Category: True Story

As I started to pull together this week’s newsletter, I discovered that most of the books and news I wanted to share with you all fit into a theme – memoirs! Rather than fight fate, I decided to go all in with an all memoirs edition of True Story. Let’s get started!

New Memoirs

The Gospel of Trees by Apricot Irving – Apricot Irving grew up as the daughter of a missionary in Haiti, an agronomist who shared the “gospel of trees” to anyone who would listen. This is a coming-of-age memoir about a young woman trying to understand the demands of her faith, the choices of her family, and “the complicated legacy of those who wish to improve the world.”

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Sponsored by Prometheus Books

Combining refreshing candor with self-deprecating wit, this inspiring memoir encourages readers to reach their aspirations despite seemingly impossible odds. Disarmed is the moving story of a young American who volunteered to fight in the Israel Defense Forces, lost his arm in combat, and then returned to the battlefield as the world’s only one-armed Special Forces sharpshooter.

Izzy Ezagui wrote Disarmed with fellow millennials in mind–not necessarily those with military ambitions, but everyone facing life’s battles. His message is universal: if a self-described “nerd” like him can accomplish what he did; anyone can become a hero in their own life.

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Would You Rather? by Katie Heaney – In her first book of essays, Katie Heaney wrote about being in her mid 20s and never having been on a second date. In this book, she writes about realizing, in her late 20s, that she’s gay, and then entering into her first serious relationship with another woman.

 

I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice –This book is a memoir about a marriage and the friendships that can help save a marriage. Ruth Fitzmaurice’s husband, Simon, has ALS, and can only communicate with his eyes. To help her cope with this impossible situation, Fitzmaurice regularly swims in the ocean with a group of friends who call themselves the “Tragic Wives’ Swimming Club” and battle the waves as a way of fighting through challenges.

Memoir News 

Malala Yousafzai is writing a new book! Five years after the publication of her memoir, I Am Malala, the young Nobel Laureate is publishing a new book on displacement and “what it means to lose your home, your community, and the only world you’ve ever known.” The book will include her experiences, as well as those of other young refugees. We Are Displaced will be out September 4.

Lisa Brennan-Jobs, daughter of Steve Jobs, is writing a memoir about “her childhood and her turbulent relationship with the legendary Apple cofounder.” I think this one sounds fascinating, and honestly? I’m much more likely to pick up this book than a straight Jobs biography. Small Fry will also be out on September 4.

Bustle has a collection of 11 new memoirs we’ll all be talking about this spring. While the title on the list that’s going to get the most buzz is James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty (April 17), there are a bunch of others on that list that seem exciting. Grow your TBR, friends!

This isn’t explicitly books related, but I want to call your attention to it anyway. On March 8, International Women’s Day, the New York Times launched a project to write obituaries for women in history “who left indelible marks but were nonetheless overlooked.” They’ve shared some amazing stories so far, and while it’s certainly not the only fix needed to address the lack of women’s stories, it’s a really encouraging step. And if you want a bookish connection, I’d suggest finding Marilyn Johnson’s The Dead Beat, a memoir of her time as an obituary writer.

Over at Book Riot, Danika wrote a bit about the five most outrageously fake memoirs ever written, based on a dig through Wikipedia’s list of fake memoirs and journals. Read the post, and then head to Wikipedia – they’re both a fun dive into lies and lying liars who write books.

Memoir Deals and Steals

And finally, a few memoirs you can find for cheap this month on Amazon:

• In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White for $1.99
• This Is Just My Face by Gabourey Sidibe for $2.99 (this is a steal!)
• The Spider and the Fly by Claudia Rowe for $1.99
• Love, Loss and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi for $1.99

That’s all for this week! As always, find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and happy reading! – Kim

My plan was to make this week’s newsletter entirely about all of the awesome new books that are coming out in early March. But then there was some significant news about Sherman Alexie, the allegations against him, and his awards prospects that feels important to open True Story with this week.

Late last Friday, the American Library Association announced that Alexie had declined the Carnegie Medal that he was awarded for his memoir You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me. Rather than recognize one of the other finalists – The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg or Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann – the ALA has elected not to award the nonfiction medal this year. Shortly after, Alexie’s publisher announced that they’d be delaying the paperback edition indefinitely at Alexie’s request.

