Good evening, everyone. I took last Tuesday off, given the focus on the sensational Democratic National Convention, so this evening I’m offering two week’s of notable new nonfiction, the books published last week and this week.
Today is also the release in paperback of Barbara Kingsolver’s most recent novel Demon Copperhead. Though she is one of my favorite novelists, I actually haven’t read this one yet, two years after its initial publication. The story is set in Appalachia, so I thought it would be interesting to pass along what Kingsolver thought of another book about Appalachia, JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. In an interview with The New York Times Book Review in 2018, said
Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?
“Hillbilly Elegy” was not for me. As a Kentucky native who lived in many other places before moving back to Appalachia to raise my family, I have no use for the “barely got out of them hills alive” narrative. This region has been savaged by one extractive industry after another, and still its landscapes and people impress me every day. We’re not one psyche, one color, one culture, not all J. D. Vance’s cousins, and certainly not without hope, but the rest of America seems keen to reduce us to a pitiable monoculture. The year I left here, it was “Deliverance” that gave people permission to do that. When my daughters went away to college, they found the story hadn’t changed much. Anyone who really wants to know our region might look to actual residents: Elizabeth Catte’s recent “What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia” and Ronald Eller’s classic “Uneven Ground” are good starting points. From there the pleasures are so many: Harriette Arnow, James Still, Gurney Norman, Lee Smith, Denise Giardina, Charles Frazier, Maurice Manning, George Ella Lyon, Silas House, Crystal Wilkinson, Ann Pancake. Also Kayla Rae Whitaker, whose debut, “The Animators,” came out last year. This list doesn’t end.
That interview took place shortly after her previous novel Unsheltered had been published. It’s fun to take a look back at what the review in the Washington Post had to say about that novel:
Nonfiction writers began publishing books about Donald Trump even before Sean Spicer could start lying for him. Fiction writers, though, have been slower to incorporate the Mogul into their work. That stands to reason. After all, novels are lumbering beasts next to fleet-footed books of political nonfiction. And besides, many fiction writers are wary of dating their stories with contemporary details….
Enough with the glancing references and coy allusions. Here comes the first major novel to tackle the Trump era straight on and place it in the larger chronicle of existential threats. Donald Trump’s name doesn’t appear in Barbara Kingsolver’s “Unsheltered,” but the president prowls all through these pages. He’s “the Bullhorn,” “the tyrant who promises to restore the old order,” the “billionaire running for president who’s never lifted a finger,” the candidate who brags that “he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and people would still vote for him.” He’s the animal spirit of a political movement that’s draining the middle class, breaking the joists of civil society and pushing the planet toward ecological calamity.
THIS WEEK’S NOTABLE NEW NONFICTION
- That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, by Amanda Jones. One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing.
Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians-in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and "Christian." But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance.
- Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World, by Casey Michel. For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they've not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they've secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself.
These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. In Foreign Agents, Casey Michel shines a light on these foreign lobbyists as some of them—after decades of installing dictators and corrupting American policy—embark on their next mission: to end America’s democratic experiment, once and for all. "An unprecedented and shocking look at the law firms, PR specialists, consultants, and former officials who’ve helped the enemies of democracy succeed." —Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander S. Vindman, author of Here, Right Matters
- No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States, by Erwin Chemerinsky. The Constitution has become a threat to American democracy. Due to its inherent flaws—its treatment of race, dependence on a tainted Electoral College, a glaringly unrepresentative Senate, and the outsized influence of the Supreme Court—Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law School and one of our foremost legal scholars, has come to the sobering conclusion that our nearly 250-year-old founding document can no longer hold. Chemerinsky contends that without major changes, the Constitution is beyond redemption in that it has created a government that can no longer deal with the urgent issues, such as climate change and wealth inequalities, that threaten our nation and the world. “Dean Erwin Chemerinsky makes crystal clear how original defects in the U.S. Constitution have combined with judicial decisions to cement minority rule rather than democracy. As a result, majority-backed gun control, reproductive rights, and remedies for racial inequality are nonstarters. This book offers specific reforms that could be adopted even within the current framework. . . . No Democracy Lasts Forever is must-reading for anyone who cares about this nation and its future.”--Martha Minow, former dean, Harvard Law School
- The New Science of Social Change: A Modern Handbook for Activists, by Lisa Mueller.
