not a secret that I love libraries, so it’s probably not surprising that a book chronicling a 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library would be among my favorites of the year. What I loved most about this one is that Susan Orlean used the story of the fire to anchor a collection of essays and musings on the importance and social good of libraries grounded in her specific reporting and eye for detail. It was so great!

Never Caught by Erica Dunbar – This book is the kind of historical nonfiction I love, using a specific, under-the-radar story to add another dimension to the history we learn in school. In this case, Dunbar offers a more complicated look at George and Martha Washington, the slaves in their household, and life for African American women in early America via the story of an escaped slave, Ona Judge. It’s a quick, interesting read.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara – This posthumously published book chronicling the search for the Golden State Killer is one of the most genuinely creepy true crime books I’ve ever read. It’s also remarkable for being empathetic, well-reported, and unceasingly thoughtful in its treatment of the many, many victims the GSK affected. Despite feeling a little unfinished, it’s remarkable.

Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride – I’ve had a tough time putting my finger on why I loved this memoir from a young transgender activist so much, but something about it has stuck with me all year. Sarah McBride writes about her work advocating for transgender rights in Delaware, her young marriage and widowhood, and her current work with empathy, intersectionality, and a clear heart. I was very moved by her story, and appreciated her empathy and kindness in writing about her friends, family, and community.

And that’s my 10! But there are so many excellent books out this year, I’m excited to share some of the favorites submitted by True Story readers too.

Alex L. – The Wisdom of Wolves by Jim and Jamie Dutcher and Ghostbuster’s Daughter by Violet Ramis Stiel

Alanna K. – How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee, I Can’t Date Jesus by Michael Arceneaux, and Not That Bad edited by Roxane Gay

Mary C. – Indianapolis by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, and Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Jason P. – Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight, Boom Town by Sam Anderson, The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton, plus several other titles shared on Twitter. 

@shm – Bad Blood by John Carreyrou and In Extremis by Lindsey Hilsum

Carolyn J. – Educated by Tara Westover, Atticus Finch by Joseph Crespino, Desert Cabal by Amy Irvine, Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxis, and The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

Brett D. – Brazen by Pénélope Bagieu

Amy M. – Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper, No Place to Go by Lezlie Lowe, I’m Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya, Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer, When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors

And with that, I’ll close out the last letter of 2018. Thanks so much for letting me hang out in your inbox this year, it’s been a real honor. Happy holidays, and see you in the New Year! — Kim

It’s time for a paperback round up! I love putting together this quarterly list of nonfiction recently out in paperback because it always reminds me of books I’ve already forgotten about but still want to read. Plus, paperbacks are the best way to read!

Speaking of forgetting… don’t forget to send me your favorite nonfiction reads of the year! Email me at kim@riotnewmedia.com or share your 2018 nonfiction favorites with me on Twitter @kimthedork by Tuesday and I’ll round them all up, along with my favorites of the year, in the last newsletter of 2018 next week.

And with that, on to the paperbacks!

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Sponsored by Becoming by Michelle Obama

Becoming is an intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by Michelle Obama, the former First Lady of the United States. With wit and candor, Mrs. Obama takes readers inside her remarkable journey from Chicago’s South Side to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, telling her full story—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same. Becoming by Michelle Obama is available now.

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Garden of the Lost and Abandoned: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Woman and the Children She Saved by Jessica Yu – A biography of Gladys Kalibbala, a journalist in Uganda with a newspaper column, “Lost and Abandoned,” that helps police and others unite lost children with their families.

Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After by Heather Harpham – “A shirt-grabbing, page-turning love story that follows a one-of-a-kind family through twists of fate that require nearly unimaginable choices.”

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton – A memoir by the first woman to run for president, all about what the 2016 campaign was like for her. It’s a doozy of a read.

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates – A collection of essays reflecting on the impact of America’s first black president and what has come after.

