Review_NONFICTION
52 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 2, 2020
Review_NONFICTION
cipher and with the same result of facili-
tating quick deciphering of sometime
complex information. He also deploys
physical metaphors for the abstract cryp-
tographic tools he covers, describing
asymmetric encryption, for instance, as a
series of padlocks attached to a briefcase,
and the challenge-response principle as a
blind boomerang hunter. For historical
context, Martin connects today’s encryption
techniques to codes used by the likes of
Julius Caesar and Mary, Queen of Scots. At
the close, he discusses the difficult balancing
act between security and personal privacy,
and likely future developments in the
cryptographic field. This timely book will
leave digital neophytes significantly better
informed about a vital area in computer
science. (May)Funny Weather:
Art in an Emergency
Olivia Laing. Norton, $26.95 (272p)
ISBN 9781324005704
This timely collection from Laing (The
Trip to Echo Spring) asks “Can art do any-
thing, especially during periods of crisis?”
She shows that, indeed, art can change
things for the better, pinning her assertion
on critic Eve Sedgwick’s concept of
“reparative reading,” which encourages
readers to use hope, creativity, and survival
in their interpretations. Broken up into
sections that include artist profiles, literary
criticism, and personal essay, the book
shows where art can fight back, as with
painter David Wojnarowicz’s writing and
photography documenting his former
partner’s death from AIDS at a time of
political inaction. Thanks to the short
length of her essays, she’s able to cover a
lot of ground, touching on, in addition to
the AIDS crisis, climate change, gender,
and in two especially biting selections,
the plight of refugees in the U.K. and the
Grenfell Tower fire in London. Laing soars
in her writing on Maggie Nelson, whom
she describes as creating an “exhilarating
new language for considering both the
messiness of life and the meanings of art.”
As a collection that aims to exemplify
“new ways of seeing” to break through a
“spin cycle of terrified paranoia,” this will
leave readers eager to reengage with art
they know well, and explore art as yet new
to them. (May)them to set restrictive, exploitative terms
on contract farmers, Teachout forecasts
the “chickenization” of the American
economy. Companies like Seamless and
Uber, she
writes, cen-
tralize power,
profit, data,
and decision
making while
decentralizing
labor and risk.
She critiques
Amazon,
Facebook, and
Google for
destroying competition; building an
advertising model that fosters “surveillance,
discrimination, and addiction”; and
imperiling the free press. Other corpora-
tions come under fire for mandating private
arbitration to settle lawsuits, “taking over”
political parties and trade associations, and
abetting the suppression of the minority
vote. Teachout’s suggestions for reform
include restoring stringent antitrust
measures in place before the 1980s and
overhauling the Communications Decency
Act. Teachout delivers a forceful, clearly
articulated vision of “moral markets” built
on freedom, choice, and human dignity.
Progressives will heed this clarion call for
reform. Agent: Gail Ross, the Ross Yoon
Agency. (May)Cryptography:
The Key to Digital Security, How
It Works, and Why It Matters
Keith Martin. Norton, $27.95 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-324-00429-5
Martin (Everyday Cryptography), an
information security scholar, provides a
useful introduction to cryptography,
successfully showing the field isn’t one
“only computer whiz kids have any hope of
understanding.” Underlining cryptogra-
phy’s importance, he observes that digital
encryption “underpins everyone’s security
in cyberspace,” from online shopping to
keyless car entry. Starting at the most basic
level of computer science, Martin explains
how binary code works, before moving to
more advanced topics such as symmetric
encryption and hash functions. He shows
a knack for communicating demanding
ideas, breaking up the text into short
chunks, echoing the structure of blockwhere she bought a house not long before
Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012; here, she
offers a rich account of living through the
disaster and rebuilding in its aftermath. By
the end, she has a crew of surfing friends, a
new man, and a zest for life. Readers don’t
have to surf to be taken away by Cardwell’s
story, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt. (June)American Hemp Farmer:
Adventures and Misadventures
in the Cannabis Trade
Doug Fine. Chelsea Green, $19.95 trade
paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-60358-919-2
Fine (Hemp Bound) shares his own
experiences with hemp farming, which is
“about to become the fastest agricultural
industry ever to reach a billion dollars in
annual sales,” in this educational outing.
From a practical farming perspective, it’s a
boon, as “for the first time in generations...
a family can make a living while hand-
harvesting on small acreage.” Fine covers
the crucial points of hemp farming, from
“soil building” to the type of seed to buy
(open-source). Readers will learn what to
expect to pay for seed, about weeding (it’s
relaxing), and how to overcome “mid-
season panic attacks” about the harvest.
Fine explores hand harvesting (“Can
people do as good a job as John Deere”?)
and describes processing hemp in a com-
mercial kitchen and the various extraction
methods involved. More generally, he
discusses the value of work co-ops, having
“a compelling backstory” for one’s product
(“I cultivate hemp because...”), and
studying the exemplary example of small-
business management provided by craft
breweries. For anyone interested in hemp
cultivation or simply learning more about
the newest “gold rush” crop, this is well
worth picking up. (May)★ Break ’Em Up:
Recovering Our Freedom from
Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money
Zephyr Teachout. All Points, $28.99 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-250-20089-1
Attorney and political activist Teachout
(Corruption in America) makes a passionate
and persuasive case for a revitalized anti-
trust movement to strengthen democracy
and improve the lives of middle- and
working-class Americans. Explaining that
three large poultry processors buy and sell
nearly every chicken in the U.S., allowing