In The New Science of Social Change, Mueller highlights what really works when it comes to group advocacy, to place proven tools in the hands of activists on the ground—in the U.S. and abroad. Drawing on both her decade-long career researching the science of protest and the work of other scholars, she stresses such things as the ingredients of collective action and how protests with cohesive demands are significantly more likely to win concessions than protests with mixed demands. Incorporating interactive exercises and the voices of experienced activists with her analysis, Mueller shows how a working knowledge of social science can help activists implement more effective strategies to create the real-world changes we want to see. “Imagine you’re an activist, passionate about making a difference in the world. You’re dedicated, hardworking, and deeply committed to your cause. But, despite your best efforts, you feel like you’re not making the impact you hoped for. You’re not alone. Many activists and social movements struggle to translate their passion into real, tangible change. This book is for you.”—Omar Wasow, assistant professor of political science, UC Berkeley
- When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future, by Paul Bierman. In 2018, lumps of frozen soil, collected from the bottom of the world’s first deep ice core and lost for decades, reappeared in Denmark. When geologist Paul Bierman and his team first melted a piece of this unique material, they were shocked to find perfectly preserved leaves, twigs, and moss. That observation led them to a startling discovery: Greenland’s ice sheet had melted naturally before, about 400,000 years ago. The remote island’s ice was far more fragile than scientists had realized—unstable even without human interference.
In When the Ice Is Gone, Bierman traces the story of this extraordinary finding, revealing how it radically changes our understanding of the Earth and its climate. "In his gripping new book, When the Ice Is Gone, paleoclimate expert Paul Bierman provides a firsthand account—through the lens of science and history, of how human-caused warming is rapidly melting the massive Greenland ice sheet and the dire consequences this poses for us and our planet. Read this book to be informed about the problem and inspired to make a difference." — Michael E. Mann, author of Our Fragile Moment
- The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play, by Frank Andre Guridy. Stadiums are monuments to recreation, sports, and pleasure. Yet from the earliest wooden ballparks to today’s glass and steel mega-arenas, stadiums have also functioned as public squares. In this book, historian Frank Guridy recounts the contested history of play, protest, and politics in American stadiums. From the beginning, stadiums were political, as elites turned games into celebrations of war, banned women from the press box, and enforced racial segregation. By the 1920s, they also became important sites of protest as activists increasingly occupied the stadium floor to challenge racism, sexism, homophobia, fascism, and more. Following the rise of the corporatized stadium in the 1990s, this complex history was largely forgotten. But today’s athlete-activists, like Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinoe, belong to a powerful tradition in which the stadium is as much an arena of protest as a palace of pleasure. "This book is a terrific reminder that, for all its private billions, the stage of sports has been funded by us, the public. Far from politics being an anomaly in sports, The Stadium offers proof that, while we were watching one game, an equally important one was taking place.”—Howard Bryant, author of Full Dissidence
- A Survivor's Education: Women, Violence, and the Stories We Don’t Tell, by Joy Neumeyer. In this poignant self-investigation, historian and journalist Joy Neumeyer explores how violence against women is portrayed, perceived, and adjudicated today. Interweaving the harrowing account of the abuse she experienced as a graduate student at Berkeley with those of others who faced violence on campus and beyond, Neumeyer offers a startling look at how the hotly-debated Title IX system has altered university politics and culture, and uncovers the willful misremembrance that enables misconduct on scales large and small. "Reading A Survivor’s Education is like diving into a vortex of collective female histories, fascinated and stunned as you fall, yet certain the author will land you squarely on your feet. Joy Neumeyer is a brilliant investigator and historian, exploring the roots of silence and sparing nobody, least of all herself. This is an important and compelling story, exquisitely told."—Erika Krouse, author of Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation
- Merkel's Law: Wisdom from the Woman Who Led the Free World, by Melissa Eddy. Angela Merkel is a boss. A trailblazer. An icon of colorful suits. Formerly the new leader of the free world. With an entire hand gesture named after her (the “Merkel Diamond”) and celebrated in a viral meme for sparring with Trump, Angela Merkel spent a decade economically and politically revitalizing her country. The first woman chancellor of Germany and one of the longest-serving European leaders ever, Merkel’s quiet resolve, calculated confidence, and extreme privacy around her personal life have made her a feminist role model for the ages. Merkel’s Law is a revelatory look at an unlikely vanguard, and at the country she led for sixteen years.