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry – In 2011, a 120-foot tsunami hit the coast of northeast Japan, setting off a national crisis and a nuclear power plant meltdown. In this book, a journalist who lived through the earthquake reports from the disaster zone.

Where the Past Begins: Memory and Imagination by Amy Tan – An exploration of one author’s creative life, and how we can all channel our experience and memories into creative work.

Wallis in Love: The Untold Life of the Duchess of Windsor, the Woman Who Changed the Monarchy by Andrew Morton – A definitive biography of Wallis Simpson from her childhood in Baltimore to her infamous affair with the king of England.

Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City by Kate Winkler Dawson – A chronicle of five days in 1952 when a killer smog crippled London, killing more than 12,000 people.

The Only Girl in the World by Maude Julien, translated by Adriana Hunter – The story of a young woman raised by fanatics who hoped to turn her into “the ultimate survivor.”

Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose by Joe Biden – An emotional memoir about the year after Biden’s oldest son, Beau, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years by Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa – The story of Nelson Mandela’s years as president, based on the unfinished memoir he began when leaving office but never got to finish.

Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and My Father, Warren Jeffs by Rachel Jeffs – An exposé of life in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a radical sect of the Mormon Church, written by the daughter of the founder.

The Wine Lover’s Daughter by Anne Fadiman – The story of author Anne Fadiman’s father, and how his infatuation with wine influenced his life and choices.

Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy by Michael Perry – A Wisconsin writer channels the work of philosophy great as in essays about his small town and farm life.

Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House by Donna Brazile – The former Democratic National Committee chairperson outlines what she discovered after taking over the organization in 2016 following revelations of Russian hacking.

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy – Secret stories of women and math, this time looking at the work of female code-breakers. So good!

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty – A mortician travels the world to find out how other cultures take care of the dead.

The Best of Us: A Memoir by Joyce Maynard – After marrying in her late 50s, Maynard writes about losing her husband to pancreatic cancer and what his fight taught them about being a couple.

A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney – Essays on the friendships of literary ladies, and how those relationships influenced their fiction.

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson – A chunkster biography of a great artist, drawing from his notebooks and new discoveries that help connect his science and his art.

Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World by Noah Strycker – One man’s quest to see half of the world’s birds in just 365 days.

Endurance: My Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly – The story of the first man to spend a full year aboard the International Space Station.

And that is that! Happy reading as you close out 2018 – next week’s newsletter will be full of favorites!

Happy December, nonfiction lovers! Now that we’re in the last month of the year (how on earth did that even happen?), it finally seems like the right time to start thinking about my favorite books of 2018 to share in an upcoming newsletter.

I’d also like to hear what books you all have loved this year. Send an email to kim@riotnewmedia.com or share your favorite with me on Twitter @kimthedork and I’ll round them all up in the last newsletter of 2018.

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True Story is sponsored by CEO of the Girl Scouts, Sylvia Acevedo’s Path to the Stars, a memoir for middle graders.

A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia Acevedo’s family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, young Sylvia’s life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science. With new confidence, Sylvia navigated shifting cultural expectations at school and at home, forging her own trail to become one of the first Latinx to graduate with a master’s in engineering from Stanford University and become a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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With that, on to some bookish news and new books!

Bookish News!

Goodreads has announced the winners of this year’s Goodreads Choice Awards. The winners in the various nonfiction categories are not particularly surprising, but all good picks (in my humble opinion):

• Nonfiction – I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
• Memoir and Autobiography – Educated by Tara Westover
• HIstory and Biography – The Good Neighbor by Maxwell King
• Science and Technology – The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

It’s finally official! Michelle Obama’s Becoming is the best-selling book of 2018, selling more than 2 million copies in the first two weeks of publication. The other nonfiction title in the running for that honor was Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward.

The Washington Post’s collection of 50 notable works of 2018 nonfiction is a great list that includes a good mix of serious and not-so-serious titles from the year.

History Today has gathered a list of the best history books of 2018 (chosen by a group of historians). There might be something interesting on the list for you!

