Category: True Story

The last week has brought what may end up being the biggest nonfiction story of 2018 – the publication of Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff, an all-access look inside the dysfunction and chaos of the Trump White House.

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We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below.

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Like everything connected to Trump, this story has moved quickly and there are a lot of moving parts, but for the sake of this newsletter I’ve tried to gather the pieces that pertain specifically to book publishing. Here we go!

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January 3: The story began when New York Magazine published a long excerpt from Fire and Fury online. The selection revealed that nearly everyone in the Trump campaign believed he would lose to HIllary Clinton, making them woefully unprepared to step in the White House. My favorite weird tidbit from the excerpt is that Trump likes to eat at McDonald’s because he’s afraid of being poisoned.

January 4: A lawyer representing Trump sent a legal notice to Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt, demanding that the company “cease and desist” from publishing the book, and threatened the publisher with a libel suit. Henry Holt responded by moving up the publication date of the book to January 5.

January 8: A lawyer representing the publisher then responded to the letter with a resounding no, noting that the publishing would not stop publishing, issue a retraction, or grant an apology. John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan (the company that owns Henry Holt) sent a letter to all employees explaining the decision to move forward with the book. Woo, First Amendment!

All of the attention has resulted in record sales of the book. Sargent told the Washington Post the publisher has orders for more than a million hardcover copies, “making it the fastest-selling nonfiction book in Henry Holt’s 151-year history.” The book is sold out in print basically everywhere, so the ebook and audiobook are doing well.

Whether Fire and Fury is good, rather than just a collection of insider gossip, remains to be seen. A critic I trust, Alyssa Rosenberg, has already given the book a big thumbs down, calling it “a real slog to get through.” But I can’t imagine the quality will affect sales that much anyway. Personally, I’m not all that keen on reading it – I’m hoping an intrepid reporter will just pull out the juiciest bits and publish them online so I can hear the bad news without having to immerse myself in the chaos. I’m curious though, are any of you planning to read Fire and Fury? Anyone have a copy yet?

Other New Books to Watch For

The buzz around Fire and Fury and the news it’s generated has sort of taken over the world, but there are a couple of books out this week I want to bring to your attention.

My Friend Fear by Meera Lee Patel – I feel like I’ve seen Patel’s first book, a journal called Start Where You Are, almost everywhere and always think about buying it. My Friend Fear is a sort of companion, exploring questions about listening to our fears and following them towards a most fulfilling life. The book is a beautiful mix of writing, watercolors, and quotes that I’m looking forward to digging into.

The Unsettlers by Mark Sundeen – The start of the year always makes me want to throw away all of my stuff and start from scratch. In The Unsettlers (now out in paperback), Sundeen profiles people who have made decisions like that, to step away from the rush of modern life for lives of “radical simplicity.” The book is pitched as a work of immersive journalism, so I’m pretty sold.

Cheap Reads

This week, I’ve got some Kindle deals that I hope will help give you some inspiration and guidance to start off the new year on the right foot:

• Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson for $2.99
• Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes for $1.99
• Shrill by Lindy West for $2.99
• Manage Your Day-to-Day, edited by Jocelyn Glei for $1.99

And that’s all for this week! Connect with me on Twitter @kimthedork or by email at kim@riotnewmedia.com. Thanks for reading – Kim

Happy New Year, nonfiction readers! I hope your holidays were filled with books, booze, and exactly the amount of family time that you desired. My family has mostly given up on buying books for me, but I did find one great title under the Christmas tree – The Dragon Behind the Glass by Emily Voigt, a “true story of power, obsession, and the world’s most coveted fish,” the dragon fish. I’m pretty psyched about the topic, and being able to count it as a book of true crime for the 2018 Read Harder Challenge.

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TarcherPerigee, publisher of My Friend Fear by Meera Lee Patel

From the bestselling author of Start Where You Are comes a vibrantly inspiring look at making peace with fear–to become our truest selves.

On the heels of her bestselling journal Start Where You Are, author and illustrator Meera Lee Patel takes us deeper into her artistic vision and emotional journey in this stunning new four-color book. A mix of personal reflections, inspirational quotes, questions for reflection, and breathtaking watercolor visuals, My Friend Fear asserts that having big fear is an opportunity to make big changes and to discover the remarkable potential inside ourselves.

