RELEASE DAY RECOMMENDS : 8.19.2020
Every week the publishing industry opens the gates of brand spanking new books and out comes a deluge of new and possibly amazing releases. And every week our Founder and sometimes reviewer, Noah Sanders, will act as your donut-shaped floatation device to keep you and your brainy little head above the waters of what you should read.
This week: the epic conclusion to a four-part dissection of the rise of the Conservative Right in America, dry British humor, Detroit in the early 20th century and more.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19TH
Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980
Rick Perlstein
Simon & Schuster
Now, I know, from experience, that most of you, based on a recommendation won’t pick up an 1,100 page book on the rise of the Conservative Right in America. I get it. But close your eyes for a moment and try to picture Reaganland - the fourth and final piece of a series by Perlstein - as a non-fiction, American Game of Thrones. Instead of flailing horselords, dragons and eunichs you have Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and evangelical America clawing down the door of progressive ideals. And instead of fantastical set pieces that stumble forward to a floundering (or even non-existent) ending, you have a book that explores the final moments of two decades that basically set us up for the hellish dystopia we’re all mired in. Perlstein is well know for taking the complicated (and infuriating) tropes of American politics and weaving them into fascinating (often times saltily told) masterpieces. This is American history with the dust blown off and all the goods craftily explored. One might be think themselves tired of Conservative thinking in this day and age, but 1980s Conservative, now that’s something I can get behind.
Grown Ups
Emma Jane Unsworth
Gallery/Scout Press
I nearly avoided placing this one on any sort of recommends list due to a near over-saturation of dry, British humor about the mundanities of life. But then, cooped up inside for another day, pulling at the new greys woven into my beard tapestry, I thought, “Maybe a well crafted and punchy book poking fun at, well, life is just the balm we need right now for our modern malaise.” Well, actually, that’s a complete reformation of the American political system, nationalized healthcare and speedy evacuation of the clown doll currently running our country. But hey, while we’re hyperventilating into brown paper bags and waiting for November, Emma Jane Unsworth’s newest might just fill the gap for a bit.
Black Bottom Saints
Alice Randall
Amistad Press
I hate the term summer reading (i.e. beach reads) and the often times drivel-soaked toilet paper thrown into our faces as examples of it. I don’t want throbbing loins and murder to tide me over while my skin bakes to a glossy red sheen. Give me familial epics, big century spanning plots full of twists and turns and death, the many mistakes humans make and the long-lasting implications of them. Give me a book like Alice Randall’s Black Bottom Saints, the story of Detroit’s famed Black. Bottom neighborhood in the early 20th century. The emotions, the feint stabs at historical accuracy, the life crawling from the sides of the pages. Told from the perspective of Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson, a gossip columnist turned master of ceremonies at the hottest club in Black Bottom, this is the story tells the story of the 52 saints of this historic neighborhood. I want it in my hands right now.
Betty
Tiffany McDaniel
Knopf
I can’t say why but I am a sucker for, ahem, “lyrical” novels about impoverished Appalachia. There’s just something about a great writer’s ability to spin palpable imagery from the dirt floors and grease-stained hands so often featured in this kind of book that draws me in every single time. Novels like Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. Half-Cherokee, Betty Carpenter is the sixth of eight children, growing up without a nickel in the faded town of Breathed, Ohio. There’s poverty and violence and deep, dark secrets slowly bubbling to the surface. Admittedly, it doesn’t sound like an easy read (yee beach readers, turn thyselves away) but who wants easy? I want to grit and pain and a story I can take a bit out of. I want Betty.
Noah Sanders often times grimaces when a book is described as “feel-good.”
