Good evening, everyone. Here is some news from the world of books, and our weekly look at this week’s notable new nonfiction.
BOOK NEWS
And also, the Palestinians, I don’t know if I can say we’re fortunate, but I think in terms of literature we have a quite extraordinary and diverse literary record from before 1948 up until this moment, and it deals with all sorts of situations: massacres, suffering, hope, liberation, resistance, humanism, all sorts of themes. And I think people resort to this as a refuge from the bleak moment that we’re going through. There are people who are on the ground in Gaza who write poetry as a form of refuge, or to register the moment; as a spiritual companion to their very difficult lives and as a record for the future as well.
A unique creative practice, literary translation has always involved myriad choices. This word or that? Fidelity or freedom? Paper or screen? Dictionary or database? The advent of AI introduced another dilemma: should a text be translated from scratch, or could it be run through AI translation software first?
Unreadable translations of pirated books flooding the internet show that the process cannot currently be fully outsourced to computers. Instead, publishers have begun to use AI-assisted translation. Some European presses work with Nuanxed, which employs humans to edit machine-translated books. The company aims “to maintain the quality of traditional translations”, offering savings to publishers and “market rates” to linguists.
Hundreds of new books featuring characters of color and LGBTQ+ themes were found by the trash at a Staten Island elementary school, outraging some parents and sparking an education department investigation.
Gothamist obtained photos from a Brooklyn book lover that showed boxes of kids’ books left with the garbage at PS 55, known as the Henry Boehm School. Some had sticky notes on them detailing themes and content in the books….A note on “My Two Border Towns,” about a boy’s life on the United States-Mexico border, read “Our country has no room and it’s not fair.” A note on “The Derby Daredevils,” about a girls’ roller derby team, read “Not approved. Discusses dad being transgender. Teenage girls having a crush on another girl in class.” And a note on “We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know” read “negative slant on white people.”
THIS WEEK’S NOTABLE NEW NONFICTION
- One Way Back: A Memoir, by Christine Blasey Ford. On September 27, 2018, Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee which was considering the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. She described an alleged sexual assault by the Supreme Court nominee that took place at a high school party in the 1980s. Her words and courage on that day provided some of the most credible and unforgettable testimony our country has ever witnessed. In One Way Back, Ford recounts the months she spent trying to get information into the right hands without exposing herself and her family to dangerous backlash. Drawing parallels to her life as a surfer, she explains the process of paddling out into unknown waters despite the risks and fears, knowing there is only one way back to shore. The book reveals riveting new details about the leadup to her testimony and its overwhelming aftermath and describes how she continues to navigate her way out of the storm. “I was engrossed [at her testimony]….what I heard in Ford’s voice and choice of words was a commitment to tell the truth.” —Anita Hill "I applaud the courage of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to come forward to share her story." —Nancy Pelosi
- The Ancient Art of Thinking For Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times, by Robin Reames. The discipline of rhetoric was the keystone of Western education for over two thousand years. Only recently has its perceived importance faded. In this book, renowned rhetorical scholar Robin Reames argues that, in today’s polarized political climate, we should all care deeply about learning rhetoric. Drawing on examples ranging from the destructive ancient Greek demagogue Alcibiades to modern-day conspiracists like Alex Jones, Reames breaks down the major techniques of rhetoric, pulling back the curtain on how politicians, journalists, and “journalists” convince us to believe what we believe—and to talk, vote, and act accordingly. Understanding these techniques helps us avoid being manipulated by authority figures who don’t have our best interests at heart. "We’re not the first to suffer from fake news and conspiracy theories. The Greeks did as well--and they found an antidote. In this compelling deep-dive into ancient rhetoric, Robin Reames teaches us their lost art of argument. May it bring wisdom to our media-addled brains." —Martin Puchner
- Illiberal America: A History, by Steven Hahn. A storm of illiberalism, building in the United States for years, unleashed its destructive force in the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021. The attack on American democracy and images of mob violence led many to recoil, thinking “That’s not us.” But now we must think again, for Steven Hahn shows in his startling new history that illiberalism has deep roots in our past. To those who believe that the ideals announced in the Declaration of Independence set us apart as a nation, Hahn shows that Americans have long been animated by competing values, equally deep-seated, in which the illiberal will of the community overrides individual rights, and often protects itself by excluding perceived threats, whether on grounds of race, religion, gender, economic status, or ideology. “In a tour de force, Steven Hahn makes a very powerful argument that illiberalism—and not conservatism, much less fascism—is the best way to think of this country’s long history of opposition to political equality. In the glut of books hoping to make sense of the current crisis, Hahn’s Illiberal America stands out as the most nuanced, elegant, and convincing.” — Greg Grandin