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For this week’s newsletter, I wanted to do another roundup of recent nonfiction favorites now out in paperback, plus share a couple of reading lists to help you with your new year’s resolutions.

Victoria: The Queen by Victoria Baird – This epic biography, one of my favorite books of 2017, looks at Queen Victoria’s life as a young woman, wife, mother, and queen.

Revolution for Dummies by Bassem Youssef – “The Jon Stewart of the Arabic World” writes about his path from heart surgeon to political satirist.

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin – This buzzy biography explores the life and literary influences of one of my favorite dark literary geniuses.

The Girl at the Baggage Claim by Gish Jen (January 16 from Vintage) – A exploration of the cultural differences between the East and West, looking at “independent” and “interdependent” models of selfhood.

Truvine by Beth Macy – The story of two albino slave boys who were kidnapped and forced to join the circus, and their mother’s quest to bring them home.

The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel – “How the ladies of Harvard Observatory took the measure of the stars.” Women and science!

Butter by Elaine Khosrova – The story of the role butter has played historically, politically, economically… and in the kitchen.

Pushout by Monique W. Morris (January 2 from The New Press) – A look at the experiences of black girls in schools and the criminal justice system, and how those institutions are failing them.

Bellevue by David Oshinsky – A history of “medicine and mayhem” at New York’s Bellevue hospital.

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong (January 6 from Ecco) – An exploration of the world of microbes and bacteria, and the scientists studying them.

Prince Charles by Sally Bedell Smith – A giant biography about a dude who isn’t going to get to be King of England until well past a normal retirement page.

The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson – A detective story and political history revisiting the infamous 1955 lynching and murder of teenager Emmett Till.

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher – A memoir collecting and revisiting the journals Fisher kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie. RIP, Princess Leia.

Dust Bowl Girls by Lydia Reeder – A Depression-era story about a group of Oklahoma farm girls recruited to play college basketball and their improbable run to a national championship.

A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women by Siri Hustvedt – A collection of essays on “art, feminism, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.”

Reading Your Resolutions

I found two recent book lists with recommendations to help you get a start on your resolutions.

Author Judith Newman suggests books to help you get happy, get empowered, get some, learn how to live, and mind your manners. These all look like worthwhile reads at any time of the year.

And over at Inc., Jessica Stillman suggests 11 books that can help you live a happier and more fulfilled life in the new year. I can personally vouch for two books on the list – Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, and The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith.

I’m kicking my self-improvement reading off with Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, a look at being brave and living a creative life. It’s not quite as practical as I was expecting, but there’s something nice about reading a book focused entirely on affirming anyone’s ability and interest in taking on a creative project without regard to outcome.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks again for joining me this year! Let me know what books you’re starting your year off with via email at kim@riotnewmedia.com or on Twitter at @kimthedork. Happy reading! – Kim

P.S. Don’t forget, we’re giving away a stack of Book Riot’s 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter!

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below.

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In case you missed it, I’ll share the news again – Book Riot’s Read Harder 2018 Challenge is alive! I was happy to see that a lot of the tasks could be completed with a work of nonfiction, but there are a few that I’m particularly excited about – a book of true crime, a celebrity memoir, a book of social science, and an essay anthology. One of my reading goals for 2018 is to actually finish Read Harder, so expect to hear a bit more about that as the year progresses.

Nonfiction News!

Publisher’s Weekly put together a list of spring 2018 memoirs and biographies. There are several good ones in their top ten including a new book from one of my favorite essayists, Leslie Jamison (Recovering, out April 3 from Little Brown).

This week, Ta-Nehisi Coates did what many of us wish we were strong enough to do – delete his Twitter account. According to Entertainment Weekly, Coates was in the middle of a debate with a fellow intellectual, Cornel West. It does seem like that kind of discussion has a better platform than Twitter.

Electric Literature put out their best nonfiction of the year list, which also looks excellent. A few of the heavy-hitters are on there, there are also a few quirkier books that haven’t popped up on other lists so far. Check it out!

Book Riot Links!

Carina Pereira shares some of the excellent biographies she listened to on audio this year – I’ve got quite a few of them on my list!

