Category: Nonfiction

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Blog Nonfiction

Losing Our Minds

By Dr. Lucy Foulkes, Book 5 of 2022

This book brought something wonderful to the conversation around mental health: context and nuance. There’s a lot of hype around mental health and the mental health crisis of modern times and Dr. Foulkes does a great job presenting the data in its complexity. Having worked in public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, I realize that people don’t want the messy, complex reality of science but thankfully this book gives us what we need, not what we want.

It’s impossible for me to distill the messages in this book down to a few sentences but I do think anyone interested in the topic will gain an important and necessary perspective.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ALC and thank you to the author for sharing your personal and professional knowledge.

Recommended for: anyone interested in mental health, has mental health concerns, or cares for someone with mental health challenges, especially parents, teachers, and health professionals.

Content Warnings: Mental Health, Self Harm, Stigma, Suicide

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Blog Nonfiction

A Year of Loving Kindness to Myself

written by Brigid Lowry, book 68 of 2021

Let me start by saying I don’t read a lot of spiritual works so I’m not sure my opinion on this should be given a lot of weight. That being said, I enjoyed listening to this book tremendously. The writing is comforting and delightful and the narration was warm and soothing. Lowry’s realistic attempts at implementing her spiritual practices during trying times made me feel seen. Over the last week it was a joy to listen to one of the many micro chapters of this book and smile. This will definitely be an audiobook I will want to revisit over and over. Would also make a great holiday gift! 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ALC. 

Recommended for: anyone needing a little extra love and compassion, so everyone. 

Content Warnings: Divorce, Grief, Religion/Spirituality

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Blog Nonfiction

Care-free Black Girls

A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture

by Zeba Blay, Book 64 of 2021

If you’re going into this for a celebratory atmosphere around black joy and black success, you will be disappointed. The tone of this celebration is a lot more somber than I originally expected. Unsurprisingly, Zeba Blay knows her stuff and it shows in this collection of essays focused on the black female experience within pop culture and outside it. I learned a lot about black artistry and its history and I will definitely use this new lens through which to view American pop culture. As a person who’s been trying to read more anti-racist literature, this was a solid addition to the genre.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ALC. 

Recommended for: anyone looking to expand their anti-racism knowledge with a unique perspective.

Content Warnings: Racism, Microaggresions, Death of a Parent, Sexual Abuse, Mental health, Self Harm, Historical/Intergenerational Trauma, Police Violence and others

Categories
Blog Nonfiction Social Justice

The End of Bias: A Beginning

by Jessica Nordell, Book 62 of 2021

This book is packed full of insightful examples of how bias seeps into day to day encounters with profound impacts ranging from the expected (police violence) to more subtle (gendering in preschool classrooms). There are a lot of great actionable takeaways for organizations and leaders who want to improve the environments they influence. For my local friends, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Nordell was raised in Green Bay and many of her examples resonated personally. 

Bonus: The audiobook is read by the author and I could not help but laugh at the thinly veiled disdain she apparently still holds for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ALC.

Recommended for: those interested in creating a more just society.


Content Warnings: Racism, Sexism, Violence, Police Violence

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Blog Nonfiction

Living in Data

Citizen’s Guide to a Better Information Future

written by Jer Thorp, Book 49 of 2021

“The lesson that I had learned was one that has guided my approach to solving data problems for the last decade; to treat the data and the systems it lived in not as an abstraction, but as a real thing with particular properties, and to work to understand these unique conditions as deeply as I can. I learned other things from the project too, about paying careful attention to what is missing in data.”

Jer Thorp “Living in Data”

I truly enjoyed this nonfiction work detailing the pitfalls of modern data collection and sharing. I’ve already thought of several ways to apply some of Thorp’s ideas to my work in public health and I found his examples very engaging and useful. We are all subject to data collection and this work raises some very important and timely questions about who creates it, who views it, and who benefits. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ALC. 

Recommended for: folks who work with data collection and visualization, anyone who wants to be a better informed consumer of information. 

Content Warnings: Privacy, colonization, climate change, racism 

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Blog Nonfiction

Somebody’s Daughter

written by Ashley C. Ford, narrated by the author – book 42 of 2021

I was nothing and nobody cared what happened to nothing and everything happened to girls who were nothing.

Ashley C. Ford

This raw and vulnerable memoir by Ashley C. Ford challenges the traditional expectations of what families owe each other. Ford was raised primarily by her mother and grandmother after her father’s incarceration as a young child. Her tenuous relationship with her mother is highlighted in contrast to her conflicted feelings about her devoted but isolated father. Ford does not shy away from discussing the difficult parts of her childhood and adolescence and left me in awe of her resilience. She unwaveringly explores the feelings of shame and uncertainty inherent in childhood and their long lasting effects. As an adult that works in health and human services, I found this to be a moving example of the tangible consequences trauma can have. I would highly recommend the audiobook as it is read by the author and includes an excellent conversation between Ashley C. Ford and fellow author Clint Smith that adds another layer of complexity and a new lens through which to view Ford’s story. Smith’s book, “How the Word is Passed” is also expected out on June 1, 2021.

Recommended for: lovers of memoirs, adults working in social or human services work, anyone who wants to experience a glimmer of the human experience from Ford’s perspective.

Content Warnings: Physical and sexual violence, abuse, rape, parent/child conflict

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for early access to this very moving audiobook!

Categories
Blog Nonfiction

Rebel Ideas

written by Matthew Syed, Book 32 of 2021

Companies founded by immigrants grow faster and survive longer. Immigrants make disproportionate contributions to technology, patent production and to science.

Matthew Syed

I found this book to be successful in treading the line between academic and genuinely engaging. Syed makes compelling points about the inherit value of both diversity and structures that encourage all voices to be heard. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who has a leadership role within an organization or creates and manages teams.

I have seen a lot of people comparing this book to “Range” by David Epstein and I would agree that there are many commonalities that lead this book to feel a bit redundant at times. Nonetheless, I did find this book engaging and I appreciated that the focus of this book was more about how the outsider mindset was valuable to groups and not just valuable within the individual.

Recommended for: Anyone who works on teams, especially those tasked with forming them and those who make decisions.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced copy of the audiobook.

Categories
Blog Nonfiction

When They Call You a Terrorist

written by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Book 5 of 2021

“What is the impact of not being valued? How do you measure the loss of what a human being does not receive?”

Patrisse Khan-Cullors

Wow. I’ve been trying to prioritize reading more books written by people of color and this was one I will recommend over and over. Patrisse Khan-Cullors tells her story in a deeply moving and personal narrative that covers her life from childhood up to her present day activism in a way that will inspire you to join her. It’s hard not to be moved by the way she makes the day to day criminalization of being black of the US very personal. There’s no time like the present to show up for people of color in this country. 

Recommended for: Anyone who’s wondered, what’s the deal with the Black Lives Matter movement or seems confused about what the movement is fighting for. Anyone interested in learning more about how policing and the experience of prison impacts people of color. 

Actions I will take in response to this book 

  • Support organizations led by and for black folks in my community 
  • Support decriminalization of offenses that are mostly enforced in communities of color.
  • Find out how I can support local organizations not just next month (Black history month, but into the future).

Content Warnings: Incarceration, Racism, Violence, Neglect, Torture, Hate Crimes