Zora Neal Hurston’s recently-discovered book, Barracoon will be adapted as a limited television series by Lionsgate and Freedom Road Production, Common’s company. The book is the story of Cudjo Lewis, the last known survivor of the Middle Passage.

New Books!

Publishing gets pretty quiet through December, but there are still a few new titles that are worth noting this month.

Left to Our Own Devices by Margaret Morris – Books about better living with digital devices are one of my secret loves. I’ve been reading this one for the last week, and so far it’s really surprising. Margaret Morris, a psychologist and app creator, is looking creative ways that technology can help us build connections. But she’s looking beyond just our phones and computers to things like smart lights to augmented reality. It’s an academic book, but interesting so far.

Kitchen Yarns by Ann Hood – Is there a better way to close out the year than with essays on food? I think not. In this collection, author Ann Hood her life-long love of food and how food has played a role throughout her life, from childhood to marriage to divorce to remarriage. This sounds just lovely.

Wright Brothers, Wrong Story by William Hazelgrove – I wouldn’t have expected to be intrigued by a book about the Wright Brothers, but this title deeply amuses me. In this book, William Hazelgrove explores how “two misanthropic brothers who never left home, were high-school dropouts, and made a living and bicycle mechanics” became the first men to fly. The book also argues that the brother we should mostly credit is Wilbur, and how that’s not been the case. It sounds like a good yarn for a cold day.

And with that, let’s roll into the weekend! Don’t forget to send me your favorites of 2018 for a round up later in December. You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, on email at kim@rionewmedia.com, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot!

Hello again, nonfiction readers! This week has felt, to me, like a week for catching up and catching my breath before the sprint to the holidays and the end of 2018. News has been pretty slow – other than the announcement of a new Margaret Atwood (SQUEEEE!) – and the pace of new books has slowed too.

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by our $250 All the Books Barnes and Noble gift card giveaway!

Enter to win a $250 gift card to Barnes and Noble in support of our All the Books! podcast. Click here for more info.

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In the spirit of slowing down, just for a moment, I thought it made sense to use this week’s newsletter to catch up on some of the great nonfiction content we’ve been publishing over at Book Riot.

But first, I wanted to point you towards one of my favorite year-end books roundups. NPR’s Book Concierge is a collection of 300 of the year’s best books recommended by the editors and writers at NPR. I’ve only gotten to browse it a little bit, but I’ve already come across books that completely missed my radar or I’d forgotten about. I love that, and can’t wait to dig in more.

Back over at the Riot, here’s what we’ve been working on:

Curious about the differences between biography and memoir? We broke down down some of the defining characteristics and has some great recommendations.

Illness and death seem to be on our minds. One Rioter shares the books she’s reading right now to understand those topics, and another rounded up five recent memoirs about struggling with illness. On a similar heavy note, here are nine memoirs about recovering from trauma.

Get a snapshot of women’s lives around the world with the most recent edition of The Women’s Atlas. We’ve got some fascinating and horrifying facts from the book to pique your interest.

If you need a break from reading nonfiction, a true crime podcast might be a perfect filler. We’ve got 18 of them to check out (especially ones that are great for people who also love mysteries).

No one likes to think about money, but we all have to do it. Rioter Aisling shares some of the best books she’s read on managing your finances that are perfect for the average person.

This list of 50 must-read microhistories is a must-read post. This is one of my favorite sub-genres!

We’ve also got a list of memoirs by diverse dancers, a collection of books I didn’t know I needed until this post went up.

Want to read something fast? Try one of these 50 short nonfiction books you can polish off in a day or two. These seem perfect for an upcoming holiday weekend. Or try one of the great essay collections that came out in 2018. Or snag a YA nonfiction book that came out this fall. Those are a lot of books you can read pretty quick!

And with that, it’s time to call it a week. Thanks again so much for reading! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot with questions and comments!

