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Nonfiction Views: Book bans, tariffs in publishing, and the week's notable new nonfiction [1]
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Date: 2025-04-08
The stupidity of the Trump regime is getting stupider...and scarier. From the New York Times (free link): These Are the 381 Books Removed From the Naval Academy Library
President Trump issued an executive order in January that banned D.E.I. materials in kindergarten through 12th grade education, but the office of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth informed the Naval Academy on March 28 that he intended the order to apply to the school as well, even though it is a college.
Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings. Out! Can’t have Naval Academy students exposed to that rubbish. How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi. Hey, we want our college students to learn how to be better racists! Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, by James W. Loewen. Communist propaganda! The list is predominantly books about racism and the experience of Black people in America, but books about Hispanics and Asian-Americans get the boot as well. If it ain’t white, it ain’t right. Gender politics, transgender issues and histories of the Holocaust are also trashed; learning about things like that will only corrupt our youth. White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Dr. Robin DiAngelo has also been removed. Don’t want our students exposed to anything that might hold up a mirror to their ignorance.
x Prediction: ten years from now there will be a lot fewer people learning English as an additional language — John Scalzi (@scalzi.com) 2025-04-07T09:23:06.203Z
x I'm currently reading a book about the Tudors. The chapters about how everything came to a screeching halt and how, eventually, the world would be drenched in blood all because a selfish and narcissistic king wanted everyone to change what had always worked are hitting a bit too close to home. — Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T00:45:27.455Z
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How will tariffs affect the book publishing industry? Not completely clear as yet, as I nose around the internet. A majority of the books we read here in the US are printed domestically, but it is more complicated than that. A lot of the book printing presses in the United States were made overseas and rely on imported parts to keep them running. A lot of our printing paper is imported from Canada. Many four-color illustrated books are printed in China; the lower cost makes up for the expense of shipping. But tariffs could change that. The printing presses for very thin paper like that used in Bibles are predominantly located in China; yes, those sixty-dollar Trump bibles are printed in China at a cost of around three dollars. A lot of PreK–12th grade educational books are printed in Mexico. High-end omnibus collections of comic books, as well as many graphic novels, are printed in China. There seems to be exemptions at this point for Bibles and for children’s picture books and board books, but everything Trump does is always in flux. There is always a group or readers who like to buy books from overseas, particularly British authors whose books are released there weeks or months before the US release; not clear if they will be subject to tariffs.
If costs for illustrated books printed in China or for paper imported from Canada increase due to tariffs, it will make publishers more cautious about print runs. It’s possible that books that sell well will become out of stock more quickly, meaning delays for readers.
If you’re interested, the most comprehensive overview I’ve found is this interview on Book Riot from back in February: How Tariffs Will Impact Book Costs for Readers.
Now, on to this week’s new releases, with edited publisher blurbs:
THIS WEEK’S NOTABLE NEW NONFICTION
No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson, by Gardiner Harris . A blistering exposé of a trusted American institution and the largest healthcare conglomerate in the world.
Harris takes us light-years away from the company’s image as the child-friendly “baby company” as he uncovers reams of evidence showing decades of deceitful and dangerous corporate practices that have threatened the lives of millions. He covers multiple disasters: lies and cover-ups regarding the link of Johnson’s Baby Powder to cancer, the surprising dangers of Tylenol, a criminal campaign to sell antipsychotics that have cost countless lives, a popular drug used to support cancer patients that actually increases the risk that cancer tumors will grow, and deceptive marketing that accelerated opioid addictions through their product Duragesic (fentanyl) that rival even those of the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma. “Deeply researched and smartly written, No More Tears reveals the disturbing story behind one of America’s most trusted brands. Gardiner Harris has done a great service, giving us a page-turning drama that raises life-or-death questions about the world’s largest healthcare conglomerate.” —Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Life
A blistering exposé of a trusted American institution and the largest healthcare conglomerate in the world. Harris takes us light-years away from the company’s image as the child-friendly “baby company” as he uncovers reams of evidence showing decades of deceitful and dangerous corporate practices that have threatened the lives of millions. He covers multiple disasters: lies and cover-ups regarding the link of Johnson’s Baby Powder to cancer, the surprising dangers of Tylenol, a criminal campaign to sell antipsychotics that have cost countless lives, a popular drug used to support cancer patients that actually increases the risk that cancer tumors will grow, and deceptive marketing that accelerated opioid addictions through their product Duragesic (fentanyl) that rival even those of the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma. “Deeply researched and smartly written, No More Tears reveals the disturbing story behind one of America’s most trusted brands. Gardiner Harris has done a great service, giving us a page-turning drama that raises life-or-death questions about the world’s largest healthcare conglomerate.” Atomic Dreams: The New Nuclear Evangelists and the Fight for the Future of Energy, by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow . On June 21, 2016, Pacific Gas & Electric Company announced a