The last, lazy days of summer are the perfect time to check out some of August’s most notable nonfiction.
In science, Bill McKibben embraces solar power as the last chance for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization in Here Comes the Sun while Peter Brannen reveals how carbon dioxide made our world in The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything. Dan Wang examines China’s quest to engineer the future in Breakneck and Nick Foster takes a broad look at how we think about the future in Could Should Might Don’t.
In history, Garrett M. Graff presents an oral history of the making and unleashing of the atomic bomb in The Devil Reached Toward the Sky while Iain Pears tells an extraordinary love story of two unlikely figures played out against the backdrop of the Cold War in Parallel Lives. Moudhy Al-Rashid chronicles life in ancient Mesopotamia as the birth of history in Between Two Rivers and Tim Queeney reveals how a bundle of twisted fibers became the backbone of civilization in Rope. Scott Anderson revisits the Iranian Revolution and America’s hubris, delusion and catastrophic miscalculation in King of Kings. David Baron recounts how an alien craze captured turn-of-the-century America in The Martians and Caleb Gayle tells a remarkable saga of ambition and the fight for a Black State in Black Moses. And Fara Dabhoiwala considers the history of a dangerous idea in What is Free Speech?
In biography and memoir, Disney child star Alyson Stoner details their family issues and religious trauma in Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything;
rapper Kid Cudi shares how a kid from Cleveland found purpose in the darkness in Cudi; and wellness influencer Lee Tilghman exposes the reality of her career in If You Don’t Like This, I Will Die. Author Miriam Toews pens a memoir on the will to write in A Truce That Is Not Peace; Donna Leon, author of the Guido Brunetti series, shares stories of a writing life in Backstage; and Nicholas Boggs draws on new archival material, original research, and interviews for the first major biography of literary titan James Baldwin. Selby River navigates the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting in Hotshot; Amanda Uhle discusses how she parented her parents while seeking independence in Destroy This House; Kaila Yu reckons with Yellow Fever, feminism, and beauty in Fetishized; and from Slutty Chef comes a hilarious, hot, and steamy account of coming of age in and out of the kitchen in Tart. Finally, economist Robert B. Reich pens a memoir of growing up in baby-boom America in Coming Up Short.
In current events, Thomas Chatterton Williams looks back to the pandemic as an age of uncertainty that led to the demise of discourse in Summer of Our Discontent while Ranita Ray confronts the public education system’s indifference toward marginalized children in Slow Violence. Seth Harp tale of drug trafficking and murder in the Special Forces reads like a nonfiction thriller in The Fort Bragg Cartel. And actor John Fugelsang presents a sane person’s guide to taking back the Good Book from fundamentalists, fascists and flock-fleecing frauds in Separation of Church and Hate.
In music, Peter Ames Carlin goes behind-the-scenes to report on the making of Bruce Springsteen’s seminal album Born to Run in Tonight in Jungleland; Jim Newton presents a kaleidoscopic history of Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American awakening in Here Beside the Rising Tide; and Chris DeVille chronicles the complete cultural history of the Indie Rock explosion in Such Great Heights.
Finally, in self improvement, Angus Fletcher helps readers tap into their hidden intelligence and transform their lives in Primal Intelligence; Vonda Wright helps women go strong, live long, and age with power in Unbreakable; Meg Josephson demonstrates how to stop focusing on what others think and start living for you in Are You Mad at Me?; and Arthur C. Brooks offers science-based insights on work and life in this curated collection from his “How to Build a Life” column in The Atlantic with The Happiness Files.
~posted by Frank. All descriptions provided by publishers.