Hello, dear readers, and happy day after Thanksgiving! As tempting as all the bookish Black Friday deals are, I’m planning to spend most of the day on my couch watching Hallmark Christmas movies, reading, and building the LEGO Hogwart’s Castle we just bought. It couldn’t be a more nerdy day.

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by our $250 All the Books Barnes and Noble gift card giveaway!

Enter to win a $250 gift card to Barnes and Noble in support of our All the Books! podcast. Click here for more info.

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Before we jump into this week’s new books and book news, I want to take this opportunity to say a deep and heartfelt thank you for checking in with this newsletter each week. The fact that I get to this platform to share what I’m excited about in the world of books is something I don’t take for granted. Thank you for making it possible and worthwhile!

New Books!

The holiday week has been a little bit slow for new releases, so I’m using this as a chance to catch up on a few I missed earlier in November:

First Comes Marriage by Huda Al-Marashi – Huda Al-Marashi met the but she was supposed to marry through an arranged marriage when they were six, the children of Iraqi immigrants living in California. As they grew up, Huda had dreams about a storybook romance, but when she and her soon-to-be husband, Hadi, weren’t allowed to spend time together alone before their wedding, she learns she’ll need to adjust her expectations when it comes to love, intimacy, and marriage. This one seems really charming!

American Overdose by Chris McGreal – “Journeying through lives and communities wrecked by the opioid epidemic, Chris McGreal reveals not only how Big Pharma hooked Americans on powerfully addictive drugs, but the corrupting of medicine and public institutions that let the opioid makers get away with it.”

We the People by Erwin Chemerinsky – In this book, a University of California-Berkeley legal scholar “exposes how conservatives are using the Constitution to advance their own agenda” and puts forward a vision for a progressive reading of the Constitution that rests on the promise of the Preamble, liberty and justice for all.

Bringing Down the Colonel by Patricia Miller – Don’t let the title fool you, this book sounds totally excellent! After an affair with a prominent, married politician threatened to ruin her prospects, Madeline Pollard sued him for breach of promise for proposing and then breaking off their engagement. The subsequent trial gave her the chance to fight back and assert herself at a time when women’s sexuality was harshly judged.

Fed Up by Gemma Hartley – Building on a viral 2017 article in Harper’s Bazaar, this book looks at the idea of unpaid, uncredited “emotional labor” and the toll that having to manage relationships and expectations can have on women. This one strikes me as an excellent companion piece to the books on women’s anger that have come out this year.

Book News!

In truly glorious news, Michelle Obama’s Becoming may just become the biggest adult title of 2018. The book sold more than 725,000 copies on the first day of sales – a number that represents the largest single-day sales for any book by Penguin Random House. Becoming also had the biggest first-week sales of any adult book this year, surpassing both Fear by Bob Woodward and A Higher Loyalty by James Comey. Huzzah!

If you’re trying to make sense of all the Trump, 2016 election, and contemporary political books that are in the world right now, take a gander through Trump’s Terrible Presidency Book Club, an excellent round-up of some political books worth reading from the last couple of years).

Everyone loves to put out best of the year lists, including the scholars at the Smithsonian. This list of their favorites is a real treat, and includes some familiar faces (The Library Book by Susan Orlean) and new-to-me titles (Light of the Stars by Adam Frank – aliens!).

If you’re not still full of food from Thanksgiving yesterday, then maybe some food writing is in order. Over at Book Riot, we’ve recently shared 25 of the best cookbooks of 2018 or 20+ of the best food books of 2018. My TBR is toppling.

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot with questions and comments!

Hello hello, nonfiction readers! This week marks the publication of another book that might be the biggest nonfiction release of 2018 – Becoming by Michelle Obama.

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Sponsored by Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom by Ariel Burger.