Holiday party season is almost over, but this list of seven nonfiction books to make you sound smart at parties by Molly Wetta is worth bookmarking for later.

Rebecca Hussey put together a list of the best genre-bending nonfiction of the year, several of which weren’t on my radar at all.

Kate Scott’s round-up of 24 amazing feminist books coming in 2018 is mostly nonfiction, and all of it sounds incredible.

Ready to make 2018 your year? Raych Krueger suggests self-help audiobooks to help you “untrash” 2018.

Cheap Books!

There are some excellent Kindle deals this month for nonfiction lovers. A few that I’ve read and can wholeheartedly recommend are

• Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly for $2.99
• Yes, Please by Amy Poehler for $3.99
• The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport for $3.99

And don’t forget! Book Riot is giving away 20 of our favorite books of the year, pulled from the votes in our Best Books of 2017 list. Readers of this newsletter will probably be excited about Hunger by Roxane Gay, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul, The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates and You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie. Click here to enter!

And with that, I’m signing off for 2017. Thank you so much for reading and sharing your thoughts this year. I’m looking forward to 2018!

– Kim Ukura, @kimthedork

For whatever reason, I cannot get enough of the year-end best books list. This year, more than usual, it feels like time just flew by so quickly that I can hardly remember all of the great books I was excited about that promptly fell of my radar. This week I have a couple more retrospectives to share, along with some more awards news and some Hollywood memoir news. Here we go!

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2017 This Year in Books from Amazon

This week, Amazon released a stellar data visualization for this year in books, based on data gathered from the Kindle and through Audible. It includes the most-read books of the year, the most popular books in each state, and the most frequently-highlighted passages for the year. The top nonfiction book of the year – The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson – surprised me at first, but after I thought more it kind of makes sense. Apparently we all needed to figure out ways to let some of the nonsense of 2017 roll off our backs. It’s a fun page to scroll through if you’ve got a few minutes.

Speaking Of Best Books…

Book Riot’s Best Books of 2017 was also published this week! All of the Book Riot contributors submit nominations, which are then tallied to put together the final list. There are six nonfiction books on the list that have all gotten rave reviews. I was lucky enough to blurb one of my favorites, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul. Check this list out too!

Young Adult Nonfiction Awards

Earlier this month, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) announced the five finalists for the 2018 Excellence in Nonfiction Award. The five titles on the shortlist are:

• Eyes of the World by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
• #NotYourPrincess by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale
• Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman
• The Whydah by Martin Sandler
• The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

Performers Getting Book Deals

Actress Sally Field will be publishing a memoir in 2018. According to the New York Times, Field has been working on the book for more than five years. The title is In Pieces.

Actor Kal Penn has also signed a deal to publish an essay collection in 2019. Entertainment Weekly reports that the book will cover numerous topics, “including his ambition as an actor, the challenges of navigating Hollywood, and his unusual sabbatical from actor to White House staffer.”

And finally, we’ve got a big giveaway to share – a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year! Click here to enter. These books are so good! As always, thanks for reading!

– Kim Ukura, @kimthedork, kim@riotnewmedia.com

Happy December, nonfiction readers! This week, I’ve got five new releases you can look for this month, along with some links to peruse while stuffing your face with holiday foods. I can’t be the only one staring down multiple holiday potlucks before Christmas, right?

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Sponsored by No Time to Spare, new essays from Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin has taken readers to imaginary worlds for decades. Now she’s in the last great frontier of life, old age, and exploring new literary territory: the blog, a forum where she shines. The collected best of Ursula’s blog, No Time to Spare presents perfectly crystallized dispatches on what matters to her now, her concerns with the world, and her wonder at it: “How rich we are in knowledge, and in all that lies around us yet to learn. Billionaires, all of us.”

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December New Releases

No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin (Dec. 5 from HMH) – After basically killing it in the realms of science fiction and fantasy, Le Guin has turned some of her attention to blogging. This book collects together some of the best pieces of her online writing on age, genre, and writing.

 

 

Anesthesia by Kate Cole-Adams (Dec. 5 by Counterpoint) – The development of anesthesia has made surgery a common intervention for maladies of all kinds. But how does our unconscious mind react to being put under anesthesia? Do we really know what happens? In the book, Cole-Adams, shared her personal experiences as a patient along with other accounts of what it’s like beyond consciousness.

