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For Real episodes

  • For Reading After Marathoning

    This week Alice and Kim talk books to read after you finishing marathoning shows like Tiger King and The Office, plus some of the best new releases from April.

    This episode is sponsored by Book Riot's TBR, Flatiron Books, publisher of Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran, and Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community.

    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 News

    Hollwood Reporter: "Connie Britton, HBO Max Team for 'All the Single Ladies' Doc"

    New Books

    What We Carry by Maya Shanbhag Lang

    Good Morning, Destroyer of Men's Souls by Nina Renata Aron

    The Compton Cowboys by Walter Thompson-Hernandez

    Becoming Kim Jong Un by Jung H. Pak

    Earth Almanac by Ted Williams

    No Justice in the Shadows byAlina Das

    The Golden Flea by Michael Rips

    Reading After Marathoning

    The Tribe of Tiger by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

    No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge

    The Office by Andy Greene

    Cubed by Nikil Saval

    The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

    Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Y. Davis

    Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem

    When Everything Changed by Gail Collins

    Homicide by David Simon

    Forensics by Val McDermid

    Reading Now

    A Field Guide to Awkward Silences by Alexandra Petri

    In the Woods by Tana French

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    49 min
  • Earth Day Reads

    This week Alice and Kim talk new releases, Earth Day reads and more from the world of nonfiction.

    This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm, Book Riot Insiders, and TBR.

    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 News

    Newsmaker: Stacey Abrams

    The Pulitzer Prize announcements are postponed.

    New Books

    American Harvest by Marie Mutsuki Mockett

    In the Waves: My Quest to Solve the Mystery of a Civil War Submarine by Rachel Lance

    Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller

    Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder

    Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

    Alice Quick Mentions: The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States by Walter Johnson
    The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask

    Kim Quick Mentions:
    Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo, Scott Sonenshein
    More than Ready: Be Strong and Be You…and Other Lessons for Women of Color on the Rise by Cecilia Muñoz

    Earth Day

    The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here by Hope Jahren

    The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

    H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

    Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have by Tatiana Schlossberg

    Reading Now

    KIM: Writers and Lovers by Lily King

    ALICE: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

    CONCLUSION

    You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA - @itsalicetime and @kimthedork
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    47 min
  • Quarantine Reads

    This week Alice and Kim talk quarantine reads, the inside scoop on royalty, and America’s youngest sommelier.

    This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm and Book Riot’s TBR.

    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.

    Follow Up

    COVID-19 Updates from the Bookish World

    Nonfiction News

    Woody Allen's book somehow still got published.

    New Books

    Shorter: Work Better, Smarter, and Less—Here's How by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

    The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene

    Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like “Journey” in the Title by Leslie Gray Streeter

    Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner

    Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier by Victoria James

    Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes by Adam Hochschild

    My Sister: How One Sibling's Transition Changed Us Both by Selenis and Marizol Leyva

    Quarantine Reads

    Obama Administration memoirs
    KIM: The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power

    West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House by Gautam Raghavan

    Comedic memoirs:
    ALICE: Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom by Sara Benincasa

    Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson

    A long book I’ve been putting off reading
    KIM: The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison

    ALICE: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond

    A book about how I feel right now
    KIM: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

    Reading Now

    KIM: American Spy by Lauren Wilkerson

    ALICE: The Garlic Papers: A Small Garlic Farm in the Age of Global Vampires by Stanley Crawford

    CONCLUSION

    You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA - @itsalicetime and @kimthedork
    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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    47 min
  • Snake Math!

    This week Alice and Kim talk about women in Congress, crossword puzzles, and two scary subjects, snakes and math!

    This episode is sponsored by TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations and Libro.FM.

    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 News

    NPR: “Publisher Drops Woody Allen’s Book After Ronan Farrow Objects, Employees Walk Out”

    New Books

    The Firsts: The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress by Jennifer Steinhauer

    A History of Islam in 21 Women by Hossein Kamaly

    Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

    Thinking Inside the Box : Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can’t Live Without Them by Adrienne Raphel

    Snake Math!

    Book Riot has “20 of the Best Snake Books for Every Reader”?

    Book Riot: 3 Math Books for Pi Day

    How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng

    The Book of Snakes: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from around the World by Mark O’Shea

    Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan

    Serpent’s Tale: Snakes in Folklore and Literature ed. By Gregory McNamee

    Reading Now

    A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn

    The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

    The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

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    41 min
  • International Women's Day, Revisited

    This week Alice and Kim talk about popular self-help books, admit to sometimes reading fiction, and revisit one of their favorite podcast topics, books to celebrate International Women’s Day!

    This episode is sponsored by Spirit Run by Noé Álvarez, on sale now from Catapult and Libro.fm.

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    47 min
  • Black History Month Reads

    This week Alice and Kim talk Black History Month nonfiction reads for your TBR shelf.