plan to shutter California’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, in 2025. The plan was hailed by environmental groups and politicians around the country. Then, in 2022, the state’s Democratic establishment suddenly reversed the decision, and in 2024 the Biden-Harris administration awarded the plant $1.1 billion in credits to extend its life. What happened in between? In Atomic Dreams, journalist and lifelong environmentalist Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow unearths the surprising answers—and the deep-seated conflicts behind them. She follows the fascinating and lively cast of characters who are immersed in the fight over Diablo Canyon and nuclear energy, among them a world-renowned climate scientist, a fashion model turned “nuclear influencer,” and two radically opposed groups of mothers, both fiercely advocating for the kind of planet they want their children to inherit. And she chronicles how nuclear power has morphed from the stuff of cinematic nightmares—associated with world-ending weapons and terrifying meltdowns—to a rare issue with strong bipartisan support. “Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow has gifted us an enjoyable, intriguing, and evenhanded account of America's reappraisal of nuclear power, a battle of ideas at the nexus of science, politics, and environmentalism. Atomic Dreams will be required reading for anyone seeking to understand electricity in the time of climate change.” — Henry Grabar, author of Paved Paradise
On June 21, 2016, Pacific Gas & Electric Company announced a plan to shutter California’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, in 2025. The plan was hailed by environmental groups and politicians around the country. Then, in 2022, the state’s Democratic establishment suddenly reversed the decision, and in 2024 the Biden-Harris administration awarded the plant $1.1 billion in credits to extend its life. What happened in between? The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West, by Amitav Acharya . Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West has been in crisis. Social unrest, political polarization, and the rise of other great powers—especially China—threaten to unravel today’s Western-led world order. Many fear this would lead to global chaos. But the West has never had a monopoly on order.
Surveying five thousand years of global history, political scientist Amitav Acharya reveals that world order—the political architecture enabling cooperation and peace among nations—existed long before the rise of the West. Moving from ancient Sumer, India, Greece, and Mesoamerica, through medieval caliphates and Eurasian empires into the present, Acharya shows that humanitarian values, economic interdependence, and rules of inter-state conduct emerged across the globe over millennia. History suggests order will endure even as the West retreats. In fact, the end of Western dominance offers us the opportunity to build a better world, where non-Western nations find more voice, power, and prosperity. Instead of fearing the future, the West should learn from history and cooperate with the Rest to forge a more equitable order. “The Once and Future World Order offers a powerful reminder that not all world orders in history have been Western, and that we now seem headed for a new multipolar order in which non-Western states are key to the future. This timely book argues that a dominant West is not a necessary condition for a rules-based international framework.”— Odd Arne Westad, coauthor of The Great Transformation
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, by Vauhini Vara . When it was released to the public in November 2022, ChatGPT awakened the world to a secretive project: teaching AI-powered machines to write. Its creators had a sweeping ambition—to build machines that could not only communicate, but could do all kinds of other activities, better than humans ever could. But was this goal actually achievable? And if reached, would it lead to our liberation or our subjugation?
Vauhini Vara, an award-winning tech journalist and editor, had long been grappling with these questions. In 2021, she asked a predecessor of ChatGPT to write about her sister’s death, resulting in an essay that was both more moving and more disturbing than she could have imagined. It quickly went viral. Searches illuminates how technological capitalism is both shaping and exploiting human existence, while proposing that by harnessing the collective creativity that makes humans unique, we might imagine a freer, more empowered relationship with our machines and, ultimately, with one another. “Vara humanizes the influence of technology in highly personal terms [and] projects what the future holds as tech oligarchs gain political influence.” —Booklist, starred review
When it was released to the public in November 2022, ChatGPT awakened the world to a secretive project: teaching AI-powered machines to write. Its creators had a sweeping ambition—to build machines that could not only communicate, but could do all kinds of other activities, better than humans ever could. But was this goal actually achievable? And if reached, would it lead to our liberation or our subjugation? Vauhini Vara, an award-winning tech journalist and editor, had long been grappling with these questions. In 2021, she asked a predecessor of ChatGPT to write about her sister’s death, resulting in an essay that was both more moving and more disturbing than she could have imagined. It quickly went viral. Searches illuminates how technological capitalism is both shaping and exploiting human existence, while proposing that by harnessing the collective creativity that makes humans unique, we might imagine a freer, more empowered relationship with our machines and, ultimately, with one another. “Vara humanizes the influence of technology in highly personal terms [and] projects what the future holds as tech oligarchs gain political influence.” Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer, by David Denby . Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. Brilliant, brash, yet soulful, they were 100 percent Jewish and 100 percent American. They upended the restrained culture of their forebears and changed American life. They worked in different fields, and, apart from clinking glasses at parties now and then, they hardly knew one another. But they shared a historical moment and a common temperament. For all four, their Jewish heritage was electrified by American liberty. The results were explosive. As prosperity for Jews increased and anti-Semitism began to fade after World War II, these four creative giants stormed through the latter half of the twentieth century, altering the way people around the world listened to music, defined what was vulgar, comprehended the relations of men and women, and understood the American soul. They were not saints; they were turbulent and self-dissatisfied intellectuals who fearlessly wielded their own newly won freedom to charge up American culture. “The depth and delight with which David Denby reveals these four extraordinary lives would have been enough to make for four rich and satisfying biographies. But the decision to combine these four lives into one book was inspired, turning Eminent Jews into a profound examination of what the freedom of America meant for Jewish creativity and what Jewish creativity meant for America.” —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex
Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. Brilliant, brash, yet soulful, they were 100 percent Jewish and 100 percent American. They upended the restrained culture of their forebears and changed American life. They worked in different fields, and, apart from clinking glasses at parties now and then, they hardly knew one another. But they shared a historical moment and a common temperament. For all four, their Jewish heritage was electrified by American liberty. The results were explosive. The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, by E.A. Hanks . A beautifully written, deeply felt memoir recounting the solo, cross-country journey she made along the Ten across the American southwest: a mission to uncover both what harrowing violence may or may not have happened to her late mother, but also, to look within and discover who she herself is—where her mother ends and she begins. In her trusted loaded-up minivan “Minnie,” E.A. Hanks follows the same route as a long-ago road trip with her mother in an attempt to better understand the complicated woman who gave her life. Along the way, as she follows her mother’s diaries and her own recollections of the route, she begins to uncover secrets—some unexpectedly wonderful, and others darker and more violent than she ever imagined—that bring more questions than answers. “In The 10, every mile is a revelation. E.A. Hanks intertwines geography and memory, drawing readers into her exploration of family secrets and self-discovery. A masterful blend of humor, heartache, and unforgettable landscapes, this memoir reminds us that family, like the open road, is as winding as it is essential.” – Adrienne Brodeur, New York Times bestselling author of Wild Game
A beautifully written, deeply felt memoir recounting the solo, cross-country journey she made along the Ten across the American southwest: a mission to uncover both what harrowing violence may or may not have happened to her late mother, but also, to look within and discover who she herself is—where her mother ends and she begins. Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss, and Occasional Wars, by Peter Godwin . Peter Godwin’s mother is dying. Born in England, and having spent most of her adult life as a doctor in Zimbabwe, she now lies on a hospital bed in the partitioned living room of his sister’s London home.
Peter has spent his life missing his Zimbabwean childhood, a longing that does not diminish as he reflects on his time as a journalist on the frontlines of combat around the world, or life in New York with his English wife and transatlantic children. In his mother’s final months, he must come to terms with everything his family was and wasn’t: the secrets they kept from one another, the stoicism that sometimes threatened to destroy them, and the beauty of the wildly different places they called home. "Exit Wounds is, quite simply, a masterpiece. Peter Godwin spins literary gold out of shards of heartbreak and humor. To see the world through Godwin’s eyes is to go on a journey of exploration and experience everything old as new again and all that is new as the oldest of human stories.” — Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War
The Six: The Untold Story of the Titanic's Chinese Survivors, by Steven Schwankert. When RMS Titanic sank on a cold night in 1912, barely seven hundred people escaped with their lives. Among them were six Chinese men. Arriving in New York, these six were met with suspicion and slander. Fewer than twenty-four hours later, they were expelled from the country and vanished.
When historian Steven Schwankert first stumbled across the fact that eight Chinese nationals were onboard, of whom all but two survived, he couldn’t believe that there could still be untold personal histories from the Titanic. Now, at last, their story can be told. The result of meticulous research, a dogged investigation, and interviews with family members, The Six is an epic journey across continents that reveals the full story of these six forgotten survivors. "Resurrecting forgotten voices from history's most famous shipwreck, Schwankert's meticulous research unveils the harrowing journey of the Chinese Titanic survivors, exposing a deeply human narrative lost to time and prejudice.” — Amy Tan, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, The Joy Luck Club
All book links in this diary are to my online bookstore The Literate Lizard. If you already have a favorite indie bookstore, please keep supporting them, but If you’re able to throw a little business my way, that would be truly appreciated. I would love to be considered ‘The Official Bookstore of Daily Kos.’ Use the coupon code DAILYKOS for 15% off your order, in gratitude for your support (an ever-changing smattering of new releases are already discounted 20% each week). I’m busily adding new content every day, and will have lots more dedicated subject pages and curated booklists as it grows. I want it to be full of book-lined rabbit holes to lose yourself in (and maybe throw some of those books into a shopping cart as well.)
We also partner Libro.fm for audiobooks. Libro.fm is similar to Amazon’s Audible, with a la carte audiobooks, or a $14.99 monthly membership which includes the audiobook of your choice and 20% off subsequent purchases during the month. Note that the DAILYKOS coupon code is only for the bookstore, not for the audiobook affiliate.
I’m adding more books every week to my RESIST! 20% off promotion. The coupon code RESIST gets you 20% off any of the books featured there.
READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE
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