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Like many others, I wasn’t especially impressed with Alexie’s initial statement about the allegations of sexual harassment. Although I don’t know what kind of “atonement scale” we should be looking at for all of this, I do think these are some good, concrete steps to take as part of an effort to step back and consider the consequences of his treatment of women and his standing in the literary community.

New Books!

And with that, I’m glad to be moving on to something more fun – new books! These eight books on my radar have all been published in late February or early March.

Broad Band by Claire Evans – I am all in for books on the contributions of women to the major scientific and technological advances of our time. Broad Band is “the untold story of the women who made the Internet” and has such an awesome cover.

Ask Me About My Uterus by Abby Norman – Norman chronicles the quest to discover the cause of her chronic, serious, life-plan-altering pain (endometriosis) and explores the historical, sociocultural and political context that fails to take women’s pain seriously.

Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper – A look at Black women’s anger and how it fuels the impact of awesome women like Serena Williams, Beyoncé, and Michelle Obama. “This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one’s own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again.”

Soon by Andrew Santella – The subtitle for this one – “an overdue history of procrastination, from Leonardo and Darwin to you and me” – really makes me laugh. In the book, Santella offers a defense of procrastination, looking to science and history to explain why we do it and and why we shouldn’t feel bad.

Stealing the Show by Joy Press – A cultural journalist looks as the rise of female showrunners behind popular television series (think Shonda Rhimes, Tina Fey, and Mindy Kaling), and what it took to get here.

Too Afraid to Cry by Ali Cobby Eckermann – “Stolen from her family as an infant, a prize-winning poet recounts her arduous journey to reconnect with the Aboriginal culture of her birth.”

The Last Wild Men of Borneo by Carl Hoffman – Two modern adventurers sought a treasure possessed by the legendary ‘Wild Men of Borneo.’ One found riches. The other vanished forever into an endless jungle.” Dun dun dun!

Shrewed by Elizabeth Renzetti – Based on decades of writing and reporting, this book is “a book about feminism’s crossroads,” exploring everything from why public spaces are inhospitable to women, and how Carrie Fisher is connected to Mary Wollstonecraft. I’m in!

And that’s all for this week! As always, find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and happy reading! – Kim

I hope you’ll forgive me if I open this newsletter with a bit of self-promotion. This week, the nonfiction podcast I am co-hosting with fellow Rioter Alice Burton officially launched!

For Real will be coming out every other week, and focused on nonfiction book recommendations from a variety of angles. In our first episode we talk new books, recommendations for International Women’s Day, some fiction/nonfiction pairings, and what we’re reading right now.

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Sponsored by YOUR STORY IS YOUR POWER by Elle Luna and Susie Herrick. Published by Workman Publishing.

On the heels of International Women’s Day, the celebration of strong women is at an all-time high and women everywhere are sharing their stories. Your Story Is Your Poweris the tool you need to understand and express your own personal story. Elle Luna, bestselling author of The Crossroads of Should and Must, team up with psychotherapist Susie Herrick, to present an inspiring and practical hands-on guide that will show you how to uncover your own story in order to live a more confident, unapologetic life. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Your Story Is Your Power is a personal, thoughtful, motivating book to help you take control of your future.

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You can hear me say “super excited” enough times to warrant a drinking game, and accidentally throw some shade at Ken Burns, while Alice talks vaginas and Lord Byron – it’s very on-brand for us. I hope you’ll click through and give it a listen, or subscribe using your favorite podcast app!

Sherman Alexie and Sexual Harassment

Over the last couple of weeks, the #MeToo movement has finally arrived in the world of publishing. There are a lot of authors who have been called out in a variety of ways, but the one most relevant to this newsletter is Sherman Alexie. Initially, Alexie was anonymously accused of various harassing behaviors, then issued a strange statement in response. This week, NPR published a story in which several accusers went on the record about Alexie’s behavior, while others spoke anonymously sharing very similar experiences:

The women reported behavior ranging from inappropriate comments both in private and in public, to flirting that veered suddenly into sexual territory, unwanted sexual advances and consensual sexual relations that ended abruptly. The women said Alexie had traded on his literary celebrity to lure them into uncomfortable sexual situations.

