In My TBR Stack:

The Making of a Dream: How a Group of Young Undocumented Immigrants Helped Change What It Means to Be American
by Laura Wides-Munoz
Harper Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

A journalist chronicles the next chapter in civil rights—the story of a movement and a nation, witnessed through the poignant and inspiring experiences of five young undocumented activists who are transforming society’s attitudes toward one of the most contentious political matters roiling America today: immigration.

They are called the DREAMers: young people who were brought, or sent, to the United States as children and who have lived for years in America without legal status. Growing up, they often worked hard in school, planned for college, only to learn they were, in the eyes of the United States government and many citizens, "illegal aliens."

Determined to take fate into their own hands, a group of these young undocumented immigrants risked their safety to "come out" about their status—sparking a transformative movement, engineering a seismic shift in public opinion on immigration, and inspiring other social movements across the country. Their quest for permanent legal protection under the so-called "Dream Act," stalled. But in 2012, the Obama administration issued a landmark, new immigration policy: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which has since protected more than half a million young immigrants from deportation even as efforts to install more expansive protections remain elusive.

The Making of a Dream begins at the turn of the millennium, with the first of a series of "Dream Act" proposals; follows the efforts of policy makers, activists, and undocumented immigrants themselves, and concludes with the 2016 presidential election and the first months of the Trump presidency. The immigrants’ coming of age stories intersect with the watershed political and economic events of the last two decades: 9/11, the recession, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama presidency, and the rebirth of the anti-immigrant right.

In telling their story, Laura Wides-Muñoz forces us to rethink our definition of what it means to be American.

In My TBR Stack:

Maybe Esther: A Family Story
by Katja Petrowskaja
Translated from the German by Shelley Frisch
Harper Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

An inventive, unique, and extraordinarily moving literary debut that pieces together the fascinating story of one woman’s family across twentieth-century Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Germany.

Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create a kind of family tree, charting relatives who had scattered across multiple countries and continents. Her idea blossomed into this striking and highly original work of narrative nonfiction, an account of her search for meaning within the stories of her ancestors.

In a series of short meditations, Petrowskaja delves into family legends, introducing a remarkable cast of characters: Judas Stern, her great-uncle, who shot a German diplomatic attaché in 1932 and was sentenced to death; her grandfather Semyon, who went underground with a new name during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, forever splitting their branch of the family from the rest; her grandmother Rosa, who ran an orphanage in the Urals for deaf-mute Jewish children; her Ukrainian grandfather Vasily, who disappeared during World War II and reappeared without explanation forty-one years later—and settled back into the family as if he’d never been gone; and her great-grandmother, whose name may have been Esther, who alone remained in Kiev and was killed by the Nazis.

How do you talk about what you can’t know, how do you bring the past to life? To answer this complex question, Petrowskaja visits the scenes of these events, reflecting on a fragmented and traumatized century and bringing to light family figures who threaten to drift into obscurity. A true search for the past reminiscent of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated, Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost, and Michael Chabon’s Moonglow, Maybe Esther is a poignant, haunting investigation of the effects of history on one family.

In My TBR Stack:

The Hazel Wood
by Melissa Albert
Flatiron Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away—by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began—and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

In My TBR Stack:

Meet the Deplorables: Infiltrating Trump America 
by Harmon Leon and Ted Rall
39 West
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Legendary infiltration journalist HARMON LEON is at it again, this time teaming up with ferocious political cartoonist TED RALL to answer the question most of America has been asking: "What the hell happened in 2016?" In their new book, Meet the Deplorables: Infiltrating Trump America, Leon goes deep undercover into the heart of Trump America, and Rall—two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist—adds an innovative extra dimension to the book with his own essays and full-color cartoons.

Running throughout Meet the Deplorables, Rall’s distinctive artwork enhances the insightful and often irreverent tone employed by Leon—an award-winning New York journalist whose stories have appeared in VICE, Esquire, The Nation, and National Geographic. In his inimitable Gonzo-style, Leon’s carefully crafted narrative is designed to help us understand (and humanize) the "deplorables," a word used by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign to describe the racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic supporters of Donald J. Trump.

For the sake of humor and satire, Leon ventures where elite coastal journalists dare not: deep into Red State territory, where his audacious accounts vicariously take readers on a journey of enlightenment by providing a fresh and first-hand perspective of right-wing subcultures and those most adversely affected by Trump’s appalling policies on immigration, healthcare reform, and race relations. His exploits include:

• visiting an anti-Muslim hate group during the height of Islamophobia
• knocking door-to-door as a canvasser for the Trump campaign
• joining a conversion therapy group that tries to “turn” homosexuals straight
• attending a gun store wedding where couples seal vows by firing assault rifles
• watching fanatics receive free Trump tattoos
• participating in a Christian purity ring ceremony in Ohio.

