Books to Get You Thinking
As 2019 slowly recedes into the annals of history, book critics and authors reflect on the treasure trove of books published during the year. With so many outstanding titles covering disparate topics, it is a challenge to pick just a few to place in the category of Best Books of the Year. In making their selections of nonfiction titles, critics look closely at books that have served to deepen our understanding of something or someone, or are reflections on a particular facet of a scientific, cultural or political phenomenon. This month’s column features some of the titles picked by the book critics of different newspapers and journals. All titles are available at the Mercer County Library System for your reading pleasure!
The Yellow House by Sarah Broom
A 2019 National Book Award winner, the book has also been featured in both the Washington Post as well as in the New York Times Top Ten Books of 2019.At one level, this is a deeply haunting memoir about a family that, in the aftermath of the storm, gets broken, scattered and uprooted. Though the story is about the struggles of a black working class family, it is also a brilliant commentary on the social fabric of America, and a history of the city of New Orleans, where hurricanes brought havoc and ruin and recovery programs failed the people who needed them the most. Sarah Broom, the youngest of twelve siblings, grew up in the Yellow House in the neglected area of New Orleans East. Her mother had invested in this shotgun house using life insurance money she inherited after her first husband died from a hit and run accident. The promise of development and prosperity that was peddled by the rich developers of New Orleans East never did materialize, and the area never recovered from the Hurricane that hit the city in 1965. In the pages of this gripping memoir, Sarah Broom traces the life story of her brothers and sisters growing up in an era of segregation in a decaying part of town. Run down and decrepit, the Yellow House was nevertheless a source of pride and hope to this family, and when Hurricane Katrina finally took away the House, it also took away the only home they had ever known.
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
Adam Higginbotham, a prolific science writer for the New Yorker, as well as the New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ and the Smithsonian, authors this compelling story about the huge ecological disaster that occurred on April 26, 1986 at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The book has been selected by the New York Times to be included in its Top Ten Books of 2019. It is has also been shortlisted as a finalist for the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Nonfiction. Using over ten years of research, including hundreds of hours of interviews, as well as published letters, memoirs and recently declassified documents, the author reconstructs the timeline of events from the inception, planning and construction of the vast nuclear facility and the fatal mistakes and many oversights along the way that eventually culminated in the explosion of Reactor Number Four. The author recreates the experience of living through this tragic disaster, specifically for the many workers present in the facility at that time, their families who had been housed perilously close to the Plant, and the firefighters and many others who tried to bring the situation under control. The book becomes especially relevant today when we face environmental threat and climate change from the unfettered use of technology.
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple
William Dalrymple, a Scottish historian, is well recognized for his extensive research and work on India. In this compelling book, that has earned the coveted spot on Wall Street Journal Books of the Year, Dalrymple tracks the origins, and relentless growth of Britain’s East India Company that played a defining role in establishing Queen Victoria’s empire in India. In 1599 a small group of explorers, adventurers, merchants and sea captains gathered together in Founder’s Hall, London to invest large sums of money and form a company that would trade and barter with countries in the East. The Queen granted the newly formed East India Company complete monopoly over all trade in the East Indies along with military support from the Crown. As a result, by 1750 the Company had taken control over most of India through strategic political maneuvering and lobbying, dividing and turning people against each other, and the use of violence. They won a succession of military victories and went on a systemic pillage, plundering and looting India’s vast wealth of minerals, spices and jewels. The East India Company also serves as one of the earliest prototypes of today’s modern corporation and a forerunner of today’s multinationals - it grew from a small startup to an imposing, unregulated company accounting for half of England’s total trade and spending a quarter of England’s annual expenditure.
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
The annual McKinsey and Financial Times Award was set up in 2005 to celebrate the one book each year that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insights into modern business issues. From among the many exceptional titles vying for the winning spot, the critics picked Caroline Perez’s book about the inherent male bias around which much of the world is designed. Each day this affects the lives of women in myriad different ways. The author, who is a leading feminist advocate, makes a compelling analysis of the implications following the absence of data about women in every day policy making, ranging from decisions in medicine and technology to urban planning and building architecture. Data unique to women is, in large measure, unrecorded and absent from our knowledge base. The author highlights some results of this gender data gap that have frequently been missed in a society where male default thinking is often unconscious and difficult to unlearn, while women are largely ignored. The results range from daily inconveniences to much more serious issues as workplace safety. One example cited by the author includes product design and cars where car headrests and seats are not tailored to account for the female body, placing women at a higher risk for injuries in collisions. The author’s hope is that the gender data gap would decline with time as more women enter the workforce and address an issue that exists at so many levels in our economic system.