Women and Power by Mary Beard (Dec. 12 from Liveright) – I feel like this slim little book would be the perfect gift for the frustrated, political woman in your life. Beard, an English scholar and classicist, explores the origins of misogyny and the ways that strong women have been punished or prohibited from taking power. The book also includes Beard’s own experiences responding to online trolls, which I can only imagine will be fascinating.

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish (Dec. 5 from Gallery Books) – While I’m sad that I didn’t know who Tiffany Haddish was before she hosted SNL earlier this year (following her lauded performance in Girls Trip), I’m excited I can get to know her better with this book. The Last Black Unicorn is a collection of “(extremely) personal essays” on everything from growing up in South Central Los Angeles to finding her place in comedy.

Why You Eat What You Eat by Rachel Herz (Dec. 26 from W.W. Norton) – I’m only a little ashamed to admit that this book first caught my eye because of the donuts on the cover. But, after digging around a bit I’m really excited to read it. Hertz, a neuroscientist, explores the “sensory, psychological, neuroscientific, and physiological factors that influence our eating habits” and our relationship with food. It’s out in late December, so perfect for setting out on those New Year’s resolutions to eat better.

Nonfiction News You Can Use

The winners in the Goodreads Choice Awards have been announced. The only winner in the nonfiction categories that I’ve read is What Happened by Hillary Clinton… so clearly I’ve got a lot of work to do!

Have dreams of getting your #NaNoWriMo novel published? Or just getting started writing at all? Hachette Books has 15 books recommended for the writing life.

The Los Angeles Times released their selections for the best nonfiction of 2017. There’s a little overlap between some of the other big newspaper lists and books that have won awards already, but on the whole it’s a pretty interesting list with a few new titles I haven’t seen.

And over at Book Riot, we’ve got a collection of must-read science nonfiction in honor of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

Happy reading!

— Kim, @kimthedork, kim@riotnewmedia.com

My plans for this week’s newsletter got totally scrapped on Monday following the news that Prince Harry is engaged to American actress Meghan Markle. There’s going to be another royal wedding!

My sister and I love to follow the royal family, and I’ve done my fair share of reading on the trials and tribulations of British monarchs. With that in mind, I want to share two biographies I’ve read and enjoyed, and two more books that jumped to the top of my TBR pile after Monday’s big news.

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Sponsored by Oxford University Press, publisher of The League of Exotic Dancers by Kaitlyn Regehr and Matilda Temperley

For more than four years, documentarian Kaitlyn Regehr and photographer Matilda Temperley embedded themselves within the Burlesque community-a group which continues to thrive sixty years past its supposed prime. At The Burlesque Hall of Fame reunion they found women, at times well into their 80s, subversively bumping and grinding away preconceptions about appropriate behavior for a pensioner. This collection of interviews and photographs is drawn from the dressing rooms, homes, and lives of this aging burlesque community, as well as the young neo-burlesque community who adore them. The authors present an inter-generational sisterhood that is unique and socially significant.

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Victoria: The Queen by Julia Baird — In this book, Julia Baird offers an intimate and personal biography of one of Britain’s longest serving monarchs. Victoria took the throne when she was just 18, after being brought up in a sheltered, isolated, and manipulative environment. Becoming queen gave her one of her first opportunities to make decisions for herself, and she very much became an adult in the spotlight. I love the way this biography shows Victoria in all of her many facets – impulsive teenager, passionate lover, curious intellectual, reluctant mother, and mourning widow. It’s a lovely book.

Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith — Few people expected that Elizabeth Alexandra May would be queen. She is the daughter of a second son who would have immediately lost her place in the line of succession if a brother were born. But then her uncle, Edward, abdicated in order to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson, making Elizabeth the heiress presumptive after her father. Elizabeth, who took the throne in 1952, is now the longest-reigning monarch in British history. The thing I loved best about this book is the way Sally Bedell Smith balances politics, personality, and gossip in the narrative. It’s a smart, warm, generous portrait of Elizabeth (although much less kind to some other family members) that’s worth picking up despite the heft.

