For Real

Latest Episodes:

Reading for Self Care Mar 29, 2022

This week Alice and Kim chat about their current obsessions (Lincoln and fraudsters, respectively), discuss reading for self care, and preview new nonfiction about strangers, assimilation, serial killers, and more.

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Nonfiction in the News

National Book Critics Circle Award Winners Announced [Book Riot]

Best-Selling Author Brené Brown Promotes Meaningful Change in Trailer for HBO Max’s ‘Atlas of the Heart’ [The Wrap]

New Nonfiction

Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us by Colleen Kinder

Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion from the New Look to Millennial Pink by Veronique Hyland

You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation by Julissa Arce

Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, America’s First Serial Killer Family by Susan Jonusas

All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep: Hope – and Hard Pills to Swallow – About Fighting for Black Lives by Andre Henry

Burning My Roti: Breaking Barriers as a Queer Indian Woman by Sharan Dhaliwal

Reads for Self Care

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Calypso by David Sedaris

The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Reading Now

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

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Trans Women Authors Mar 15, 2022

This week, Alice and Kim talk about trans women authors.

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Nonfiction in the News

Netflix Orders White House Mystery Drama ‘The Residence’ From Shondaland, ‘For the People’ Creator [Variety]

New Nonfiction

Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi

I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Mónica Guzmán

Lady Icarus: Balloonmania and the Brief, Bold Life of Sophie Blanchard by Deborah Haynes

Weekly Theme: Books by Trans Women

Fairest by Meredith Talusan

How to Fail as a Pop Star: A Play by Vivek Shraya

To My Trans Sisters by Charlie Craggs

Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride

Reading Now

KIM: From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy by Scott Meslow

ALICE: The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America’s 16th President—and Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts and Spotify so people can find us more easily, and follow us there so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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International Women’s Day Revisited Mar 01, 2022

This week Alice and Kim revisit one of their favorite topics, International Women’s Day, with stories from women around the world. Plus, new nonfiction about Flat Earthers, abolition, and Greek myths.

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Nonfiction in the News

West Africans and the history of smallpox inoculation: Q&A with Elise A. Mitchell [Royal Society]

4 lessons from the life of global health visionary Paul Farmer [Vox]

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

Britney Spears set to pen tell-all book in bombshell $15M deal [Page Six]

New Nonfiction

Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything by Kelly Weill

The Republic of Violence: The Tormented Rise of Abolition in Andrew Jackson’s America by J. D. Dickey

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

International Women’s Day

Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory by Kimberly L. Craft

It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race, edited by Mariam Khan

Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen by Linda M. Heywood

Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot by Masha Gessen

To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War by Tera W. Hunter

Reading Now

White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue … and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation by Lauren Michele Jackson

The Story of You: An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self by Ian Morgan Cron

The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America by Matthew Pearl

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First Ladies Feb 15, 2022

This week Alice and Kim talk nonfiction about the first ladies.

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Follow Up

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts

Nonfiction in the News

The Inside Story of the Banning of “Maus.” It’s Dumber Than You Think. [Mother Jones]

How to Fight Books Bans and Challenges [Book Riot]

How to Use FOIA [Book Riot]

Claire Foy To Star in ‘An Ugly Truth’ Adaptation [Kirkus Reviews]

New Nonfiction

Black American Refugee: Escaping the Narcissism of the American Dream by Tiffanie Drayton

Woodsqueer: Crafting a Sustainable Rural Life by Gretchen Legler

The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao

Catch the Sparrow: A Search for a Sister and the Truth of Her Murder by Rachel Rear

Weekly Theme: First Ladies

First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies by Kate Andersen Brower

Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn

Meaning of Michelle: 16 Writers on the Iconic First Lady and How Her Journey Inspires Our Own by Veronica Chambers

The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters by Paul C. Nagel

Reading Now

KIM: No Cure for Being Human: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler

ALICE: Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke

CONCLUSION

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Books for Black History Month Feb 01, 2022

This week, Kim and Alice share reads for Black History Month, plus new nonfiction about cobalt, China, Vikings, and clothing.

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Nonfiction in the News

2022 Carnegie Medals [American Library Association]

A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib

Get a first look at David Sedaris’ new essay collection [Entertainment Weekly]

Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris

New Nonfiction

Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu

Cobalt: Cradle of the Demon Metals, Birth of a Mining Superpower by Charlie Angus

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser

River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads by Cat Jarman

Architects of an American Landscape: Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Reimagining of America’s Public and Private Spaces by Hugh Howard

Seven Games: A Human History by Oliver Roeder

Black History Month Reads

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Overground Railroad: The Green Book & Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor

White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue … and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation by Lauren Michele Jackson

The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. by Peniel E. Joseph

Reading Now

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Medicine in the Middle Ages by Juliana Cummings

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2022 Nonfiction Preview Jan 18, 2022

This week Alice and Kim talk about nonfiction highlights for 2022.

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Nonfiction We’re Looking Forward To, Part I

Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World by Danielle Friedman

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama: A Memoir by Bob Odenkirk

Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo

The Urge: Our History of Addiction by Carl Erik Fisher

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze by Laura Shin

There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster—Who Profits and Who Pays the Price by Jessie Singer

Nonfiction We’re Looking Forward To, Part II

Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton

Murder on the Mountain: Crime, Passion, and Punishment in Gilded Age New Jersey by Peter J. Wosh, Patricia L. Schall

Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain

Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free by Sarah Weinman

Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change by Angela Garbes

Reading Now

KIM: Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can’t Live Without Them by Adrienne Raphel

ALICE: A Visitor’s Guide to Victorian England by Michelle Higgs

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so people can find us more easily, and follow us there so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Episode 100!!!! Jan 04, 2022

This week Alice and Kim celebrate recording 100 episodes for For Real by chatting about their podcast origin story, reminiscing about the bookish internet of the 2010s, and revisiting some childhood favorites across genres.

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Episode Links

Episode 1: International Women’s Day

Episode 50: 50 Books for 50 Episodes

Episode 96: Fell in a Hold (AKA True Stories Underground)

Baking Powder Wars: The Cutthroat Food Fight that Revolutionized Cooking by Linda Civitello

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keen

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody Series)

Reading Now

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

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Favorite Nonfiction of 2021 Dec 21, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk about nonfiction highlights of 2021.

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Favorite Nonfiction of 2021

KIM: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water by Kazim Ali

Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters” by Kim Todd

The Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination by Sheera Frankel and Cecilia Kang

Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire by Lizzie Johnson

ALICE: The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women by Catherine E. McKinley

Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion by Tori Telfer

The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt by Audrey Clare Farley

Punch Me Up to the Gods: A Memoir by Brian Broome

Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene

Nonfiction We Missed in 2021

Names for Light: A Family History by Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America by Carol Anderson

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Heartwarming: How Our Inner Thermostat Made Us Human by Hans Rocha Ijzerman

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

Reading Now

KIM: The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

ALICE: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and follow us there so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Books About Birds Dec 07, 2021

This week Kim and Alice explore the vast and interesting world of birds and birding with memoirs and illustrated bird guides. Plus, new collections of essays, historical nonfiction, and more!

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Follow Up

Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

Nonfiction in the News

Barack Obama May Become A 3-Time Winner (But It’s Not What You Think) by David Moye [HuffPost]

New Nonfiction

We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, edited by Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura

Dark Tourist: Essays by Hasanthika Sirisena

Sea State: A Memoir by Tabitha Lasley

Deliberate Evil: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Daniel Webster, and the 1830 Murder of a Salem Slave Trader by Edward J. Renehan

Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home by Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen

Birds!

What It’s Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing – What Birds Are Doing, and Why by David Allen Sibley

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir by Julia Zarankin

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Reading Now

This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life by Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods

The Ancient Guide to Modern Life by Natalie Haynes

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Holiday Gift Guide Nov 23, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk about nonfiction picks for holiday gifts.

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Follow Up

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

Disability Visibility by Alice Wong

Nonfiction in the News

National Book Award Winners Announced

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

New Nonfiction

The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home by Michael Tubbs

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett

How the Other Half Eats : The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America by Priya Fielding-Singh

Holiday Gift Guide

Hello Alice and Kim, love the podcast. Looking for a rec for a book that I loved so much that I read it twice this year. It’s called Little Heathens and it’s by Mildred Armstrong Kalish and it’s her memoir about growing up in Iowa during the great depression. Each chapter describes some aspect of her life on the farm and I found her life, seasons, and rituals on the farm to be so idyllic and comforting that I would love to read something else like it! Hope you have some ideas! — Tara

The Heart of Things: A Midwestern Almanac by John Hildebrand

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

I’d love a book recommendation for myself! I love learning about cults. I’ve read almost every book on Scientology & was wondering if there are books out there like Going Clear but about different cults. – Kirah

The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult by Jerald Walker

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn

I’m looking for a recommendation for my father-in-law. He’s a retired scientist who reads regularly, but not voraciously. When he does read he likes to read history, biography, that sort of thing. I’m looking for some suggested authors to give him or some specific books that he’d find interesting or might broaden his perspective a little bit.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II by Daniel James Brown

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel WIlkerson

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyou

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild

Reading Now

KIM: Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

ALICE: Magna Carta by Dan Jones

CONCLUSION

You can find us on social media @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and follow us there so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Fell in a Hole (AKA True Stories Underground) Nov 09, 2021

This week Alice and Kim dig deep for nonfiction about things you find underground, plus share new nonfiction about sports, food, and history.

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Follow Up

The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA by Jorge L. Contreras

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Nonfiction in the News

2021 Kirkus Prize Winners Announced [Book Riot]

Scottie Pippen Takes Aim at Michael Jordan in New Book [New York Times]

New Nonfiction

Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League by Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D’Arcangelo

Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen

Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and Resilience by Veronica Gorrie

An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays

Fell in a Hole

Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness by Neil Swidey

The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City by Jennifer Toth

The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures by Roma Agrawal

Accidental Archaeologists: True Stories of Unexpected Discoveries by Sarah Albee

Reading Now

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker

Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930-1944 by Anne de Courcy

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Arab Women Writers Oct 26, 2021

This week Kim and Alice talk about books by Arab women writers, plus new nonfiction about gene patents, colonialism in the 1860s, and medieval manuscripts.

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Nonfiction in the News

Instagram: Ijeoma Oluo’s new newsletter

Instagram: Bachelor Nation Publishes

New Nonfiction

The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts by Mary Wellesley

The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World by Edward Shawcross

Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes by Albert Samaha

Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: The Story of Schitt’s Creek by Daniel Levy, Eugene Levy

The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA by Jorge L. Contreras

Arab Women Writers

Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World, edited by Zahra Hankir

A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia by Madawi Al-Rasheed

Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy

Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening by Manal Al-Sharif

Reading Now

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong

She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

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Spooky Nonfiction Oct 12, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk about creepy, spooky, and scary nonfiction for the Halloween season.

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Follow Up

Our holiday gift guide episode coming up November 23 — send us your requests at forreal@bookriot.com by November 15!

It’s Book Riot’s birthday and there’s special merch.

Nonfiction in the News

2021 National Book Awards Finalists Announced [National Book Awards]

Estate of Henrietta Lacks sues biotechnical company for nonconsensual use of her cells [CNN]

New Nonfiction

I’m Possible: A Story of Survival, a Tuba, and the Small Miracle of a Big Dream by Richard Antoine White

Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene

Smile: The Story of a Face by Sarah Ruhl

On Animals by Susan Orlean

Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert

Weekly Theme: Spooky Nonfiction

The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey

The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal

White Magic: Essays by Elissa Washuta

Yurei Attack!: The Japanese Ghost Survival Guide by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt

Reading Now

KIM: Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef

ALICE: The Phantom Prince by Elizabeth Kendall

CONCLUSION

ALICE: You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink

KIM: RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and follow us there so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Hispanic Heritage Month Sep 28, 2021

This week Alice and Kim highlight nonfiction books by Hispanic and Latinx authors.

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Nonfiction in the News

Historian of Race in America Gets an Unusual Four-Book Deal [New York Times]

2021 National Book Award Longlists [NPR]

New Nonfiction

America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility by Rajika Bhandari

Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes: Essays by Phoebe Robinson – Tiny Reparations Books

No Cure for Being Human: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler

True Raiders: The Untold Story of the 1909 Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant by Brad Ricca

Weekly Theme: Hispanic Heritage Month

National Hispanic American Heritage Month 2021

Who is Hispanic? [Pew Research Center]

Hispanic Or Latino? A Guide For The U.S. Presidential Campaign [NPR]

Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA by Julia Alvarez

My Sister: How One Sibling’s Transition Changed Us Both by Selenis and Marizol Leyva

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantú

From Coveralls to Zoot Suits : The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front by Elizabeth Rachel Escobedo

Quick Mentions

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz

Reading Now

KIM: Harlem Shuffle: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

ALICE: My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

CONCLUSION

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The One With Mary Roach Sep 14, 2021

This week Kim and Alice interview nonfiction powerhouse Mary Roach about renegade animals, tiger penises, and her amazing use of footnotes. Plus, new nonfiction about Chicago, online shopping, and segregation.

