For Real

This week, Alice and Kim talk about trans women authors. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 Diffe

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. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 An

This week Alice and Kim talk nonfiction about the first ladies. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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

This week, Kim and Alice share reads for Black History Month, plus new nonfiction about cobalt, China, Vikings, and clothing. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 R

This week Alice and Kim talk about nonfiction highlights for 2022. Follow For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton and Kim Ukura. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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

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. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 See om

This week Alice and Kim talk about nonfiction highlights of 2021. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 Ster

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! This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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

This week Alice and Kim talk about nonfiction picks for holiday gifts. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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. 

This week Alice and Kim dig deep for nonfiction about things you find underground, plus share new nonfiction about sports, food, and history. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 Blu

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. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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

This week Alice and Kim talk about creepy, spooky, and scary nonfiction for the Halloween season. Follow For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton and Kim Ukura. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 Fac

This week Alice and Kim highlight nonfiction books by Hispanic and Latinx authors. Follow For Real using RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. For more nonfiction recommendations, sign up for our True Story newsletter, edited by Alice Burton and Kim Ukura. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 Re

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. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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

This week Alice and Kim browse the library and find some surprising nonfiction reads. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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:

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. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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, Ar

This week Alice and Kim talk Disney reads! Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 Publ

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. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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 Scal

This week, Alice and Kim talk about new nonfiction releases for the rest of 2021. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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

This week Kim and Alice do some armchair traveling by discussing books about road trips and share new nonfiction about yoga, cults, and cons. Follow 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 content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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