Game of Crowns by Christopher Andersen — This book is described as a “compulsively readable look into the relationships and rivalries of Queen Elizabeth, Camilla Parker Bowles, and Kate Middleton.” These three women have very different background, yet each has her own place in the line of succession and the work of the monarchy. I’m really curious to learn more about their private lives as wives and mothers, as well as their differences in how they approach the responsibility of being part of the palace.

17 Carnations by Andrew Morton — This book had me at the subtitle – “The Royals, the Nazis, and the Biggest Cover-Up in History.” 17 Carnations is the story of Edward VII (Queen Elizabeth II’s uncle who abdicated shortly before World War II) and a “bizarre wartime Nazi plot to make him a puppet king.” The book explores alleged affairs, supposed cover ups, interference by Soviet spies, and so much more. This book is next on my TBR – it’s exactly the kind of juicy history I’m in the mood to read.

Links You’ll Love

I’m going to round out this week’s newsletter with a few links that caught my eye in the last couple of weeks:

• Host splendid dinner parties and holiday feasts with this round-up of wonderful cookbooks from Hachette Books.
• Dive into the wonderful world of weird science with these 10 books from Book Riot.
• Add even more books to your TBR with TIME’s top 10 nonfiction books of 2017.
• In sad news, despite a push to get kids to read more nonfiction, a recent report shows that children’s nonfiction reading is up less than 10 percent since 2009.
• And in news I didn’t know, parodies – even fake memoirs – will end up on the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction. SO WEIRD.

Thanks so much for reading and have a great week!

— Kim, @kimthedork, kim@riotnewmedia.com

In the past, I haven’t gotten super excited about the best of lists that crop up at the end of the year — I think they make me anxious about all of the books that I haven’t read and how much great stuff there is out there. But this spring I joined a local book club that reads the New York Times top 10 books of the previous year… and so now I’m super interested in best books lists because they’ll be dictating a chunk of my reading in 2018.

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Oxford University Press, publisher of A Farewell to Ice by Pater Wadhams

Peter Wadhams has observing for himself the changes in the Arctic over the course of nearly five decades. His conclusions are stark: the ice caps are melting. There is now the probability that within a few years the North Pole will be ice-free for the first time in 10,000 years, entering what some call the “Arctic death spiral.” A sobering but urgent and engaging book, A Farewell to Ice shows us ice’s role on our planet, its history, and the true dimensions of the current global crisis, offering readers concrete advice about what they can do.

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This week the Washington Post announced their best books of the year. Of the top 10, five were works of nonfiction:

• Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky
• The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
• I Can’t Breathe: A Killing On Bay Street by Matt Taibbi
• I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad by Souad Mckhennet
• Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama by David Garrow (this one still amazes me… 1,472 pages from before he was even president!)

In general, I think that’s a pretty interesting list. Three are books that have been on my radar and two — Behave and I Was Told to Come Alone — that are new-to-me, which is an exciting mix of familiarity and surprise.

The Post also put together two other lists that will be of interested to nonfiction readers — 50 notable works of nonfiction from 2017 and the five best memoirs of 2017. So many books, so little time. I’m curious to see what the other major lists will bring!

Mooch Ado About Nothing

The time when former White House communications director Anthony was shopping a memoir was almost as short as his tenure in the Trump administration. According to Newsweek, the Mooch has scrapped plans for a political memoir that he was shopping around this summer because publishers didn’t think his draft was very good. I wish I had something smart to say about this but all I can think is… good. (And salute to Book Riot’s own Jeff O’Neal for the punny headline!).

And In News About Books We Actually Want… 

Roxane Gay is editing and writing the forward for a new book is essays, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture. The publisher’s summary of the book says it will included pieces on “what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are ‘routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied’ for speaking out.” That summary is so good, and the list of contributors that Gay tweeted out is pretty incredible too.

Kindle Deals in History

The end of the year — and all of the long vacations that come with it — always make me want to sit down and dig into some good narrative history. Here are three ebooks deals that might fit the bill:

• Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose for $3.99
• A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead for $1.99
• First Women by Kate Andersen Brower for $1.99

And with that, we’ve come to the end. If you haven’t done it yet, but sure to hop over to the site where we’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Entries are open worldwide and will be accepted until 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26. Click here to enter.

Happy reading!