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Follow Up

The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy

Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire by Lizzie Johnson

New Nonfiction

Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood by Dawn Turner

Arriving Today: From Factory Floor to Front Door – Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy by Christopher Mims

Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall by Heather Demetrios

White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality by Sheryll Cashin

Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang

We Are Not Broken by George M. Johnson

Chasing the Truth: A Young Journalist’s Guide to Investigative Reporting by Ruby Shamir, Jodi Kantor, and Megan Twohey

Interview with Mary Roach

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach

Reading Now

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

We Sold Our Souls: A Novel by Grady Hendrix

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Library Treasure Hunt Aug 31, 2021

This week Alice and Kim browse the library and find some surprising nonfiction reads.

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Nonfiction in the News

Blood, labs and fraud: Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes is about to go on trial [Washington Post]

New Nonfiction

Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir by Kat Chow

Doctoring the Black Death: Medieval Europe’s Medical Response to Plague by John Aberth

Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire by Lizzie Johnson

The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics by Mae Ngai

Weekly Theme: Library Treasure Hunt

Futureface: A Family Mystery, An Epic Quest, and the Secret of Belonging by Alex Wagner

Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930-1944 by Anne De Courcy

Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder by Reshma Saujani

Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo

Wild Life: Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs by Keena Roberts

The Ways of My Grandmothers by Beverly Hungry Wolf (1998)

Reading Now

KIM: The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

ALICE: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobez du Mez

CONCLUSION

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True Stories to Adapt Aug 17, 2021

This week Kim and Alice battle through the “Delta Grumpies” to discuss stories they’d like to see adapted for television and film, plus cover new nonfiction from August.

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Nonfiction in the News

John Lithgow Joins Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ [Variety]

New Nonfiction

Belly of the Beast : The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison

On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of an American Ideal by Rachel Greenwald Smith

The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us by Meg Lowman

The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert by Shugri Said Salh

True Stories to Adapt

The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah Broom

American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse

Hudson Bay Bound: Two Women, One Dog, Two Thousand Miles to the Arctic by Natalie Warren

Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

Reading Now

Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking by Jon Acuff

American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson

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Disney Reads Aug 03, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk Disney reads!

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Nonfiction in the News

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Reportedly Working on a Book About “Leadership and Philanthropy” [Vanity Fair]

Molly Shannon Writes Memoir [People]

New Nonfiction

The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy

The Viking Heart: How Scandinavians Conquered the World by Arthur Herman

Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health by Dr. Leana Wen

WASPS: The Splendors and Miseries of an American Aristocracy by Michael Knox Beran

Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina by Georgina Pazcoguin

Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California’s Wildfires by Jaime Lowe

Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter’s School by Courtney E. Martin

Violent Order: Essays on the Nature of Police by David Correia, Tyler Wall

Weekly Theme: Disney

Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park that Changed the World by Richard Snow

The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt

Project Future: The Inside Story Behind the Creation of Disney World by Chad Denver Emerson

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Lost Disney Cartoons by David A. Bossert, David Gerstein

Reading Now

KIM: An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang

ALICE: My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska by Alaska

CONCLUSION

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Heists! Jul 20, 2021

This week Kim and Alice chat about why heists are so much fun to read about, Barack Obama’s summer nonfiction picks, and more upcoming new books.

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Nonfiction in the News

Barack Obama’s Summer Reading List [Book Riot]

Two Iconic American Writers Join Howard to Create a Center to Help Educate the Next Generation of Black Journalists [Howard University]

Tenure Struggle Ends with Hannah-Jones Charting New Course [Associated Press]

New Nonfiction

Easy Crafts for the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness and Making Things by Kelly Williams Brown

The Passion of Anne Hutchinson: An Extraordinary Woman, the Puritan Patriarchs, and the World They Made and Lost by Marilyn Westerkamp

Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville by Akash Kapur

The Brilliant Abyss: Exploring the Majestic Hidden Life of the Deep Ocean and the Looming Threat that Imperils It by Helen Scales

After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort by Eric Dean Wilson

Surviving Mexico: Resistance and Resilience A mong Journalists in the Twenty-first Century by Celeste González de Bustamante and Jeannine E. Relly

Heists!

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell

The Great Pearl Heist: London’s Greatest Thief and Scotland Yard’s Hunt for the World’s Most Valuable Necklace by Molly Caldwell Crosby

Diamond Doris: The True Story of the World’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief by Doris Payne (with Zelda Lockhart)

Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti

Reading Now

Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City by Tanya Talaga

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East (1978-1984) by Riad Sattouf

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New Nonfiction: Second Half of 2021 Jul 06, 2021

This week, Alice and Kim talk about new nonfiction releases for the rest of 2021.

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Favorites of the Year So Far

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by Cheryl Diamond

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar

Follow the Flock: How Sheep Shaped Human Civilization by Sally Coulthard

Anticipated Nonfiction

Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina by Georgina Pazcoguin

Horse Girls: Recovering, Aspiring, and Devoted Riders Redefine the Iconic Bond by Halimah Marcus

Hard Landings: Looking Into the Future for a Child With Autism by Cammie McGovern

Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans

Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang Chen

Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America by Eyal Press

We Are Not Broken by George M. Johnson

Castaway Mountain: Love and Loss Among the Wastepickers of Mumbai by Saumya Roy

Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living by Robert A. Jensen

White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality by Sheryll Cashin

She Kills Me: The True Stories of History’s Deadliest Women by Jennifer Wright

Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas by Omar Mouallem

Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef

Empire of Rubber: Firestone’s Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia by Greg Mitman

These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett

This Will All Be Over Soon: A Memoir by Cecily Strong

Reading Now

KIM: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

ALICE: Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

CONCLUSION

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We're On the Road Again Jun 22, 2021

This week Kim and Alice do some armchair traveling by discussing books about road trips and share new nonfiction about yoga, cults, and cons.

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Nonfiction in the News

2021 Pulitzer Prizes [Pulitzer.org]

Nonfiction Book by Margaret Atwood Coming in 2022 [Kirkus]

It’s Everything Change [Matter]

Janet Malcolm, elegant and incisive writer for the New Yorker, dies at 86 [The Washington Post]

New Nonfiction

Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by Cheryl Diamond

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance by Jessamyn Stanley

Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America by Scott Borchert

Blue: In Search of Nature’s Rarest Color by Kai Kupferschmidt

Thanks for Waiting: The Joy (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer by Doree Shafrir

The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living with Less by Christine Platt

Road Trips

Quakeland: On the Road to America’s Next Devastating Earthquake by Kathryn Miles

Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem

Don’t Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip by Richard Ratay

Finding Latinx: In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity by Paola Ramos

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen

Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

Reading Now

The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice by Scott Ellsworth

The Girls by Emma Cline

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LGBTQ+ Reads Jun 08, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk LGBTQ+ reads for Pride Month.

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Nonfiction in the News

Roxane Gay Starts Publishing Imprint With Grove Atlantic [NYT]

New Nonfiction

Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford

Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford

Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn

Black Snake: Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and Environmental Justice by Katherine Wiltenburg Todrys

Quick Mentions!

The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America by Carol Anderson

The Kissing Bug : A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease by Daisy Hernández

Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer

As a Woman: What I Learned about Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy after I Transitioned by Paula Stone Williams

LGBTQ+ Reads

The Winners of the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards

Transgender Nonfiction: The Black Trans Prayer Book by J. Mase III and Dane Figueroa Edidi
LGBTQ Nonfiction: The Lonely Letters by Ashon T. Crawley
Bisexual Nonfiction: wow, no thank you by Samantha Irby
Lesbian Memoir/Biography: My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland
Gay Memoir/Biography: A Dutiful Boy: A Memoir of a Gay Muslim’s Journey to Acceptance by Mohsin Zaidi
LGBTQ Studies: Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World by Zakiyyah Iman Johnson

Gender: A Graphic Guide by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt

My Sister: How One Sibling’s Transition Changed Us Both by Marizol Leyva and Selenis Leyva

Reading Now

KIM: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reed

Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving of Life by Katherine E. Standefer

ALICE: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink

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History's Mysteries May 25, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk books that explore unsolved historical mysteries and share new nonfiction about Black rebellion, nostalgic essays about travel, and more.

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Nonfiction in the News

Barack & Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Adapting Heather McGhee’s ‘The Sum of Us’ As Spotify Podcast Series [Deadline]

Greta Lee To Star In, Write & EP Series Adaptation Of Cathy Park Hong’s Book ‘Minor Feelings’ With A24 [Yahoo]

Film of Michael Lewis’ ‘The Premonition’ in Works [Kirkus]

New Nonfiction

The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion by Aminatta Forna

Electric City: The Lost History of Ford and Edison’s American Utopia by Thomas Hager

Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America by Gigi Georges

America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s by Elizabeth Hinton

Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice by Yusef Salaam

Tastes Like War by Grace Cho

History’s Mysteries

Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar

Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters” by Kim Todd

Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew by Brian Hicks

The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking by Brendan I. Koerner

Reading Now

Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars: Space, Exploration, and Life on Earth by Kate Greene

All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Three Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther

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YA Memoirs May 11, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk YA memoirs for your reading ease.

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Nonfiction in the News

The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay Writing a Personal Essay-Themed Book: ‘Ya’ll Know I Won’t Hold Back’ [People]

New Nonfiction

You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience edited by Tarana Burke, Brené Brown

Why Peacocks? An Unlikely Search for Meaning in the World’s Most Magnificent Bird by Sean Flynn

African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele

Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself by Chloe Angyal

Quick Mentions

There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis, edited by Tracy K. Smith and John Freeman
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis

Yay for YA Memoirs!

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting It Done by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser

Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life with OCD by Allison Britz

Reading Now

KIM: A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

ALICE: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and follow us so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Science, Nature, and the Land Apr 27, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk about an upcoming Mary Roach book, great new memoirs, and books about nature and the land.

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Nonfiction in the News

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach

New Nonfiction

The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest by Mark Synnott

The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt by Audrey Clare Farley

Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner

We Are Bridges: A Memoir by Cassandra Lane

I Am a Girl From Africa by Elizabeth Nyamayaro

Marie Claire: “Anne Hathaway and Elizabeth Nyamayaro on Building Compassion and Gender Equity”

The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915 by Joe Grinspan

Science, Nature, and the Land

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman

Reading Now

Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water by Kazim Ali

City of Light, City of Poison by Holly Tucker

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Religious Memoirs Apr 13, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk Islam, Christianity, and Scientology memoirs.

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Follow Up

April 24: Readathon and Independent Bookstore Day

Nonfiction in the News

Amanda Seyfried to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu Series ‘The Dropout’ [Variety]

Simon & Schuster Acquires Mike Pence’s Autobiography [Publishers Weekly]

Why Would Anyone Pay Andrew Cuomo $4 Million for a Book? [New Republic]

New Nonfiction

My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes

Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet by Chelsea Wald

Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz

From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo

Quick Mentions

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden O’Keefe

Children Under Fire: An American Crisis by John Woodrow Cox

Religious Memoirs

God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America by Lyz Lenz

Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps-Roper

I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brohi

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill

Reading Now

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink.

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Great Books by #AAPI Writers Mar 30, 2021

This week Alice and Kim fangirl over Phoebe Robinson and share some favorite stories from American authors of East Asian descent.

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Nonfiction in the News

Entertainment Weekly: “Phoebe Robinson’s next book is coming this fall — here are all the details”

New Nonfiction

North by Shakespeare: A Rogue Scholar’s Quest for the Truth Behind the Bard’s Work by Michael Blanding

Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico by Juan Villoro

The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir by Sherry Turkle

When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

Books by East Asian Writers

Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change by Ellen Pao

The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays by Wesley Yang

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

Time: “My White Adoptive Parents Struggled to See Me as Korean. Would They Have Understood My Anger at the Rise in Anti-Asian Violence?”

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong

The Making of Asian America by Erika Lee

Reading Now

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris by Holly Tucker

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Musician Nonfiction Mar 16, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk about music nonfiction, including behind-the scenes narratives, memoirs, and guides.

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Follow Up

Alice read Hidden Valley Road!

Kim read Two Truths and a Lie!

Kim guested on Get Booked.