I don’t have much commentary to add to this, other than it’s another story that just makes me really sad. I do wonder how this news will affect the immediate sales and long-term regard for his memoir, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, which up until now has been widely praised. Before these stories emerged, I would have pegged it as a front-runner for many of the year’s big awards – it was already awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction from the American Library Association. Now? I’m not sure what might happen. This book and author may be a good test case for whether, in the long run, these kinds of accusations will have consequences. More to come, I am sure.

Nonfiction Over at Book Riot

Although the first week of March is a big one for new books, I’m going to wait to jump into March’s buzziest titles until next week. This week, I want to highlight some of my favorite recent nonfiction posts that we’ve been publishing over on Book Riot:

Ashley wonders if we are done with sweary self-help books yet. My guess is no… but I can see why she’s over it.

Ann writes about coziness concepts beyond hygge – ikigai, lagom, and more.

Want brief nonfiction to read over lunch? Emily suggests some short memoirs, available online, that will fit the bill.

Calling out sexism in the tech industry was, I think, one of the early pushes in the current #MeToo movement. Sophia recommends five books about women in tech to give you an overview of what’s happening there. I’ll add a personal endorsement to Reset by Ellen Pao, that one is excellent.

Looking for an essay anthology to round out your Read Harder list? I wrote up some of my favorites!

President’s Day is over, but presidential biographies are always in style. Kate recommends 44 of them to add to your reading list.

Celebrate Charles Darwin’s birthday, a little late at this point, with these books Aimee recommends.

Sad that the Winter Olympics are over? Emma suggested these books to get psyched about the Games, but they’re still good now.

Re-live the 1990s with these awesome books about 90s scandals that Elizabeth rounded up.

That’s it for this week, fellow readers. Don’t forget! There are just a few days left for you to head over to our Instagram account and enter to win $500 in Penguin Clothbound classics!

As always, find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and happy reading! – Kim

Hello and happy March! As you are reading this newsletter I am sitting by the pool in Mexico, hopefully with a margarita and a book in hand. I don’t know what book — I’ve been so indecisive about what to pack — but hopefully it is good!

Upcoming Books News!

I wouldn’t normally lead off a newsletter with announcements about upcoming books, but there have been three of them in the last few weeks that all made me cheer a little bit.

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Sponsored by Everything is Horrible and Wonderful by Stephanie Wittels Wachs

One phone call. That’s all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs’ life forever. Her brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose.

In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother’s struggle with addiction, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation. This compelling portrait of a comedic genius and a profound exploration of the love between siblings is A Year of Magical Thinking for a new generation of readers. It will make you laugh, cry, and wonder if that possum on the fence is really your brother’s spirit animal.

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First up, Michelle Obama’s memoir is coming this November! The First Lady of my heart announced the book, Becoming, on Twitter, and said writing the book has been a “deeply personal experience. I talk about my roots and how a girl from the South Side found her voice.” The book will hit shelves on November 13.

Second, Doris Kearns Goodwin will have a new book out in September, Leadership, that will “remind readers that career politicians can become great presidents.” The book will focus on four presidents that she’s already written about – Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Franklin Roosevelt.

Finally, Dessa, a Minneapolis-based rapper/singer, will publish a book of essays. My Own Devices will feature “true stories from the road on music, science and senseless love.” I was lucky enough to see Dessa speak at a podcast recording here in the Twin Cities, and I can affirm that she’s an excellent storyteller. Can’t wait!

New Books!

The last Tuesday of February was a big one for exciting nonfiction, with six books that were on my radar. So many books, so little time…

Eat the Apple by Matt Young – “A daring, twisted, and darkly hilarious story of American youth and masculinity in an age of continuous war.” Young joined the Marine Corps as an 18-year-old, and chronicles his experience through three deployments in Iraq through a “kaleidoscopic array of literary forms.”

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara – This is a posthumously published book about one journalists’ search for a notorious California serial rapist who committed 50 sexual assaults over more than a decade. It’s gotten a lot of buzz because of McNarama’s famous husband, Patton Oswalt, but early buzz is that the book stands on its own.