- The Eastern Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918, by Nick Lloyd. Writing in the 1920s, Winston Churchill argued that the First World War on the Eastern Front was “incomparably the greatest war in history. In its scale, in its slaughter, in the exertions of the combatants, in its military kaleidoscope, it far surpasses by magnitude and intensity all similar human episodes.” It was, he concluded, “the most frightful misfortune” to fall upon mankind “since the collapse of the Roman Empire before the Barbarians.” Yet Churchill was an exception, and the war in the east has long been seen as a sideshow to the brutal combat on the Western Front. Finally, with The Eastern Front—the first major history of that arena in fifty years—the acclaimed historian Nick Lloyd corrects the record. “This is the story of the First World War’s Eastern Front told on a Homeric scale. Nick Lloyd gives us not only a compelling account of warfare on the ‘long front’ from Riga to Thessalonica but also an intimate and disturbing portrait of the fighting taken from regimental histories, diaries, and the testimony of the dead.”— Martyn Rady, author of The Middle Kingdoms
- Pancho Villa: A Revolutionary Life, by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. Pancho Villa is a rollicking, sometimes hilariously comical, sometimes extremely violent, and always very personal portrait of the controversial Mexican historical figure Pancho Villa. Beloved crime writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II (a.k.a. PIT)—the prolific historian, biographer of Che Guevara and the founder of Mexican “neopolicial” fiction—brings his tremendous storytelling skills to an account of one of the Mexico’s greatest legendary characters. “This narrative biography grants equal weight to what 'actually' happened as to what was said to have happened – a lingering sediment of memory and desire. Taibo does not simply reconstruct the 'true story' of Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution, he recovers the ache of a world without witness and the transformation of a man into legend." — Christina Heatherton, author of Arise! Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution
- Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York's Greatest Borough, by Ian Frazier. For the past fifteen years, Ian Frazier has been walking the Bronx. Paradise Bronx reveals the amazingly rich and tumultuous history of this amazingly various piece of our greatest city. From Jonas Bronck, who bought land from the local Native Americans, to the formerly gang-wracked South Bronx that gave birth to hip-hop, Frazier’s loving exploration is a moving tour de force about the polyglot culture that is America today. "Having grown up in the Bronx, and having always thought of the borough as a series of interchangeable immigrant neighborhoods, this book comes as a marvelously encyclopedic surprise, full of historical dazzle and cultural richness. An absolute pleasure to read!" —Vivian Gornick, author of Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader
- Empresses of Seventh Avenue: World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion, by Nancy MacDonell. Calvin Klein. Ralph Lauren. Donna Karan. Halston. Marc Jacobs. Tom Ford. Michael Kors. Tory Burch. Today, American designers are some of the biggest names in fashion, yet before World War II, they almost always worked anonymously. The industry, then centered on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, had always looked overseas for "inspiration"—a polite phrase for what was often blatant copying—because style, as all the world knew, came from Paris.
But when the Nazis invaded France in 1940, the capital of fashion was cut off from the rest of the world. The story of the chaos and tragedy that followed has been told many times—but how it directly affected American fashion is largely unknown. Defying the naysayers, New York-based designers, retailers, editors, and photographers met the moment, turning out clothes that were perfectly suited to the American way of life: sophisticated, modern, comfortable, and affordable. By the end of the war, "the American Look" had been firmly established as a fresh, easy elegance that combined function with style. But none of it would have happened without the influence and ingenuity of a small group of women who have largely been lost to history. Empresses of Seventh Avenue will tell the story of how these extraordinary women put American fashion on the world stage. "Fashion writer MacDonell delivers a colorful chronicle of the female journalists, designers, and retailers who revolutionized American style during WWII. MacDonnell’s fine-grained character studies complement her fascinating insights into the political and cultural forces that ushered in a new era of American style. Fashionistas won’t be able to put this one down." —Publishers Weekly
- Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.