Nonfiction in the News

Kate McKinnon Exits ‘The Dropout’ Hulu Limited Series about Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes [Deadline]

New Nonfiction

Follow the Flock : How Sheep Shaped Human Civilization by Sally Coulthard

Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual by Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Already Toast : Caregiving and Burnout in America by Kate Washington

Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America by Alex McGinnis

Music and Musicians

News: Paul McCartney’s upcoming memoir [Billboard]

More Myself: A Journey by Alicia Keys with Michelle Burford

Opera for Dummies by David Pogue and Scott Speck

Open Book by Jessica Simpson

Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music at the Metropolitan Opera by Johanna Fiedler

My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love by Dessa

Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust: My Friendship with Patsy Cline by Loretta Lynn

Reading Now

KIM: The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg

The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir by Sara Seager

ALICE: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

CONCLUSION

You can find us on social media – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Dan Baker. Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Celebrating International Women's Day Mar 02, 2021

This week, Kim and Alice revisit a favorite holiday, International Women’s Day, with true stories about women around the world. Plus, new nonfiction about medical history, flight attendants, and more.

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Nonfiction in the News

‘Nomadland’: How to Watch Grances McDormand and Chloé Zhao’s New Film on Hulu for Free [Rolling Stone]

Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey Share Their Most ‘Personal’ Stories Yet in New Book Office BFFs [People]

New Nonfiction

Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion by Tori Telfer

Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher: A Monkey’s Head, the Pope’s Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul by Brandy Schillace

Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am by Julia Cook

But You’re Still So Young: How Thirtysomethings Are Redefining Adulthood by Kayleen Schaefer

Quick Mentions

Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir by Elizabeth Miki Brina

Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa by Matthew Gavin Frank

The Snatch Racket: The Kidnapping Epidemic That Terrorized 1930s America by Carolyn Cox

The Girl Explorers: The Untold Story of the Globetrotting Women Who Trekked, Flew, and Fought Their Way Around the World by Jayne Zanglein

International Women’s Day

Freiheit!: The White Rose Graphic Novel by Andrea Grosso Ciponte

The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang

Things I’ve Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi

Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

Reading Now

Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice by Ellen McGarrahan

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

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New Nonfiction by Black Authors Feb 16, 2021

This week Alice and Kim talk new nonfiction releases by Black authors.

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Nonfiction in the News

From Michael Lewis, a ‘Superhero Story’ About the Pandemic [New York Times]

Michelle Obama releasing a new edition of her memoir “Becoming” for young readers [CBS News]

‘Sex and the City’ Revival Assembles Writers’ Room, Adds Samantha Irby, Rachna Fruchbom, Keli Goff [Variety]

New Nonfiction by Black Authors

The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Surviving the White Gaze : A Memoir by Rebecca Carroll

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

The African Lookbook : A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women by Catherine E. McKinley

Ida B. the Queen : The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells by Michelle Duster

The Black Panther Party : A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker, illustrated by Marcus Kwame Anderson

The Sum of Us : What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

Black Magic : What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph by Chad Sanders

Grieving While Black : An Antiracist Take on Oppression and Sorrow by Breeshia Wade

Reading Now

KIM: The Mothers by Britt Bennett

ALICE: The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America by Tamara Winfrey Harrison

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink.

RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Epic (and True) Love Stories Feb 02, 2021

This week Alice and Kim share books about some of their favorite epic love stories and gush about some new (and awesome) historical true crime.

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Nonfiction in the News

Here Are the Guest Editors for the Best American Series 2021 [LitHub]

Just Don’t Call Her a Ghostwriter [New York Times]

New Nonfiction

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice by Ellen McGarrahan

The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP by Alex Tresniowski

The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America by Lawrence T. Brown

Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America’s Cheap Goods by Amelia Pang

Epic Love Stories

Gracie: A Love Story by George Burns

One Hundred Names for Love by Diane Ackerman

A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman

Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples by Rodger Streitmatter

Victoria The Queen by Julia Baird

We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals by Gillian Gill

Reading Now

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T.A. Willberg

The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World by Abigail Tucker

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Easy Nonfiction to Start the Year Jan 19, 2021

This week, Alice and Kim recommend easy nonfiction reads to start your year.

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Follow Up

Shoutout on Twitter from Ibram X. Kendi – Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Nonfiction in the News

Simon & Schuster Cancels Plans for Senator Hawley’s Book [The New York Times]

New Nonfiction

Aftershocks: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar

Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price

The Doctors Blackwell : How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura

The Eagles of Heart Mountain : A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America by Bradford Pearson

Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson

Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas by Alexi Pappas

Easy Nonfiction to Start the Year

Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette

Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology by Lawrence Weschler

Reading Now

KIM: Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey

ALICE: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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21 Anticipated Books to Start 2021 Jan 05, 2021

This week Alice and Kim preview 21 of their most-anticipated new books from the first half of 2021. Plus, they discuss reading plans for the year and some of the best-reviewed books of 2020.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

“The Best Reviewed Nonfiction of 2020 [LitHub]

Most Anticipated Nonfiction of the First Half of 2021

White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind by Koa Beck

The Beautiful Struggle (Adapted for Young Adults) by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty by Maurice Chammah

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Costs of America’s Cheap Goods by Amelia Pang

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert

A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum : Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson

Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America by Kate Washington

Night Rooms: Essa y s by Gina Nutt

The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans–and How We Can Fix It by Dorothy A. Brown

Every Day Is a Gift by Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet by Chelsea Wald

Broken (In the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson

Persist by Elizabeth Warren

White Magic by Elissa Washuta

African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele

The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell

Reading Now

Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States by Marjorie Spruill Wheeler

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2020 Nonfiction Favorites Dec 22, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk favorite nonfiction reads of 2020.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Follow Up

Storygraph

Favorite Nonfiction of 2020

Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Colette Goldbach

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robery Kolker

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Shit, Actually by Lindy West

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half-Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century ed. By Alice Wong

What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

Nonfiction We Missed in 2020

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey

The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad

Reading Now

KIM: The Devil’s Harvest: A Ruthless Killer, a Terrorized Community, and the Search for Justice in California’s Central Valley by Jessica Garrison

ALICE: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Terrible and Wonderful Families Dec 08, 2020

This week Alice and Kim share books about familes, plus new nonfiction about mediocre white dudes, Mexican revolutionaries, and more.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

The Obamas’ Higher Ground & ‘Adam Ruins Everything’s Adam Conover Team On Government Comedy Series For Netflix, Based On Michael Lewis’ ‘The Fifth Risk’ [Deadline]

The 10 best books of 2020 [Washington Post]

The 10 best books of 2020 [The New York Times]

New Nonfiction

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo

Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico : Portraits of Soldaderas, Saints, and Subversives Edited by Kathy Sosa, Ellen Riojas Clark and Jennifer Speed

Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody

The Invention of Medicine: From Homer to Hippocrates by Robin Lane Fox

Terrible and Wonderful Families

Calypso by David Sedaris

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse: An Extraordinary Edwardian Case of Deception and Intrigue by Piu Eatwell

Reading Now

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

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Nonfiction Gift Guide Nov 24, 2020

This week Alice and Kim share nonfiction gift recommendations for the holidays.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life., The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia by Tom Stevenson, and A Drop of Midnight by Jason Diakité.

Follow Up

We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper

Nonfiction in the News

Carnegie Medals shortlist

National Book Award winners

New Nonfiction

Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds : Ebola and the Ravages of History by Paul Farmer

Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood by Christa Parravani

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

Nonfiction Gift Guide

Stuck in the Middle With You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

Threading My Prayer Rug by Sabeeha Rehman

Laughing All the Way to the Mosque by Zarqa Nawaz

https://bookriot.com/memoirs-by-muslim-women/ – Karuna Riazi

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

The White Darkness by David Grann

The Wonder Trail: True Stories from Los Angeles to the End of the World by Steve Hely

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

Forward: A Memoir by Abby Wambach

Reset by Ellen Pao

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

The Lonely War: One Woman’s Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran Kindle by Nazila Fathi

Eiffel’s Tower: The Thrilling Story Behind Paris’s Beloved Monument and the Extraordinary World’s Fair That Introduced It by Jill Jonnes

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Denise Kiernan

The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson

Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy

Reading Now

KIM: A Promised Land by Barack Obama

ALICE: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink

RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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YA Nonfiction, aka Nonfiction for Exhausted Adults Nov 10, 2020

This week Alice and Kim give kudos to nonfiction authors with election victories and talk about good YA nonfiction options to read when you’re exhausted.

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life., Henry Holt & Co., and Whatbook.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams

Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride

New Nonfiction

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays by Kiese Laymon

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

YA Nonfiction

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater

The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese

The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century by Sarah Miller

Reading Now

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich

Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

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Welcome To For Real Oct 29, 2020

For Real is a biweekly nonfiction podcast that puts the spotlight on new books and old favorites that tell it like it is, or at least try to. Join hosts Alice and Kim every other Tuesday for news, recommendations, and more!

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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Frankenstein Oct 27, 2020

This week, Alice and Kim talk new releases and Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

This episode is sponsored by the podcast Borrowed from the Brooklyn Public Library, The Limerence Imprint of Oni Press, and Nothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

Bill Bryson ‘to retire from writing’ [The Telegraph]

Ava DuVernay Back In Director’s Chair For ‘Caste’; Netflix Adaptation Of Acclaimed Isabel Wilkerson’s Best Seller [Deadline] by Amanda N’Duka

Jeffrey Toobin of New Yorker Is Suspended After Zoom Incident [New York Times] by Johnny Diaz and Azi Paybarah

New Nonfiction

A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order by Judith Flanders

The Fangirl’s Guide to the Universe: A Handbook for Girl Geeks by Sam Maggs

What Would Frida Do? A Guide to Living Boldly by Arianna Davis

Finding Latinx : In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity by Paola Ramos

Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West

Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Frankenstein

Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lila Judge

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon

The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece by Roseanne Montillo

Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters by Anne K. Mellor

Reading Now

KIM: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

ALICE: The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by Anita Orrock

CONCLUSION
You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Our Amazing Audio Editing for this episode was done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Women of the Supreme Court Oct 13, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about some excellent nonfiction featuring women of the Supreme Court.

This episode is sponsored by Borrowed, Book Riot’s mystery thriller podcast, Read or Dead, and TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

2020 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Finalists

Ron Charles at the Washington Post: The 2020 National Book Awards finalists are a strikingly fresh group [Washington Post]

New Nonfiction

What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era by Carlos Lozada

White Reconstruction : Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide by Dylan Rodríguez

She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh

The Ghost Road : Anishinaabe Responses to Indian Hating by Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Quick mentions:

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad
Lincoln’s Lie: A True Civil War Caper Through Fake News, Wall Street, and the White House by Elizabeth Mitchell

Women of the Supreme Court

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnuk

Reading Now

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Conclusion

You can find us on social media @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Amazing audio editing for this episode was done by Dan Baker. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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After the Final Rose Sep 29, 2020

This week, Kim and Alice dive into books by and about folks in The Bachelor universe. Plus, thoughts on Obama’s upcoming memoir and all sorts of new books!

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life. and The Mason House, available now from Lanternfish Press, and Henry Holt and Company.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

New York Times: “Obama’s Memoir A Promised Land Coming in November”

New Books

The Writer’s Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

Clutter: An Untidy History by Jennifer Howard

Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen

Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser

A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K. Barnett

Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America by Maria Hinojisa

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

Bachelor and Bachelorette Books

It’s Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak into Happily Never After by Andi Dorfman

I Didn’t Come Here to Make Friends: Confessions of a Reality Show Villain by Courtney Robertson

Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure by Amy Kaufman

Happily Ever After: The Life-Changing Power of a Grateful Heart by Trista Sutter

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

Reading Now

Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

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Books You Can Watch Sep 15, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about true stories that have been turned into movies! Plus, new nonfiction about feminism, capitalism, activism, and beavers.

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life, Chicago Review Press, and Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

LitHub: “Lars Horn has won the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize”

New Nonfiction

More Than a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Having and Being Had by Eula Biss

What Can I Do?: My Path from Climate Despair to Action by Jane Fonda

Family in Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, an American Daughter by Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao

Bringing Back the Beaver: The Story of One Man’s Quest to Rewild Britain’s Waterways by Derek Gow

Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America by Hilary Levey Friedman

Books Into Movies

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

A Royal Affair: George III and His Scandalous Siblings by Stella Tilyar

Eat, Pray, Love, One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean

Reading Now

Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy by Margaret Sullivan

Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy by Malcolm Gaskill

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Fall Nonfiction Preview Sep 01, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about upcoming nonfiction for the rest of 2020.

This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm, Book Riot Insiders, and TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life..

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Follow Up

Winifred Gallager interview

Nonfiction in the News

Fact Checking Is the Core of Nonfiction Writing. Why Do So Many Publishers Refuse to Do It?

