Four stars, read in April 2019. The world and the United States in particular are under the tyrannical rule of a group of people who have literally created their own reality based on a shared and intentionally-propagated delusion. They didn’t like where reality was taking us, so they founded institutions to grow their own experts…
Category: Nonfiction
Moranifesto, by Caitlin Moran
Five stars, read in April 2018. It is possible that, as an American under the age of 40, I have been so deprived of sensible and ethical political discussion that what seems like earth-shattering brilliance to me is just common sense to the rest of you. But as I read this book, Caitlin Moran officially…
American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation, by Eric Rutkow
Four stars, started in spring 2018, finished in fall. To finish the backpacking challenge I did over the summer, I had to read a book from the United States. This was the only nonfiction book I read for the challenge, because it was the only one of the books I’d been about to get into…
Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling, by Amy Chozick
Two stars, read in June 2018. Very mixed feelings. I’m giving it two stars for the interest factor, but writing this review made me angry enough at the book that I almost want to go down to one. Interesting though this inherently was, it became more and more frustrating as the book went on, and…
We Were Eight Years in Power, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Five stars, read in November 2017. This book covers the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency. For each year, there is an article Coates wrote for The Atlantic, preceded by an essay (“a sort of extended blog post,” I think is how he describes it) in which he looks back on his own work and assesses…
The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women, by Elisabeth Badinter
Three stars, read in September 2014. Now that I see how long ago I read this, I wonder if I might feel differently were I to read it again. I had left my church by then, but I don’t think I’d reached my current level of radicality—or realized that I actually don’t want to have…
Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . . . and Why, by Sady Doyle
Five stars, read in January 2018. This book was like an electric jolt to me. I was genuinely frustrated every minute that I couldn’t be listening to it on Overdrive, and I wish it could’ve been twice as long. I don’t follow much pop culture, so although I’d heard of most of these stories in…
Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers, by Nick Offerman
Four stars, read in January 2018. I am not quite juvenile enough to really hang out with Nick Offerman, and I think he would happily agree with me. But also, I would fucking love to hang out with Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. And regardless of whether or not I could handle all the farting…
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Marijuana (But Were Too Stoned to Ask), by Tim Pilcher
Three stars, read in February 2018. I don’t know what was more surprising, Henry Ford’s marijuana car (made from cellulose bioplastics, including hemp, that were stronger and lighter than steel; he was also going to use it in fuel); the fact that up to 30 percent of the earth’s population might be allergic to it;…
The Origin of Others, by Toni Morrison
Four stars, read in December 2017. When I think back on this book, the anecdote I remember is the one Morrison shares about coming across a woman near the fence on her property. The scene of their meeting is peaceful and friendly (because fences are “where the most interesting things always happen”), and Morrison’s thoughts…
My Holiday in North Korea: The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth, by Wendy Simmons
Four stars, read in January 2018. I almost didn’t take this home, irritated with it for seeming flippant about a subject that is not in any way amusing (particularly after I’d just finished accounts by Jang Jin-sung and Suki Kim that were emotional and difficult to read). I flipped through to see the photos, of which there are many,…
Aerial Geology: A High-Altitude Tour of North America’s Spectacular Volcanoes, Canyons, Glaciers, Lakes, Craters, and Peaks, by Mary Caperton Morton
Five stars, read in December 2017. I took this book home intending to flip through its beautiful large pages, look at the photos, and return it in a day or two. I’ve ended up keeping it three weeks, reading a few pages a day, because there is so much interesting information presented in easily-navigable layers…
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O’Neil
Five stars, read in December 2017. I’ve read a lot of nonfiction this year that I consider to be important, even essential to the goal of social justice. There was Bertrand Russell, Christopher Hitchens, Susan Jacoby, and Sam Harris on the damaging nature of religion and anti-intellectualism; Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison,…
The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor, by Mark Schatzker
Five stars for the outstanding information and research, though I’m questioning now whether I should have deducted a star for the pervasive and very off-putting fat-shaming. Read in November 2017. I brought this book home after reading the blurb on the back and realizing that this must be, finally, the thing that would explain my…
Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Four stars, read in November 2017. Excellent as always for Adichie, and pretty comprehensive. In her advice to her friend she covers the obvious things—never link your daughter’s appearance with morality, don’t teach her to aspire to marriage, don’t give her father a parade for doing his share of the parenting, give her a sense…
