For Real

This week, Alice and Kim recommend easy nonfiction reads to start your year.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

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Follow Up

Shoutout on Twitter from Ibram X. Kendi – Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi  and Keisha N. Blain

Nonfiction in the News

Simon & Schuster Cancels Plans for Senator Hawley’s Book [The New York Times]

New Nonfiction

Aftershocks: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar

Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price

The Doctors Blackwell : How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura 

The Eagles of Heart Mountain : A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America by Bradford Pearson 

Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson

Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas by Alexi Pappas 

Easy Nonfiction to Start the Year

Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette

Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology by Lawrence Weschler

Reading Now

KIM: Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey

ALICE: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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This week Alice and Kim preview 21 of their most-anticipated new books from the first half of 2021. Plus, they discuss reading plans for the year and some of the best-reviewed books of 2020.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

“The Best Reviewed Nonfiction of 2020 [LitHub]

Most Anticipated Nonfiction of the First Half of 2021

White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind by Koa Beck

The Beautiful Struggle (Adapted for Young Adults) by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty by Maurice Chammah

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Costs of America’s Cheap Goods by Amelia Pang

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert

A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson

Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America by Kate Washington

Night Rooms: Essays by Gina Nutt

The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans–and How We Can Fix It by Dorothy A. Brown

Every Day Is a Gift by Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet by Chelsea Wald

Broken (In the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson

Persist by Elizabeth Warren

White Magic by Elissa Washuta

African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele

The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell

Reading Now

Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May 

New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States by Marjorie Spruill Wheeler

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This week Alice and Kim talk favorite nonfiction reads of 2020.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Follow Up

Storygraph

Favorite Nonfiction of 2020

Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Colette Goldbach

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robery Kolker

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Shit, Actually by Lindy West

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half-Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century ed. By Alice Wong

What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

Nonfiction We Missed in 2020

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey

The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask 

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad

Reading Now

KIM: The Devil’s Harvest: A Ruthless Killer, a Terrorized Community, and the Search for Justice in California’s Central Valley by Jessica Garrison

ALICE: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Alice and Kim share books about familes, plus new nonfiction about mediocre white dudes, Mexican revolutionaries, and more.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

The Obamas’ Higher Ground & ‘Adam Ruins Everything’s Adam Conover Team On Government Comedy Series For Netflix, Based On Michael Lewis’ ‘The Fifth Risk’ [Deadline]

The 10 best books of 2020 [Washington Post]

The 10 best books of 2020 [The New York Times]

New Nonfiction

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo

Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico : Portraits of Soldaderas, Saints, and Subversives Edited by Kathy Sosa, Ellen Riojas Clark and Jennifer Speed

Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody

The Invention of Medicine: From Homer to Hippocrates by Robin Lane Fox

Terrible and Wonderful Families

Calypso by David Sedaris

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse: An Extraordinary Edwardian Case of Deception and Intrigue by Piu Eatwell

Reading Now

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

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This week Alice and Kim share nonfiction gift recommendations for the holidays.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life., The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia by Tom Stevenson, and A Drop of Midnight by Jason Diakité.

Follow Up

We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper

Nonfiction in the News

Carnegie Medals shortlist

National Book Award winners

New Nonfiction

Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds : Ebola and the Ravages of History by Paul Farmer

Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood by Christa Parravani 

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

Nonfiction Gift Guide

Stuck in the Middle With You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

Threading My Prayer Rug by Sabeeha Rehman

Laughing All the Way to the Mosque by Zarqa Nawaz

https://bookriot.com/memoirs-by-muslim-women/ – Karuna Riazi

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

The White Darkness by David Grann

The Wonder Trail: True Stories from Los Angeles to the End of the World by Steve Hely

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

Forward: A Memoir by Abby Wambach  

Reset by Ellen Pao

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

The Lonely War: One Woman’s Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran Kindle by Nazila Fathi 

Eiffel’s Tower: The Thrilling Story Behind Paris’s Beloved Monument and the Extraordinary World’s Fair That Introduced It by Jill Jonnes

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Denise Kiernan

The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson

Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy 

Reading Now

KIM: A Promised Land by Barack Obama 

ALICE: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork 

Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink

RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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This week Alice and Kim give kudos to nonfiction authors with election victories and talk about good YA nonfiction options to read when you’re exhausted.

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life., Henry Holt & Co., and Whatbook.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams

Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride

New Nonfiction

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays by Kiese Laymon

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

YA Nonfiction

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater

The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese

The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century by Sarah Miller

Reading Now

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich

Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

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For Real is a biweekly nonfiction podcast that puts the spotlight on new books and old favorites that tell it like it is, or at least try to. Join hosts Alice and Kim every other Tuesday for news, recommendations, and more!

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This week, Alice and Kim talk new releases and Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

This episode is sponsored by the podcast Borrowed from the Brooklyn Public Library, The Limerence Imprint of Oni Press, and Nothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

Bill Bryson ‘to retire from writing’ [The Telegraph]

Ava DuVernay Back In Director’s Chair For ‘Caste’; Netflix Adaptation Of Acclaimed Isabel Wilkerson’s Best Seller [Deadline] by Amanda N’Duka

Jeffrey Toobin of New Yorker Is Suspended After Zoom Incident [New York Times] by Johnny Diaz and Azi Paybarah

New Nonfiction

A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order by Judith Flanders

The Fangirl’s Guide to the Universe: A Handbook for Girl Geeks by Sam Maggs

What Would Frida Do? A Guide to Living Boldly by Arianna Davis

Finding Latinx : In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity by Paola Ramos

Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West

Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Frankenstein

Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lila Judge

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon

The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece by Roseanne Montillo

Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters by Anne K. Mellor

Reading Now

KIM: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

ALICE: The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by Anita Orrock

CONCLUSION
You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Our Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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This week Alice and Kim talk about some excellent nonfiction featuring women of the Supreme Court.

This episode is sponsored by Borrowed, Book Riot’s mystery thriller podcast, Read or Dead, and TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

2020 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Finalists

Ron Charles at the Washington Post: The 2020 National Book Awards finalists are a strikingly fresh group [Washington Post]

New Nonfiction

What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era by Carlos Lozada

White Reconstruction : Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide by Dylan Rodríguez

She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh

The Ghost Road : Anishinaabe Responses to Indian Hating by Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Quick mentions: 

Women of the Supreme Court

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnuk

Reading Now

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Conclusion

You can find us on social media @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing audio editing for this episode was done by Dan Baker. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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This week, Kim and Alice dive into books by and about folks in The Bachelor universe. Plus, thoughts on Obama’s upcoming memoir and all sorts of new books!

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life. and The Mason House, available now from Lanternfish Press, and Henry Holt and Company.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

New York Times: “Obama’s Memoir A Promised Land Coming in November”

New Books

The Writer’s Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

Clutter: An Untidy History by Jennifer Howard

Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen

Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser

A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K. Barnett

Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America by Maria Hinojisa

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

Bachelor and Bachelorette Books

It’s Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak into Happily Never After by Andi Dorfman

I Didn’t Come Here to Make Friends: Confessions of a Reality Show Villain by Courtney Robertson

Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure by Amy Kaufman

Happily Ever After: The Life-Changing Power of a Grateful Heart by Trista Sutter

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

Reading Now

Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

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