Nonfiction – Page 2

‘Sounds’ a Captivating Journey of Music and Devotion

The cover of Between Two Sounds, featuring a simply drawn adult Arvo leaping from a precipice, implying that he is jumping to the next sound. Arvo and the precipice are in black, while the background is in simple strokes of tan and brown. The title is in the upper left-hand corner, with the author in the lower-left corner.

This is not a story of the Soviet Union versus Arvo Pärt, but about an authoritarian regime demanding performative patriotism against those who have far more interesting things to think about.

‘Grief’ a Multifaceted Examination of Sorrow

Upon a light orange background, the title and author are in underlined purple all-caps text that looks as though it has crumbled all to one corner.

Crosley’s writing brings the events, and her emotions, to life, and helps make her every action and reaction reasonable, even, and especially, when she knows they’re not. It is that prose-level finesse, not the subject matter, that helps keep this slim volume feeling relevant even when it occasionally strays into self-indulgence.

‘First Love’ Considers Friendship in its Many Forms

The title of the book (First Love: Essays on Friendship) and author name are superimposed on a photograph of three young fair-skinned girls, one of whom is the author, smoking and laughing on a fire escape.

While her takes on friendship may come from places of personal specificity, they nonetheless find broad resonance in how I think most of us have thought of friendship, even if unconsciously.

‘Last Call’ Echoes Uncomfortably to Present

History repeats itself; whether or not you study it, chances are your recently elected political leaders haven’t. But I found unlikely optimism in this niche book of history.

‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ a Compendium of Lore

Lore has a distinct style, and that same writing is present on every page of Cabinet of Curiosities, so much so that, without reading the audiobook, I still had Mahnke’s voice and delivery in my head, along with a light soundtrack from an imaginary Chad Lawson.

‘Chronicles’ An Intimate Look at One ‘Backyard’

It’s lovely and intimate to read such inner thoughts of another person. It’s intimate, too, to see Tan’s drawings improve over the years and the birds within them grow increasingly lifelike.

‘Bigfoot’ an Earnest Dive into Cryptid Lore

Even if I haven’t come away from this book believing in Sasquatch any more than I did going in, I have a far greater belief in the very real place, and effect, these stories have in our world.

‘West’ Ponders History Through Poem and Essay

West isn’t, and cannot be, an all-encompassing history of a time and place, but it is a fascinating and weighty addition to a more comprehensive view of the region that millions of us call home.

‘Heat’ Brings Only a Little Hope to Climate Crisis

Heat is certainly not a roadmap, but neither is it an indictment (at least, not for the average reader). Rather, it’s food for thought about changes that will not only affect all of us in some way.

‘Unraveling’ a Multi-Step Pandemic Project

Orenstein faces her project with a little good-natured self-deprecation. That attitude helps make each step, and misstep, feel more like a fascinating conversation than a staid travelogue or sermon.