- Did It Happen Here?: Perspectives on Fascism and America, edited by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins. Since the election of Donald Trump, politicians, historians, intellectuals, and media pundits have been faced with a startling and urgent question: Are we threatened by fascism? Some see striking connections between our current moment and the tumultuous interwar period in Europe. But others question if these connections really reflect our current political moment or if they are another example of Eurocentrism and American provincialism speaking over a much more complex global political landscape.? Did It Happen Here? collects, in one place, key texts from the sharpest minds in politics, history, and the academy beginning with classic pieces by Hannah Arendt, Angela Davis, Reinhold Niebuhr, Leon Trotsky, and others. The book’s contemporary contributors include Ruth Ben-Ghiat on the trivialization of the term “fascism,” Jason Stanley and Sarah Churchwell on the Black radical perspective, and Robert O. Paxton on Trump. “Going well beyond the question of who or what deserves to be called a fascist, this unparalleled collection provides an urgently needed examination of American democracy in critical condition.” — Tara Zahra
- The Black Box: Writing the Race, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This is the epic story of how, through essays and speeches, novels, plays, and poems, a long line of creative thinkers has unveiled the contours of—and resisted confinement in—the "black box" inside which this "nation within a nation" has been assigned, willy nilly, from the nation’s founding through to today. This is a book that records the compelling saga of the creation of a people. Distilled over many years from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s legendary Harvard introductory course in African American Studies, The Black Box: Writing the Race, is the story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way. From Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison—these writers used words to create a livable world—a "home" —for Black people destined to live out their lives in a bitterly racist society. “Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. Here, he returns with an intellectual and at times deeply personal meditation on the hard-fought evolution and the very meaning of African American identity, calling upon our country to transcend its manufactured divisions.” —Isabel Wilkerson
- Putin and the Return of History: How the Kremlin Rekindled the Cold War, by Martin and Daniel Sixsmith. Putin is a paradox. In the early years of his presidency, he appeared to commit himself to friendship with the West, suggesting that Russia could join the European Union or even NATO. He said he supported free-market democracy and civil rights. But the Putin of those years is unrecognisable today. The Putin of the 2020s is an autocratic nationalist, dedicated to repression at home and anti-Western militarism abroad. So, what happened? Was he lying when he proclaimed his support for freedom, democracy and friendship with the West? Or, was he sincere? Did he change his views at some stage between then and now? And if that is the case, what happened to change him? Putin and the Return of History examines these questions in the context of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics of aggression: the enduring terror of encirclement by outsiders, the subjugation of the individual to the cause of the state, the collectivist values that allow the sacrifice of human lives in battle, the willingness to lie and deceive, the co-opting of religion and the belief in Great Russia's mission to change the world. “This is a very important account of the build-up to Russia's invasions of Ukrainian territory. Most books and articles on the Russia-Ukraine war are very one-sided; the great merit of this book is that the Sixsmiths take a long historical perspective and enable the reader to appreciate the aspirations of both sides. The authors focus on the defects of Western societies as well as on those of Russia. This is a study that needs to be taken into account when we try to understand the lessons of the war.” —Geoffrey Hosking
- Who's Afraid of Gender?, by Judith Butler. The aim of Who’s Afraid of Gender? is not to offer a new theory of gender but to examine how “gender” has become a phantasm for emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations, and transexclusionary feminists. In their vital, courageous new book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways that this phantasm of “gender” collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction. Operating in tandem with deceptive accounts of “critical race theory” and xenophobic panics about migration, the anti-gender movement demonizes struggles for equality, fuels aggressive nationalism, and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation. “Because Butler is a human rights activist, as well as a theorist, the urgent point conveyed by this book is the same as it is in all their work: why are so many people seemingly happy to give away their power to increasingly authoritarian forces? And why are they so confident that this power will never be used against them?" —Finn McKay, The Guardian
- Woman, Life, Freedom, by Marjane Satrapi. The author of Persepolis returns to graphic art with this collaboration of over 20 activists, artists, journalists, and academics working together to depict the historic uprising, in solidarity with the Iranian people and in defense of feminism.
