Archives de catégorie : Nonfiction

THE PROBLEM WITH BEING RIGHT de Matt Kaplan

Science correspondent for The Economist for over a decade, Matt Kaplan asks: How broken is science? How much innovation are we losing every year, how much more could there be? And is science more or less broken today than it has been in the past?

THE PROBLEM WITH BEING RIGHT
by Matt Kaplan
St. Martin’s Press, 2026)
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

What follows is a delightfully surprising trip through history. Kaplan centers this book on the story of Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweiss, one of the first to propose handwashing in the 1850s—a breakthrough that would ruin his life. Excoriated by his colleagues, Semmelweis was placed by them into a mental institution and died there after being beaten by guards. In order to tell this story, Kaplan looks to other Victorian contemporaries as counterexamples – Lister, Pasteur, Darwin. These figures, so celebrated by science, had many traits that Semmelweis lacked: powerful friends, wealthy families and donors—and in some cases, a willingness to cheat, lie, and commit fraud.

Kaplan takes us on a journey through not only the Victorian era, but into contemporary paleontology conferences with scientists screaming at one another, into esteemed academic circles, and shows why reporting on the Covid-19 vaccine upended everything he thought he knew about what was possible for scientific advancement.

Matt Kaplan is a science correspondent with The Economist. He has also contributed to National Geographic, New Scientist, Nature, and The New York Times. He is the author of the book The Science of Monsters. In 2014, Kaplan was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship which he used to study the sciences at MIT and folklore at Harvard.

THE BARN de Wright Thompson

A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long.

THE BARN
The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi
by Wright Thompson
Penguin Press, September 2024
(via David Black Literary Agency)

Wright Thompson’s family farm in Mississippi is 23 miles from the site of one of the most notorious and consequential killings in American history, yet he had to leave the state for college before he learned the first thing about it. To this day, fundamental truths about the crime are widely unknown, including where it took place and how many people were involved. This is no accident: the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.

In August 1955, two men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were charged with the torture and murder of the 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. After their inevitable acquittal in a mockery of justice, they gave a false confession to a journalist, which was misleading about where the long night of hell took place and who was involved. In fact, Wright Thompson reveals, at least eight people can be placed at the scene, which was inside the barn of one of the killers, on a plot of land within the six-square-mile grid whose official name is Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, fabled in the Delta of myth as the birthplace of the blues on nearby Dockery Plantation.

Even in the context of the racist caste regime of the time, the four-hour torture and murder of a Black boy barely in his teens for whistling at a young white woman was acutely depraved; Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s decision to keep the casket open seared the crime indelibly into American consciousness. Wright Thompson has a deep understanding of this story—the world of the families of both Emmett Till and his killers, and all the forces that aligned to place them together on that spot on the map. As he shows, the full horror of the crime was its inevitability, and how much about it we still need to understand. Ultimately this is a story about property, and money, and power, about white supremacy. It implicates all of us. In THE BARN, Thompson meets the few people who have been engaged in the hard, fearful business of bringing the truth to light, people like Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till’s friend, who came down from Chicago with him that summer, and is the last person alive to know him well. Wheeler Parker’s journey to put the killing floor of the barn on the map of Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, and the Delta, and America, is a journey we all need to go on if this country is to heal from its oldest, deepest wound.

Wright Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN and the bestselling author of Pappyland and The Cost of These Dreams. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his family.

MY HAPPY MOMENTS JOURNAL de Jamie Leigh Bassos

Encourage kids to record their favorite moments with this guided journal.

MY HAPPY MOMENTS JOURNAL
Fun Prompts to Record Your Favorite Memories
by Jamie Leigh Bassos
Callisto Publishing/Sourcebooks, June 2024

When kids write about their experiences, they can look back and remember everything that makes them happy! MY HAPPY MOMENTS JOURNAL lets them create a keepsake of meaningful moments, with fun and creative kids’ activities like writing down 3 things they’re thankful for, drawing an « emotion ocean », and challenging themselves to try something new.