The world remembers Elie Wiesel—Nobel laureate, activist, and author of more than forty books—as a great humanist. He passed away in July of 2016. Now, in Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, we see him as never before—not only as an extraordinary human being, but as a master teacher. Written by Wiesel’s devoted protégé and friend, Ariel Burger, Witness takes us inside the classroom, where listening and storytelling keep memory alive. Witness provides a front row seat to these lessons in compassion, teaching us that listening to a witness, makes us all witnesses. In this book, Wiesel’s legacy lives on.

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According to Barnes and Noble, the former First Lady’s memoir sold more preorders than any other adult title since Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman in 2015. Oprah also selected the book for her next book club pick. On Tuesday, Oprah also helped kick off Obama’s enormous fall book tour in front of a sold-out crowd of 14,000 people in Chicago. Obama also signed books at 57th Street Books, a community bookstore on Chicago’s south side.

“It seems like yesterday that @barackobama and I were taking our girls to @57thstreetbooks store. Today, I was there with a book of my own. Thanks to everyone who braved the cold and stopped by. #IAmBecoming” — From Michelle Obama’s Instagram

I have to say, I am just over-the-moon delighted by this news. I am so happy that the biggest publishing story of this year isn’t going to be our current president (even if one of the major pre-release headlines from Becoming was that Obama criticized Trump for his advocacy of birtherism). I love that we’re finally hearing from Obama after she had to spend so many years holding herself back. It’s just so inspiring. A few other links of note:

• NPR has two excerpts from the audio of the book, which I enjoyed listening to while I was waiting for my pre-ordered audiobook to arrive.
• USA Today shares five behind-the-scenes moments from the book, including a charming anecdote about another one of my favorites, Queen Elizabeth II.
• Bustled rounded up 15 inspiring quotes from the book.
• The 2 Dope Queens podcast officially signed off with an extended interview with Obama.
• Barack Obama’s Instagram post about his wife’s book is so charming.
• And at Book Riot, we updated our guide to Obama memoirs and books with a few details about Becoming.

That seems like enough for now, although I imagine you’ll see a lot more about the book around Book Riot in the next few weeks – it seems like just about every editor and writer has a copy of this one. Now, let’s round out this newsletter with a few more bookish news stories from the last few weeks:

Last week, Amazon announced their 10 best books of 2018. In the top ten, there were three nonfiction selections – Educated by Tara Westover, Indianapolis by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic, and The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú. I loved Educated, liked The Line Becomes a River, and haven’t read Indianapolis. If you keep going into the top 20, which is how Amazon has it listed on their website, you’ll find four more nonfiction titles, including one of my favorites, Bad Blood by John Carreyrou.

Publishers Weekly also put out their top books of 2018, which is another pretty interesting (and long) list. I like that they don’t pull nonfiction apart too much for that one, it makes for a list that should have something for everyone.

Barack and Michelle Obama have purchased the rights to The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis, the first purchase as part of their development deal with Netflix. The book, which I think I will finally get from the library this week, “follows the chaos and mismanagement that ensued in the departments of Energy, Agriculture and Commerce in the handoff from President Barack Obama to President Donald Trump.” Lewis has had several of his books turned into films – Moneyball, The Big Short, and The Blind Side – so there’s precedent for turning these kinds of data-driven deep dives into compelling movies.

I’m starting to really like B&N Reads monthly nonfiction lists – I appreciate that they pull together new releases and new in paperback titles. This month, they’ve got new history titles, and new memoirs and biographies.

And with that, I’ll sign off by wishing you the happiest of weekends! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot with questions and comments!

It seems like the rest of the big new books of 2018 are packed into the first two weeks of November. Between that and bookish best of the year lists, news will be plentiful all the way until Christmas.

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Sponsored by In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent’s Relentless Pursuit of the Nation’s Worst Predators (BenBella Books, Inc.)