Don’t Call Me Princess by Peggy Orenstein – This is the first collection of essays from the author of two other great books on girls and culture (Girls and Sex and Cinderella Ate My Daughter). These essays are drawn from her body of writing, and includes a new introduction and personal reflection on each essay.

Invisible by Michele Lent Hirsch – This book looks at a story that hasn’t been told much, about young women navigating serious health issues during the prime of their lives. The book, anchored by Lent Hirsch’s personal experience, also explores how health issues can amplify the other pressures women face at work and in life.

Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker – This book got some buzz earlier this year when Bill Gates declared it his new favorite book of all time. Following up on his previous writing, Pinker makes a case for “reason, science, humanism and progress” in a time when the world feels like it’s falling apart.

There Are No Dead Here by Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno – This is another big picture book told through particular stories, this time a look at the rise of paramilitary groups in Colombia through three ordinary Colombians, an activist, a journalist, and an investigator.

Adaptation News!

Red alert for the next best news ever! Lupita Nyong’o has signed on to star in the film adaptation of Trevor Noah’s memoir Born a Crime. Nyong’o will play Noah’s mom, Patricia, who was an important figure in his early years before tragedy struck the family.

This one doesn’t come from a book, but it sounds super fun. Tessa Thompson will play Doris Payne, a woman “who gained notoriety for her luxury jewelry heists from stores around the world.” Payne was the subject of a documentary in 2013, The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne.

And that’s all for this week. As always, find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and happy reading! – Kim

Happy last weekend of February, dear readers! This week’s newsletter is a bit of a mishmash – some adaptation news, some upcoming book announcements, and a couple of buzzy nonfiction titles out this week.

Before we get going, a quick reminder to hop over to our Instagram account for the chance to win $500 in Penguin Clothbound classics – I’m super jealous I can’t enter this one myself!

For All You High School Theater Geeks

I’ve you’ve been watching the Olympics as much as I have, then you’ve almost certainly seen the trailer for Rise, a new NBC series debuting in a few weeks. The show is based on an excellent 2013 book, Drama High by Michael Sokolove, which profiles a drama director at a high school in a blue collar Pennsylvania town. I really loved the way the book made an argument for the importance of the arts for all students, and it felt like a real privilege to get to know the teacher at the center of the book, Lou Volpe. I’m a little skeptical about casting Josh Radnor (Ted from How I Met Your Mother) in the leading role, but everything else about this show has me EXTREMELY excited.

John Lewis Writing a New Book

Congressman John Lewis will be writing another multi-part graphic novel, Run, which will pick up where March left off. March told the story of Lewis’ childhood through his work as a student leader during the marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Run will continue in 1966 as Lewis separated from the group he was leading and found other ways to support the Civil Rights movement.

From Political Reporting to Memoir

I very much enjoyed this essay by reporter Amy Chozick about her process of shifting from life as a political reporter to life as a memoirist, and the role that books played for her. During a nine-month writing sabbatical, Chozick split her time between writing, revising, and reading, everything from memoirs to novels. This essay did what it was supposed to do – get my excited to pick up her memoir, Chasing Hillary, when it comes out in April.

Marie Kondo is Coming to Netflix

And speaking of adaptations… Netflix is adding an eight-episode series featuring minimalist organizer Marie Kondo (author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up). According to a report in Vulture, Kondo will be “bringing her KonMarie Method to people who are ‘at a crossroads’ in life, and in need of some sparks of joy. There will be transformations. There will be a lot of decluttering, and each episode will bring Kondo one step closer to her endgame ‘to organize the world.’” I can’t decide what I think of this.

New Books Out This Week!

The big nonfiction release of this week was Educated by Tara Westover, a memoir about “a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.” Get a peek at the book in this interview Westover did with Bustle, book excerpt in Vogue, and essay in TIME.

The other major release that, frankly, hasn’t been getting nearly as much buzz as I expected, is What Are We Doing Here?, a collection of essays by the great Marilynne Robinson. In the collection, Robinson “trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith.” The New York Times called the book “a dense, eccentric book of profound and generous gifts,” which is one of those phrases that sounds great but doesn’t say much. Robinson published an essay of the same name as the book in the New York Review last year, which might give you a sense of whether the book is up your alley.

