The shortest month of the year is filled with page-turning narrative nonfiction, new perspectives on history, revealing memoirs and politics, politics, politics. Happy reading!
Peak Picks.
Floret Farm’s a Year in Flowers celebrates the beauty of flower arranging from Washington’s family farm of the same name. Poet Cathy Hong Park unpacks the complexities of Asian American identity in Minor Feelings. And advice columnist Daniel Mallory Ortberg merges literary essays with memoir about his transgender journey in Something That May Shock & Discredit You.
Politics.
Craig Fehrman explores the lives of presidents through their own books in Author in Chief while Ben Cohen chronicles the highest court’s rightward swing in Supreme Inequality. Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne gives progressives and moderates hope this election year in Code Red and former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer offers Democrats a playbook to win in 2020 in Untrumping America. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat offers prescriptions for what ails us in The Decadent Society. In Dark Towers, David Enrich exposes the links between Deutsche Bank and Donald Trump, and Jill Wine-Banks looks back at her role as a special prosecutor during Nixon’s obstruction of justice trial in Watergate Girl.
History.
In the latest entry in the Revisioning American History series, Daina Ramey Berry looks at the complex legacy of African American women in A Black Women’s History of the United States, while investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell recounts how Klansman were convicted of cold cases in Race Against Time. Winston Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister is explored in gripping detail in The Splendid & the Vile, the latest by bestselling author Erik Larson, and Arianna Neumann uncovers her father’s experience in Auschwitz in When Time Stopped. Julian Barnes revisits the Belle Epoque through the eyes of pioneering surgeon Samuel Pozzi in The Man in the Red Coat. Finally, Alexis Coe takes a fresh look at the life of George Washington and disproves the notion that “presidential biographies [are] just for dads” in You Never Forget Your First.
Self Improvement.
Philippa Perry gives new moms and dads essential advice in The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read; blogger Kristina Kuzmic uses humor to give new mothers confidence in Hold On But Don’t Hold Still. Dr. Jeffrey Rediger investigates the little understood phenomenon of spontaneous healing in Cured. Mark Hyman’s latest, Food Fix gives readers the tools to eating for better health and for the health of the planet, and Bryant Terry (Afro-Vegan) presents soul-centric 100 vegan recipes in Vegetable Kingdom. Feeling burned out at work? William Burnett’s latest, Designing Your Work Life, helps readers find meaning and satisfaction in the workplace. And personal finance guru Suze Orman returns with some straight talk with The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+, her first new book in almost ten years.
Current Events.
Women are front and center this month: Mikki Kendall goes beyond mainstream feminism to give voice to women of color in Hood Feminism; Adrienne Miller’s memoir In the Land of Men recounts her years as a young woman in the male-dominated publishing industry, and her indefinable relationship with David Foster Wallace. In A Map is Only One Story, twenty writers contribute essays on the immigrant experience, while Steven Levy goes behind the scenes for a revealing portrait of Facebook.
Nonfiction that Reads like Fiction.
Looking for a page turner? Look no further than these titles. In The Adventurer’s Son, Roman Dial searches for his son, missing on a solo hike in a remote Costa Rican rainforest. Kate Winkler Dawson looks at the life of Edward Oscar Heinrich – American Sherlock – who launched a new way of conducting criminal investigations. Joshua Hammer (The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu) tracks the life of a rare egg thief and the wildlife investigator on his tail in The Falcon Thief. Mara Hvistendahl’s investigation into the arrest of three Chinese scientists in a cornfield leads to a tale of industrial espionage in The Scientist & The Spy. And Sierra Crane Murdoch introduces us to Lissa Yellowbird, who investigates a murder on her reservation in the true crime chronicle Yellow Bird.
Memoirs.
Two extraordinarily revealing memoirs are being released this month. Beloved actress Diane Keaton discloses her relationship with her troubled, mentally ill sibling in Brother & Sister. Meanwhile in Open Book, pop singer Jessica Simpson documents her struggles with sexual abuse, alcohol and pills, and relationships with Nick Lachey and John Mayer. And R. Eric Thomas’s stories about the challenges of being a gay Black Christian will have you laughing all the way through Here For It.
Big Ideas.
Looking for something to sink your teeth into? Look no further than these two titles. In Until the End of Time, physicist Brian Greene (The Elegant Universe) takes readers on a journey from the Big Bang to the deepest reaches of the future. And in When My Time Comes, beloved radio host Diane Rehm champions our right to die on our own terms after critiquing arguments on both sides of the issue.
~posted by Frank
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