Welcome to June! In addition to this month’s Peak Picks, June is abundant with books in the entertainment industry, along with a mix of the latest in memoir, self-care, and history.
In music, Jonathan Gould takes a look at Talking Heads and the New York scene that transformed rock in Burning Down the House, while Jan Gradvall brings readers closer to one of the world’s most notoriously private groups in The Story of ABBA. Brian Anderson tells of the Grateful Dead’s unparalleled “Wall of Sound” speaker system and the quest for audio perfection in Loud and Clear. In television, stars of “The L Word” Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey reflect on friendship, found family, and the show that started it all in So Gay For You; Todd S. Purdum pens a biography of the man who invented television, Desi Arnaz; and Alan Siegel considers how the golden era of the Simpsons changed TV—and America—forever in Stupid TV, Be More Funny. In sports, Chris Hines taken an in-depth look at the incredible journey of NBA rising star Anthony Edwards in Ant and Mark Kriegel considers the making of Mike Tyson in Baddest Man. Dana A. Williams explores Toni Morrison’s legendary editorship in Toni at Random; Elyse Arons paints a moving portrait of her best friendship with fashion designer Kate Spade in We Might Just Make It After All; and playwright David Mamet tackles a variety of topics from politics to entertainment in The Disenlightenment. Kelly Loudenberg and Makiko Wholey provide an inside account of Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and the celebrity exploitation machine in Hollywood Vampires; Alice Bolin pens a provocative collection of essays about feminism, online identity and the pop apocalypse in Culture Creep; and Thurber Prize-winning author Kevin Young edits a collection of new Black humor in That’s How They Get You.
In politics, Brando Simeo Starkey reveals how the Supreme Court chained Black America to the bottom of a racial caste system in Their Accomplices Wore Robes; Evan Osnos takes a wry, unfiltered look at the ultrarich and American oligarchs in The Haves and the Have Yachts; and Jacinda Arden, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, chronicles her extraordinary rise and offers inspiration to a new generation of leaders in A Different Kind of Power. In history, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caroline Fraser pens a terrifying true-crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond in Murderland while Deborah Baker considers how a city more associated with Thomas Jefferson than civil unrest became a flashpoint in a continuing struggle over our nation’s founding myth in Charlottesville. Lynne Olson reveals how an intrepid band of Frenchwomen resisted the Nazis in Hitler’s all-female concentration camp in The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück while Tim Bouverie examines how the struggles between the Allied powers shaped World War II and the world in Allies at War. Gerri Willis tells the untold story of the abolitionist southern belle who helped win the Civil War in Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster and Bryan Burrough reconsiders how Texas made the Wild West in The Gunfighters.
In biography and memoir, Molly Jong-Fast reckons with her complicated childhood with her mother, Erica Jong, and her encroaching dementia in How to Lose Your Mother; Geoff Dyer pens a coming-of-age memoir about his British childhood in Homework; and Sam Tanenhaus writes about the life and conservative legacy William F. Buckley, Jr. in Buckley. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers explores the journeys and possibilities of Black women throughout American history and in contemporary times through essays and writings in Misbehaving at the Crossroads. And Yoko Tawada takes a voyage to consider the experience of existing outside of one’s mother tongue in Exophony while Catherine Lacey delivers a hybrid book of fiction and nonfiction centered on a series of breakups, rupturings, and endings with The Möbius Book.
In science and nature, Kelly Ramsey pens an adventure-fueled memoir about a woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the burning American West in Wildfire Days; Thomas E. Weber tells the unprecedented inside story of the people pushing boundaries of science and technology to build better weather forecasts in Cloud Warriors; and James Rebanks reflects on a life-changing summer spent on a remote island off the coast of Norway, where his only companion was an old woman who practiced the ancient tradition of collecting eiderdown from birds that nest on this remarkable landscape each year with The Place of Tides.
In finance, Katie Gatti Tassin guides women to take care of their financial futures in Rich Girl Nation while Ray Dalio asks the question: Can a big, important reserve currency country like the United States really go broke—and what would that look like? —in How Countries Go Broke. Finally, in self-care and well-being, Anne Marie Chaker reveals how women can reclaim their physical power and transform their lives in Lift and Sara Reardon debuts with a woman’s guide to pelvic floor health at every age and stage in Floored. Elias Weiss Friedman, creator of The Dogist, shares a uniquely insightful, uplifting, emotional, and informative book that shows us how dogs make our lives better by making us better people with This Dog Will Change Your Life while Rebecca Lexa shows readers how to identify animals, plants, and fungi wherever they go in The Everyday Naturalist. Maryellen MacDonald explores how talking sharpens the mind and shapes our world in More Than Words while literary agent Kate McKean authors an insider’s guide to publishing and the creative life in Write Through It. Finally, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, shows you how to turn your spark into a flame and come alive at any age in Fired Up.
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