On September 13th 2022, a young Iranian student, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by the morality police in Tehran. Her only crime was that she wasn’t properly wearing the headscarf required for women by the Islamic Republic. At the police station, she was beaten so badly she had to be taken to the hospital, where she fell into a deep coma. She died three days later. A wave of protests soon spread through the whole country, and crowds adopted the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”—words that have been chanted around the world during solidarity rallies. In order to tell the story of this major revolution happening in her homeland, Marjane Satrapi has gathered together an array of journalists, activists, academics, artists, and writers from around the world to create this powerful collection of full-color, graphic-novel-style essays and perspectives that bear witness. “The impressive spectrum of art ranges from Par Mana Neyestani’s claustrophobic crosshatching, to Joann Sfar’s charmingly loose lines, to Touka Neyestani’s unforgettable caricature of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei strolling into a sea of blood. Interstitial drawings by Satrapi in her trademark, fiercely thick-lined style include a gorgeous portrait of Amini with her hair flowing like flames. The result is a stirring call for change that reminds readers “the art of rebellion is an everyday battle.” — Publisher's Weekly
- Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley, by Brent Underwood. A long-abandoned silver mine for sale sounded like an adventure too great to pass up. Brent Underwood bet his life savings—and his life—on this majestic, hardscrabble town that had broken its fair share of ambitious men and women. It had once been the largest silver mine in California. Over $500 million worth of ore was pulled from the miles of tunnels below the town. Butch Cassidy, Mark Twain, and other infamous characters of the American West were rumored to have stayed there. Newspapers reported a murder a week. But that was over 150 years ago. Underwood came looking for a challenge different from the traditional 9-5 job but discovered something much more fulfilling—an undertaking that would call on all of himself and push him beyond what he knew he was capable of. In fact, to bring this abandoned town back to life, Brent had to learn a wealth of new self-sufficiency and problem-solving skills from many generous mentors. Ghost Town Living tells the story of a man against the elements, a forgotten historic place against the modern world, and a dream against all odds—one that has captured millions of followers around the world. “From the very first page, Ghost Town Living captured my imagination. Underwood's odyssey is a stark departure from the familiar shores of achievement and modern comforts, plunging into a realm brimming with risk, raw adventure, and at times, sheer turmoil. This is a clarion call to delve into the depths of one's aspirations, to court the unknown, and to relentlessly chase the thrill of exploration.”—Molly Bloom
- The Asteroid Hunter: A Scientist’s Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System, by Dante Lauretta. On September 11, 1999, humanity made a monumental discovery in the vastness of space. Scientists uncovered an asteroid of colossal size and immense scientific importance. This cosmic titan was later named Bennu. Remarkable for much more than its size, Bennu belonged to a rare class of asteroids whose chemical composition could reveal the origins and essence of life itself. Dr. Dante Lauretta designed for NASA an audacious project: the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission. The spacecraft spent two years closely circling Bennu, analyzing the asteroid before gathering a precious sample from its surface. OSIRIS-REx successfully returned to deliver that sample last year by firing a parachute capsule to Earth, and now the spacecraft has been rerouted on a new mission to another asteroid. The sample brought back holds the potential to not only unlock the secrets of life's origins but also to avert an unprecedented catastrophe: Bennu threatens to collide with our planet on September 24, 2182. "In Asteroid Hunter leading planetary scientist Dante Lauretta provides a detailed, personal, and highly poignant inside look into one of the most daring and successful robotic space missions ever attempted. What a ride!"—Jim Bell
- Kingdom of Play: What Ball-bouncing Octopuses, Belly-flopping Monkeys, and Mud-sliding Elephants Reveal about Life Itself, by David Toomey. In Kingdom of Play, critically acclaimed science writer David Toomey takes us on a fast-paced and entertaining tour of playful animals and the scientists who study them. Monkeys belly-flop, dolphins tail-walk, elephants mud-slide, crows dive-bomb, and octopuses bounce balls. These activities are various, but all are play, and as Toomey explains, animal play can be seen as a distinct behavior. He follows adventurous researchers as they design and conduct experiments seeking answers to new, intriguing questions: When did play first appear in animals? How does play develop the brain, and how did it evolve? Are the songs and aerial acrobatics of birds the beginning of avian culture? Is fairness in dog play the foundation of canine ethics? And does play direct and possibly accelerate evolution? “It's about time that play got some serious study! And this surprising and uplifting book gives this essential activity the attention it deserves. David Toomey's delightful examples, eye-opening studies, and revelatory insights will fill you with joy and wonder.” —Sy Montgomery
- Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother's Life, by Kao Kalia Yang.Born in 1961 in war-torn L aos, Tswb’s childhood was marked by the violence of America’s Secret War and the CIA recruitment of the Hmong and other ethnic minorities into the lost cause. By the time Tswb was a teenager, the US had completely vacated Laos, and the country erupted into genocidal attacks on the Hmong people, who were labeled as traitors. Fearing for their lives, Tswb and her family left everything they knew behind and fled their village for the jungle. Perpetually on the run and on the brink of starvation, Tswb eventually crossed paths with the man who would become her future husband. Leaving her own mother behind, she joined his family at a refugee camp, a choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Eventually becoming a mother herself, Tswb raised her daughters in a state of constant fear and hunger until they were able to emigrate to the US. Now, her daughter, Kao Kalia Yang, reveals her mother’s astonishing saga with tenderness and unvarnished clarity, giving voice to the countless resilient refugees who are often overlooked as one of the essential foundations of this country. “Yang’s memoirs of Hmong life, traditions and displacement are not just powerful additions to the canon of immigrant literature — they are powerful books about life itself.” —San Francisco Chronicle