This unique collaboration between the formidable team of Harmon Leon and Ted Rall holds up a mirror to modern conservative life and reflects a reality that is outrageous, entertaining, and always illuminating.

On My Radar:

Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork, and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life

by Daymond John with Daniel Paisner

Currency Books / Harper Collins

Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Daymond John knows what it means to push yourself hard–and he also knows how spectacularly a killer work ethic can pay off. As a young man, he founded a modest line of clothing on a $40 budget by hand-sewing hats between his shifts at Red Lobster. Today, his brand FUBU has over $6 billion in sales. 

Convenient though it might be to believe that you can shortcut your way to the top, says John, the truth is that if you want to get and stay ahead, you need to put in the work. You need to out-think, out-hustle, and out-perform everyone around you. You’ve got to rise and grind every day.  

In the anticipated follow-up to the bestselling The Power of Broke, Daymond takes an up close look at the hard-charging routines and winning secrets of individuals who have risen to the challenges in their lives and grinded their way to the very tops of their fields. Along the way, he also reveals how grit and persistence both helped him overcome the obstacles he has faced in life and ultimately fueled his success.

In My TBR Stack:

Saving Tarboo Creek: One Family's Quest to Heal the Land
by Scott Freeman
with illustrations by Susan Leopold Freeman
Timber Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

When the Freeman family decided to restore a damaged creek in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula—to transform it from a drainage ditch into a stream that could again nurture salmon— they knew the task would be formidable and the rewards plentiful.

In Saving Tarboo Creek, Scott Freeman artfully blends his family’s story with powerful universal lessons about how we can all live more constructive, fulfilling, and natural lives by engaging with the land rather than exploiting it. Equal parts heartfelt and empowering, this book explores how we can all make a difference one choice at a time.

In the proud tradition of Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, Saving Tarboo Creek is both a timely tribute to our land and a bold challenge to protect it. Adding to the legacy, Leopold’s granddaughter Susan, the matriarch of the Freeman family, created this book’s illustrations.

On My Radar:

Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines
by Nick Nolte
Harper Collins
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

"I had become an actor because real life was hard for me. Sometimes it was really rough. Acting was different from real life, yet it gave me the chance to search for complex stories that helped me understand and cope with what I encountered away from the stage lights.”

Legendary actor Nick Nolte delivers his most revealing performance yet. This intimate memoir is a tale of art, passion, commitment, addiction, and the quest for personal enlightenment as intense and hypnotic as the man himself.

In a career spanning five decades and hundreds of roles, Nick Nolte has become a true Hollywood icon. Rising from a difficult childhood in the rural Midwest to leading roles and a trio of Oscar nominations in the golden West, he has been both celebrated and vilified; survived marriages, divorces, and a string of romances; was named the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine; and suffered public humiliation over his addiction issues, including a drug-fueled trip down the Pacific Coast Highway that resulted in his infamous arrest. 

Despite these ups and downs, Nolte has remained true to the craft he loves, portraying a diverse range of characters with his trademark physicality and indelible gravelly voice. Already thirty-five when his performance in the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man launched him to stardom, Nolte never learned to play by Hollywood’s rules. A rebel who defies expectations, a committed actor willing to go to extremes for a role, Nolte is motivated by personal, edgy projects, not box office success. Today, he has found peace on his own terms, yet is still driven, juggling projects while raising his young daughter.

Nick’s untold story, with never-before-seen photos, offers a candid, unvarnished close-up look at the man, the career, the loves, and the life.

On My Radar:

Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
by David Frum
Harper Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Best-selling author, former White House speechwriter, and Atlantic columnist and media commentator David Frum explains why President Trump has undermined our most important institutions in ways even the most critical media has missed, in this thoughtful and hard-hitting book that is a warning for democracy and America's future. 

"From Russia to South Africa, from Turkey to the Philippines, from Venezuela to Hungary, authoritarian leaders have smashed restraints on their power. Media freedom and judicial independence have eroded. The right to vote remains, but the right to have one's vote counted fairly may not. Until the US presidential election of 2016, the global decline of democracy seemed a concern for other peoples in other lands.... That complacent optimism has been upended by the political rise of Donald Trump. The crisis is upon Americans, here and now."