That’s it for the week! Check in with me on Twitter or by email, kim@riotnewmedia.com, and until next week, happy reading! – Kim

Hello again, fellow nonfiction nerds! This week I’ve got a couple of new nonfiction releases, some great writing from a favorite reporter, and news about the writer for an anticipated biographical film that seemed to fall off my radar until now. Let’s dive in!

New Books! Woo!

This week feels like a lighter week for new nonfiction, but there are two books I wanted to call out:

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Sponsored by Blackstone Publishing

A powerful new memoir about growing up with a hard father in a hard land, from the patriarch of Discovery Channel’s Emmy-shortlisted program Alaska: The Last Frontier.

Atz Kilcher’s reckoning with his unusual childhood builds with each chapter of Son of a Midnight Land, offering readers a realistic look at the emotional price he paid for his father’s dream to homestead in Alaska’s remote wilderness.

“Very seldom do we get windows into our parents’ private lives with such honesty…This book…proves anyone can find forgiveness, love, and even change at any age.”

— Jewel, singer and daughter of Atz Kilcher

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The World Only Spins Forward by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois (Feb. 13 from Bloomsbury) – I’m not sure that I knew I wanted an oral history of Angels in America until I hear about this book, but now I am definitely in. This book is timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Broadway premiere.

 

 

Quirky by Melissa Schilling (Feb. 13 from PublicAffairs) – Yay, science! I’m definitely excited about a book that looks at the science behind the “traits and quirks” of creative geniuses, through the stories of eight people – Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Elon Musk, Dean Kamen, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, and Steve Jobs.

Michael Lewis Goes to the White House

I love a good journalistic long read, so I was excited to see a new Michael Lewis piece in Bloomberg about how Lewis (author of The Big Short, Moneyball, and most recently, The Undoing Project) went “to Washington in search of Trump and ended up watching the State of the Union with Steve Bannon.” I like that Lewis brings his perspective as an outsider to reporting on the White House, and appreciated his pointed-but-factual observations about the people he’s reporting on.

She Persisted Around the World

I don’t usually mention children’s nonfiction, but this book looked too cute to pass up. Chelsea Clinton and her illustrator, Alexandra Boiger, are working on a follow up to She Persisted called She Persisted Around the World. The book will share the true stories of 13 global heroines including “Nobel Prize-winning chemist Marie Curie, globally bestselling author J.K. Rowling, prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan.” The illustrations look lovely.

Revisiting The Princess Diarist

I loved this reflection from Grace Lovelace in The Millions on Carrie Fisher’s last memoir, The Princess Diarist, one year after her death and in the fresh context of the #MeToo movement. It’s an interesting, thoughtful piece.

Da Vinci adaptation gets a writer

I missed the news that Leonardo DiCaprio is set to produce and star in a movie adaptation of Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci. The book is being adapted by John Logan, who previously wrote the script for another DiCaprio film, The Aviator (among other writing credits). Fun fact about this adaptation – DiCaprio “got his first name because his pregnant mother was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in a museum in Italy when the future star kicked for the first time.”

Before I close out this email, quick heads up to visit our Instagram account to enter to win $500 of Penguin Clothbound classics! Check in with me on Twitter or by email, kim@riotnewmedia.com, and until next week, happy reading! – Kim

I’ve been thinking more this week about diversity in books after reading an article in The Atlantic by journalist Ed Yong about his efforts over the last two years to fix the gender imbalance in his reporting. Yong’s name might be familiar to True Story readers because he’s also the author of I Contain Multitudes, a well-regarded book from 2016 about “the microbes within us and a grander view of life.”

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Sponsored by WaterBrook, an imprint of Penguin Random House

Drawing on extensive research and personal insight, Laura Ingalls Wilder researcher Stephen Hines offers the first extended, in-depth look at the faith of one of America’s most beloved pioneers.