Fall Nonfiction Preview — Buzzy Titles

Shit, Actually : The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West

Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind by Jill Filipovic

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

Fall Nonfiction Preview — Under the Radar Titles

The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr

Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All by Martha S. Jones

Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America by Maria Hinojosa

Dark Archives : A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom

A World Beneath the Sands : The Golden Age of Egyptology by Toby Wilkinson

We Keep the Dead Close A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

Reading Now

KIM: The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager

ALICE: Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

Our Amazing Audio Editing is done by Jen Zink

RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Vote (Seriously, Do it!) Aug 18, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk all about voting, including some of its complications and contested history. Plus, new books on the Great Migration, caste systems, and more!

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life, Editorial Arts Academy for Freelance Book Editing 101, and Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Follow Up

The Michelle Obama Podcast

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman

New Books

Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

Finish the Fight! The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Veronica Chambers

Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger: A Memoir by Lisa Donovan

Books About Voting

How the Post Office Created America by Winifred Gallagher

She Votes: How U.S. Women Won Suffrage, and What Happened Next by Bridget Quinn

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Democracy by Carol Anderson

The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States by Alexander Keyssar

What You Need to Know About Voting–and Why by Kimberly L. Wehle

Reading Now

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

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Anti-Racist History Aug 04, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk true crime, Tudor history, and anti-racist reads for your shelf.

This episode is sponsored by Read or Dead, Book Riot’s mystery/thriller podcast, The Last Stargazers by Emily Levesque from Sourcebooks , and Flatiron Books, publisher of Being Lolita by Alisson Wood.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

NONFICTION IN THE NEWS

HBO Will Adapt Ta-Nehisi Coates’ ‘Between The World And Me’

NEW BOOKS

Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho

Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort by Nicola Tallis

Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession, edited by Sarah Weinman

She was the First! The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Eric Velasquez

Intimations by Zadie Smith

Sex and Lies: True Stories of Women’s Intimate Lives in the Arab World by Leila Slimani

ANTI-RACIST HISTORY

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

1919 by Eve L. Ewing

READING NOW

ALICE: Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

KIM: The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork. Our amazing audio editing is done by Jen Zink. RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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When You Miss the Summer Olympics Jul 21, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about the Summer Olympics, including some of their favorite moments, the history of the games, and memoirs by Olympic athletes.

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life, Chasing the Light from HMH, and Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction In the News

Hollywood Reporter: “Phoebe Robinson to Launch New Book Imprint With Plume Publisher”

New Books

Disposable City: Miami’s Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe by Mario Alejandro Ariza

The Golden Thread: The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöldl by Ravi Somaiya

The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch by Miles Harvey

Miracle Country: A Memoir by Kendra Atleework

Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood by Trixie Mattel and Katya

Summer Olympics Reads

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt

Forward: A Memoir by Abby Wambach

Olympic Pride, American Prejudice: The Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Blair Underwood, Deborah Riley Draper, and Travis Thrasher

Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance by Simone Biles (with Michelle Burford)

Simone Biles and the handstand challenge

Reading Now

The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

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Travel Narratives Jul 07, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk travel books, Alaskan politics, and what the word multifarious means.

This episode is sponsored by Becoming Duchess Goldblatt: A Memoir by Anonymous, published by HMH Books, Page Chaser, and Book Riot’s TBR.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

New Books

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the 21st Century, ed. by Alice Wong
SEE ALSO: A Disability History of the United States By Kim E. Nielsen

A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Arshay Cooper

The Multifarious Mr Banks: From Botany Bay to Kew, The Natural Historian Who Shaped the World by Toby Musgrave

Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small-Town Politics by Heather Lende

Travel Nonfiction

From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke

Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell

Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill

A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African-American Travel Writing by Farah J. Griffin (Editor), Cheryl J. Fish (Editor)

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams

Reading Now

KIM: Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton by Tilar J. Mazzeo

ALICE: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork
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Audiobooks Like Podcasts Jun 23, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about podcast-ish audiobooks you can listen to even when you don’t have a commute, plus new books about voting, strippers, and murder on the high seas.

This episode is sponsored by Hey YA, Book Riot’s own podcast about all things young adult lit, Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz, now available in paperback from Algonquin Books, and Harper Perennial and Twisted by Emma Dabiri.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosch

Sacramento Bee: “HBO releases trailer for documentary series on writer’s hunt for Golden State Killer”

Shelf Awareness: “Publishers and Binc Team Up to Support Indies”

New Books

Thank You for Voting by Erin Geiger Smith

Neon Girls by Jenny Worley

Not a Gentleman’s Work by Gerard Koeppel

See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur

AUdiobooks That are Like Podcasts

We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis

Stiff by Mary Roach

Self-Inflicted Wounds by Aisha Tyler

Reading Now

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

The Woman’s Hour by Elaine Weiss

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Pride Month Nonfiction Jun 09, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk Pride reads, new release nonfiction, and more.

This episode is sponsored by TBR and Book Riot Insiders.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction in the News

Entertainment Weekly: “Warner Bros. makes Just Mercy available for free as education on ‘systemic racism’”

Book Riot: “Listen to Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi on Spotify

New Books

Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It by Jamie Margolin

How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong

Girls Garage: How to Use Any Tool, Tackle Any Project, and Build the World You Want to See by Emily Pilloton.

The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir by Wayétu Moore

Pride Month

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, Edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones

The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele

Reading Now

KIM: Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets by Feminista Jones

The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah M. Broom

ALICE: Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

CONCLUSION

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Burnout, Bravery, Happiness and Meaning May 26, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about beauty pageants, Girl Scouts, '90s nostalgia through essays, and books for Mental Health Month.

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot's subscription service offering Tailored Book Recommendations for readers of all stripes, Write the World, publishers on Writers of Earth, and Libro FM.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

New Books

Troop 6000 by Nikita Stewart

Miss World 1970 by Jennifer Hosten

In Praise of Walking by Shane O’Mara

Weird But Normal by Mia Mercado

How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

Mental Health Month

Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin

Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

Brave, Not Perfect by Reshma Saujani

The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith

Reading Now

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

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Votes for Women! May 12, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about sister suffragettes, Scandinavian mysteries, and pirates.

This episode is sponsored by A Quick & Easy Guide to They Them Pronouns from Oni Press, In Good Hands by Stephanie MacKendrick from KCP Loft, and Lit Stitch: 25 Cross-Stitch Patterns for Book Lovers, made by Book Riot and Abrams.

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Nonfiction News

Becoming is a Netflix documentary! [VIDEO]

Pulitzer Prize winners

History
Winner: “Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America,” by W. Caleb McDaniel
Biography
Winner: “Sontag: Her Life and Work,” by Benjamin Moser
General Nonfiction
Winner: “The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America,” by Greg Grandin
Winner: “The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care,” by Anne Boyer

USA Today: “New book to tell Harry and Meghan’s ‘real’ story (and defend them from critics)”

New Books

Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery by Wendy Lesser

Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History’s First Global Manhunt by Steven Johnson

Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens by Muhammad H. Zaman

Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World by Vivek H Murthy M.D.

Votes for Women!

Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Susan Ware

Votes for Women!: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot by Winifred Conkling

African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 by Rosalyn Terborg-Penn

The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine F. Weiss

Bonus reads:
Princess of the Hither Isles: A Black Suffragist’s Story from the Jim Crow South by Adele Logan Alexander
The Myth of Seneca Falls by Lisa Tetrault
Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women’s Movement, 1870-1967 by Joan Marie Johnson

Reading Now

KIM: Open Book by Jessica Simpson (audiobook)
ALICE: Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich

CONCLUSION

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For Reading After Marathoning Apr 28, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk books to read after you finishing marathoning shows like Tiger King and The Office, plus some of the best new releases from April.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot's TBR, Flatiron Books, publisher of Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran, and Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction News

Hollwood Reporter: "Connie Britton, HBO Max Team for 'All the Single Ladies' Doc"

New Books

What We Carry by Maya Shanbhag Lang

Good Morning, Destroyer of Men's Souls by Nina Renata Aron

The Compton Cowboys by Walter Thompson-Hernandez

Becoming Kim Jong Un by Jung H. Pak

Earth Almanac by Ted Williams

No Justice in the Shadows byAlina Das

The Golden Flea by Michael Rips

Reading After Marathoning

The Tribe of Tiger by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge

The Office by Andy Greene

Cubed by Nikil Saval

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Y. Davis

Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem

When Everything Changed by Gail Collins

Homicide by David Simon

Forensics by Val McDermid

Reading Now

A Field Guide to Awkward Silences by Alexandra Petri

In the Woods by Tana French

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Earth Day Reads Apr 14, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk new releases, Earth Day reads and more from the world of nonfiction.

This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm, Book Riot Insiders, and TBR.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction News

Newsmaker: Stacey Abrams

The Pulitzer Prize announcements are postponed.

New Books

American Harvest by Marie Mutsuki Mockett

In the Waves: My Quest to Solve the Mystery of a Civil War Submarine by Rachel Lance

Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller

Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

Alice Quick Mentions: The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States by Walter Johnson
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask

Kim Quick Mentions:
Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo, Scott Sonenshein
More than Ready: Be Strong and Be You…and Other Lessons for Women of Color on the Rise by Cecilia Muñoz

Earth Day

The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here by Hope Jahren

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have by Tatiana Schlossberg

Reading Now

KIM: Writers and Lovers by Lily King

ALICE: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA - @itsalicetime and @kimthedork
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Quarantine Reads Mar 31, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk quarantine reads, the inside scoop on royalty, and America’s youngest sommelier.

This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm and Book Riot’s TBR.

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Follow Up

COVID-19 Updates from the Bookish World

Nonfiction News

Woody Allen's book somehow still got published.

New Books

Shorter: Work Better, Smarter, and Less—Here's How by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene

Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like “Journey” in the Title by Leslie Gray Streeter

Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner

Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier by Victoria James

Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes by Adam Hochschild

My Sister: How One Sibling's Transition Changed Us Both by Selenis and Marizol Leyva

Quarantine Reads

Obama Administration memoirs
KIM: The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power

West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House by Gautam Raghavan

Comedic memoirs:
ALICE: Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom by Sara Benincasa

Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson

A long book I’ve been putting off reading
KIM: The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison

ALICE: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond

A book about how I feel right now
KIM: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

Reading Now

KIM: American Spy by Lauren Wilkerson

ALICE: The Garlic Papers: A Small Garlic Farm in the Age of Global Vampires by Stanley Crawford

CONCLUSION

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Snake Math! Mar 17, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about women in Congress, crossword puzzles, and two scary subjects, snakes and math!

This episode is sponsored by TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations and Libro.FM.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Nonfiction News

NPR: “Publisher Drops Woody Allen’s Book After Ronan Farrow Objects, Employees Walk Out”

New Books

The Firsts: The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress by Jennifer Steinhauer

A History of Islam in 21 Women by Hossein Kamaly

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Thinking Inside the Box : Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can’t Live Without Them by Adrienne Raphel

Snake Math!

Book Riot has “20 of the Best Snake Books for Every Reader”?

Book Riot: 3 Math Books for Pi Day

How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng

The Book of Snakes: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from around the World by Mark O’Shea

Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan

Serpent’s Tale: Snakes in Folklore and Literature ed. By Gregory McNamee

Reading Now

A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

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International Women's Day, Revisited Mar 03, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about popular self-help books, admit to sometimes reading fiction, and revisit one of their favorite podcast topics, books to celebrate International Women’s Day!

This episode is sponsored by Spirit Run by Noé Álvarez, on sale now from Catapult and Libro.fm.

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Black History Month Reads Feb 18, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk Black History Month nonfiction reads for your TBR shelf.

This episode is sponsored by Random House and the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Nonfiction News

The Guardian: “Whitechapel mural will celebrate the lives of Jack the Ripper’s victims”

New Books

Broken Faith: Inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, One of America’s Most Dangerous Cults by Mitch Weiss, Holbrook Mohr

The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage by Mara Hvistendahl

A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home, ed. By Nicole Chung, Menshah Demary

Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb

Black History Month

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittany Cooper

A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy

Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson

Reading Now

KIM: The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

ALICE: Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages by Jack Hartnell

CONCLUSION

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50 Books for 50 Episodes Feb 04, 2020

This week Alice and Kim highlight 50 awesome nonfiction books to celebrate their 50th episode!

This episode is sponsored by Get Booked from Book Riot, Me and White Supremacy from Sourcebooks, and Book Riot Insiders.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton.