- The Observable Universe: An Investigation, by Heather McCalden. In the early 1990s, Heather McCalden lost both her parents to AIDS. She was seven when her father died, ten when she lost her mother. Raised by her grandmother, Nivia, she grew up in Los Angeles, also known as ground zero for the virus and its destruction. Years later, she begins researching online the history of HIV as a way to deal with her loss, which leads her to the unexpected realization that the AIDS crisis and the internet developed on parallel timelines. By accumulating whatever fragments she could about both phenomena—images, anecdotes, and scientific entries—alongside her own personal history, McCalden forms a synaptic journey of what happened to her family, one that leads to an equally unexpected discovery about who her parents might have been. The Observable Universe is at once a history of our viral culture and a prismatic account of grief in the internet age. “How is it possible to fit the whole universe in a book? Heather McCalden has miraculously combined far-flung ideas and stories to show the interconnectedness of all things. Bodies and technologies, selves and societies, histories and futures, memories and speculations—McCalden reaches far and wide, and brings it all home.”—Elvia Wilk
- How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone: A Memoir, by Cameron Russell. Scouted by a modeling agent when she was just sixteen years old, Cameron Russell first approached her job with some reservations: She was a serious student with her sights set on college, not the runway. But modeling was a job that seemed to offer young women like herself unprecedented access to wealth, fame, and influence. Besides, as she was often reminded, “there are a million girls in line” who would eagerly replace her. In her fierce and innovative memoir, Russell chronicles how she learned to navigate the dizzying space between physical appearance and interiority and making money in an often-exploitative system. Being “agreeable,” she found, led to more success: more bookings and more opportunities to work with the world’s top photographers and biggest brands. But as her prominence grew, Russell found that achievement under these conditions was deeply isolating and ultimately unsatisfying. Instead of freedom, she was often required to perform the role of compliant femme fatale, so she began organizing with her peers, helping to coordinate movements for labor rights, climate and racial justice, and bringing MeToo to the fashion industry. “A voracious reader and critical thinker, Russell reveals the complex dance of an industry that punishes even as it rewards. Her story of being a supermodel and groundbreaking activist is particular, but the lessons she shares apply to us all.”—Imani Perry
- Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar, by Cynthia Carr. The Warhol superstar and transgender icon Candy Darling was glamour personified, but she was without a real place in the world. Growing up on Long Island, lonely and quiet and queer, she was enchanted by Hollywood starlets like Kim Novak. She found her turn in New York’s early Off-Off-Broadway theater scene, in Warhol’s films Flesh and Women in Revolt, and at the famed nightclub Max’s Kansas City. She inspired songs by Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. She became friends with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, borrowed a dress from Lauren Hutton, posed for Richard Avedon, and performed alongside Tennessee Williams in his own play. Yet Candy lived on the edge, relying on the kindness of strangers, friends, and her quietly devoted mother, sleeping on couches and in cheap hotel rooms, keeping a part of herself hidden. She wanted to be a star, but mostly she wanted to be loved. Her last diary entry was: “I shall try to be grateful for life . . . Cannot imagine who would want me.” Candy died at twenty-nine in 1974, just as conversations about gender and identity were beginning to enter the broader culture. She never knew it, but she changed the world. “Candy Darling willed herself to be beautiful, and she succeeded: she was uniquely, spectrally beautiful. But the world made her pay for it. Cynthia Carr’s minute reconstruction of her life is brilliant and profoundly sad. As if Candy’s ghost were dictating the terms, it keeps her an enigma, a consummate life actress who never dressed down.”—Lucy Sante
All book links in this diary are to my online bookstore The Literate Lizard. If you already have a favorite indie bookstore, please keep supporting them, but If you’re able to throw a little business my way, that would be truly appreciated. I would love to be considered ‘The Official Bookstore of Daily Kos.’ Use the coupon code DAILYKOS for 15% off your order, in gratitude for your support (an ever-changing smattering of new releases are already discounted 20% each week). I’m busily adding new content every day, and will have lots more dedicated subject pages and curated booklists as it grows. I want it to be full of book-lined rabbit holes to lose yourself in (and maybe throw some of those books into a shopping cart as well.)
We also partner Libro.fm for audiobooks. Libro.fm is similar to Amazon’s Audible, with a la carte audiobooks, or a $14.99 monthly membership which includes the audiobook of your choice and 20% off subsequent purchases during the month. Note that the DAILYKOS coupon code is only for the bookstore, not for the audiobook affiliate.
READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE
If you’re not already following Readers and Book Lovers, please go to our homepage (link), find the top button in the left margin, and click it to FOLLOW GROUP. Thank You and Welcome, to the most followed group on Daily Kos. Now you’ll get all our R&BLers diaries in your stream.