Jamie Leigh Bassos is a board certified behavior analyst who has worked with infants, toddlers, children, and families for over 20 vears. She holds a master of science degree in applied behavior analysis from Northeaster University and a bachelor of science in psychology from The George Washington University.

LIFE SKILLS BOOK FOR TEENS de Maureen Stiles

A practical guide to everyday life skills for teens.

LIFE SKILLS BOOK FOR TEENS
Everything You Need to Know to Be More Independent
by Maureen Stiles
Callisto Publishing/Sourcebooks, April 2024

Set yourself up for success as an adult—tips and advice for ages 16+.

How do you create a budget? Clean a bathroom? Make a doctor’s  appointment? If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the responsibilities of growing up, you’re not alone—and the Life Skills Book for Teens is here to help! It includes straightforward advice for handling your money, health, home, relationships, and more so you can take on adulthood with confidence.

Maureen Stiles is a freelance writer and editor with a focus on parenting topics and general humor. She has been quoted in The New York Times and Washington Post regarding parenting strategies, and her writing is featured on TODAY Parents, in the book Grown and Flown: How to Support Your Teen, Stay Close as a Family, and Raise Independent Adults, as well as many others.

THE DARKROOM d’A.J. Hewitt

In the tradition of Unnatural Causes, When the Dogs Don’t Bark and All That Remains, this is a true crime book full of the wisdom that can be found in the darkness.

THE DARKROOM
Case Files of a Scotland Yard Forensic Photographer
by A.J. Hewitt
Orion, February 2024
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

For years, A.J. Hewitt was the first person into a crime scene. Before the detectives and the forensics team it was her alone with the body, the only sound her flashes firing as they lit up scenes of unimaginable horror. It was her job to shoot the photographs that revealed the circumstances of someone’s final moments.

Now in her debut book, THE DARKROOM, Hewitt takes us into the shadowy world of the crime scene photographer, and recounts remarkable tales, from murders to suicides, accidents to assassinations.

“An incredible insight into the work of a crime scene photographer told with sensitivity and compassion, but also with the forensic acuity of an experienced professional. The autobiographical style used to tell stories of crime scenes and crimes is compelling and incredibly readable. It becomes clear the crucial role that crime scene photography plays in not only documenting the evidence, but in aiding the solving of crimes. A must read for anyone interested in the darker side of human criminality and the work of forensic investigators.” — Professor Jane Monckton- Smith, author of In Control: Dangerous Relationships and How They End in Murder

“THE DARKROOM is an absolutely riveting read. It is a compelling book that works on so many levels. An authentic and sensitive account of the impact and aftermath of crime that will appeal to true crime readers and crime fiction authors, it also has wide appeal as a human story that charts A.J. Hewitt’s touching journey as the outsider turned insider and her struggle to prevent herself being changed by her experiences as a Police Forensic Photographer for New Scotland Yard. A unique book that offers a unique perspective. Highly recommended.” — Adam Hamdy, screenwriter and bestselling author of The Other Side of Night

“Passionate and empathetic, Hewitt speeds across London from one site of murder and mayhem to the next, always another crime scene coming, always more brutalized dead to bring to light and into focus. The great city grinds on, never seeing or knowing of these, her haunted stories selected from decades of skilled photographic investigative work for Scotland Yard.” — Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell, authors of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner, a New York Times bestseller

A.J. Hewitt is a professionally trained photographer who spent almost a decade as a forensic photographer with New Scotland Yard. Hewitt studied photography and design at art college and subsequently graduated (with distinction) with a Bachelor of Arts (double major) degree. Insatiably curious and a lifelong learner, she is in the final stage of completing a psychology degree. She is a voracious reader, an open water scuba diver and has travelled widely, with her cameras, on four continents. She’s a storyteller at heart, whether through her camera lens or with a pencil and paper.