Nonfiction Review

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Posted on by eabrenner

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Straightforward and driven by facts. Oluo presents practical ways to change both your thinking and behavior to dismantle White Supremacy and oppression in favor of social justice and equity. She infuses her facts with personal stories and explores her ideas through the human lens, doesn’t let anyone off the hook for having thoughts and prayers and emotions without critically examining themselves and working toward growth and change, and closes each chapter with a list of approachable ways to take action for real change. A good book for anyone wanting to become more educated about racism, measure and explore their own internalized racism, and become an agent of positive change in the world.



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Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annelee Newitz

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Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Really enjoyed learning about the birth, growth, death, and development of cities through the four sites highlighted by Newitz in this book. I checked it out of the library, and then purchased a copy, because I knew I’d want to read it again.

Newitz brings the same skills I appreciated in their fiction to this nonfiction book – humanizing a place by telling me about a person who lives there, enriching and contextualizing people by showing what’s unique about where they live. They’ve got a keen eye for the right details, the right anecdotes, to bring it alive and keep it fresh, even when it seems everyone already knows the story, as in the case of Pompeii. I wish I’d known half of what they wrote in this book when I visited those ruins years ago. Now I can’t stop thinking about going back.



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Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction – Grady Hendrix

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Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror FictionPaperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I saw Grady Hendrix on a convention panel, was immediately captivated by the thought of all the things I didn’t know about horror fiction, and then entered (and won) a giveaway for this book. It took me a year and a half to read it, picking it up and putting it down as my desire to study the subject waxed and waned. It’s a lot to take in all at once, but it makes for a great bed- or couch-side read.

The text is tightly-written, witty and smart, devoting time to the subgenres of horror as they rise and fall, the books themselves and their writers, the cover artists so rarely named or lauded for their work, strung along a thread of the boom and bust of the publishing houses putting all these books into the hands of the masses. That anecdotal balancing act kept the book from feeling repetitive (“oh, and then this novel, and then this one, and this one . . .”). It delivered what was promised: a history of the books, their stories, cultural context, and the business and people behind and around them.

You may walk away from this book with a reading list to keep you busy for years. You may, like me, enjoy knowing more about that period of horror fiction and its echoes down the years than feel any great desire to read the greatest hits of decades past. I didn’t get really excited and start looking up authors and books until I got to the last section, about the psychological and genre-crossing horror of the early nineties under Dell’s short-lived Abyss imprint, edited by Jeanne Cavelos. If nothing else about this book appeals to you, it makes a great coffee table book for the wealth of full-color cover images, ranging from stark and iconic to bizarre and lurid.

I recommend this to anyone discovering (or re-discovering) an interest in horror fiction who isn’t quite sure what parts of the horror spectrum appeal to them. This book is also wonderful for anyone who enjoys knowing the history of genres and publishing, or just wants to read clever and sarcastic essay-reviews about older books.

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Born with Teeth – Kate Mulgrew

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Born with TeethBorn with Teeth by Kate Mulgrew

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn’t go looking for this book. I didn’t know it existed until I glanced over a table during my visit to Book People in Austin, TX, and saw a familiar face looking back at me. I know Kate Mulgrew from Star Trek: Voyager, had seen her in a few other shows and interviews over the years, and I was immediately interested in learning more about such a dynamic woman.

Mulgrew writes as well as she acts, navigating the treacherous waters of a memoir by balancing carefully-selected and vivid details with hyperbolic Irish storytelling to distract and direct our attention by turns. She covers difficult ground—a child given up, a sister lost to cancer, an abusive relationship, a robbery turned sexual assault, the end of a marriage, and the beginning of her mother’s decline—as she gives us a tour of her career on the screen and the stage. She reveals all the darkness and light of her ambition and choices, unflinching and unapologetic when she calls herself selfish, celebrates her happiness and successes, and forgives herself for her failings. The men in her life come and go, and she is vigilant not to villainize them as the ties that bind them together unravel time and again.

What might have been a series of anecdotes loosely connected by her career is instead given a compelling and family-centered through line by Mulgrew’s refusal to forget the daughter she gave up for adoption, and she ends the memoir with their climactic reunion. The finishing note is a true-love denouement as Mulgrew reunites with the man who got away. Her two great passions (besides acting)—love and family—flourish around her. This was a thoroughly captivating and enjoyable read.

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Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain

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Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop TalkingQuiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain employs a smooth blend of anecdotes and layman’s summaries of scientific research to present a picture of both the history of America’s cultural attitudes toward and the current views and inquiries around introversion.

This book didn’t tell me anything about myself that I didn’t already know (I’m introverted and high reactive, prone to sound and light sensitivity when I’m tired or overwhelmed). However, knowing that this has been studied by scientists is comforting. When my niece inevitably falls victim to our extroversion-forward culture, and begins to doubt herself as others tell her it’s bad to be shy or sensitive, I’ll hand her this book and reassure her that she’s absolutely fine and capable the way she is.

I also already knew that open-office plans are garbage ideas that lead to higher stress levels and lower productivity rather than more effective collaboration. Cain’s evidence-based discussion on the true effectiveness of allowing people to study problems in solitary contemplation was satisfying to read, but ultimately made me sad and angry because I work in a large corporate environment that is already willfully ignoring this research in favor of the more cost-effective open office plan and the power-of-collaboration bandwagon to justify their position.

My truest enjoyment of this book is the glimpses into the inner lives and dramas of the scientists and ordinary people Cain interviewed and sketched in the pages. They came alive for me, and even days later I find myself thinking about them, wondering how they are doing as they make their way quietly through a loud world.

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