New Nonfiction Roundup – May 2024

George Stephanopolous recounts the inside story of 12 presidents during moments of crisis, from JFK to Biden, in The Situation Room while historian Jon Meacham reflects on the life of George H.W. Bush in The Call to Serve. Former White House Press Secretary and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki shares lessons from work, the White House, and the world in Say More; Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko presents a vivid account of Kyiv in Wartime in I Will Show You How it Was; and A.J. Jacobs embarks on a humble quest to follow the Constitutions’ original meaning in The Year of Living Constitutionally.

In celebrity memoir, Whoopi Goldberg pens a memoir reflecting on the influence of her monther and brother Bits & Pieces; Hootie & the Blowfish lead singer Darius Rucker looks to his past and the music that influenced him in Life’s Too Short; comedian Paul Scheer comes to terms with his messed-up childhood and finds joy in embracing his authentic self in Joyful Recollections of Trauma; actor and ’80s heartthrob Tom Selleck looks back at his accidental career in You Never Know; Tiffany Haddish returns with another essay collection that gets real about the highs and lows of her life in I Curse You With Joy; controversial comedian and TV host Bill Maher takes on American life, politics and culture in What This Comedian Said Will Shock You; and former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald teams up with actor Paul Reiser to tell the story of his life as a blue-eyed soul musician in What a Fool Believes. In literary memoir, Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) comes face to face with the idea of an afterlife following a near-fatal health emergency with In My Time of Dying; Daniel Handler traces his challenging but amusing path toward a spectacularly successful writing career as Lemony Snicket in And Then? And Then? What Else?; and Pulitzer Prize-winner Nicholas D. Kristof presents a gripping memoir about his life in journalism in Chasing Hope.

In history, Caroline Alexander recounts a deadly World War II mission over the Himalayas in Skies of Thunder while Tom Clavin and Bob Drury tell the true tale of Jedediah Smith and the Mountain Men who explored the American frontier in Throne of Grace. Edward O’Keefe considers the influence of women in the life of an icon of rugged masculinity in The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt and Larry Tye presents a sweeping portrait of how Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie transformed America in The Jazzmen. Victor Davis Hanson charts how and why societies chose to destroy their foes in The End of Everything. And Adam Higginbotham presents a minute-by-minute account of heroism and disaster at the edge of space in Challenger.

Craig Foster, of My Octopus Teacher fame, inspires readers to reclaim their inner wildness in Amphibious Soul. Sean Carroll continues to dissect modern physics for a broad audience with Quanta and Soul while Caroline Harper presents stunning new images of space from the James Webb Space Telescope in Unseen Universe. And Jamaica Kincaid teams up with illustrator Kara Walker to offer an ABC of the plants that define our world and reveal the often brutal history behind them in An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children.

Casey Means explains the connection between metabolism and limitless health in Good Energy while Stephen Perrine’s latest, The Full-Fat Body Fix, presents a seven-day plan to cool inflammation, heal your gut, and build a healthier, leaner you. Stephanie Harrison encourages us to turn our focus away from achieving our own success – the “old happy” – and help others lead fulfilling lives in The New Happy while Sahaj Kaur Kohli rethinks traditional therapy and helps readers navigate mental health, identity, love, and family between cultures in But What Will People Say? Lawrence Ingrassia recounts how a family misfortune revealed a deadly medical mystery in A Fatal Inheritance while Johann Hari offers a revelatory look at the extraordinary benefits and disturbing risks of the new weight-loss drugs in Magic Pill. Finally, Sarah Thornton considers what sex workers, milk bankers, plastic surgeons, bra designers, and witches tell us about breasts in Tits Up.

As always, don’t forget to check out this month’s Peak Picks!

~posted by Frank B. All descriptions were provided by publishers.

May is Older Americans Month!

Happy Older Americans Month! This year’s theme is Powered by Connection. At the Seattle Public Library, we work year round to engage and connect older adults with programs and services that make a difference. Below you will find our monthly programs. Stay tuned for Older Americans Month posts throughout May, highlighting booklists and more!

