Summer’s here, and it’s a great time to catch up with some of the month’s most anticipated nonfiction.
In memoir, Andrew Leland reflects on his transition from sightedness to blindness in The Country of the Blind while Kate Flannery explores the line between sexual liberation and exploitation while working at American Apparel in Strip Tees. Beth Nguyen considers her life as a Vietnamese refugee and her relationship with her mother, who was left behind, in Owner of a Lonely Heart; Kate Zambreno chronicles what it means to bring new life and new work as a parent and artist during a time of crisis in The Light Room; and JoAnna Novak recounts how her obsession with a schizophrenic painter ultimately helped her mental health while pregnant in Contradiction Days. Chadwick Moore goes behind the camera to reveal what motivates Tucker Carlson, one of the most polarizing figures in America, in Tucker while J. Randy Taraborelli takes a fresh look at former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in Jackie. And literary legend John McPhee reviews the work he never completed in Tabula Rasa.
In current events, Mikhail Zygar recounts the path of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in War and Punishment; Miles Taylor (who published A Warning anonymously) returns with a new warning for a deeply divided nation in Blowback; Oliver Franklin-Wallis finds out the dirty truth behind a simple question – what really happens to what we throw away? – in Wasteland; actor/journalist Ben McKenzie reflects on the golden age of fraud through cryptocurrency and casino capitalism in Easy Money; and Richard D. Kahlenberg reports how snob zoning, NIMBYism and class bias build walls we don’t see in Excluded.
History buffs can enjoy Jacob Mikanowski’s thousand-year history of a divided land in Goodbye, Eastern Europe; Donovan X. Ramsey looks back at the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s in When Crack Was King; Neil Howe turns to America’s past with a hopeful prophecy for how to survive our current era of civil unrest in The Fourth Turning is Here; and Colin Dickey explores how American democracy has been shaped by secret societies in Under the Eye of Power.
Science-minded readers have lots to consider this month. David Lipsky traces how we became a nation of climate deniers in The Parrot and the Igloo and Emily Monosson explores the role of infectious fungi as a catalyst for the next pandemic in Blight. Gloria Dickie looks at the mythic past and imperiled future of ursines in Eight Bears; Nobel Prize winner Giorgio Parisi guides us through the wonders of complex scientific systems in In a Flight of Starlings; and Allen Crawford celebrates the Endangered Species Act with beautiful illustrations in A Wild Promise. Finally, Erik Hoel attempts to reconcile dueling perspectives on consciousness in The World Behind the World.
Music fans rejoice! Kiana Fitzgerald celebrates 50 albums that define 50 years of music that has shaped the culture in Ode to Hip Hop while K-pop superstars BTS recount ten years of superstardom in Beyond the Story. Looking for some help getting through the day? Check out the latest from clinical psychologist Lindsay C. Gibson, Disentangling From Emotionally Immature People, and Wendy McNaughton shares wisdom from hospice caregivers so we know how to be, when to help and what to say in How to Say Goodbye. Finally, Sarah Weinman showcases the future of the true crime genre in Evidence of Things Seen and Terrance Hayes provides visual and literary references on a century of American poetry in Watch Your Language.
~posted by Frank B.
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