Books Mentioned

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Building a Life Worth Living by Marsha M. Linehan

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

Unfollow by Megan Roper Phelps

The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar

A Woman’s Crusade by Mary Walton

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble by Zac Bissonnette

Meaty by Samantha Irby

The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum

Moonbound by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Without You There Is No Us by Suki Kim

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

Stiff by Mary Roach

Spare Parts by Joshua Davis

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis

King Mob by Christopher Hibbert

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

Educated by Tara Westover

My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

Portage by Sue Leaf

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

My Own Devices by Dessa

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

The Distraction Addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Crash Override by Zoe Quinn

How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith

Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery

From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin

Good Talk by Mira Jacob

Political Tribes by Amy Chua

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison

Amateur by Thomas Page McBee

Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Katy Butler

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Leaving Orbit by Margaret Lazarus Dean

The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran

Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

This Life is In Your Hands by Melissa Coleman

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

Reset by Ellen Pao

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Classic Hollywood Scandals Jan 21, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk classic Hollywood scandals and history, with some nonfiction picks to help you dive into the backstage world of 20th century film.

This episode is sponsored by Fights by Joel Christian McGill, Book Riot’s Read Harder 2020 Challenge, and Novel Gazing, Book Riot’s new literary fiction podcast.

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For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

NONFICTION NEWS

The Hill: “New Stacey Abrams book to focus on voting rights”

NEW BOOKS

The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh

Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton

Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD SCANDALS

The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara

Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood by Karina Longworth

The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont by Shawn Levy

Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema by Anne Helen Petersen

Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann

READING NOW

KIM: The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace by Lindsey Pollak

ALICE: God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America by Lyz Lenz

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

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Exciting Nonfiction Coming in 2020 Jan 07, 2020

This week Alice and Kim talk about the failure of their 2019 reading resolutions and look ahead to some of the books they’re excited about in 2020.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge and Book Riot Insiders.

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NEW BOOKS

And Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood by Rachel Friedman

Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol: The Explosive Story of M19, America’s First Female Terrorist Group by William Rosenau

ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020

American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson

A Black Woman’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch

Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelier by Victoria James

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo

Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Colette Goldbach

How to Be Fine: What We Learned from Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer

READING NOW

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown

Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food by Lenore Newman

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2019 Nonfiction Favorites Dec 24, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk favorite nonfiction reads of 2019, including the women of Disney, a very lonely whale, and how to stop stress in its tracks.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Read Harder Journal and Libro.fm.

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NONFICTION NEWS

Goodreads Choice Awards are out!

2019 FAVORITES

Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi, Joshua David Stein

Parkland by Dave Cullen

Good Talk by Mira Jacob

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps-Roper

Make it Scream, Make it Burn by Leslie Jamison

Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World by Emma Southon

No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder

2019 MISSES

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness by Jennifer Berry Hawes

The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

READING NOW

KIM: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

ALICE: Know My Name by Chanel Miller!

Citizen by Claudia Rankine

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

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Best Nonfiction of the Decade Dec 10, 2019

This week Alice and Kim take a trip down memory lane to talk about books that appeared on best of the decade lists.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot's Read Harder Journal, Book Riot's Read Harder 2020 Challenge, and Book Riot's Tailored Book Recommendations.

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Follow Up

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

New Books

A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution by David Head

America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee

Best Books of the Decade

Paste Magazine: The 25 Best Memoirs of the 2010s

LitHub: The 20 Best Works of Nonfiction of the Decade

Time: The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the 2010s

Entertainment Weekly: Here are EW's top 10 nonfiction books of the decade

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Emperor of All Maladies by Sidhartha Mukherjee

All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Reading Now

Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moaveni

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Nonfiction Holiday Gift Guide Nov 26, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk holiday gifts for the nonfiction book lover in your life.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Read Harder Journal, and Book Riot Insiders.

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NONFICTION IN THE NEWS

National Book Award goes to Sarah Broom’s The Yellow House!

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

Q: I am looking for a book for my grandpa for the holidays on Sociology or Ethics. He is a former Criminology Professor and so hard to buy for.

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

Q: My partner is a triathlete and loves to read books about or from cyclists and triathletes. There is not that many of them so he is running out of reading material, and I’m running out of ideas for gifts. Could you recommend good nonfiction on sport or by sportspeople? I think what he enjoys is reading about personal achievements.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Tennis Match That Leveled the Game by Selena Roberts

C.C. Pyle’s Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America by Geoff Williams

Q: I am looking for a book for my dad. And that is what I want – a good, solid dad book (frontlist) recommendation. Think The Pioneers by David McCullough or Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. My dad is in his 80s and fairly conservative.

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman

The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team by Matthew Goodman

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel

American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley

Q: I find a lot of the non-fiction I read is fairly heavy. Recent reads I’ve enjoyed are Invisible Women, Prisoners of Geography and Say Nothing, and although I’ve loved them all, all the war and death and sexism is hard going. So, I’d like your favourite happy, uplifting non-fiction on any topic to read over the holiday season!

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House by Alyssa Mastromonaco

From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee

The Wonder Trail: True Stories from Los Angeles to the End of the World by Steve Hely

READING NOW

KIM: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

ALICE: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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A Second New Books Bonanza! Nov 12, 2019

This week Alice and Kim chat about new November releases! Alice makes the Crusades sound interesting, Kim ponders likability and leadership, and both struggle with what to call nonfiction graphic novels.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Tailored Book Recommendations (aka TBR), Book Riot Insiders, and Run Like a Mother (the audiobook!).

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

Send holiday gift guide questions to forreal@bookriot.com by November 20!

Nonfiction in the News

Slate: “The Library Popularity Index”

American Library Association: #eBooksForAll

New Books Bonanza!

Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton

Mudlark: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames by Lara Maiklem

The Likeability Trap: How to Break Free and Succeed as You Are ‌by‌ ‌Alicia‌ ‌Menendez‌ ‌

The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades by Roger Crowley

Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights by A D’Amico and Mikki Kendall

Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Journey to Justice by Debbie Levy, illustrated by Whitney Gardner

Reading Now

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

Without a Prayer: The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult by Susan Ashline

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Medical Mysteries Oct 29, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk plagues, Disney, and what Harry Houdini really thought about spiritualism.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Blind Date with a Book, and Dad’s Maybe Book by Tim O’Brien, published by HMH.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

NONFICTION IN THE NEWS

Kirkus Prize winner: How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones

“A memoir of coming to terms that’s written with masterful control of both style and material.”

Washington Post: “Anonymous author of Trump ‘resistance’ op-ed to publish a tell-all book”

NEW BOOKS

Ordinary Girls: A Memoir by Jaquira Díaz

The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong

MEDICAL MYSTERIES

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness by John Waller

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic — and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston

READING NOW

KIM: Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation by Andrew Marantz

ALICE: The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Millicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara!

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

LINKS

NPR Article

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Here Be Monsters Oct 15, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about some excellent new memoirs and dive deep into books about monsters.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Blind Date with a Book, Playlist: The Rebels and Revolutionaries of Sound by James Rhodes and illustrated by Martin O’Neill, and Change is the Only Constant by Ben Orlin, in hardcover from Black Dog and Leventhal.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

NPR: "Here Are The Finalists For The 2019 National Book Awards"

Fifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without by Brigid Brophy, Michael Levey, Charles Osborne (1967)

Nonfiction in the News

Sports Illustrated: "She Won Athletes' Hearts. And Robbed Them Blind"

Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlist

Forbes: “Decluttering Expert Marie Kondo On Her Forthcoming Workplace and Career Advice Book ‘Joy At Work’”

New Books

How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones

Unashamed: Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim by Leah Vernon

Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl: A Memoir by Jeannie Vanasco

Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps-Roper

Here Be Monsters

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara

Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson

Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting by W. Scott Poole

The Science of Monsters: The Truth About Zombies, Witches, Werewolves, Vampires, and Other Legendary Creatures by Meg Hafdahl, Kelly Florence

Reading Now

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

Me by Elton John

The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television by Koren Shadmi

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Cozy Nonfiction Part II Oct 01, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about the National Book Award longlist, cozy books, and the best pig there ever was.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Blind Date, These Boys and Their Fathers by Don Waters, and Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

FOLLOW UP BOOKS

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

NONFICTION IN THE NEWS

National Book Award Longlist

New York Times: “It’s a Fact: Mistakes Are Embarrassing the Publishing Industry”

Impeachment: An American History

NEW BOOKS

Make it Scream, Make it Burn by Leslie Jamison

On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics by Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry and Minyon Moore

Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity by Felicia Day

COZY NONFICTION

The Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood by Sy Montgomery

Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively

The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater: Essays on Crafting by Alanna Okun

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

READING NOW

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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A New Books Bonanza! Sep 17, 2019

This week Alice and Kim take a deep dive into eight great new books coming out in early September!

This episode is sponsored by our giveaway of the best mysteries and thrillers of the year so far, Born to Fly by Steve Sheinkin, and Yale Needs Women from Sourcebooks.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

The trailer for Just Mercy was released!

Nonfiction in the News

NBC News: Ex-aide to James Mattis claims Pentagon is holding up his memoir

VOX: It’s time to talk about James Mattis’s involvement with the Theranos scandal

New Book Bonanza

Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant by Anne Gardiner Perkins

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty

Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI by Josh Campbell

Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy

The Nature of Life and Death: Every Body Leaves a Trace by Patricia Wiltshire

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

Reading Now

Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America by James Poniewozik

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim Defede

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Schoolhouse Rock Sep 03, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk underdog robots, a school with no tests, and monsters of the Midwest. This is For Real.

This episode is sponsored by the Book Riot Mystery Giveaway, What They Meant for Evil by Rebecca Deng, published by FaithWords and Book Riot’s Recommended.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

NONFICTION IN THE NEWS

Ann Shen’s Bad Girls Throughout History is being made into a series.

The film version of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy will hit theaters in January 2020!

NEW BOOKS

Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians, and the Weird in Flyover Country by B.J. Hollars

The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age by Bina Venkataraman

Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession by Rachel Monroe

Scan Artist : How Evelyn Wood Convinced the World That Speed-Reading Worked by Marcia Biederman

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK

The Class: A Life-Changing Teacher, His World-Changing Kids, and the Most Inventive Classroom in America by Heather Won Tesoriero

Law Touched Our Hearts: A Generation Remembers Brown v. Board of Education ed. By Mildred Wigfall Robinson and Richard J. Bonnie

The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession by Dana Goldstein

Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis

READING NOW

KIM: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia

ALICE: Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood by Karina Longworth

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

RATE AND REVIEW on Apple Podcasts so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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Cults and Cult-Like Communities Aug 20, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about Barack Obama’s summer nonfiction picks, the world’s deadliest predator, and true stories inside cults and places with cult-like thinking.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, Skin Deep by Gavin Evans, published by Oneworld Publications and Chase Darkness with Meby Billy Jensen.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

FOLLOW UP

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation by Eli Clare

NONFICTION IN THE NEWS

Barack Obama’s summer reading list

Publisher’s Weekly: Workman to Publish AOC Bio

NEW BOOKS

Breaking the Ocean: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Reconciliation by Annahid Dashtgard

The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah M. Broom

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Sady Doyle

The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator by Timothy C. Winegard

CULTS!

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the People’s Temple by Jeff Guinn

Without You, There is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite by Suki Kim

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami

READING NOW

Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemptionby Laura Hillenbrand

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Books for Bibliophiles Aug 06, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk books for book lovers, Anna the fake heiress, and one of the most astounding women in the Roman world.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders. Check it out and sign up for your 14-day free trial at insiders.bookriot.com.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

-Moon podcast Moonrise

NEW BOOKS

My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams

The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love With Me by Keah Brown

Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World by Zahra Hankir

Girl on the Block: A True Story of Coming of Age Behind the Counter by Jessica Wragg

God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America by Lyz Lenz

Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World by Emma Southon

Gross Anatomy: A Field Guide to Loving Your Body, Warts and All by Mara Altman

BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS

In honor of National Book Lover’s Day on August 9

What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading Writing, ed. by Stephanie Stokes Oliver

Book Love by Debbie Tung

Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount

My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues by Pamela Paul

READING NOW

KIM: The World’s Fastest Man: The Extraordinary Life of Major Taylorby Michael Kramish

ALICE: American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

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Not Throwing Away Our Moonshot Jul 23, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about the Space Race, recommend books to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and laugh at moon conspiracy theories.

This episode is sponsored by Pre Loved Podcast, Becoming Superman by J. Michael Straczynski and Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

NEW BOOKS

The Weil Conjectures by Karen Olsson

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

Beneath the Tamarind Tree by Isha Sesay

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond by John Zada

THE MOON

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Moonbound by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

American Moonshot by Douglas Brinkley

Galaxy Girls by Libby Jackson

Apollo’s Legacy by Roger D. Launius

Destination Moon by Richard Maurer

READING NOW

For the Love of Books by Graham Tarrant

If All the Seas Were Ink by Ilana Kurshan

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

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YA Nonfiction, or "Nonfiction for Busy Adults" Jul 09, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk assassins, night witches, and the serial killer who was almost impossible to catch.

