The lazy days of summer are the best time to immerse yourself in a good read. Biographies and memoirs are plentiful in August, along with a wide range of essays and histories.
In biography, Yunte Huang narrates the life story of Anna May Wong, old Hollywood’s most famous Chinese American actress, in Daughter of the Dragon while Patti Hartigan authors the first authoritative biography of acclaimed playwright August Wilson. Anna Funder uncovers the life of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a writer who was overshadowed by husband George Orwell, in Wifedom, and Chadwick Moore goes behind the scenes with conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson in Tucker. In memoir, former Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust reflects on coming of age in the conservative South in Necessary Trouble; Lara Love Hardin recalls her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to successful ghostwriter in The Many Lives of Mama Love; and Eddie Ndopu reimagines success as a disabled achiever in Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw. And tennis fans rejoice! Discover the many lives of tennis legend Alice Marble in Queen of the Court while Sally Jacobs considers the long overlooked life of tennis champ Althea Gibson in Althea.
In history, Yepoka Yeebo reports on Ghanaian con artist who scammed hundreds of millions of dollars from thousands of people in Anansi’s Gold. Lena Andrews illuminates the overlooked contributions of American servicewomen in World War II in Valient Women while Katherine Turk traces the history of the National Organization for Women in The Women of NOW. And Jenni Nuttall embarks on a historical investigation of feminist language from the dawn of Old English to the present day in Mother Tongue.
Acclaimed writer Jill Lepore gathers intellectually rigorous essays that scrutinize the last ten years in The Deadline while activist Jen Soriano sheds light on transgenerational trauma in Nervous. Poet Roger Reeves debut essay collection calls for community, solidarity and joy, especially in these Dark Days, and Wolfram Eilenberger reveals how philosophers Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, and Ayn Rand emerged during the horrors of World War II in The Visionaries.
Feeling burned out? Thomas Curran, professor at the London School of Economics, encourages us to embrace the power of good enough in The Perfection Trap while Jennifer Breheny Wallace investigates the roots of toxic achievement culture, and what to do about it, in Never Enough. Dan Buettner highlights the foods and behaviors from the happiest places on earth in The Blue Zones Secrets for Living.
In science, Avi Loeb searches for extraterrestrial life and our future in the stars in Interstellar; Eugenia Chang explores how focusing on questions, not answers, is the path to mathematics’ deepest truths in Is Math Real? ; and Elizabeth Rush, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Rising, merges climate change and motherhood as she joins dozens of scientists on a journey to an Antarctic glacier in The Quickening.
Two books explore the intractable issues of poverty and race in America: Kathryn Edin, H. Luke Shaefer and Timothy J. Nelson focus on America’s most disadvantaged communities, including Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco belts of the deep south, and South Texas, in The Injustice of Place; and Laura Meckler explores whether the promise of racial equality was fulfilled in the town of Shaker Heights, Ohio in Dream Town.
Sadie Hartmann presents a selection of the best modern horror books, including plenty of deep cuts, in 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered. Prudence Peiffer looks at The Slip, the New York City street that changed art forever in the 1950s and 1960s. And artist/designer/Instagram star Dabito reveals fifteen projects to inspire colorful homes for maximal living in Old Brand New.
~posted by Frank
Shelf Talk 