    This episode is sponsored by Random House and the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.

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

    For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

    Nonfiction News

    The Guardian: “Whitechapel mural will celebrate the lives of Jack the Ripper’s victims”

    New Books

    Broken Faith: Inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, One of America’s Most Dangerous Cults by Mitch Weiss, Holbrook Mohr

    The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage by Mara Hvistendahl

    A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home, ed. By Nicole Chung, Menshah Demary

    Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

    18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb

    Black History Month

    Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittany Cooper

    A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

    Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy

    Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard

    One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson

    Reading Now

    KIM: The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
    Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

    ALICE: Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages by Jack Hartnell

    CONCLUSION

    You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork
    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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    42 min
  • 50 Books for 50 Episodes

    This week Alice and Kim highlight 50 awesome nonfiction books to celebrate their 50th episode!

    This episode is sponsored by Get Booked from Book Riot, Me and White Supremacy from Sourcebooks, and Book Riot Insiders.

    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.

    Books Mentioned

    Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

    Building a Life Worth Living by Marsha M. Linehan

    The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

    Unfollow by Megan Roper Phelps

    The Art of Choosing  by Sheena Iyengar

    A Woman’s Crusade by Mary Walton

    The Great Beanie Baby Bubble by Zac Bissonnette 

    Meaty by Samantha Irby

    The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum

    Moonbound by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

    Without You There Is No Us by Suki Kim

    Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

    Stiff by Mary Roach

    Spare Parts by Joshua Davis

    Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis 

    King Mob by Christopher Hibbert

    When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

    The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

    Educated by Tara Westover

    My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper

    Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

    Portage by Sue Leaf 

    White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

    My Own Devices by Dessa 

    All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

    The Distraction Addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

    Crash Override by Zoe Quinn

    How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor

    The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

    The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith

    Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

    The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee 

    They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery

    From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

    American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin

    Good Talk by Mira Jacob

    Political Tribes by Amy Chua

    The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison

    Amateur by Thomas Page McBee

    Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Katy Butler

    We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    Leaving Orbit by Margaret Lazarus Dean

    The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran

    Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

    Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

    Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge

    I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

    This Life is In Your Hands by Melissa Coleman

    The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

    Reset by Ellen Pao

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    52 min
  • Classic Hollywood Scandals

    This week Alice and Kim talk classic Hollywood scandals and history, with some nonfiction picks to help you dive into the backstage world of 20th century film.

    This episode is sponsored by Fights by Joel Christian McGill, Book Riot’s Read Harder 2020 Challenge, and Novel Gazing, Book Riot’s new literary fiction podcast.

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

    For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

    NONFICTION NEWS

    The Hill: “New Stacey Abrams book to focus on voting rights”

    NEW BOOKS

    The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg

    The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh

    Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton

    Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener

    CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD SCANDALS

    The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt

    The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara

    Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood by Karina Longworth

    The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont by Shawn Levy

    Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema by Anne Helen Petersen

    Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann

    READING NOW

    KIM: The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace by Lindsey Pollak

    ALICE: God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America by Lyz Lenz

    CONCLUSION

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

    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

    49 min
  • Exciting Nonfiction Coming in 2020

    This week Alice and Kim talk about the failure of their 2019 reading resolutions and look ahead to some of the books they’re excited about in 2020.

    This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge and Book Riot Insiders.

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

    For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

    NEW BOOKS

    And Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood by Rachel Friedman

    Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol: The Explosive Story of M19, America’s First Female Terrorist Group by William Rosenau

    ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020

    American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson

    A Black Woman’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

    Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

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

    Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelier by Victoria James

    Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

    Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo

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

    How to Be Fine: What We Learned from Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer

    READING NOW

    Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown

    Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food by Lenore Newman

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    46 min
  • 2019 Nonfiction Favorites

    This week Alice and Kim talk favorite nonfiction reads of 2019, including the women of Disney, a very lonely whale, and how to stop stress in its tracks.

    This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Read Harder Journal and Libro.fm.

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

    For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

    NONFICTION NEWS

    Goodreads Choice Awards are out!

    2019 FAVORITES

    Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi, Joshua David Stein

    Parkland by Dave Cullen

    Good Talk by Mira Jacob

    The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang

    Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

    Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

    The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt

    Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

    Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps-Roper

    Make it Scream, Make it Burn by Leslie Jamison

    Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World by Emma Southon

    No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder

    2019 MISSES

    Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

    Know My Name by Chanel Miller

    Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

    Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness by Jennifer Berry Hawes

    The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

    Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

    READING NOW

    KIM: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

    The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

    ALICE: Know My Name by Chanel Miller!

    Citizen by Claudia Rankine

    CONCLUSION

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

    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

    47 min

About For Real

From the publisher's feed

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.

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