This episode is sponsored by the Pre-Loved Podcast. Check it out on the podcatcher of your choice! And don’t forget to share For Real with nonfiction-loving friends/family/long-forged acquaintances on social media, tagging @bookriot.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

John Oliver did a segment on climbing Mount Everest and how the “expedition industry has devalued a once-historic achievement” and also made it a lot more dangerous.

New Books

Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor

Reading Behind Bars: A Memoir of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian by Jill Grunenwald

The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge, and India’s Quest for Independence by Anita Anand

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

Outspoken: Why Women’s Voices Get Silenced and How to Set Them Freeby Veronica Rueckert

Young Adult Nonfiction

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson

We Say #NeverAgain: Reporting by the Parkland Student Journalists, edited by Melissa Falkowski and Eric Garner

Roses and Radicals: The Epic Story of How American Women Won the Right to Vote by Susan Zimet

A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II by Elizabeth Wein

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Reading Now

ALICE: Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor’s Struggle for Home in Rural America by Ayaz Virji

KIM: Rough Magic by Laura Palmer

Leaving the Witness by Amber Scorah

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

RATE AND REVIEW us on ITUNES so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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#34 Ahoy, We Sail the Sea of Books Jun 25, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk ridiculously long subtitles and books about the ocean, from the science of jellyfish to the true story of the mutiny on the HMS Bounty.

This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm audiobooks, Amazon Publishing, and Book Riot Insiders.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

FOLLOW UP

Washington Post: “Book subtitles are getting ridiculously long. What is going on?”

NEW BOOKS

For the Love of Books by Graham Tarrant

The Weather Machine by Andrew Blum

A Death in the Rainforest by Don Kulick

More Than Enough by Elaine Welteroth

I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum

NATIONAL OCEANS MONTH

Spineless by Juli Berwald

The Bounty by Caroline Alexander

Fisherman’s Blues by Anna Badkhen

Poseidon’s Steed by Helen Scales

Hawaiki Rising by Dr. Sam Low

READING NOW

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

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#33 Pride Reads! Jun 11, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about witches, Jehovah’s Witnesses, fungus-inspired crime, and what nonfiction to read for Pride Month.

This episode is sponsored by All the Books, The Collected Schizophreniasby Esmé Weijun Wang, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, publishers of Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment by Linda Hirshman.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

KIM: Slow Burn podcast is doing a series on The Queen by Josh Levin (one of the editor’s behind Slow Burn)

New Books

Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life by Amber Scorah

Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power by Pam Grossman

This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto by Suketu Mehta

The Truffle Underground: A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World’s Most Expensive Fungus by Ryan Jacobs

Naturally Tan: A Memoir by Tan France

Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line by Ryan Leigh Dostie

Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness by Jennifer Berry Hawes

The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation by Rich Cohen

Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree That Terrorized Los Angeles by Julia Bricklin

Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod

Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Katherine Eban

Pride Month

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen

Native Country of the Heart: A Memoir by Cherrie Moraga

Prairie Silence: A Memoir by Melanie Hoffert

The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals by Richard Plant

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin

The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets by Gayle E Pitman

Reading Now

KIM: Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

ALICE: The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

RATE AND REVIEW on ITUNES so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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#32 Our Favorite Nonfiction of the Year (So Far) May 28, 2019

This week Kim and guest host Liberty Hardy talk new books and their favorite nonfiction of the year so far.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot and Audible.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

NEW BOOKS

Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come: One Introvert’s Year of Saying Yesby Jessica Pan

The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth by Josh Levin

From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke

Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall

FAVORITE NONFICTION OF THE YEAR SO FAR

Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi, Joshua David Stein

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

Parkland: Birth of a Movement by Dave Cullen

Rough Magic: Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob

The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan’s Cherry Blossoms by Naoko Abe

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Irelandby Patrick Radden Keefe

READING NOW

Southern Lady Code: Essays by Helen Ellis

The Library of the Unwritten by by A. J. Hackwith (October 1)

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#31 Francophile Bonanza May 14, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about Soviet spy cats, French history, and Harper Lee and a murder trial.

This episode is sponsored by Kawaii Craft Life by Sosae Caetano and Dennis Caetano and Book Riot’s TBR. Check out Book Riot Insiders for the inside scoop!

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

New Books

Rough Magic: Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

The Unspeakable Mind: Stories of Trauma and Healing from the Frontlines of PTSD Science by Shaili Jain

Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board by Vince Houghton

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

The Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials’ Economic Future by Joseph C. Sternberg

The Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World by Peter Moore

The Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI by Lauren Johnson

No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Synder

The Castle on Sunset by Shawn Levy

Nonfiction About France

KIM: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

La Belle France: A Short History by Alistair Horne

The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It by Tilar J Mazzeo

Veuve Clicquot Podcast

The Little Pleasures of Paris by Leslie Jonath

Reading Now

KIM: Becoming by Michelle Obama (audiobook)

ALICE: Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork on Twitter

RATE AND REVIEW on ITUNES so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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#30 May the Fourth Be With You Apr 30, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about spelling bee horror stories, why you should read about ancient scrolls, and nonfiction to read if you love (or even just sort of like) Star Wars.

This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm and TBR, Book Riot’s new subscription service offering tailored book recommendations for readers of all stripes.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

FOLLOW UP

Independent Bookstore Day

Notes From a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

New York Times: “A Young Chef, and a Stunning Comeback”

Good Talk by Mira Jacob

My Favorite Murder podcast

NEW BOOKS

The Regency Years by Robert Morrison

Beeline by Shalini Shankar

Breaking the Bee documentary

The Da Vinci Legacy by Jean Pierre Isbouts and Christopher Brown

Magical Realism for Nonbelievers by Anika Fajardo

The Role of the Scroll by Thomas Forrest Kelly

Fall and Rise by Mitchell Zuckoff

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU

How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor

The Making of Star Wars by J.W. Rinzler

The World According to Star Wars by Cass R. Sunstein

Wishful Drinking and The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

I Am C-3PO by Anthony Daniels and J.J. Abrams (November 4, 2019)

Star Wars Meets the Eras of Feminism by Valerie Estelle Frankel

READING NOW

Without Precedent by Joel Richard Paul

The Electric Woman by Tessa Fontaine

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#29 Death and Taxes! Apr 16, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about the guy who got Capone, a chef who got his start selling candy on the subway, and the first people to stand up to the KKK.

This episode is sponsored by libro.fm, First Degree from Nimbus Publishing, and The Five from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

My Own Devices by Dessa

Tell Me How it Ends by Valeria Luiselli

Kate McKinnon is also going to play Elizabeth Holmes for a Hulu adaptation

Kidlit These Days

New Books

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe’s Lost Country by Simon Winder

The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father by Janny Scott

Freedom’s Detective: The Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan and the Man Who Masterminded America’s First War on Terror by Charles Lane

Notes From a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault: Essays from the Grown-Up Years by Cathy Guisewhite

Death and Taxes

April 15 was Tax Day in the United States. In 1913, the 16th Amendment was ratified, permanently legalizing an income tax.

A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, and more Efficient Tax System by T.R. Reid

Eliot Ness: The Rise and Fall of an American Hero by Douglas Perry

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh

The Great Tax Wars: Lincoln–Teddy Roosevelt–Wilson How the Income Tax Transformed America by Steven R. Weisman

Reading Now

KIM: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski PhD (Author), Amelia Nagoski DMA

ALICE: The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork on Twitter

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#28 Confidence Tricksters Apr 02, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about bookish murders, confidence tricksters, Craigslist cons and more new nonfiction.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

FOLLOW UP

Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman

Kitlit These Days, a new podcast from Book Riot

NEW BOOKS

Murder by the Book by Claire Harman

No Happy Endings by Nora McInerny

Death in Ten Minutes by Fern Riddell

Good Talk by Mira Jacob

The Life and Legend of Bras-Coupé by Bryan Wagner

Native Country of the Heart by Cherríe Moraga

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

CONFIDENCE TRICKSTERS

The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse by Piu Eatwell

The Big Con by David Maurer

Race Me In a Lobster Suit by Kelly Mahon

Caraboo: The Servant Girl Princess by Jennifer Raison

The Mark Inside by Amy Reading

READING NOW

Lead from the Outside by Stacey Abrams

Alexander Hamilton by Jonathan Hennessey, art by Justin Greenwood

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

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#27 The Ides of March Assassination Episode Mar 19, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about assassinations, small town murder, and why women’s bathroom lines are longer than men’s (spoiler: it’s the patriarchy!).

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019) (HBO documentary on Theranos)

New Books

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson

The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book’s Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey by Margaret Leslie Davis

(People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks)

Humanimal: How Homo sapiens Became Nature’s Most Paradoxical Creature―A New Evolutionary History by Adam Rutherford

The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan’s Cherry Blossoms by Naoko Abe

Pocahontas and the English Boys: Caught Between Cultures in Early Virginia by Karen Ordahl Kupperman

Assassination Stories!

The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassinationby Barry Strauss

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport

The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World by Greg King and Sue Woolmans

Reading Now

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea by Alyssa Mastromonaco

So Here’s the Thing . . . by Alyssa Mastromonaco

Kings of Georgian Britain by Catherine Curzon

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork on Twitter

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#26 International Women's Day Mar 05, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about a ton of March new releases and books to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8.

This episode is sponsored by Libro.fm audiobooks and The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara from Hanover Square Press.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

NEW BOOKS

Skeleton Keys: The Secret Life of Bone by Brian Switek

Devices and Desires: Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England by Kate Hubbard

Women Warriors: An Unexpected History by Pamela D. Toler

The Wrong End of the Table: A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit in by Ayser Salman

Dannemora: Two Escaped Killers, Three Weeks of Terror, and the Largest Manhunt Ever in New York State by Charles Gardner

An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen

That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour by Sunita Puri

America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today by Pamela Nadell

Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powers, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine by Thomas Hager

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Kapka Kassabova

The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by Tim Crothers

I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brohi

Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History by Canyon Sam

The Lonely War: One Woman’s Account of the Struggle for Modern Iranby Nazila Fathi

Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin Americaby Dana Frank

READING NOW

This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live by Melody Warnick

Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America by Michael P. Winship

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#25 Black History Month Pt II Feb 19, 2019

This week, Alice and Kim discuss contemporary reads for Black History Month, an accidental con artist, and all new books to watch out for.

This episode is sponsored by Audible and , Book Riot’s Swords and Spaceships newsletter.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

True story podcast, The Dropout from ABC Radio, about Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes

New Books

The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America, ed. by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman

Parkland by Dave Cullen

Brown, White, Black: An American Family at the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion by Nishta J. Mehra

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by Saidiya Hartman

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman

Black History Month II: Contemporary Voices

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele

We Can’t Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival by Jabari Asim

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race, edited by Jesmyn Ward

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim

Reading Now

First Generations: Women in Colonial America by Carol Berkin

Atomic Habits by James Clear

CONCLUSION

Find us on Twitter @itsalicetime and @kimthedork.

RATE AND REVIEW on ITUNES so people can find us more easily, and subscribe so you can get our new episodes the minute they come out.

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#24 Black History Month and True Story Podcasts Feb 05, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about books to read for Black History Month and some nonfiction adjacent podcasts they love (plus more books).

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s TBR and Flatiron Books, and I Am Yours: A Shared Memoir by Reema Zaman, from Amberjack Publishing..

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

FOLLOW UP

American Fire by Monica Hesse

An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie

Ice Diaries: An Antarctic Memoir by Jean McNeil

A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland by William E. Glassley

NEW BOOKS

No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge

Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

BuzzFeed: I’ve Been Committed To A Psych Ward Three Times — And It Never Helped

Underground by Will Hunt

WEEKLY THEME: BLACK HISTORY MONTH

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

The Portable Nineteenth-Century African American Women Writers, edited by Hollis Robbins and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The Grace of Silence by Michele Norris

Negroland by Margo Jefferson

To Keep the Waters Troubled by Linda O. McMurry

NONFICTION + PODCASTS

Podcast: Broken Harts

Mel Magazine: The Sad, Strange Life and Death of Devonte Hart

Podcast: In the Dark

Podcast: Here to Make Friends

A Girl’s Guide to Joining the Resistance by Emma Gray

I Didn’t Come Here to Make Friends by Courtney Robertson

Bachelor Nation by Amy Kaufman

Podcast: Terrible, Thanks for Asking

It’s Ok to Laugh: (Crying is Cool Too) by Nora McInerny Purmort

READING NOW

Victoria: The Queen by Julia Baird

American Prison by Shane Bauer

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (not nonfiction!)

