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HISTORY AND POLITICS
THINGS WE DIDN’T
TALK ABOUT WHEN
I WAS A GIRL
Jeannie Vanasco
Vanasco tracked down
the man who raped her
when she was 19 years
old and asked him to go
on the record about what
happened and why. The
result is a fascinating
look inside the mind, and
heart, of an abuser.PLACES AND
NAMES
Elliot Ackerman
Across five tours as
a Marine in Iraq and
Afghanistan, Acker-
man proved himself
not only a fighter but
also a leader, earning
the Purple Heart,
the Bronze Star and
the Silver Star. In
his stirring memoir
Places and Names,
the veteran attempts
to make sense of the
reasons he served
(both personal and
geopolitical), the
people he met, the
kinship he felt and
the hard truths he
has since confronted.EDISON
Edmund Morris
One of America’s
greatest biographers
(his three-volume life
of Teddy Roosevelt
is a classic) sadly
did not live to see his
final book published.
Fortunately for his
fans, his biography
of Thomas Edison
is a fascinating
gallop through the
very full life of one of
America’s greatest
inventors and
entrepreneurs—the
man who created the
foundations for much
of our modern world.THE EDUCATION
OF AN IDEALIST
Samantha Power
A former U.S. ambas-
sador to the U.N.,
Power chronicles
how to, in her words,
“prosecute change”:
with a legion of con-
versations, a com-
mitment to building
relationships, a slew
of tiny adjustments
in the law, an unflag-
ging enthusiasm
for advocacy and
a lot of childcare.
Her memoir is an
energizing reminder
that conscience
has a place in the
process of shaping
foreign policy.STONY
THE ROAD
Henry Louis
Gates Jr.
In the years since
debate over Confed-
erate monuments
swept the U.S., it has
become clearer than
ever that we’re still
living in the aftermath
of the Civil War. Gates
underlines that real-
ity by turning to the
period after the war,
when equal rights
expanded alongside
backlash to that idea.
Drawing on images
of white supremacy,
he shows how deep
American racism,
and resistance to it,
has gone.A WARNING
Anonymous
In a year overflowing
with books about
the President, the
work credited to an
unnamed senior
Trump Administration
official became the
most discussed in
its category. In 2018,
the anonymous
author wrote an
op-ed claiming that
senior officials were
working against the
President’s “worst
inclinations.” The
controversial book
offers more details
about what happens
behind closed doors
in the White House.8. THE
COLLECTED
SCHIZOPHRENIAS
Esmé Weijun Wang
Thirteen riveting essays
bring readers intimately
close to the frustrations,
horrors and confusion
of living with chronic
and mental illness.
Wang bares all as she
details the lead-up to,
and diagnosis of, her
schizo affective disorder.7. THE
HEARTBEAT OF
WOUNDED KNEE
David Treuer
The Ojibwe writer
blends a century
of history with his
own memoir and
reportage to offer a
stirring rejoinder to the
fallacy that the story
of American Indian
civilization and culture
ends with the massacre
at Wounded Knee.
9. MIDNIGHT IN
CHERNOBYL
Adam
Higginbotham
With meticulous
research and a gripping
narrative, the journalist
captures the events of
April 1986, when the
infamous nuclear plant
melted down in Ukraine
and changed the world.10. THIS LAND
IS OUR LAND
Suketu Mehta
Mehta, whose family
moved to the U.S.
from India when he
was a teen, delivers a
proclamation in favor
of migration, arguing
that it is a definitive
good—not just for those
who move, but also for
societies that enable
them to thrive.THE MUELLER
REPORT
Robert Mueller
Americans tensely
awaited the release
of the Mueller report,
the result of 22
months of investiga-
tion into the actions
of Russians and the
Trump campaign
surrounding the 2016
U.S. presidential
election. It was a
story that promised
to define the politics
of our time, a legal
thriller and a political
spy narrative wrapped
into one. And when
it arrived, redactions
aside, it inspired ever
more questions.