The shortest month of the year is long on noteworthy nonfiction. In addition to five Peak Picks, check out the best nonfiction that February has to offer.
History, Politics & Current Events
Garrett M. Graf details the full scope of the most influential political event of the 20th century in Watergate: A New History, while Sarah Weinman tells the story of Edgar Smith, who conned his way out of a death sentence in Scoundrel. In The Dark Queens, Shelley Puhak considers the influence of medieval queens and rivals Fredegund and Brunhild; fast-forward 1,300 years to Linda Hirshman’s The Color of Abolition and learn about the “successful failure” behind the early years of the abolition movement. Politicos will have plenty to feast on, including Gal Beckerman’s investigation into the origins of social movements in The Quiet Before; Jeremy W. Peters’ chronicle of how Republicans went from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump in Insurgency; and go behind the scenes with Mark Meadows, Trump’s final chief of staff, in The Chief’s Chief. For something completely different, Dennis Duncan delights with a history of the back of the book in Index, A History of the.
Science, Medicine & Nature
In The Vaccine, Joe Miller teams up with Drs. (and married couple) Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, who developed the first COVID-19 vaccine; meanwhile, Thomas Insel charts a new path forward from mental healing to mental health in Healing. David Perlmutter (Grain Brain) encourages us to Drop Acid – uric acid, that is – to help lose weight and control blood sugar. Ben Lawrence takes a look at the earth’s lungs and the boreal forest moves north in The Treeline, and Thomas Halliday makes history come alive through sixteen fossil sites in Otherlands. Two authors tackle the most challenging of human emotions: Florence Williams examines Heartbreak from both personal and scientific perspectives; and Mary-Frances O’Connor teaches us how our brains process love and loss in The Grieving Brain. And Laurie Zaleski gives readers a feel-good memoir as she devotes her life to 600 rescue animals in Funny Farm.
Memoirs & Essays
Silvia Vazquez-Lavado looks to the mountains to help heal trauma from childhood sexual abuse in In the Shadows of the Mountain, while Stephanie Foo reckons with complex PTSD in What My Bones Know. Tiffanie Drayton comes to terms with the inaccessibility of the American Dream in her new home in America in Black American Refugee; meanwhile, Rebecca Mead struggles with her old home as she leaves America for her native England in Home/Land. In Cost of Living, Emily Maloney examines the troubling (and uniquely American) relationship between health and money. Heather Havrilesky (also known as advice columnist Ask Polly) takes a criticial and funny examination of modern marriage in Foreverland, and Grace Lavery takes us on her journey towards a new trans identity in Please Miss.
Self-Improvement, Cooking & Crafts
Economist John List teaches readers how to make good ideas great, and make great ideas scale in The Voltage Effect, and Stacey Abrams teams up with Lara Hodgson to teach small business owners how to overcome what’s holding them back in Level Up. Jennie Allen’s latest is a guide for Christians to build community in a lonely world in Find Your People, while Olympian (and former Seattleite) Apolo Ohno shares his principles for embracing change, finding purpose and showing up fully in Hard Pivot. Eliza Reid, a Canadian and the First Lady of Iceland, explores why her adopted country is “the planet’s finest country for women” in Secrets of the Sprakkar. Looking for some balance at mealtime? Tieghan Gerard’s latest, Half Baked Harvest Every Day, will surely fit the bill. And from stamping and stenciling to origami to quilling, The Art of Papercraft by Helen Hiebert has got it all.
~posted by Frank B.
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