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#23 The Arctic & the Tropics Jan 22, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk arctic explorers, murder in the tropics, and the mixed reactions to nonfiction bestseller Girl, Wash Your Face.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Read Harder Journal.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

Follow Up

Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

By the Book podcast

BuzzFeed: “Girl, Wash Your Face” Is A Massive Best-Seller With A Dark Message

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo

New Books

Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Marriedby Abby Ellin

A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II by Elizabeth Wein

It Was All a Dream: A New Generation Confronts the Broken Promise to Black America by Reniqua Allen

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

Weekly Theme: The Arctic

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff

Ada Blackjack: A True Tale of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven

The Tropics

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon by Robert Whitaker

The Third Bank of the River: Power and Survival in the Twenty-First-Century Amazon by Chris Feliciano Arnold

Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen by Linda M. Heywood

Reading Now

American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover

Remember the Ladies: Women in America, 1750-1815 by Linda Grant De Pauw

CONCLUSION

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA – @itsalicetime and @kimthedork on Twitter

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#22 New Year, New You Jan 08, 2019

This week Alice and Kim talk about nonfiction to help you with your New Year’s resolutions and the reading resolutions they’ve set for the year.

This episode is sponsored by the Read Harder Journal by Book Riot.

Subscribe to For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Kim Ukura.

BOOKS WE GOT FOR CHRISTMAS

How to Draw Almost Every Day by Kamo

Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon

Feminasty by Erin Gibson

How Do We Look by Mary Beard

The Assassination of Branwaine Spurge by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

Legendary Ladies by Ann Shen

Educated by Tara Westover

NEW BOOKS

Trailblazer by Dorothy Butler Gilliam

When Death Becomes Life by Joshua Mezrich

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris

Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

WEEKLY THEME: NEW YEAR, NEW YOU

The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll

How to Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price (2018)

Presence by Amy Cuddy

Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

READING NOW

Awakening Your Ikigai by Ken Mogi

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan

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#21 The Jane Austen Episode Dec 11, 2018

This week, Alice and Kim talk all things Jane Austen, as well as the best nonfiction of 2018.

This week’s episode of For Real is brought to you by the Book Riot Read Harder Journal and The Molecule of More By Daniel Z. Lieberman and Mike Long.

Subscribe to For Real via Stitcher here, or via Apple Podcasts here. You can sign up for Book Riot's nonfiction newsletter True Story, edited by For Real's Kim Ukura here.

Weekly Theme: Jane Austen

A Smattering of Austen Titles

Reading Austen in America by Juliette Wells

A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen

At Home With Jane Austen by Kim Wilson

Tea With Jane Austen by Pen Vogler

Jane Austen and the Fiction of Her Time by Mary Waldron

What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan

A Brief Guide to Jane Austen by Charles Jennings

Jane Austen Biography and Background Books

Jane Austen by Carol Shields

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin

Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels by Deirdre Le Faye

Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman

Jane Austen in Popular Culture

Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen by Deborah Yaffe

All Roads Lead to Austen: A Year-long Journey with Jane by Amy Smith

Fun Austen Titles & Covers

Jane Austen, Game Theorist by Michael Suk-Young Chwe

Why Jane Austen? by Rachel W. Brownstein

Critics Favorites of 2018

New York Times: Top 10 Books of 2018

American Prison by Shane Bauer
Educated by Tara Westover – also one of my favorites!
Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

Washington Post: Best Books of 2018

Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu
On Desperate Ground by Hampton Sides
One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson

Popsugar’s Best Nonfiction Books 2018

Tonight I’m Someone Else by Chelsea Hodson
You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Would You Rather?: A Memoir of Growing Up and Coming Out by Katie Heaney
Choose Your Own Disaster by Dana Schwartz
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil
Educated by Tara Westover (again!)
Can You Tolerate This? By Ashleigh Young
Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship by Kayleen Schaefer

Our Favorites of 2018

KIM:

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan

From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol

ALICE:

Impeachment: An American History

My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper

The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman

Bombay Anna: The Real Story and Remarkable Adventures of the King & I Governess by Susan Morgan

The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age by Myra MacPherson

READING NOW

KIM: Left to Our Own Devices: Outsmarting Smart Technology to Reclaim Our Relationships, Health, and Focus by Margaret Morris

ALICE: Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer

The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines

CONCLUSION

Book Riot is taking the week off a Christmas, so this will be our last podcast of 2018!

You can find us on SOCIAL MEDIA - @itsalicetime and @kimthedork on Twitter, and don’t forget to rate and review us in your podcast app!

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#20 A Nonfiction Holiday Gift Guide Nov 27, 2018

In this week’s episode, Kim and Alice share a few last November new books, then jump into a holiday gift guide with recommendations for history buffs, video gamers, wine aficionados, nature lovers and more.

This week’s episode of For Real is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, Homer and the Holiday Miracle by Gwen Cooper, and Bare Minimum Parenting: The Ultimate Guide to Not Quite Ruining Your Child by James Breakwell.

Follow Up

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart

New Books

Stranger’s Pose by Emmanuel Iduma

The Woo-Woo by Lindsay Wong

Seduction by Karina Longworth

We the People by Erwin Chemerinsky

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Holiday Recommendation Guide: Reader Requests

Population 485 by Michael Perry

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

Goodbye-to All That by Robert Graves

Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Skyjack by Geoffrey Gray

Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat by Samin Nosrat

The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty

Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi

Holiday Recommendation Guide: General Recommendations

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

Tasting the Past by Kevin Begos

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf

The Game Console by Evan Amos

Console Wars by Blake J. Harris

Extra Lives by Tom Bissell

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman

Bibliophile by Jane Mount of Ideal Bookshelf

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch

Writer’s Under Surveillance

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

The Family Gene by Joselin Linder

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge

Reading Now

No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

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#19 Book Award Season! Nov 13, 2018

For Real is sponsored this week by Book Riot Insiders, In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent’s Relentless Pursuit of the Nation’s Worst Predators by Jeffrey Rinek from BenBella Books and Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom by Ariel Burger.

FOLLOW UP

Who Was series

Holiday Gift Guide Episode! Email kim@riotnewmedia.com by November 20th if you need a nonfiction recommendation for a present, or want a book to put on your own gift list.

NEW BOOKS

Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome by Venki Ramakrishnan

Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the “Powerless” Woman Who Took on Washington by Patricia Miller

Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward by Gemma Hartley

A Tale of Two Murders: Guilt, Innocence, and the Execution of Edith Thompson by Laura Thompson

First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story by Huda Al-Marashi

End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals by Ross D.E. MacPhee

Shout-Outs to:

Dirty Tricks: Nixon, Watergate, and the CIA by Shane O’Sullivan

Beyonce in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley

Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery

WEEKLY THEME: Book Awards!

Carnegie Award

Shortlist: The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu

Longlist: High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing by Ben Austen

National Book Award

Finalist: Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh

Longlist: One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson

SEGMENT THREE: Colonialism

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown

The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation by Colin G. Calloway (Oxford University Press)

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann

READING NOW

Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War by Marwan Hisham and Molly Crabapple

Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll

I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel

CONCLUSION

Find us on Twitter @itsalicetime and @kimthedork.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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#18 Great Young Adult Nonfiction Oct 30, 2018

In this episode, Kim and Alice dive into some great young adult nonfiction reads and consider true stories connected to current events like Harry and Meagan’s royal visit to Australia and debates about immigration.

This episode is sponsored by Bibliophile from Chronicle Books and Democracy Hacked by Martin Moore.

Follow Up

In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

New Books

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

Silicon Valley: San Francisco in the Long Shadow of the Valley by Cary McClelland

Let It Bang: A Young Black Man's Reluctant Odyssey into Guns by R.J. Young

In Pursuit: The Hunt for the Beltway Snipers by David Reichenbaugh

Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George

The King and the Catholics: England, Ireland, and the Fight for Religious Freedom, 1780-1829 by Antonia Fraser

Weekly Theme: YA Nonfiction

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers Hardcover by Deborah Heiligman

#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women, ed. By Mary Beth Leatherdale and Lisa Charleyboy

Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge

Being Jazz: My Life As a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings

Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America, edited by Amy Reed

Current Events Reads

American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry by Leslie Carroll

Tomorrow Will be Different by Sarah McBride

Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration by Ana Raquel Minian

Reading Now

How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Zinblatt (via Barack Obama’s current reading recommendations)

The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald

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#17 True Crime Book Bonanza Oct 16, 2018

This week, Alice and Kim discuss arson, mesmerism, and murder in a true crime-themed episode. Find your scary nonfiction here this month on For Real.

This week’s episode is sponsored by Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margarita by Tim Federle, and The Golden Boy: A Doctor’s Journey With Addiction by Grant Matheson. Don’t forget to check out Book Riot’s new subscription service offering Tailored Book Recommendations for readers of all stripes. Visit mytbr.co to learn more.

FOLLOW UP

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-Class Metropolis by Sam Anderson

NEW BOOKS

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter

Noncompliant: A Lone Whistleblower Exposes the Giants of Wall Street by Carmen Segarra

My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper

In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick

Impeachment: An American History by by Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali, Peter Baker, and Jeffrey Engel

WEEKLY THEME: True Crime Bonanza

The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder and a Daughter’s Search by Sarah Perry

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

The Infamous Harry Hayward: A True Account of Murder and Mesmerism in Gilded Age Minneapolis by Shawn Francis Peters

American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse

SEGMENT THREE: Short Nonfiction II

Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli

My Friend Dahmer by Derk Backderf

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

READING NOW

Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister

The Good Pig by Sy Montgomery

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

EXTRAS

Allie Brosh/Felicia Day Interview

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#16 True Stories of the Supernatural Oct 02, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice share some books that try to find the truth behind the supernatural or that might be perfect haunting reading in October.

This episode is sponsored by Oxford University Press, LibraryReads, and TBR, Book Riot's new subscription service offering Tailored Book Recommendations for readers of all stripes.

NEW BOOKS

Behold, America: The Entangled History of "America First" and "the American Dream" by Sarah Churchwell

The Ravenmaster: My Life With the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife

Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister

Feuding Fan Dancers: Faith Bacon, Sally Rand, and the Golden Age of the Showgirl by Leslie Zemeckis

Heart: A History by Sandeep Jauhar

Six By Ten: Stories from Solitary, edited by Taylor Pendergrass

TRUE STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL

Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum

The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster by Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito

American Ghost: A Family's Extraordinary History on the Desert Frontier by Hannah Nordhaus

The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke

RIP READING CHALLENGE

Readers Imbibing Peril

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

READING NOW

Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

Fallout: Conspiracy, Cover-Up, and the Making of the Atomic Bomb by Peter Watson

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#15 Cozy Nonfiction for Fall Sep 18, 2018

This episode of For Real is sponsored by The Good Neighbor by Maxwell King and The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman.

FOLLOW UP READS

The Class by Heather Won Tesario

NEW BOOKS

The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy by Paige Williams

Call Them By Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit

Seeds of Resistance: The Fight to Save Our Food Supply by Mark Schapiro

The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing by Merve Emre

The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War by Joanne Freeman

The Art of Logic in an Illogical World by Eugenia Cheng

She Called Me Woman: Nigeria’s Queer Women Speak, edited by Azeenarh Mohammed, Chitra Nagarajan, Rafeeat Aliyu

WEEKLY THEME: Cozy Nonfiction for Fall

House of Stone by Anthony Shadid

The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living by Meik Wiking

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman

Travels With Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck

SEGMENT THREE: Great Subtitles

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea & of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists & Fools Including the Author Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn

Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal by Jack Kelly

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek

READING NOW

99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown

Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Katy Butler

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS?

Find us on Twitter @itsalicetime and @kimthedork

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#14 Labor Day and Stories About Work Sep 04, 2018

In this week's episode, Kim and guest co-host Sharifah recommend books by people with interesting jobs and personal essay collections by smart and funny women.

This episode is sponsored by Unapologetic by Charlene A Carruthers and Elizabeth Warren by Antonia Felix. Book Riot also wants to know about your reading habits. Hop over and take our Fall Reader Survey before Sept. 10 for a chance to win a $100 gift card to the Book Riot Store: bookriot.com/fallsurvey

NEW BOOKS

To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope by Jeanne Marie Laskas

“Dear Mr. President” by Jeanne Marie Laskas in the Guardian

Ten Letters by Eli Saslow

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? by Alyssa Mastromonaco

The Class by Heather Won Tesoriero

I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brohi

Bureau of Spies by Steven T. Usdin

The Provocative Colette by Annie Goetzinger

Not Quite Not White by Sharmila Sen

LABOR DAY/STORIES OF WORK

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty

This is Just My Face by Gabourey Sidibe

It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario

MOSTLY FUNNY PERSONAL ESSAYS

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

A Field Guide to Awkward Silences by Alexandra Petri

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper

One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul

READING NOW

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

The Infamous Harry Hayward by Shawn Francis Peters

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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#13 Suffragists, Suffragettes, and Winning the Vote! Aug 21, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice take a deep dive into books about the campaign for women's suffrage and the passage of the 19th Amendment in August 1920.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, Girl Boner: The Good Girl’s Guide to Sexual Empowerment by August McLaughlin, and Tragedy Plus Time by Adam Cayton-Holland.