Recommended by the New York Times Book Review, In the Name of the Children is 30-year FBI veteran Jeffrey Rinek’s personal, harrowing account of what it takes—and what it costs—to try to keep our children safe and to bring to justice those who prey on society’s most vulnerable victims. Rinek and his coauthor award-winning writer Marilee Strong captivate readers with stories from horrific investigations, including the notorious Yosemite Park murders, as he faces predators and elicits confessions from those who kidnap and kill through a unique empathy-based approach.

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To kick off the home stretch of 2018, I’ve got eight new November releases out this week, so you can get them in your hot little hands right now!

The Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome by Venki Ramakrishnan – “An insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases” as well as a personal story about one man’s scientific journey.

The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong – “In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons when in fact they should have been on anti-psychotic meds.”

How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and If You Don’t by Lane Moore – A former editor at Cosmopolitan and comedy show host writes about what it’s been like to live a life mostly alone in a memoir that’s “powerful and entertaining journey in all its candor, anxiety, and ultimate acceptance—with humor always her bolstering force and greatest gift.”

Faking It: The Lies Women Tell About Sex–And the Truths They Reveal by Lux Alptraum – When we talk about sex, we talk about women as mysterious, deceptive, and—above all— untrustworthy. … But where does this assumption come from?” In this book, a sex educator “tackles the topic of seemingly dishonest women; investigating whether women actually lie, and what social situations might encourage deceptions both great and small.”

An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere by Mikita Brottman – After seeing a ‘Missing’ poster with a sepia-toned photography of a man dressed in a bow tie and a tuxedo, Mikita Brottman spent a decade “sifting through the details of the missing man’s life and disappearance, and his purported suicide by jumping from the roof of her own apartment building, the Belvedere.”

In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum – Journalist Marie Colvin was killed in an artillery attack in Syria in 2012 at just 56 years old. In this book, a fellow reporter offers an investigation into Colvin’s life and death “based on exclusive access to her intimate diaries from age thirteen to her death, interviews with people from every corner of her life, and impeccable research.”

Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts – A chunkster biography of Winston Churchill based on “exclusive access to extensive new material: transcripts of War Cabinet meetings, diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs from Churchill’s contemporaries.”

Why Religion? A Personal Story by Elaine Pagels – “Why is religion still around in the twenty-first century? Why do so many still believe? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not?”

Hooray, new nonfiction! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot with questions and comments! Happy reading!

It’s official, the season of bookish awards and “best of the year” lists has begun! This week, the winners of the 2018 Kirkus Prizes were announced – congrats to Rebecca Solnit, who won for Call Them by Their True Names. According to NPR, “Each winning book nets $50,000 for the folks behind it, along with the slightly less tangible — though surely no less rewarding — laurels of recognition.”

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Voting has also opened in the Goodreads Choice Awards, which is celebrating a decade of readers choice award giving. I still haven’t really figured out how they slice and dice all of the nonfiction up, but I was interested in a new category, Best of the Best, which will pick the top books among winners over the last 10 years. There are some great nonfiction books in that category, including some of my favorites like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and Quiet by Susan Cain.

And with that, on to some more bookish news and some newish books!

News Stories That Made Me Go 🤔

Lena Dunham has been tapped to write the script for a big screen adaptation of A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming. The book is the true story of Doaa Al Zamel, a 19-year-old Syrian refugee who stayed afloat on an inflatable ring with two little girls for four days after the ship they were on sank. It sound like an incredible story, but hearing that Dunham is writing the adaptation feels squicky for some reason I can’t quite place.

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have signed on to direct and star in an adaptation of David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon. I’m not at all surprised this is getting adapted, but I hope the script veers away from a story about saviors from the FBI and focuses instead on the truly unsettling story of the Osage Nation and the conspiracy behind their murders. A friend and I thought it could make a genuinely creepy horror movie if they go that route.

This last one is 🤔 in a good way. Turns out that each fall Goldman Sachs puts out a reading list that includes “a diverse collection of thought-provoking books you won’t want to put down.” Maybe I’m a cynic, but I was genuinely surprised at how diverse and interesting it is – a cool mix of fiction and nonfiction that doesn’t track to the business books I was expecting. The pictures in it made me smile too – so many ebook readers!

