All in Non-fiction
It is still an unusual event when I choose to read a book about history. Even with my conversion by Doris Kearns Goodwin, I do not find myself naturally drawn to this genre. So again, I must celebrate being a member of the Bates Boston Alumna Book Club for forcing me to read books I wouldn’t have chosen otherwise.
In Breath from Salt, Bijal P. Trivedi takes what could have been a slog through scientific detail and creates a fascinating read by weaving the medical research together with the stories of real families desperate to find a cure for cystic fibrosis (CF), a congenital disease that kills most of its victims before they reach adulthood. The reader learns the details of how the cure was found through a combination of decades-long research looking for the causes of, and potential treatments for, the disease with the support of determined parents who fundraised hundreds of millions of dollars towards that research.
Given the title of this book and the subject matter, it is a wonder that I ever chose to read it. But, it appeared on a list of two “must-read” books for people anxious to understand what has brought the United States to the point where insurrectionists storm the Capital building in Washington D.C. and why Americans are so severely divided that they can no longer even talk to onr another.
Every once in a while I like to read a really good social psychology book. I’m not sure that’s exactly how Adam Grant would describe his work. But for me, Give and Take is a succinct, data-driven manifesto on how we interact with and treat the people around us and how that can determine our success.
I had wanted to read Christie Tate’s Group for a while. Reviewers compared it to Lori Gottlieb’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, a book about a psychotherapist’s experience being in therapy herself, that I enjoyed immensely and recommended to you in a previous L & L Review. (And my co-editor praised in a Second Helping.) Reese Witherspoon selected Group for her book club. Although I was nervous that the book couldn’t possibly live up to its hype, I can happily recommend Group with the highest praise.
Back in June when so many people were sharing lists of resources for those who wanted to educate themselves about anti-racism, this book appeared over and over. I added it to my library cue, but it was in such high demand, I didn’t get to check it out until this month. Although it is a difficult read, I am glad I finally got the chance.
In this powerful novel, Ayad Akhtar tells the story of what it was like growing up in the 1970s and 1980s in America’s heartland the Muslim son of Pakistani immigrant physician parents. His father, a successful cardiologist, embraced the American dream, thrilled with his seemingly unlimited opportunity and all that his money could buy. Even while feeling a part of the U.S., however, father and son experienced discrimination because they were Black. Those experiences were magnified after the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11, when being Muslim became another reason for discrimination.
October seems to be my month for memoirs. Without realizing it, I chose to review two memoirs in this edition of L&L. They are two of the best books I’ve read recently. Inheritance has been on my radar for a while having appeared on many “must read” lists. I am so glad that I finally opened it up and read it!
When my book club chose The Truths We Hold as this month’s read, I figured it would be about just who the Democratic vice presidential candidate is and how she got to where she is today. This memoir delivers so much more than that though. From Senator Harris’ description of her childhood in Oakland, California, we understand how her parents’ activism in the civil rights movement shaped the person she would become.
Having read The Warmth of Other Suns, Wilkerson’s illuminating first book about the history of Black migration from the South to northern industrial cities that won the Pulitzer Prize, I was eager to read her latest book, Caste. And I was not disappointed. In Caste, Wilkerson has written a second seminal book – one which I predict will also win many literary prizes.
I will admit I was nervous to start this book, which I added to my reading list at the suggestion of smart people who offered resources to educate and spread anti-racism. In my vague understanding of who Malcolm X was, I pictured him as an angry, violent version of Martin Luther King Jr.
I would also like to recommend I Am Malala. Quite by chance I read this book less than a month after finishing Daugher of Destiny. The two books make excellent companions.
I honestly don’t remember how this book got on my reading list, except I think it was mentioned in another book. Perhaps Hillary Clinton’s most recent? However it came to me, I picked it up knowing almost nothing about Bhutto, her family or Pakistani history. My only understanding going in was that she was the first female prime minister in the Muslim world.
Best known for his 2020 presidential bid and his controversial “Freedom Dividend,” Andrew Yang provides a sobering look at the economic and sociocultural status of the United States in The War on Normal People. Yang, a former lawyer and entrepreneur, offers a statistics-backed look into the many problems plaguing the U.S. today: income inequality, wealth disparity, job loss, the opioid epidemic, and others. He tackles issues that many of us, including our elected officials, often minimize or ignore.
I’m not usually a big biography gal, probably because I have read more than a few boring ones, often of playwrights I admire. So this book sat on my shelf for a while, despite my dad’s hearty recommendation. Lesson learned: listen to dad.
In Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino offers nine ori-ginal essays about the current state of the world we live in – as seen through the eyes of a whip-smart millennial with a feminist perspective. Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker who before working in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, grew up in Houston in a family very dedicated to their evangelical mega-church. Through her essays we learn of her transformation from devout Christian and obedient daughter to independent thinker and commentator on her generation.
It may seem unusual for a 60+ woman to be reading a book about pregnancy, right? Well, my daughter Maddie was so fascinated by this book and talked to me about it so frequently, that I told her I wanted to borrow the book when she was done.
The musical Come From Away is easily one of my favorite shows of the last ten years. It tells the story of the days after 9/11 when 36 planes were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland rather than their U.S. destinations. The Day The World Came To Town follows the same events, with many of the same characters, although the two are not related in anything other than subject matter. Each has its own authors who conducted their own interviews.
n recommending this book, which I do highly, I had to reflect on the many different aspects of a book that I believe make it a “must read.” Catch and Kill will punch you in the stomach and leave you breathless with the story Farrow tells. I knew the book was about Harvey Weinstein – his predatory behavior and how he got away with it for so long because he was a rich and powerful influence in the film industry. What I hadn’t anticipated was Farrow’s strong evidence that for years, many other powerful men knew of Weinstein's behavior.
The subtitle for Simplicity Parenting is “Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Nurture Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kids,” and that is exactly what it delivers. Payne provides a toolbox of ideas, anecdotes and observations about why so many kids today are experiencing such high stress and anxiety, and how we might go about fixing it.