NEW BOOKS

A Deal with the Devil: The Dark and Twisted True Story of One of the Biggest Cons in History by Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken

Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee

Reader, Come Home: The Fate of the Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf

A Life of My Ownby Claire Tomalin

Proud: My Fight for An Unlikely American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad

The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit’s Most Notorious Serial Killer by J. Reuben Appelman

WEEKLY THEME: WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

News: Hillary Clinton, Steven Spielberg Bringing Women's Voting Drama to TV

For fun: Bad Romance - Women's Suffrage

The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss

A Woman’s Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot by Mary Walton

The Myth of Seneca Falls by Lisa Tetrault

Quick Hits: Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York Stateby Susan Goodier / Lucy Stone: An Unapologetic Life by Sally G. McMillen / Fighting Chance: The Struggle Over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America by Faye E. Dudden / To Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of Ida B. Wells by Linda O. McMurry / Frances Willard: A Biography by Ruth Bordin / The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age by Myra MacPherson

FICTION/NONFICTION

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by Chrystia Freeland

Singapore: Unlikely Power by John Curtis Perry

The Dinner List by Rebecca Searle

Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. by Sam Wasson (2010)

The Slenderman Mysteries: An Internet Urban Legend Comes to Life by Nick Redfern

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Pilgrim’s Wilderness by Tom Kizzia

READING NOW

Yes We (Still) Can by Dan Pfeiffer

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown

The Secret Token by Andrew Lawler

Forever Nerdy by Brian Posen

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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#12 Scandal! Aug 07, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice talk presidential scandals, Victorian affairs, and the inside scoop on the Jell-O dynasty.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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#11 Nonfiction Beach Reads Jul 24, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice take a deep dive into types of nonfiction that are great for reading at the beach -- stunt and celebrity memoirs, science and nature stories, and historical true crime reads.

While you’re here, don’t forget Book Riot’s YA giveaway! Go here to win $500 of the year’s best YA fiction and nonfiction: bookriot.com/500yagiveaway.

FOLLOW UP

From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Drinking in America by Mark Edward Lender

NEW BOOKS

Barons of the Sea by Steven Ujifusa

Blood and Ivy by Paul Collins

A Bite-Sized History of France by Stephane Henaut (translated by Jeni Mitchell)

Killing It: An Education by Camas Davis

NONFICTION BEACH READS

Stunt Memoirs!

My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis

The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

The Lunatic Express by Carl Hoffman

Nature/Science Books!

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

Light/Historical True Crime!

The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum

Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.

The Girls of Murder City by Douglas Perry

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

Comedy Memoirs!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang

I Know I Am But What Are You by Samantha Bee

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’All Don’t Even Know by Retta

READING NOW

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Fighting Chance by Faye Dudden

OTHER

Ask a Slave (web series)

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#10 Revolutionary History! Jul 10, 2018

This week, Alice and Kim talk Revolutionary War history, Persian empresses, and the tragic fire that society buried.

While you're here, don’t forget Book Riot’s YA giveaway! Go here to win $500 of the year’s best YA fiction and nonfiction.

bookriot.com/500yagiveaway

NEW BOOKS

Don't You Ever by Mary Carter Bishop

Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire by Robert E. Fiesler

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan by Ruby Lal

No One Tells You This: A Memoir by Glynnis MacNicol

From the Corner of the Oval by Rebecca Dorey-Stein

WEEKLY THEME: Revolutionary History

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell

Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison

Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis

Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

SEGMENT THREE: Fiction/Nonfiction

The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

Gone by Min Kym

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte

How to Build a Dinosaur: The New Science of Reverse Evolution by Jack Horner and James Gorman

READING NOW

Stalking God by Anjali Kumar

Drinking in America: A History by Mark Edward Lender

OTHER

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

Age of Jackson Podcast

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#9 Pride Month! Jun 26, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice dive into some new books and backlist reads to read during Pride Month (although, of course, they’re also great any time!).

This week’s episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Annotated, an audio documentary podcast series about books, language, and reading. Give it a listen!

NEW BOOKS

Alone Time by Stephanie Rosenbloom

Troublesome Science by Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall

The Ambition Decisions by Hana Schank and Elizabeth Wallace

90s Bitch by Allison Yarrow

Squeezed by Alissa Quart

PRIDE MONTH!

Dear John, I Love Jane by Candace Walsh

Does Jesus Really Love Me? by Jeff Chu

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality by Jack Rogers

Surpassing the Love of Men by Lillian Faderman

Tomorrow Will be Different by Sarah McBride

Then Comes Marriage by Roberta Kaplan with Lisa Dickey

The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

READING NOW

Black Dahlia, Red Rose by Piu Eatwell

Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer

OTHER TITLES

Momo by Michael Ende

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#8 The Nonfiction of Book Expo Jun 12, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice do a recap of some of the best nonfiction of Book Expo America, the publishing industry's big trade show each spring.

This episode is sponsored by Book Riot’s Annotated and Recommended podcasts. Give them a listen! And don’t forget that Book Riot is giving away a $500 gift card to the bookstore of your choice. Go to bookriot.com/bookstore500 before June 21 to enter.

FOLLOW UP

Locking Up Our Own by James Forman Jr.

Dear Madam President by Jennifer Palmeri

Bombay Anna by Susan Morgan

NEW BOOKS

What Would the Great Economists Do? by Linda Yueh (June 5, Picador)

The Secret Token by Andrew Lawler (June 5, Doubleday)

First in Line by Kate Andersen Brower (June 5, Harper)

Woman at the Devil’s Door by Sarah Beth Hopton (June 1, Indiana University Press)

BOOK EXPO

The Impatient Dr. Lange by Seema Yasmin (July 2018, Johns Hopkins University Press)

Call Them By Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit (September 2018, Haymarket)

American Prisons by Shane Bauer (September 2018, Penguin)

One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson (September 2018, Bloomsbury)

Black Flags, Blue Waters by Eric Jay Dolin (September 2018, Liveright)

Born Criminal by Angelica Shirley Carpenter (September 2018, South Dakota Historical Society Press)

Interior States by Meghan O'Gieblyn (October 2018, Anchor Books)

8-Bit Apocalypse by Alex Rubens (October 2018, Overlook Press)

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England by Ruth Goodman (October 2018, Liveright)

BEA EDITOR'S BUZZ (Nonfiction)

Small Animals by Kim Brooks (August 21, Flatiron Books)

The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman (Sept. 11, Ecco/HarperCollins)

There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald (October 2, Riverhead Books)

Maid by Stephanie Land (January 2019, Hachette Books)

READING NOW

City of Devils by Paul French (July 2018, Picador)

The Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke

OTHER TITLES

Sioux Women by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve

Newjack by Ted Conover

Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly

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#7 Memorial Day Inspired Reads May 29, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice talk about books related to Memorial Day, lady serial killers, and some capital "R" Romantics.

This episode is sponsored by American Fire by Monica Hesse.

Follow Up

Damnation Island and Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn

New Books

So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know by Retta

Baracoon by Zora Neal Hurston

Great American Outpost by Maya Rao

Like a Mother by Angela Garbes

Feminist Freedom Warriors by Chandra Mohanty and Linda Carty

Weekly Theme: Memorial Day

Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel

Drift by Rachel Maddow

Mum's Army by Winifred Philips

Ashley's War by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

A Life in Secrets by Sarah Helm

Fiction/Nonfiction

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

Lady Killers by Tori Telfer

Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart by Claire Harman

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon

Reading Now

Bombay Anna by Susan Morgan

Locking Up Our Own by James Forman Jr.

Don't forget! Book Riot is giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice. Visit bookriot.com/bookstore500 to enter!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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#6: British Royals Past and Present May 15, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice chat about the British royals they love (and love to hate), graphic memoirs (comics, not dirty stuff), and new books on Christianity, historical hospitals and Los Angeles.

Follow Up

Bachelor Nation by Amy Kaufman

New Books

The Darkening Age by Catherine Nixey (April 17 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Damnation Island by Stacy Horn (May 15 from Algonquin)

The Mirage Factory by Gary Krist (May 15 from Crown)

Not that Bad, edited by Roxane Gay (May 1 from Harper)

British Royals Past and Present

Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith

Victoria: The Queen by Julia Baird

Elizabeth and Leicester by Sarah Gristwood

Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury

Game of Crowns by Christopher Andersen

Mary, Queen of Scots: A Study in Failure by Jenny Wormald

Penguin Monarchs series

Graphic Memoirs

Marbles by Ellen Forney

Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley

A Bintel Brief by Liana Finck

Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden

Tomboy by Liz Prince

Mentioned briefly and recommended -- Maus by Art Spiegelman and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

What We're Reading Now

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong (and his article on gender balance in reporting)

Dear Madam President by Jennifer Palmeri (and her interview on NPR's It's Been a Minute podcast)

The Escape of Charles II: After the Battle of Worcester by Richard Ollard

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#5 Mother's Day and the Busman's MBA May 01, 2018

Kim is joined by guest co-host Jeff O'Neal to talk about two of the biggest nonfiction-related news stories of the year, along with books for Mother's Day and Jeff's Busman's MBA.

This episode is sponsored by The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind by Barbara K. Lipska.

Follow Up and Nonfiction News

A Higher Loyalty sells 600,000 copies in the first week!

The Golden State Killer has been caught!

New Books

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil (April 24 from Crown)

Minority Leader by Stacey Abrams (April 24 from Henry Holt)

Beneath a Ruthless Sun by Gilbert King (April 24 from Riverhead)

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson (April 24 from Viking)

Weekly Theme: Mother's Day

Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan

Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

Stuck in the Middle With You by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Hammer Head by Nina MacLaughlin

The Busman's MBA

Back to Work podcast by Dan Benjamin and Merlin Mann

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William L. Ury

Radical Candor by Kim Scott

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

The Distraction Addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi

Reading Now

Odd Girl Out by Laura James

The Power of Different by Gail Saltz

Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

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Bonus: Jesmyn Ward Recommends Apr 24, 2018

Please enjoy this bonus excerpt, courtesy of the Recommended podcast, featuring Jesmyn Ward recommending Edward E. Baptist's The Half Has Never Been Told.

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#4 Short Nonfiction You Can Readathon Apr 17, 2018

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#3: We Heart Television (and Also Books) Apr 03, 2018

This week, Kim and Alice chat about the Victorian computer, an obsessive tennis coach, and how long we should hold onto those Beanie Babies.

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Spring Has Sprung Mar 20, 2018

This week, Alice and Kim talking about Jane Austen superfans, snuffbox mussels and the rare "dragon fish," and books to give some context to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida and subsequent student activism.

This episode is sponsored by:

She Caused a Riot by Hannah Jewell

Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful by Stephanie Wittels Wachs

New Releases

Camp Austen by Ted Scheinman (March 6 from FSG Originals)

The Woman's Hour by Elaine Weiss (March 6 from Viking)

Visionary Women by Andrea Barnet (March 13 from Ecco)

The Last Wild Men of Borneo by Carl Hoffman (March 6 from William Morrow)

Disappointment River by Brian Castner (March 13 from Doubleday)

There Are No Dead Here by Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno (February 27 from Nation Books)

Theme of the Week: Spring Has Sprung

Wild and Rare by Adam Regn Arvidson

The Meadowlands by Robert Sullivan

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Current Events Reads: Guns and Student Activism

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge

Witness the Revolution by Clara Bingham

What We're Reading

Political Tribes by Amy Chua

Grant by Ron Chernow

The Dragon Behind the Glass by Emily Voigt

The Extra Stuff

Books mentioned in passing:

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Coming to My Senses by Alice Waters

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

Animals you might be curious about:

Snuffbox mussels

Asian arowana aka “dragon fish"

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International Women's Day Mar 06, 2018

This week, Alice and Kim discuss Idaho extremists, the women who made the internet, and how closely you should identify with Lord Byron (among other things).

We're sponsored this week by:

She Caused a Riot: 100 Unknown Women Who Built Cities, Sparked Revolutions, and Massively Crushed It by Mackenzi Lee

Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful by Stephanie Wittels Wachs

NEW RELEASES

Educated by Tara Westover (February 20th, 2018)

Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire L. Evans (March 6, 2018)

Fisherman's Blues by Anna Badkhen (March 13, 2018)

The Wonder Down Under: The Insider's Guide to the Anatomy, Biology, and Reality of the Vagina by Ellen Støkken Dahl and Nina Brochmann (March 6, 2018)

THEME OF THE WEEK: International Women's Day

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War by Leymah Gbowee