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In the article, Yong writes about how he’s actively worked to bring balance to the sources he cites in his reporting after discovering that fewer than 25 percent of the sources he quoted in 2016 were women and that 35 percent of the stories he wrote had no female voices at all. He writes:

That surprised me. I knew it wasn’t going to be 50 percent, but I didn’t think it would be that low, either. I knew that I care about equality, so I deluded myself into thinking that I wasn’t part of the problem. I assumed that my passive concern would be enough. Passive concern never is.

There’s a lot in the article that interested me, but that passage resonated with me as a reader – passive concern isn’t enough to change the books I read and talk about, it takes active work. It’s not a ton of work, as Yong discovered as he started to shift his reporting practices, but it’s work nonetheless and work worth doing. Anyway, food for thought on this February Friday. Now, on to the books!

New Books!

This week was a big one for new books. Here are six that caught my eye:

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú (Feb. 6 from Riverhead) – This book, about being a mixed-race border patrol agent who puts a personal narrative to our current debates on immigration, was my most-anticipated book of the month.

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot (Feb. 6 from Counterpoint) – A memoir about a young woman coming of age on the Seabird Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest.

I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell (Feb. 6 from Knopf) – A memoir in essays about all of the near death experiences of the author and her close family.

A False Report by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong (Feb. 6 from Crown) – The true story of a teenager charged with lying about being raped, and what it took for detectives to find the truth.

Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer (Feb. 6 from Dutton) – This subtitle tells it all, “the evolution and triumph of modern female friendship.” Get this one before Galentine’s Day.

Feel Free by Zadie Smith (Feb. 6 from Penguin Press) – Zadie! Smith! Essays! I feel like there isn’t much more to say.

NBCC announces awards finalists

The National Book Critics Circle recent announced its finalists for the 2017 literary awards. The nonfiction finalists are an interesting group, including a couple titles from the National Book Award list and a couple that are new to me:

• Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack Davis
• The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald
• The Future is History by Masha Gessen
• Border by Kapka Kassabova
• A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford

I’m a little less interested in the finalists for biography and criticism, but you can check out those lists at the link above as well. Also of note, author John McPhee will be awarded the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award. His works of creative nonfiction are really lovely to read, so this is an honor I feel is well deserved.

Trevor Noah is back!

Trevor Noah is writing another memoir! His debut memoir, Born a Crime, has gotten rave reviews all over the place. Chatter among the Book Riot contributors is that it’s especially great on audio, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. His second memoir, still untitled, was purchased by an imprint of Penguin Random House and will be published on November 13 and continue where Born a Crime ends.

Cheap Reads!

This week in Amazon deals, some cheap political and social science reads:

• Why Have Kids? by Jessica Valenti for $0.99
• Literary Witches by Taisia Kitaiskaia and Katy Horan for $2.99
• Across that Bridge by Rep. John Lewis for $2.99

That’s the end for this week. Check in with me on Twitter or by email, kim@riotnewmedia.com, and until next week, happy reading! – Kim

Is it just me, or did January feel like the longest month ever? I’m glad we’re into February, although I don’t want to let the first month of the year leave without highlighting a few last excellent new books and sharing a smattering of news about awards, spring nonfiction, and political books that failed.

But before we get going, I want to remind you about the sweet giveaway Book Riot has been going on. Sign up for our new librarian newsletter, Check Your Shelf, and be entered to win your own library cart. Get on that!

New Books on My Radar

It’s an exciting week for new books. Here are four that caught my eye:

Brave by Rose McGowan – A memoir and manifesto from an actress pushing back against the box Hollywood tried to put her in.

This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins – A collection of essays on “living at the intersection of black, female, and feminist in (white) America. This one is getting raves.

The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers – A true story about a Yemeni American who wants to bring Yemeni coffee to his hometown of San Francisco, but is derailed by a civil war.

The Spinning Magnet by Alanna Mitchell – A history of the science of electromagnetism and the magnetic field around the Earth.

Our General Wins an Award

Carrie Fisher won a 2018 Grammy for Best Spoken Word album for her memoir The Princess Diarist. The memoir is based on the dairies Fisher kept during the filming of Star Wars in 1977, and includes some details about her affair with co-star Harrison Ford. It’s a wonderfully funny book, and it’s so great Fisher was able to narrate it. She was also nominated for the narration of her 2008 book, Wishful Drinking.