New Books!

Minding the Store by Julie Gaines and Ben Lenovtiz – This nonfiction comic is the story of Fishs Eddy, an iconic housewares shop in New York City. Gaines, one of the co-founders and co-owners of the store, recounts “the ups and downs … of starting a family business, starting a family, and staying true to one’s path while trying to make it in the Big City.”

Well-Read Black Girl by Glory Edim – This collection of essays by black women writers is all about “the importance of recognizing ourselves in literature.” The list of contributors is amazing: Jesmyn Ward, Gabourey Sidibe, Tayari Jones, Morgan Jerkins and more. Wow, that sounds good.

The White Darkness by David Grann – In 2015 Henry Worsely, a British special forces officer, set out to recreate Ernest Shackleton’s solo attempt to cross Antarctica on foot This one feels a little like a cheat because Grann originally wrote the story for the New Yorker, but I feel like the illustrated print edition is going to be a great book to give as a gift this year.

And with that, it’s a wrap on this week’s newsletter. I hope you had an awesome Halloween, and an even more awesome time falling back this weekend. I can’t decide if I’m going to use the extra hour to sleep or read, but either way it’ll be great. You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot with questions and comments!

Happy end of October, fellow readers! The cooler weather and shorter days are definitely inspiring me to read more, which is good because I have a lot of 2018 titles I still want to finish this year. This week, I’ve got 10 more October nonfiction releases you’ll want to add to your TBR ASAP. Enjoy!

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Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon – A novelist “explores 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.”

Lab Rats by Dan Lyons – “At a time of soaring corporate profits and plenty of HR lip service about ‘wellness,’ millions of workers are deeply unhappy. Why did work become so miserable? Who is responsible? And does any company have a model for doing it right?” To find out, Dan Lyons immerses himself in the world of “management science” and how the practices of technology power brokers has affected our work relationships.

Nine Pints by Rose George – “An eye-opening exploration of blood, the life giving substance with the power of taboo, the value of diamonds, and the promise of breakthrough science.” I got so excited about this one, I went out and bought it on Tuesday.

Let It Bang by R.J. Young – A young black man accepts the gift of a Glock from his white, gun-loving father-in-law. “Despite, or because of, the racial rage and fear he experiences among white gun owners, Young determines to get good, really good, with a gun,” eventually becoming an NRA-certified pistol instructor.

I’ll Be There for You by Kelsey Miller – A definitive retrospective on the show Friends, combining “interviews, history and behind-the-scenes anecdotes to offer a critical analysis of how a sitcom about six twentysomethings changed television forever.” This looks so delightful.

Well-Read Black Girl by Glory Edim – A collection of essays by black women writers – Jesmyn Ward, Jacqueline Woodson, Tayari Jones, and more – intended “to shine a light on how we search for ourselves in literature, and how important it is that everyone can find themselves there.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Jane Sherron de Hart – A comprehensive and “revelatory” biography about the private, public, legal, and philosophical life of the Notorious RBG herself. The book explores “central experiences that crucially shaped Ginsburg’s passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, (and) her meticulous jurisprudence.”

I Might Regret This by Abbi Jacobson – A collection of “essays, drawings, vulnerabilities, and other stuff” from the co-creator and co-star of Broad City that will let readers “feel like they’re in the passenger seat on a fun and, ultimately, inspiring journey.”

Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson – Another essay collection, this time a call to arms on a wide range of topics – “giving feminism a tough love talk in hopes it can become more intersectional; telling society’s beauty standards to kick rocks; and demanding that toxic masculinity close its mouth and legs.”

Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott – A new book by Anne Lamott is always something to celebrate. In this one, “Lamott calls for each of us to rediscover the nuggets of hope and wisdom that are buried within us that can make life sweeter than we ever imagined.”

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You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot with questions and comments!