A bold, innovative biography that offers a new understanding of the life, work, and enduring impact of Audre Lorde. We remember Audre Lorde as an iconic writer, a quotable teacher whose words and face grace T-shirts, nonprofit annual reports, and campus diversity-center walls. But even those who are inspired by Lorde’s teachings on “the creative power of difference” may be missing something fundamental about her life and work, and what they can mean for us today. "Gumbs, one of our great poets, has delivered not only a masterful biography of Audre Lorde but a revolution in what a biography can be. Whether you only know Lorde through her most famous quotes or if you’ve read everything she wrote a thousand times, there is something new and exciting here for you. Structurally playful, deeply researched, vibrantly felt, it’s a masterwork all around." —LitHub
- Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs, by Luis Elizondo. The former head of the Pentagon program responsible for the investigation of UFOs—now known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)—reveals long-hidden truths with profound implications for not only national security but our understanding of the universe.
To accomplish his mission, Elizondo had to rely on decades of experience gained working some of America’s most sensitive and classified programs. Even then, he was not prepared for what he would learn, and the truth about the government’s long shadowy involvement in UAP investigations, and the lengths officials would take to keep them a secret. "If we already know that 99 percent of the universe we cannot perceive or interact with, then there may be other options here. This may not necessarily be something from outer space. In fact, this could be something as natural to our very own planet as us, we’re just now at a point we’re beginning to technologically be able to interact and collect data. This could be something from under the oceans. This could be something from, yes, from outer space. We really don’t know. And this is why I think we really need to take a whole of government approach and look at this, because it is--day by day, it is seeming like more and more this conversation is shifting from a human technology--quite possibly, we don’t know for sure yet--but to something far more profound. - from an interview with the author in The Washington Post
- I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, by Daniel J. Levitin. Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.
In his latest work, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain. "For many years I have wondered why a bunch of frequencies organized into a piece of music has the ability, even without words, to make the listener cry and become emotional. Although I know this happens to me and many people, I have often wondered how this can be. Dr. Levitin, in this latest book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, has some fascinating insights into this great phenomenon."— Paul McCartney
- Four Ways of Thinking: A Journey into Human Complexity, by David Sumpter. As acclaimed mathematician David Sumpter shows, thinking about thinking is something we rarely do, yet it is something science questions all the time. He has spent decades studying what we could all learn from the mindsets of scientists, and Four Ways of Thinking is the result. Here he reveals the four easily applied approaches to our problems: statistical, interactive, chaotic, and complex. Combining engaging personal experience with practical advice and inspiring tales of groundbreaking scientific pioneers (with a tiny bit of number crunching along the way), Sumpter shows how these tried and tested methods can help us with every conundrum, from how to bicker less with our partners to pitching to a tough crowd—and in doing so, change our lives.
- Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World, by Matt Parker. Trigonometry is perhaps the most essential concept humans have ever devised. The simple yet versatile triangle allows us to record music, map the world, launch rockets into space, and be slightly less bad at pool. Triangles underpin our day-to-day lives and civilization as we know it.
In Love Triangle, Matt Parker argues we should all show a lot more love for triangles, along with all the useful trigonometry and geometry they enable. To prove his point, he uses triangles to create his own digital avatar, survive a harrowing motorcycle ride, cut a sandwich, fall in love, measure tall buildings in a few awkward bounds, and make some unusual art. Along the way, he tells extraordinary and entertaining stories of the mathematicians, engineers, and philosophers—starting with Pythagoras—who dared to take triangles seriously. “A rare book about math sure to make you smile, despite your feelings about the subject. Once again, Parker measures up." —Kirkus Reviews
- Earth to Moon: A Memoir, by Moon Unit Zappa. How can you navigate life as the “normal” child of an extraordinary creative? For Moon Unit Zappa, processing a life so punctuated by the whims of genius, the tastes of popular culture, the calculus of celebrity, and the nature of love, was at times eviscerating, at times illuminating—but mostly deeply confusing. Yes, this is a book about growing up in the shadow of Frank Zappa. Moon and her family were a source of constant curiosity, for their unique names and for their father’s reputation as a musical savant and fierce protector of the First Amendment, even though he was never a commercial success. "Where is the line between unconventional and crazy? Moon recounts this tale of growing up Zappa with forensic honesty and a hilariously dry wit--and the momentum of a bullet train. Her empathy and generosity of spirit are a miracle and an inspiration." — Allegra Huston, author of Love Child
