October’s nonfiction shelves are crowded, and the books on offer range from a historian’s memoir to a cultural study of body hair. The list features work by David Treuer, Wendy S. Walters, Thomas Frank, and more. It is a strange and wonderful mix, and it is the better for it.
David Treuer’s Letter Home
Treuer is a novelist and memoirist whose 2019 book The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee was a finalist for the National Book Award. His new book, Savage Mind, is written as a letter to his three children, now in their late teens. It opens with a story of reservation life that reads like a Denis Johnson tale, then shifts into a wide-ranging exploration of the American frontier — both its brutal reality and its mythic hold over the country’s imperial ambitions.
Thomas Frank Takes On Innovation
For decades, Thomas Frank has worked as a critic of power, and now he has turned that gaze toward the tech industry in his new book, The Creativity Con. He contends that the idea of innovation has come to mask a shallow, cliché-driven way of doing things that moves money upward through society, from the bottom to the top. His argument traces back to a long list of post-war conmen and hucksters who have borrowed the word “innovation” to sell their plans.
Redemption and Death Row
One of our era’s finest narrative journalists is Lawrence Wright. His latest work, Redemption, examines the bond between a congregation of sisters and the women condemned to death at a penal institution in Gatesville, Texas. The sisters offer spiritual and emotional aid to the inmates, and Wright employs the volume to expose the contradictions and injustices inherent in the American legal system.
Wendell Berry’s Last Work
Last month, Wendell Berry passed away at the age of 92. A primer on his work, Dispatches From Rural America, appears on the list. He is often too narrowly described as an “American pastoralist”, part of the tradition of Thoreau and Emerson, yet the review makes the case that he possesses a plain, practical quality that makes him a perfect critic of modernity. According to the review, the period of late capitalism over the last 50 years indeed merits every bit of the criticism directed at it.
Judy Wearing on Body Hair
Anxious and Hairy: The Evolution and Culture of Human Hair, by Judy Wearing, is a cultural history with a sense of humor. The book takes a close look at the history, looks, social worries, and science of body hair, while treating the subject both seriously and with an eye toward its inherent funniness. The review calls it a gift to curious minds, and perfect for fans of a nonfictional romp.
Nathaniel Philbrick on the Gold Rush
Philbrick’s historical nonfiction reads like a novel, and the California Gold Rush serves as the ideal stage for displaying his talents. The author’s earlier work includes In the Heart of the Sea, which detailed the consequences of extreme dehydration with perfect, disgusting precision. Now, in The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World, Philbrick argues that the Gold Rush essentially explains America as we know it today.
Murray Hill’s Memoir
Joe’s Pub sits at the center of New York’s cabaret-comedy scene, and Murray Hill is one of its most established fixtures. He headlined Somebody Somewhere, a show that stands among the funniest and tenderest of recent memory. His memoir, Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man, offers a life packed with memoir-worthy anecdotes delivered with the charm of a showman.
Wendy S. Walters on White Spaces
Wendy S. Walters is one of our best living essayists, the review says. Her 2015 essay collection Multiply/Divide hearkens back to the continental feuilleton, a mode of impressionistic observation that can be both broadly political and deeply personal. In A Dead White, Walters focuses on the ubiquity of white paint in all our spaces, public and private. She argues that the choice to paint everything white reveals a great deal about societal value systems, our passive choices, and our wrongheaded aspirations to self-serving neutrality.
Richard Cooke on Wikipedia
Richard Cooke’s The Last Best Place on the Internet: A Human History of Wikipedia digs into the platform’s beginnings and inner workings. The review describes Wikipedia as an indispensable tool, a genuine delight, and a force for good in a very bad place — the internet, the world. Cooke makes the case for its vast importance, likely greater than even its dedicated users appreciate.
“a genuine delight, and a force for good in a very bad place”
The reading for October is a selection, not a contest, and the selection is extensive. It is a reminder that nonfiction does not exist as one unified category. It includes a letter addressed to children, a critical examination of innovation, an account of the death penalty, an exploration of body hair, and a history of the internet. Each book on the list carries its own value. Anyone who chooses one of these works will discover something worth pondering, and that is precisely what October’s reading should offer.
Source material: “10 Great Nonfiction Titles to Enjoy in October,” Literary Hub.
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