Review_NONFICTION
66 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ APRIL 6, 2020
Review_NONFICTION
maps out mindfulness practices intended
to help readers see all the beauty and
wonder the world has to offer. Paquette
lists 60 practices, including writing
prompts, walking meditations, and
encouragement to explore new interests.
He also points out strategies for finding
awe in nature, art, and the accomplish-
ments of others. While he mostly cham-
pions health benefits, in the final chapters
Paquette argues that finding a state of
awe is, most importantly, a way for indi-
viduals to feel connected to others and
find meaning in life. This smart work
will appeal to any self-help reader.
(June)Bee People and the Bugs
They Love
Frank Mortimer. Citadel, $25 (304p) ISBN 978-
0-8065-4083-2
Beekeeper Mortimer shares insights
gleaned from years of pursuing his avoca-
tion in this illuminating debut memoir.
He begins with his first hive, procured
through a man known as “the Badger” at
the local beekeeping club, and takes
readers through his own trial by fire, in
the hopes that aspiring beekeepers can
avoid making the same mistakes.
Mortimer lists the basic equipment
needed to start, outlines the functions of a
hive’s different members (drones, workers,
and the queen), and describes mainte-
nance practices, such as using smoke to
keep the hive calm. Some of the most
charming passages involve Mortimer’s
friendships with other beekeepers, who
are often as eccentric as they are kind and
helpful. In addition to Badger, for
instance, there’s Rusty Spoonauer, aka
“the one-eyed bee guy,” a septuagenarian
who advises the beekeeping club to “save
your honey, ’cause when the governments
fall and we’re all living in anarchy,” they
can use their produce for barter (and use
the remainder for mead, as “people always
gonna need a stiff drink.”). New or pro-
spective beekeepers will find a useful
how-to guide as well as an affectionate
ode to nature’s pollinators and honey
makers, while any readers who have had
their lives reshaped by a single overriding
passion will enjoy learning how Mortimer
found his. Agent: Barbara Collins Rosenberg,
Rosenberg Group. (June)myths throughout the U.S., from Northern
California’s Mount Shasta, inside which
the possibly extraterrestrial Lemurians
are said to dwell, to the “southern New
Jersey creature of note,” the Jersey Devil,
a fusion between Lenape myth and
Puritan folklore reborn in the early 20th
century as a “money-making hoax” when
a kangaroo was passed off to paying
crowds as the captured Devil. Dickey
posits various ideas about why unproven
and outlandish stories exert such a hold
on the imagination: conspiracy theories
upset the divide between science and
religion, while the concept of humanlike
animals such as the Bigfoot “trouble[s]
the line between human and nonhuman”
and “interrupts the categories we make
to make sense of the world.” With a wry
tone and incisive analysis, Dickey
explores how these stories have devel-
oped alongside the country through
scientific innovations, evolving frontiers,
changing ideas about race, and more.
Readers will find this to be a thought-
provoking and deliciously unsettling
guide into the stranger corners of
American culture. Agent: Anna Sproul-
Latimer, Neon Literary. (July)Awestruck: How Embracing
Wonder Can Make You Happier,
Healthier, and More Connected
Jonah Paquette. Shambhala, $16.95 trade
paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-61180-774-5
Clinical psychologist Paquette (The
Happiness Toolbox) takes a two-fold look at
the science and practices of the emotional
experience of awe in this illuminating
analysis. In the first part, Paquette breaks
down the history and scientific discoveries
around being awestruck, or “the feeling
that comes when we encounter something
so vast or profound that we struggle to fully
comprehend it.” He argues that feeling
awe can help
“boost our
mood, improve
our work perfor-
mance, reduce
the stress
response in our
body, and even
decrease cellular
inflammation.”
The book’s
second part then★ Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking,
Relapse, and Recovery
Erica C. Barnett. Viking, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-
0-525-52232-4
Journalist Barnett debuts with an
intense account of her alcoholism, denial,
and, ultimately, redemption. With her first
taste of alcohol as a 13-year-old in 1991,
she discovered a “magic trick that took me
outside myself,” one that, after graduating
from the University of Texas, turned a shy
young woman
into a gregar-
ious one. After
landing her
first reporting
job at the
Austin Chronicle,
Barnett began
drinking heavily,
suffering black-
outs before
accepting a job
at Seattle Weekly. In Seattle, her problem
worsened, with more frequent blackouts
and Barnett relying on box wine at her
desk at work. Barnett’s snappy prose carries
the reader through several rounds of rehab
before the final one sticks, pulling no
punches as she goes. Barnett doesn’t
skimp on her life’s lows (she goes to an
interview drunk, and shoplifts wine) of
how her ever-worsening problem caused
her to lose her health, her job, and many of
her friends, and alienate her family. In the
end, she begins therapy and reluctantly
joins AA, eventually acknowledging, “I
feel better if I give some of those things
up to whatever’s out there.” Emotionally
devastating and self-aware, this cautionary
tale about substance abuse is a worthy heir
to Cat Marnell’s How to Murder Your Life.
(July)★ The Unidentified:
Mythical Monsters, Alien
Encounters, and Our Obsession
with the Unexplained
Colin Dickey. Viking, $27 (320p) ISBN 978-0-
525-55756-2
Dickey (Ghostland), a National
University creative writing professor,
leads readers on a fascinating expedition
through fringe belief and theory.
Conducting extensive research into
cryptozoology, UFOlogy, and other
pseudoscientific fields, he investigates