– Kim Ukura, @kimthedork and kim@riotnewmedia.com

On Wednesday, Masha Gessen’s The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, taking the top prize in a category full of political heavy-hitters.

In the spirit of that win, I decided to focus this month’s new books list specifically on true stories written by women that have been published or will be out soon.

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We’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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Spineless by Juli Berwald – I love nonfiction about strange science, so of course a book about jellyfish and climate change was going to make my list. I’ve read a few chapters of this one already and it’s a lot of fun. Berwald’s approach reminds me a bit of Mary Roach, which I like.

The Wine Lover’s Daughter by Anne Fadiman – In this memoir, Fadiman explores her relationship with her father, Clifton, “a renowned literary critic, editor, and radio host whose greatest love was wine.” Fadiman is one of my favorite writers, and I love wine, so I think this book will be right up my alley.

Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy by Hallie Lieberman – This is another book that reminds me a bit of Mary Roach. In Buzz, Lieberman offers a history of sex toys and explores how they went from taboo to socially acceptable. Plus, that cover is just A++

Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking by Deborah Cadbury – One of the things that intrigues me about Queen Victoria is the way she struggled to find what we’d now call work-life balance. As she aged, Victoria’s attention turned to marrying off her more than 30 grandchildren to guarantee matches with other powerful European royalty. But of course her grandchildren had plans of their own, pitting Victoria’s feelings as a grandmother with her obligations as a queen.

The Last Girl by Nadia Murad – In this memoir, Murad recounts the ISIS attack that massacred her village, her period as a slave to Islamic State fighters, and her eventual escape with the help of a family in Mosul. Her story is “a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.”

The Extra Woman by Joanna Scutts – Attitudes about single women are still pretty backwards, but for a period in the 1930s singledom was considered pretty glamorous. Scutts revisits that period to tell the story of Marjorie Hillis and the single women in the city that she inspired.

Mean by Myriam Gurba – Part true crime, part memoir, and part ghost story, this book is the story of Gurba’s “coming of age as a queer, mixed-race Chicana.”

The Newcomers by Helen Thorp – The subtitle of this one – “finding refuge, friendship, and hope in an American classroom” – is what really sold me. Thorp explores how teenage refugees learn English and become Americans at a public high school in Denver with a specific class designed to help them adapt.

And that’s all I’ve got for this week. Don’t forget, we’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Entries are open worldwide and will be accepted until 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26. Click here to enter.

Happy reading!

– Kim Ukura, @kimthedork and kim@riotnewmedia.com

Today, November 10, marks the anniversary of the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter that sank on Lake Superior in 1975. All 29 members of the crew died, and the ship remains the largest to have sunk on America’s Great Lakes.

I don’t normally make a practice of remembering the anniversary of shipwrecks, but a friend of mine, Erin, absolutely loves to read nonfiction about maritime disasters. She sends me pretty regular recommendations, so I thought I would open this week’s newsletter with two of her suggestions for genre classics, and throw in recommendation of my own.

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Build your library with a collection of classic science fiction and fantasy novels from Unbound Worlds! Fall is in full swing, and it’s the perfect time to cozy up with some classics. Unbound Worlds is giving away thirty-two books from timeless sci-fi and fantasy authors like Philip K. Dick, T.H. White, Anne McCaffrey, and Samuel R. Delaney, plus some bookish swag from Out of Print! Enter for a chance to win.

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Her first suggestion is Deadliest Sea by Kalee Thompson, an account of “the greatest rescue in Coast Guard history.” In 2008, the fishing trawler Alaska Ranger sank in the Bering Sea. The distress signal set off a massive rescue operation to try and save the 47 crew members on the ship when it went down. Many didn’t even make it into a life raft, and those who did remained in peril due to frigid waters and stormy seas.

Her second suggestion is Wreck of the Carl D. by Michael Schumacher. This book covers the wreck of a 623-foot limestone carrier caught in one of the most violent storms in the history of Lake Michigan. Four members of the 35-member crew escaped to a raft, which they clung to until a rescue mission could be launched from the small town many of the crew members called home.

And finally, a book that I am reading right now, The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall. This book was originally published in the 1970s, but is being reissued ahead of a movie adaptation titled The Mercy. The book is an investigation into the disappearance of entrepreneur Donald Crowhurst, who entered a solo, around-the-world sailing competition using an untested boat of his own design. His race started out well, but eight months later his boat was discovered abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The book reconstructs what happened to Crowhurst, and explores themes of self-delusion, public deception, and madness.