The Soul of an Octopus, by Sy Montgomery
Three and a half stars, read in November 2017. There is so much interesting information in this book, but it’s a very personal memoir, too; it’s almost more about the author than it is about octopuses. (First piece of interesting information: octopi is not the correct plural form! Because the word octopus comes from Greek, and you can’t put…
The Wood for the Trees: One Man’s Long View of Nature, by Richard Fortey
Three and a half stars, read in the spring of 2017 (February to April). This is just a solid, interesting, enjoyable read about a scientist exploring the forest he lives in. I skimmed many sections, realizing that if I tried to read each page in full, I would never finish (I’d already renewed it twice…
The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby
Four stars, read in July 2017. The most consistent theme of my experience reading this book was oh my god, if she said this ten years ago, what would she say now? I have minor differences with Jacoby, but her premise is clearly, demonstrably correct: in whatever our current age is called, almost nothing in…
What Happened, by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Four stars, or maybe 3.5, read in September 2017. I haven’t actually spoken to many people about Hillary Clinton, because I try not to for my own sanity. But when I have, and when I’ve read articles and books about her, they have almost never—the “almost” might not even be necessary—been entirely reasonable. Hillary has said…
God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens
Four stars, read in July 2017. In my quest to start reading the famous atheists, I discovered several Christopher Hitchens quotes that earned him the next place on the list. As with Richard Dawkins, I’m letting myself try out his books in a sort of vacuum, wanting to engage with their ideas before I have…
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
Five stars, read in June 2017. First lesson learned from listening to James Baldwin on audio: I cannot listen to James Baldwin on audio. Jesse Martin’s narration is excellent (I knew I recognized his voice but had to look him up to learn that what I know him from is Rent), but James Baldwin is…
Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion, by David Zweig
Four stars, read in August 2017. Really enjoyed this exploration of the people who work in jobs we never know about until something goes wrong, like data analysts for intelligence agencies (9/11), the people who design election ballots (the 2000 election in Florida), or fact-checkers (weapons of mass destruction in Iraq). I learned about several…
How to Fake a Moon Landing, by Darryl Cunningham
Four stars, read in March 2017. Three and a half stars, maybe, but I don’t mind rounding up to balance out all the reviews that hate it way more than I think is warranted. (Though I do wonder, since this is yet another instance of books titled “how to __” which do not in any…
Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde
Four stars, read in March and April 2017. I have meant to read Audre Lorde for so long, and now that I have, I see the irony of it having been her prose that I read first, and not her poetry. Poetry was everything to Lorde, not just a form of art but a framework…
Women, Race and Class, by Angela Davis
Five stars, read in March 2017. I can’t believe how readable this book is, considering how dense it also is in historical detail. The research that went into it must be astounding, but it flows like a conversation with a (really well-informed) friend. Along with many subjects I am familiar with, I was absolutely fascinated by…
Why We Can’t Wait, by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Five stars, read in January 2017. If you want a perfect example of why this book is (STILL) necessary, consider this: It’s a book about the same time period, the same issues, as To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee—the book nearly every person in the United States had to read in school. While I…
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, by Jane Mayer
Five stars, read from November 2016 to January 2017. Well. If you want to know why the United States looks the way it does in 2017, this is your book. (All emphasis in quotes is mine, and all the sources are named in the book.) Charles and David Koch. Richard Mellon Scaife. John Olin. Richard…
We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Four stars, read in January 2017 (though I watched the TEDTalk it’s based on at least a couple years ago). I hadn’t technically read this yet because it’s essentially a transcript of that TEDTalk. But we just got a few brand new copies of it at the library, so I took it home and it…
Because Today We Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am taking home this book, which I’ve had on my to-read shelf for years, probably. I’m trying to do a thing this year in which I just actually read things, instead of adding to an exponentially-growing list of things I could never possibly get all the way through. (I’m also going through that list, trying to…
Why I Am Not a Christian, by Bertrand Russell
Seven hundred stars. Read in January 2016. Just kidding: It’s only five. I’ve just never read a book that I agreed with so closely. This is what my book looks like now that I’ve finished: And probably half of those blades of grass represent two or more sections on the same page spread. I think I’ve…
Meanwhile the World Goes On 