Nonfiction Memoirs and Environmental Narratives

Hi, I'm Missa Adworney and you're listen to NnPR's Book of the dayay It is one of my favorite times of year. When the NPR books team is out with the list of the twenty twenty six reads our staff has loved so far. There are hundreds of titles to peruse. I personally recommended my favorite fiction pick. You'll have to go search for it In a minute, NPR's Chloe Weiner, who produces this Book of the Day podcast is going to join me to share some of her favorites We will be right back Chloe, hi. It is so fun to have you on this side of the microphone. Hi, Alysa. I'm very happy to be here. Okay, so let us start first, maybe with romance novels Yeah, our colleagues have been really into romance in the first half of this year.. One book they recommended is called Enemies to Lovers by Alicia Rye. This one is kind of an adventure rom com. It's about an unlikely duo, this guy Krish, who's an upstanding citizen and a woman named Sjel who makes a living conning bad men. They team up to solve a crime and that plays out over a cross country road trip Okay, that sounds excellent. There's also the Missed Connection by Tia Williams. Williams is a big contemporary romance author, as I'm sure a lot of our listeners know. She wrote Seven Days in June a few years ago, which was super popular. Yes, I actually read that and I loved it. I think I finished it in like one night. Oh yeah, have you read her other books too? No, that's the only one. It sounds have a good back catalog and a new one Yeah, the new one is about a woman named Sasha who falls for her seatmate on a plane. And of course, they don't exchange any contact information, kind of a classic setup. So she enlists the help of a detective she knows, and this turns into another kind of romance adventure story Okay, so two good romances. Chloe, what about some other kind of like more like straight up fiction Sure, I think this one does have some romantic themes. but something I want to read is this novel Last night in Brooklyn by Socho Gonzalez This book has gotten a fair bit of buzz, so some of our listeners might know it, but it's set in Fort Green Brooklyn during a sticky hot summer, and it's been talked about as a kind of modern update to the Great Gatsby.. But there's gentrification and shifting dynamics in the protagonist's neighborhood, but also parties in this very glamorous neighbor I'm interested in it because I know a lot of people like to escape when they read, especially during the summer, but lately I've been liking books that are very much about what I'm doing in that exact moment. Like if I'm on vacation somewhere, I want to read about that place. And this summer I'm mostly sticking around Brooklyn. so that's where I want my books to be too. Okay, this is a personal one for you, Chloe, then I like that Yeah, it's personal. I don't know if other listeners can relate to it. Okay, well The two books that I would recommend that are fiction on this list are both set in places I want to be. so I'm gonna to go the exact opposite of you, which is like I want to be in Maine or France. Let's hear it. Okay. so the first is Dear Monica Lewinsky And I talked with the author, Julia Langbein for weekend Eedition and we actually put that episode on the pod. Right. It's about a college student in nineteen ninety eight who goes on the study abroad program surveying medieval French churches And she has this kind of inappropriate or I don't know, a little bit scandalous relationship with one of her professors And it's all about like desire and point of view and of course, the title Dear Monica Lewinsky is because she ends up kind of like praying to this saint of Monica Lewinsky, who, of course had a more public scandalous relationship. Yeah. Fascinating. I like that Monica Lowinsky has had kind of a redemptive moment in our culture. Totally. What was the other one? The other one is called the shampoo effect This is about a writer kind of infiltrating a tight knit group of adults who've been friends since childhood. It's set in Maine The plot is mostly about like domestic life, parenthood, but it has all these twists and turns And I just thought it was a delightfully satisfying read. Nice. Okay, we need to take a break here, but we will be right back with some of our favorite nonfiction titles. So that was fiction What about nonfiction books A lot of the nonfiction on this list takes big intimidating subjects and makes them more approachable like good nonfiction often does This is often from a more personal perspective, like this memoir from the law professor Kimberly Crenshaw Wh we featured on this podcast a few weeks ago, I think. Yes. Listeners of Book of the Day who are paying close attention. This one might be familiar for them. But Crenshaw's work led to the development of two terms that have been incredibly influential and also politically controversial, intersectionality and critical race theory These topics sound pretty academic, but this memoir is actually a raw, funny, and at times heartbreaking account of how Crenshaw was born to be a backtalker, which is the title of her memoir That's according to Morning Edition host Michelle Martin, who interviewed Crenshaws. So if you've avoided the firestorm over critical race theory somehow, I think picking up this book could be a good way to dive in Okay, and maybe it will kind of like demystify it for people. Any other topics or themes that stand out Yeah, there are a couple of books on this list that use the environment to tell a bigger story. One is called When It's Darkness onn the Delta by Ralph Eubanks. It's a book about the Mississippi Delta, which has some of the richest soil in the United States, which I didn't know, but it remains one of the poorest parts of the country. So Eubanks looks at the history of the region through its landscape, which once held a lot of promise for black farmers Any thinks about what it would take to break free from the Delta's history as a plantation economy There's one more book on this list that kind of matches that theme. It's more about the natural world than the built environment, but the book is in Trees by Robert Moore And like it sounds, M looks at what humans can learn from trees kind of from a philosophical point of view. Honestly, Chloe, like all my friends have been talking about this book. Oh nice. Just like how smart trees are that they can communicate with each other So cool. So in the book, there are histories of bonsai trees and tree houses, but also of climate activism It's a neat blend of philosophy history and science, as your friends have found out This honestly was such a small sampling of all of the recommendations we have for you on NPR's Books We loveove. So you should definitely check it out. You can search NPR Books We loveove There's one for fiction, there's one for non fiction And that is it for this week on NPR's Book of the Day. If you want more, you can sign up for our newsletter at npR. org slash newsletter slash books. I'm a listenon outborn The podcast is produced by Chloe Weiner, who was on todayay and edited by Megan Sullivan. Our founding editor is Petrra Mayer. The show elements for this week were produced and edited by Todd Munt Emico, Tomagawa, Adriana Guillardo, Ava Pucatch, Jacob Fenston, Ryan Bank, Samantha Balabin, Justine Kennan, Gabriel Sanchez, and Phil Harrell Thank you so much for listening