A 2019 National Book Award winner, the book has also been featured in both the Washington Post as well as in the New York Times Top Ten Books of 2019.At one level, this is a deeply haunting memoir about a family that, in the aftermath of the storm, gets broken, scattered and uprooted. Though the story is about the struggles of a black working class family, it is also a brilliant commentary on the social fabric of America, and a history of the city of New Orleans, where hurricanes brought havoc and ruin and recovery programs failed the people who needed them the most. Sarah Broom, the youngest of twelve siblings, grew up in the Yellow House in the neglected area of New Orleans East. Her mother had invested in this shotgun house using life insurance money she inherited after her first husband died from a hit and run accident. The promise of development and prosperity that was peddled by the rich developers of New Orleans East never did materialize, and the area never recovered from the Hurricane that hit the city in 1965. In the pages of this gripping memoir, Sarah Broom traces the life story of her brothers and sisters growing up in an era of segregation in a decaying part of town. Run down and decrepit, the Yellow House was nevertheless a source of pride and hope to this family, and when Hurricane Katrina finally took away the House, it also took away the only home they had ever known.
Adam Higginbotham, a prolific science writer for the New Yorker, as well as the New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ and the Smithsonian, authors this compelling story about the huge ecological disaster that occurred on April 26, 1986 at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The book has been selected by the New York Times to be included in its Top Ten Books of 2019. It is has also been shortlisted as a finalist for the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Nonfiction. Using over ten years of research, including hundreds of hours of interviews, as well as published letters, memoirs and recently declassified documents, the author reconstructs the timeline of events from the inception, planning and construction of the vast nuclear facility and the fatal mistakes and many oversights along the way that eventually culminated in the explosion of Reactor Number Four. The author recreates the experience of living through this tragic disaster, specifically for the many workers present in the facility at that time, their families who had been housed perilously close to the Plant, and the firefighters and many others who tried to bring the situation under control. The book becomes especially relevant today when we face environmental threat and climate change from the unfettered use of technology.
William Dalrymple, a Scottish historian, is well recognized for his extensive research and work on India. In this compelling book, that has earned the coveted spot on Wall Street Journal Books of the Year, Dalrymple tracks the origins, and relentless growth of Britain’s East India Company that played a defining role in establishing Queen Victoria’s empire in India. In 1599 a small group of explorers, adventurers, merchants and sea captains gathered together in Founder’s Hall, London to invest large sums of money and form a company that would trade and barter with countries in the East. The Queen granted the newly formed East India Company complete monopoly over all trade in the East Indies along with military support from the Crown. As a result, by 1750 the Company had taken control over most of India through strategic political maneuvering and lobbying, dividing and turning people against each other, and the use of violence. They won a succession of military victories and went on a systemic pillage, plundering and looting India’s vast wealth of minerals, spices and jewels. The East India Company also serves as one of the earliest prototypes of today’s modern corporation and a forerunner of today’s multinationals - it grew from a small startup to an imposing, unregulated company accounting for half of England’s total trade and spending a quarter of England’s annual expenditure.
The annual McKinsey and Financial Times Award was set up in 2005 to celebrate the one book each year that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insights into modern business issues. From among the many exceptional titles vying for the winning spot, the critics picked Caroline Perez’s book about the inherent male bias around which much of the world is designed. Each day this affects the lives of women in myriad different ways. The author, who is a leading feminist advocate, makes a compelling analysis of the implications following the absence of data about women in every day policy making, ranging from decisions in medicine and technology to urban planning and building architecture. Data unique to women is, in large measure, unrecorded and absent from our knowledge base. The author highlights some results of this gender data gap that have frequently been missed in a society where male default thinking is often unconscious and difficult to unlearn, while women are largely ignored. The results range from daily inconveniences to much more serious issues as workplace safety. One example cited by the author includes product design and cars where car headrests and seats are not tailored to account for the female body, placing women at a higher risk for injuries in collisions. The author’s hope is that the gender data gap would decline with time as more women enter the workforce and address an issue that exists at so many levels in our economic system.
- Nita Mathur, West Windsor Branch
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