Journalism & Publishing
Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page before Lights Out.
By Shannon Reed.
Feb. 2024. 336p. Hanover Square, $27.99 (9781335007964); e-book (9780369746603). 028.
So why do we read? Humorist Reed offers a generous assortment of answers in this splendid collection of 40 mini-essays, which run about eight pages on average. We read for pleasure, for company, for comfort (see Reed’s very funny essay on Amish romance novels), to feel less alone, to feel superior (see Moby-Dick in its many manifestations), and because it’s fun. Like this book is. Arranged roughly chronologically, essays limn a lifetime of reading and become a de facto memoir, introducing readers to the author’s many years of teaching (she’s currently a professor at the University of Pittsburgh). Her pieces on teaching in particular are wise, insightful, and empathic to her students. They are also, again, often funny, as in her essay about teaching a college course on vampires while she is deathly afraid of them. As a teacher, she adamantly opposes assigned reading, which is sure to delight many of the (voluntary) readers of this book. Reed is good company, and her celebration of books, reading, and readers is a delight. —Michael Cart
Philosophy & Psychology
A Happy Move: Everything You Need to Know before and after the Boxes Are Packed.
By Devra Jacobs and Brit Elders.
Mar. 2024. 240p. Beyond Words, paper, $16 (9781582709048); e-book (9781582709055). 158.1.
Lest readers think this book’s title is impossible enough to make it an oxymoron, there’s so much common sense packed into these pages by Jacobs (who moved 29 times in a 40-year span) and professional writer Elders, they almost do the work for you. Particularly helpful are the blank templates they pull together about services for shutoff/connection, notifications, and important papers, among other to-dos. The authors especially offer help to renters, alerting people to scams, lease “out” clauses, needed references, and the forever issue of pets. The chapters on military and international moves, which come with specific information, papers, and rules/regulations, are particularly helpful. Think of this as the manual for newbie movers; after a few moves, the included lists and caveats will be automatically memorized. Includes resources, notes, and lots of lists that would-be movers will want to copy. —Barbara Jacobs
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection.
By Charles Duhigg.
Feb. 2024. 336p. Random, $30 (9780593243916); e-book (9780593243930). 153.6.
Conversations, whether online, on the phone, via text, or in person, are meant to connect us to one another. But these connections don’t always work the way we’d like. Journalist Duhigg, who admits to some communication challenges himself, dives into the research and comes up with three questions to ask when trying to identify the nature of a conversation: “What’s This Really About?” “How Do We Feel?” and “Who Are We?” These questions enable speakers to determine the type of exchange underway and proceed most effectively. The author uses examples of communications from the CIA, among jurors, and in psychological studies. Duhigg finds that the conversations in which speakers are willing to be vulnerable and share their feelings seem to be the most satisfying for both sides. In our politically divided world, there’s a need for conversations focused on common goals rather than determining who is right, says the author. Duhigg’s methods are clear and sensible. Anyone reading this book will find themselves suddenly thinking before responding and really listening, two skills that are badly needed in our world. —Candace Smith
Religion
Devout: A Memoir of Doubt.
By Anna Gazmarian.
Mar. 2024. 192p. Simon & Schuster, $27.99 (9781668004036). 230.
What do you do when the place that’s supposed to be a safe haven misunderstands and rejects you? This is the question Gazmarian contends with in her transparent memoir debut. Raised in an evangelical church in North Carolina, the author always worried about her salvation and her worth to God but diligently attended despite her doubt. In college, after she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, fears about how the church would treat her added to her grappling with the diagnosis itself and regulating her medications. After transferring to a new college and discovering poetry and her talent for writing, she found emotional outlets for examining questions without judgment. She learned to navigate a relationship, then marriage, with David, who suffers from depression. Together, they pursued an accepting church family despite past traumas and eventually found one. Gazmarian discovers that hope and lament can coexist; her perseverance deepens her faith, and she concludes on an optimistic note with a beautiful letter to her daughter. Fans of Rachel Held Evans and Sarah Bessey will welcome this eloquent voice. —Karen Clements
The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church.
By Sarah McCammon.
Mar. 2024. 320p. St. Martin’s, $30 (9781250284471); e-book (9781250284488). 269.2092.
Exvangelicals, the author explains, are a loosely organized, largely online movement of former evangelicals trying to make sense of the world they are navigating as they deconstruct—and in some cases, reconstruct—their faith. A self-avowed Exvangelical herself, McCammon writes a kind of spiritual memoir of her growth, from her childhood as a student at a private Christian school to attending a religious university to her current life as a journalist. The author’s reporting skill provides context as she examines the present state of white Evangelical Christianity: as she sees it, a culture and a way of life that consumes everything in an era already characterized by a growing evangelical alliance with Christian nationalism, conspiracy theories, and science denialism. McCammon addresses the political power of white Evangelical Christianity and the zealous support of ex-president Trump, who was called “God’s chosen one”—a phenomenon that made her start questioning everything. The result is this informative, thought-provoking, and enlightening book. —Michael Cart
Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods.
By Greg Jarrell.
Feb. 2024. 267p. Fortress, paper, $30 (9781506494920). 260.
James Baldwin once said that urban renewal means Negro removal. Baptist minister Jarrell’s passionate look at the negative impact of the 1960s urban renewal on one city, Charlotte, North Carolina, is proof positive of Baldwin’s observation. Jarrell’s book focuses on the role of white churches in one Black district of Charlotte, dubbed Brooklyn, which the author calls “a living, breathing example of Black brilliance and resilience in the heart of the Jim Crow South.” Charlotte city council viewed Brooklyn differently though, adopting a resolution stating that the neighborhood was “a slum, blighted, deteriorated or deteriorating area appropriate for an urban renewal project.” Cue the bulldozers, as Jarrell examines in granular detail how a series of events that seem in retrospect so clearly cruel could have taken place, resulting in gentrification, which he loathes and classifies as an example of white supremacy. Dispossessed Black people are the victims of this commodification of land for “the purpose of profit,” and, as told by Jarrell, theirs is