A Couple of Book Awards

Awards season rolls on, including a lot of smaller awards that seem to recognize some interesting under-the-radar nonfiction. Here’s two that came out this week:

Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso by Kali Nicole Gross received the nonfiction prize in the juried awards for books by Black authors published in 2016 from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation. According to the judges,

This book is a marvel. It accomplishes the very difficult task of weaving together a brutal story of murder while simultaneously creating empathy for the circumstances of the killer – a black woman trying to negotiate her own position in a society that has in turn, brutalized her.

Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein was awarded the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. FT reported Goldstein is the first solo female winner of the award… which seems kind of bonkers. But, nevertheless, good for her!

That’s it for this week! I’ll be back next week with a November nonfiction new books megalist. And don’t forget, we’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Entries are open worldwide and will be accepted until 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26. Click here to enter. Happy reading!

Belated happy Halloween, nonfiction nerds! My two favorite costumes this year were both based on true stories. First, there are these three amazing sisters as the women of Hidden Figures. Mad props!

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Sponsored by Chicago Review Press

Pinball Wizards: Jackpots, Drains, and the Cult of the Silver Ball  by Adam Ruben tells the dynamic story about America’s quintessential arcade game. By visiting pinball museums, gaming conventions, pinball machine designers and even pinball factories, Adam attempts to discover what makes the world’s best players so good. The book also explores the history of the game, as well as its invention, defeat and recent resurgence in American culture today.

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And then there’s this little girl as “that funny astronaut” (Leland Melvin, author of Chasing Space). So good! 

I also saw someone dressed as Ruth Vader Ginsberg, which I found totally delightful but neglected to bookmark. C’est la vie.

Nonfiction Listicles

We’ve had a bunch of really good nonfiction lists up at Book Riot this week (and I’m not just saying that because I wrote a couple of them):

• Love essay collections? Rebecca Hussey has 20 from 2017 that you can pick up.
• Want to try some YA nonfiction? I rounded up 15 YA adaptations of best-selling adult nonfiction.
• Nonfiction for kids? Kathleen Keenan has 10 of of the best nonfiction picture books.
• Narrative nonfiction your jam? I rounded up 50 great examples of the genre, divided into science, global issues, history, classics, social issues, and contemporary reporting.
• Looking for love? Ashley Holstrom has recommendations for cute graphic memoirs about relationships.
• Not ready to let Halloween go? Cindy Butor has seven scary nonfiction books to titillate and terrify you.
• Fascinated by the Tudors? Ann Foster rounds up true stories about Henry VIII and his six wives.

A Bunch of People Are Writing Books

It feels like it’s also been a busy few weeks of new book announcements:

Rhetta, who I love from Parks and Recreation, is publishing a book of essays! So Close to Being the Sh*T, Y’all Don’t Even Know will be released in June 2018. I am EXCITED about this one.

John McCain will be publishing a memoir in April titled The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations. According to the Los Angeles Times, the book deal was finalized about five months before McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. McCain is co-writing the book with Mark Salter, a speechwriter and friend.

Football player Colin Kapernick landed a $1 million book deal, but so far there’s not much information on what it will actually be about. Kapernick, a free agent NFL quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers, made headlines as the first player to stage a protest during the playing of the national anthem. He’s still looking to play in the NFL, but no teams have shown interest this year.

Goodreads ‘Best Books of 2017’ Voting Opens

And finally, voting is open for the opening round of Goodreads Best Books of 2017 project. I’m glad they divide out nonfiction into a few different categories — Humor, Nonfiction, Memoir & Autobiography, History & Biography, Science & Technology, and Food & Cookbooks — but I also sometimes wonder about what ends up where. The Food & Cookbooks category is especially weird — how do you judge memoirs and food reporting against cookbooks? Anyway, pop over there and vote for your favorites — it’ll be interesting to see what shakes out over the next month.

We’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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And that’s it for this week. Check in with me on Twitter and Instagram as @kimthedork, or via e-mail at kim.ukura@riotnewmedia.com. Happy reading!