NewHolly Social Club
Tuesday, May 7, 1 – 2:30 p.m.
Gathering Hall
Join us for a monthly social and community resource gathering. In partnership with Seattle Housing Authority. This event is in English, Somali and Vietnamese.

Creative Chats in Community
Tuesday, May 14, 1 – 3 p.m.
Highpoint Neighborhood House
Join us for a monthly for an arts and community resource gathering event. In partnership with Seattle Housing Authority. This event is in English, Somali, Vietnamese and Khmer.

Dig Into These Books for Spring

Read the latest column by Reader Services librarian Misha Stone on the Seattle Times website or below, where it’s republished with permission.

The Seattle Public Library loves to promote books and reading. This column, submitted by the library, will be a space to promote reading and book trends from a librarian’s perspective. You can find these titles at the library by visiting spl.org and searching the catalog.

Earth Day may not always conjure thoughts of reading. But when you are taking a break from your garden or hikes, consider settling in with one of these intriguing titles in science, memoir and science fiction to help you connect with nature and consider our collective future.

Mushrooms are a hot topic in the Pacific Northwest, and few scholars write with as much enthusiasm about fascinating fungi in all of its forms as Merlin Sheldrake. Sheldrake’s “Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures” pays homage to the wild and scientifically baffling behaviors of mycelium, from their multifaceted network communications to their psychedelic and even zombie properties.

A central question the author explores is how mycelium communicate without a brain. Sheldrake unfolds multiple stories of mushrooms and lichen with astonishment and curiosity, including mycelial networks and fungi that live in the bodies of insects.

Mushrooms will alter your perspective, and so will this book. As Sheldrake writes, “If I think about mycelial growth for more than a minute my mind starts to stretch.”

20 Reasons to Check Out the Central Library at 20 Years

Central Library exterior construction from 4th Ave. and Madison St., May 23, 2003. Photograph by Lara Swimmer

When The Seattle Public Library’s Central Library opened its doors on May 23, 2004, more than 25,000 people lined up in the course of the day to experience Seattle’s striking new public space for knowledge and learning. Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, it was called “the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review” by the New York Times’ late architectural critic Herbert Muschamp.

Twenty years later, Seattle’s iconic glass-and-steel library is still visited by more than 1,500 people a day to read and play in the Children’s Center; take photos on the Red Floor; explore its many collections; practice in a music room; take in an art exhibit; enjoy heartstopping views; visit the Seattle Room; attend an author event; get help from staff; and enjoy many other free services and programs.

Once called the world’s most “Instagrammable” library, the Central Library has earned its reputation as a beloved Seattle landmark not just for its design, but as a literary and artistic home for Seattle, and a neighborhood library branch for those who live and work downtown.

This May, the Library invites all of Seattle to celebrate the Central Library’s past, present and future with programs including an author program, free public tours and a special display. We also invite you to stop by any day of the week – the Central Library is open seven days a week — to discover something new about your 11-floor, 363,000-foot downtown library.

Seattle Reads: Read Deeper

Whether the 2024 Seattle Reads selection of Parable of the Sower was your introduction to the work of Octavia Butler or you’re a long time fan of the author, I hope you’re enjoying diving into Butler’s world of speculative fiction. Her creative and sometimes terrifying visions of the future, centering of Black experience, dreams of anti-hierarchical structures, embracing of change, and so much more have influenced countless writers in the years since she began writing. For works that inspired or were inspired by Butler’s books, check out these titles to dive deeper.

adrienne maree brown is one of Octavia Butler’s most vocal disciples. She co-edited and contributed to Octavia’s Brood and used the Earthseed teachings from Parable to ground her theories of change and strategic organizing in Emergent Strategy. Butler’s influence is obvious, too, in brown’s first novel, Grievers, which follows a young woman, Dune, living in Detroit as a strange epidemic hits the city. Dune’s mother is one of the first victims of Syndrome H-8, which puts otherwise healthy people into unending comas. As the virus spreads throughout Detroit, mass migration out of the city begins, reminiscent of the migration Lauren Olamina and others undergo in Parable of the Sower. Publishers Weekly praised this short novel for “its deep, moving exploration of loss, family, community, gentrification, and rapidly changing urban landscapes.”