New Nonfiction for Your Book Club

Hanif Abdurraqib is the National Book Award-nominated author of A Little Devil in America, and here he aims his poetic eye at basketball. With his usual mix of the personal and communal, he looks at one of America’s favorite sports, examining its history, who makes it and who doesn’t, and LeBron James.

I’m not a big true crime reader, so maybe this is me just now noticing, but I’ve been appreciating the more victim-centered true crime releases I’ve been seeing lately. The genre as a whole can sometimes feel exploitative, and books like Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza and this latest by Sarah Gerard are so compassionate. In 2016, Gerard’s friend Carolyn Bush is murdered. The aspiring poet is stabbed by her roommate, Render Stetson-Shanahan. From what she knew, Carolyn and Render had gotten along, so what went wrong? Gerard interviews Render’s friends and family and reads writings and internet posts by both victim and murdered, trying to answer this question. Soon, she’s led to the wider societal issue of the plague of violence committed by white men.

Growing up, La Tray knew himself to be Indian, even though his father always denied it. When he goes to his grandfather’s funeral and sees so many obviously Indigenous relatives, his heritage becomes undeniable. He sets out to learn more about his people, thereby learning more about himself. He does research, speaks to elders, and joins the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians’ struggle to become federally recognized.

This biography honors and brings to life to the amazing legacy of Mary MacLeod Bethune. She was the first of 17 children born free but endured terrible poverty. Despite that, she went on to not only become the first to learn to read and attend college in her family, she also started a school in 1904 that became HBCU Bethune-Cookman. Listen, I don’t even fully know how to conceptualize how she achieved all that she did; I can only read on in amazement.