Many Trumps Lose Money

According to an analysis by Forbes, Penguin Random House may have lost as much as $220,000 on Ivanka Trump’s 2017 book Women Who Work. The magazine, consulting with “publishing experts” estimated that the imprint, Portfolio, earned about $566,000 from the total sales after paying out an advance of $787,500 to Trump.

More Spring Nonfiction!

Publishers Weekly has put out their most anticipated books of spring 2018 list, and it has a ton of nonfiction to put on your radar. I love that the nonfiction portion of the list is split out into memoir, literary essays/criticism/biographies, history, politics/current events, music, science, and religion – something for everyone.

True Crime is Coming

Michelle McNamara’s chronicle of her search for the Golden State Killer, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (out Feb. 27 from Harper Collins), is one of the more highly-anticipated true crime books coming out this spring. The New Yorker published an excerpt from the book that has my spine tingling already. McNamara is the late wife of comedian Patton Oswalt, who passed away in April 2016.

 

More White House Books Coming

And speaking of books by White House-adjacent folks, former press secretary Sean Spicer announced he’ll be publishing a book to “set the record straight” about the Trump campaign and life in the White House. The book is tentatively titled The Briefing, and is set to be released in July. So… there’s that.

Cookbooks Galore!

Book Riot has been on a cookbook kick lately. Here are three posts to check out:

• I’m an Accidental Collector of Vintage Cookbooks by Daisy Johnson
• 10 Pop Culture Cookbooks to Tickle Your Tastebuds by Jessica Avery
• Spring 2018 New Releases: Food and Cookbooks by Pierce Alquist
• 5 Cookbooks for Newlyweds by Danielle Bourgon

That’s the end for this week. Check in with me on Twitter or by email, kim@riotnewmedia.com, and until next week, happy reading! – Kim

Now that all the drama over Fire and Fury has started to subside, life in the world of nonfiction seems to be getting back to normal. This week I’ve got a couple of new books – one that I’ve actually read! – along with news about the Best American series and an award going to a very deserving doctor.

But before we jump in, make sure you enter our giveaway for your very own library cart! Enter here!

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Sponsored by Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old by John Leland, published by Sarah Crichton Books – FSG

The New York Times journalist John Leland set out to meet some of the city’s oldest inhabitants for a series on America’s fastest-growing age group: those over eighty-five. He wondered: Is there a threshold at which life is no longer worth living? The six elders Leland interviewed took him in a different direction. Beyond illuminating what it’s like to be old, physically and materially, they provided a life-changing education in resilience and joy. Happiness Is a Choice You Make is a rare, intimate glimpse into the end of life, and the insight that can enhance the years preceding. What he finds is deeply heartening: Even as our faculties decline, we still wield extraordinary influence over the quality of our lives. Happiness is a choice we make.

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New Books, Read and On My Radar

The Milk Lady of Bangalore by Shoba Narayan – Woo, it’s a new book that I’ve read and can officially endorse! After years in New York, Narayan and her husband decide to move back to India to raise their daughters. Soon, Narayan develops a relationship with the woman who sells fresh cow’s milk across the street, Sarala. They become friends, of a sort, and the relationship leads Narayan to explore the role milk and cows play in Indian culture. I thought this book was an engaging and funny cultural history of a subject that I didn’t know I was excited to learn about. I wish Narayan had done a little more to interrogate some of the economic disparities that were part of her neighborhood, but that’s a quibble with an otherwise excellent book.

Swearing Is Good for You by Emma Byrne – I am in for a book of popular science on the benefits of swearing. In the book, Byrne explores recent research on swearing – why we like to do it and what it can tell us about other humans. Swearing, as you may have guessed, has a long history, and a range of possible benefits to from trauma recovery to increased cooperation. Sounds like a damn good read!

Editors for Best American Series announced

I am so psyched that Cheryl Strayed will be guest editing the 2018 edition of Best American Travel Writing from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Theater critic Hilton Als will be overseeing the Essays book, and food critic Ruth Reichl will edit a new edition on Food Writing.

