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succinct explanations of feminism’s history,
goals, and pitfalls, she adds advice, per-
sonal confessions, punchy examples, and a
hefty dose of humor. Frances-White is
meticulous and incisive, and makes a point
to interview queer, nonbinary, disabled,
and nonwhite colleagues (Jessamyn Stanley,
Susan Wokoma, and Becca Bunce among
them) on their feminism; repeatedly notes
that she speaks from a place of white
middle-class privilege; and acknowledges
that gender is an increasingly fluid concept.
With a distinct, lively, and consistently
hilarious delivery, Frances-White upends
common misconceptions—feminists, she
assures, can love lipstick and men—and
encourages readers to do “what you can,
when you can” to end oppressive power
structures. Feminists of any stripe will be
moved by this rousing, funny, highly
appreciative exhortation to “smash the
patriarchy like a strong, green, healthy
plant breaking through the foundationsRogak touches on Maddow’s personal
interests (sports, specialty cocktails) and
discusses her struggles with cyclical
depression. This is a pleasant though by-
the-numbers profile: thoroughly researched
but not especially revelatory. (Jan.)You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to
Overthrow the Patriarchy
Deborah Frances-White. Seal, $28 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-58005-954-1
Comedian Frances-White shares lessons
learned from creating and hosting The
Guilty Feminist podcast in this bighearted
effort to raise consciousness and incite
activism among the timid. She writes, “It’s
not enough to feel like a good person: we
need motivation to put things right.
Doing nothing and saying nothing is tacit
support.” It starts, she suggests, with
women embracing their own flawed selves,
finding and using their voices, setting
boundaries, and forming alliances. ToChambers’s powerful debut memoir, which
aims to put a human face on a stereotyped
region. Kentucky native Chambers spent
much of her youth in impoverished Owsley
County, where her sharecropper grandpar-
ents maintained a tobacco farm. Chambers
highlights three women who exemplify
Appalachian strength: her scrappy grand-
mother (whose “joy hid the poverty”); her
resilient aunt, who sacrificed personal
ambition to help run the farm; and her
trailblazing mother, who became the first
person in the family to graduate from
college. Chambers credits them with
supporting her as she forged her own path,
which included attending Yale and Harvard
Law School. Upon graduation, Chambers
moved back to Kentucky to provide legal
assistance to the poor. She recounts her
work on behalf of low-income women,
including helping domestic violence
victims, and touches on her role as vice-
chair for the state Democratic Party.
Chambers acknowledges Appalachia’s
problems, such as water pollution and
the drug epidemic, but these sections—
sporadically interspersed throughout
the book— only skim the surface of
Appalachia’s issues. Still, this is a passionate
memoir, one that honors Appalachia’s
residents, especially its women. (Jan.)Rachel Maddow: A Biography
Lisa Rogak. St. Martin’s/Dunne, $28.99
(288p) ISBN 978-1-250-62055-2
Rogak (Hillary Clinton in Her Own Words)
delivers a flattering if light biography of
cable news anchor Rachel Maddow, host of
MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show. Rogak
pieces together third-party interviews—
with Maddow, her family, and her col-
leagues—to help tell the story. She covers
Maddow’s early work as an activist for HIV/
AIDS organizations; coming out at Stanford
University (which she announced by
posting fliers in a bathroom); receiving a
Rhodes Scholarship and studying at
Oxford; her relationship with her partner,
Susan; and her radio work, including on
Air America, which, in 2008, led to her
getting the MSNBC talk show. The Rachel
Maddow Show occupies the book’s second
half, in which Rogak marvels at Maddow’s
work ethic (her schedule “would break
lesser mortals inside of a week”) and reports
that Maddow favors doing her own research
and writing for the show. Along the way,★ All Blood Runs Red:
The Legendary Life of Eugene
Bullard—Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy
Phil Keith, with Tom Clavin. Hanover Square, $27.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-335-00556-4T
his dazzling biography, drawing on the subject’s
unpublished memoir, explores the incredible life
and times of the first African-American fighter
pilot: Eugene “Gene” Bullard. At 12, he ran away
from Columbus, Ga., to escape the vicious racism of the
early-20th-century South for France, the country revered
by his formerly enslaved father. He crossed the Atlantic
straight into minor fame as a boxer in Liverpool and
Paris, and experienced partial freedom from the scorn
and hatred of whites. In WWI, he joined the French
Foreign Legion, fighting for his adopted homeland as a
pilot. After a brief interwar interlude as a nightclub band drummer, manager, and
owner—rubbing shoulders with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Josephine Baker,
Langston Hughes, and Pablo Picasso, and spying on Germans for the French—he
volunteered again with the French military when WWII broke out. After being
injured as the Germans advanced into France, military and consular personnel
advised him to flee the country to avoid being executed by the Nazis. He settled
in New York City with his teenage daughters and became variously a longshoreman,
a traveling salesman of French perfumes, and an elevator operator at Rockefeller
Center. Keith and Clavin vividly describe Bullard’s experiences—including his
medal-worthy military exploits, the luck that allowed him to cheat death
repeatedly, and the bizarre parallels between his life and the movie Casablanca.
This may be a biography, but it reads like a novel. (Nov.)