4 More Recent Nonfiction Reads

Well, friends, this week has really been a difficult one. I won’t go into it much, just that I’m feeling a bit raw around the edges, both physically and emotionally. I thought about skipping a post this week, but then remembered that I had a few more mini-reviews written up that I could edit and get ready. Thank you, Past Kim, for your diligent work!

These mini-reviews are for some more nonfiction, most of which I’ve talked about briefly on my Book Riot podcast, For Real, but that I found I have a little more to share about. Let’s dive in!

Locking Up Our Own by James Forman Jr.

Locking Up Our Own is a look at mass incarceration and the disproportionate impact on people of color that comes at the problem from a perspective I hadn’t thought about before. Forman Jr. looks back to the 1970s, and how measures that were part of the “war on crime” were supported by a significant segment of African American leaders who thought they were the answer to helping protect their communities from epidemics of drugs and violence. The book looks back at measures like marijuana legalization, sentencing guidelines, and more were supported by influential leaders, and how those measures, coupled with both overt and unintentionally racist policies, have incrementally built up to our current problems in criminal justice. The book won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, which makes sense – the reporting is excellent, and the writing is great.  I thought this book was fascinating, and a must-read for anyone interested in these issues.

The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

The Fact of a Body has been on my to read pile forever, but I finally picked it up because it won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for lesbian memoir/biography. The book is a true crime memoir, about the story of a Louisiana man convicted of molesting and murdering a six-year-old boy. Marzano-Lesnevich came across his case when she was interning at a law firm, and it stuck with her because hearing what he’d done made her question her own long-held convictions about the death penalty revisit her own childhood sexual abuse by her grandfather. This book was very good, but also extremely difficult to read. It has frank discussions about pedophilia and sexual abuse, but it doesn’t feel exploitative because those stories are shared while trying to explore issues like guilt, truth, and family. I didn’t love the author’s reliance on imagining to fill in the gaps of the true crime narrative, but overall I’m glad I read it.

Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride

I randomly picked up Tomorrow Will Be Different off the new books shelf at my local library, and I am so glad that I did. Sarah McBride is a transgender activist and young widow who writes about her experience coming out, advocating for trans rights, and losing her husband to cancer when she was just 24. While I thought McBride’s work on activism was interesting, the heart of the story is about her family and her relationship with her husband, Andrew Cray. She’s a really empathetic writer, who nonetheless is skilled a connecting her story back to larger issues facing transgender people, particularly those who have less privilege than she does. This book made me cry in multiple places, I really loved it.

Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer

Who doesn’t want to read a book all about female friendships? Text Me When You Get Home starts out with an exploration of the idea of “text me when you get home” a common refrain among female friends. And although it can be about safety, it’s also a way to show care, commitment, and love among female friends. In this book, Schaefer dries to dig deeper into the idea of female friendship, looking at famous true and fictional friendships, the science behind female camaraderie, and her own history of female friends. Overall, the book is heavier on memoir and lighter on sociology than I would have liked, but overall it was a breezy, thoughtful book that also made me think more about all of the female friends in my life.