Paul Farmer recognized by National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, has been awarded the 2018 Public Welfare Medal by the National Academy of Sciences. Farmer’s name may ring a bell if you’ve read Tracy Kidder’s 2003 book Mountains Beyond Mountains. In it, Kidder writes about PIH and the organization’s work fighting tuberculosis in Haiti, Peru and Russia. Farmer also wrote extensively about his work in Haiti and what was needed to help that country following a devastating 2010 natural disaster in the book Haiti: After the Earthquake. Both books are excellent, but Mountains Beyond Mountains is the more narrative of the two, if that’s your reading preference.

Great Bookish Deals

It’s another week of great memoirs in Kindle Deals. A few of my favorites are:

• Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson for $2.99
• Shrill by Lindy West for $2.99
• As You Wish by Cary Elwes for $1.99
• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba for $2.99

That’s all I’ve got for this week. Happy reading everyone! – Kim

Happy third week of January, fellow nonfiction nerds! It’s been another frigid week where I live in Minnesota, with promises of more snow on the way (you know you’re hearing from a Minnesotan when we open with nonsense about the weather).

This week’s newsletter features a couple of new books to look out for, some new headlines about the book that’s derailed the Trump White House, and a few other news stories that will make you cheer and/or cry. It’s a big week!

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Sponsored by Mulholland Books

In 1901, Evelyn Nesbit, a New York society darling, dined with Stanford White in his decadent 24th Street apartment. Evelyn was given champagne, lost consciousness, and woke, nearly naked, in bed next to White. An acclaimed architect and notorious womanizer, White was 47. Evelyn Nesbit was just 16.

Four years later, Evelyn married Harry Thaw, a playboy millionaire rumored to be mentally disturbed. One night in 1906, a vengeful Thaw shot and killed White before hundreds of theatre-goers at Madison Square Garden—a venue designed by Stanford White himself. The murder and ensuing trial were the scandal of the century, perhaps the nation’s first tabloid murder.

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Nonfiction on My Radar

The Stowaway by Laurie Gwen Shapiro – In 1928, a New York City high school student jumped into the Hudson River and climbed aboard a ship headed on an expedition to Antarctica, hoping that he could stowaway long enough to convince the captain to let him come. I think this sounds like so much fun.

 

Stalking God by Anjali Kumar – After the birth of her daughter, “highly spiritual but religiously uncommitted” lawyer Anjali Kumar set out on a quest to find some enlightenment. Her pilgrimage takes her to meet shamans, visit Burning Man, try transcendental meditation, visit witches, and consult a medium.

Fire and Fury Furor Continues

After all of the uproar over Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, publisher Henry Holt announce it had shipped more than 700,000 copies of the book in the first week of publication. As of last week, there were more than 1.4 million copies of the book on order, and they must be getting to stores – I saw a full shelf of the book at my local Barnes and Noble this week.

If you don’t want to read the book, good news – the story has been optioned for television! But no news on a network yet. If you want to hear a little bit about the reporting that went into the book – including the title that Wolff pitched to the White House – then check out this Bloomberg Politics story. I thought it was fascinating.

Another author who is cashing in on the book is Canadian author and historian Randall Hansen. His 2009 book, also called Fire and Fury, has moved onto three best-seller lists, thanks to the duplicate titles. Hansen told MPR News that he feels “extraordinarily lucky” about the coincidence – “He’s got enough money, but I’m tempted to buy Wolff a bottle of champagne.”

Women Writing Awesome Books

Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the New York Times reporters who first broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse, will be publishing a book on their project. I think it’s great that a solid piece of investigative reporting will be given some space and resources to grow even bigger.

And in other amazing news, Lindy West is writing two more books! The first book will be a “cultural critique that examines how we arrived at this moment in history,” and the second will be a collection of film criticism (date TBD). I’m in for this!

Get Your Kleenex Ready

This story hit me right in the feels… two dying memoirists wrote bestsellers about their final days, then their spouses fell in love. Paul Kalanithi’s widow, Lucy, became friends with Nina Riggs’ husband, John, shortly before Nina died of breast cancer. The two connected through the grief of losing a spouse, became friends, and fell in love. All the feels.

And that’s all for this week. Thanks again for reading, you can find me on Twitter @kimthedork or by email at kim@riotnewmedia.com! – Kim