Review_NONFICTION
his account of a robbery that concluded
with Marsh lecturing the thief on his
criminal occupation’s inherent cash-flow
problems. In light of the financial reper-
cussions of the Covid-19 pandemic,
readers should appreciate this optimistic
book’s look at the importance of building a
resilient economy well-prepared for
extraordinary circumstances. (June)Places I’ve Taken My Body: Essays
Molly McCully Brown. Persea, $24.95 (224p)
ISBN 978-0-89255-513-0
Poet Brown (The Virginia State Colony
for Epileptics and Feebleminded) explores
living with cerebral palsy in her fine prose
debut. Brown contrasts the limitations
that readers might expect her condition,
classed by the medical establishment as a
“movement disorder,” to impose on her
life, by showing it has actually been
characterized by mobility, not stasis,
recounting her travels throughout the
U.S. and the world. In “Something’s
Wrong with Me,” she writes that she’s “so
tired of talking about disability” and“about my body and other people’s
bodies.” Occasionally, the sentiments ring
overly familiar, as when Brown reflects, in
“Calling Long Distance,” on the division
between the body and the self: “There was
my damaged body, and then there was
the rest of me.” However, Brown mostly
overcomes the potential for overwrought
sentimentality, due to her careful and
exacting use of language. “Chronic pain
makes you good at abandoning yourself,”
she explains in “The Broken Country:
On Disability and Desire,” a candid
discussion of sexuality. Brown’s work
leaves readers with a lyrical look at living
within the confines of the body. Agent:
Anna Stein, ICM Partners. (June)Prophetic City: Houston on the
Cusp of a Changing America
Stephen L. Klineberg. Avid Reader, $28
(336p) ISBN 978-1-5011-7791-0
Rice University sociologist Klineberg
debuts with a lucid, data-driven study of
Houston, Tex., based on original research
tracking the demographics, economicprospects, cultural attitudes, and politics
of city residents over the past 38 years.
Initiated in 1982, when Houston’s
booming oil economy was drawing an
influx of people as the rest of America suf-
fered through
a recession,
Klineberg’s
annual survey
revealed a mix of
liberal and con-
servative views:
the majority of
respondents
supported gay
rights, limited
restrictions on
abortion access, and environmental pro-
tections, but were also “more committed
to the can-do work ethic” than the rest of
the country. Analyzing survey results
through the decades, Klineberg highlights
the region’s monumental growth and its
economic diversification after the oil boom
collapsed, as well as the lack of upward
mobility for poorer residents, most ofSPRING READS
University of Minnesota Press
FRESH http://www.upress.umn.edu
“Exceptional.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
(STARRED REVIEW)
$22.95 HARDCOVER
978-1-5179-0859-1“Magnificent.”
—BENJAMIN KUNKEL,
SALON.COM
$19.95 PAPERBACK
978-1-5179-0543-9“Funny, gracious,
intimate.”
—THE GUARDIAN
$22.95 HARDCOVER
978-1-5179-0957-4“Reveals truths
of creative spirits.”
—STUDS TERKEL
$29.95 HARDCOVER
978-1-5179-0901-7