Quietly, steadily, Trump and his administration are damaging the tenets and accepted practices of American democracy, perhaps irrevocably. As he and his family enrich themselves, the presidency itself falls into the hands of the generals and financiers who surround him. 

While much of the country has been focused on Russia, David Frum has been collecting the lies, obfuscations, and flagrant disregard for the traditional limits placed on the office of the presidency. In Trumpocracy, he documents how Trump and his administration are steadily damaging the tenets and accepted practices of American democracy. During his own White House tenure as George W. Bush's speechwriter, Frum witnessed the ways the presidency is limited not by law but by tradition, propriety, and public outcry, all now weakened. Whether the Trump presidency lasts two, four, or eight more years, he has changed the nature of the office for the worse, and likely for decades. 

In this powerful and eye-opening book, Frum makes clear that the hard work of recovery starts at home. Trumpocracy outlines how Trump could push America toward illiberalism, what the consequences could be for our nation and our everyday lives, and what we can do to prevent it.

Audiobook excerpt:

On My Radar:

Stop the Press: How the Mormon Church Tried to Silence the Salt Lake Tribune
by James W. Ure
Prometheus Books
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

This disturbing exposé examines how the powerful Mormon Church tried to destroy the Salt Lake Tribune, a voice that had long been critical of many of its activities and its secrets. The author, a Mormon and a journalist who once worked for the Tribune, tells a story of secret deals, behind-the-scenes backstabbing, and manipulation of the political and legal systems by a church that controls the politics of Utah.

Based on many interviews and extensive research, the book describes the history of enmity between the Church and the newspaper, which came to a head in 2000. In that year, the Tribune reopened an investigation into an 1857 murder of a wagon train of 120 men, women, and children passing through Utah. The Mountain Meadow Massacre had been conducted by highly-placed church members and historians have said it was condoned by Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormon Church.

The published stories intensified efforts by the Church to kill the newspaper. When a hedge fund took ownership of the Tribune, the Church in 2013 saw an opportunity to take advantage and ensure the paper’s demise. Just as the paper appeared to be going under, a small group of citizens became the David that took down the Mormon Goliath and delivered the Pulitzer Prize-winning paper to a steady local owner who is willing to fight for its long-term survival.

This is a cautionary tale about the dangers of mingling church and state and the ways in which big money can threaten the freedom of the press.

On My Radar:

Escape Artist: Memoir of a Visionary Artist on Death Row
by William A. Noguera 
Seven Stories Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

William A. Noguera has spent thirty-four years at the notorious San Quentin Prison, home to the nation’s largest and deadliest death row. Each day, men plot against you and your life rests on a razor’s edge. In Escape Artist, he describes his personal growth as a man and artist and shares his insights into daily life and the fight to survive in the underworld of prison culture.

After being sentenced to death, he arrived at San Quentin Prison and was thrown into a rat-infested cell—it was there that he discovered the key to his escape: art. Over the next three decades, Noguera rebelled against conventional prison behavior, and instead forged the code he lives by today—accepting responsibility for his actions, and a self-imposed discipline of rehabilitation. In the process, he has explored his capacity to bring focus and clarity to his artistic vision. 

Escape Artist exposes the violence, politics and everyday existence within the underbelly of society that is prison life. In an unprecedented narrative, Noguera reveals the emotional and heart-wrenching loss that landed him on death row and the journey he has taken to become an award-winning artist, speaker, and author -- a tale of one man's transformation through tragedy.

In My TBR Stack:

The Geek's Guide to the Writing Life
by Stephanie Vanderslice
Bloomsbury
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The desire to create, to write, to fulfil our artistic dreams is a powerful human need. Yet the number of people who make a living solely by their pen is actually quite small. What does that mean for the rest of us, the self-described writing geeks, who are passionate about writing and who still want to sustain successful literary lives? What does it really mean to find time to build a rewarding writing life while pursuing a career, being a partner or raising a family, in the distracted, time-deprived, 21st-century? In The Geek's Guide to the Writing Life, based on her Huffington Post blog of the same name, Stephanie Vanderslice shares the secrets and tools to developing a successful, rewarding writing practice in a way that inspires the reader to persevere through the inevitable lows and even the highs of a literary life, so that anyone can pursue the path to realizing their artistic dreams.

Author Stephanie Vanderslice

AUTHOR BIO

AUTHOR BLOG

HUFFINGTON POST ARTICLES BY STEPHANIE VANDERSLICE