5 Recent Nonfiction Reads!

This week, I finally took stock of my outstanding reviews and realized how far behind I’d fallen on nonfiction! I think I talked about most of these on my Book Riot podcast, For Real, so in the back of my head that means I’ve reviewed them… when in actuality I’ve never spent the time getting thoughts on paper (so to speak). I’m going to share five recent-ish nonfiction reads this week, then hopefully finish them up when I’m back from my Fourth of July vacation. Enjoy!

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is the story of the hunt for the Golden State Killer, a serial rapist and murder active in California in the 1960s and ‘70s, and McNamara’s quest to identify him through true crime reporting originally published on her blog. McNamara died unexpectedly in 2016, so the book was finished by her husband and research assistants, based on her nearly-completed drafts and copious notes. Despite the fact that parts feel unfinished, this is still one of the best works of true crime I’ve ever read. McNamara is thorough, curious, detailed, and a truly stellar writer – this book is genuinely creepy in some sections. She’s also extremely empathetic, and never lets telling the story of the GSK get in the way of being sensitive to the victims and their families in the way some true crime writing does. This book is excellent.

Bachelor Nation by Amy Kaufman

Bachelor Nation is the “first definitive, unauthorized, behind-the-scenes cultural history of the Bachelor franchise,” looking at every aspect of how the show gets made and what has happened to the contestants since their appearance on the show. Although I’m not really a fan of the show, I am super interested in books that tell you how things get made, so this one caught my attention. It’s a quick, light read, and I definitely enjoyed it, but I didn’t think Kaufman’s final conclusions about the show were especially novel or made me think about the show in a different way than when I started. It’s a solid read, but nothing spectacular.

The Song Poet by Kao Kalia Yang

Kao Kalia Yang is a Minnesota writer, the daughter of Hmong immigrants who fled to the United States from Laos in the 1970s (a story chronicled in her first book, The Latehomecomer). The Song Poet is the story of Yang’s father, Bee, a man recognized in his community as a song poet. In the Hmong tradition, “the song poet recounts the story of his people, their history and tragedies, joys and losses.” Yang adopts her father’s voice to to tell his story from childhood to fatherhood, while also recounting her own experience growing up in Minnesota. This book is really beautifully written, and an important to book to read now as we’re having all of these difficult conversations about refugees and immigrants. I really loved it, and can’t wait to backtrack to her first memoir.

Damnation Island by Stacy Horn

Stacy Horn is such an interesting writer – she’s written about choral singing, cold case detectives, parapsychology and, in Damnation Island, the history of New York’s Roosevelt Island in the 19th Century. At the time, the island was called Blackwell’s, and was the site of  “a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals.” Originally, it was supposed to be a modern, humane place to incarcerate or house the city’s poorest people… but of course that didn’t work for long because bureaucrats are going to bureaucrat. Horn’s deep dive into the island is punctuated by other fascinating stories about this time and place, such as Nellie Bly’s undercover work at Blackwell’s for her book Ten Days in a Mad-House. Overall, I thought it was just fascinating – recommended!

Dear Madam President by Jennifer Palmieri

Jennifer Palmieri was the communications director for Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president and, in that role, got to see and experience what it was like to try and elect the first female president of the United States. In Dear Madam President, Palmieri writes an open letter to the future first woman president, sharing what she learned in the campaign and what she thinks we all need to do differently when we think about women and leadership.I don’t think there was anything especially novel in terms of advice in this book, but I am going to continue to devour books that give an inside account of the 2016 presidential campaign because there’s just so much we all still need to unpack. I liked this one, and recommend it for political junkies of many stripes.