8 Knockout New Nonfiction Books to Read in July 2023

30 of the most important and highly skilled Black writers discuss their experiences and offer tips from their vast expertise in the craft of writing. The incredible list of contributors includes Camille T. Dungy, Angela Flournoy, Nikki Giovanni,Terrance Hayes, Mitchell S. Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Tayari Jones, Jamaica Kincaid, Carl Phillips, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Rion Amilcar Scott, Natasha Trethewey, Jacqueline Woodson, and Tiphanie Yanique.

When Nguyen was only a baby, most of her family fled Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War and ended up in America. But her mother remained in the country of her birth, and Nguyen grew up without her. It wasn’t until almost two decades later she met her mother again. This is her moving story of growing up without a mother, how it shaped her life, and what it meant to her when she became a parent.

True crime continues to be a subject that garners a ton of interest. Weinman, author of the true crime books Scoundrel and The Real Lolita, presents her second anthology comprised of works by some of today’s best writers. These are thoughtful, smart stories from the world of true crime, examinations of the genre, and the responsibilities of the people who tell these tales.

The name Garfield is synonymous with a lasagna-loving, Monday-hating cat, but few people know very much about the original Garfield, America’s 20th president. Goodyear has written the first comprehensive biography on Garfield, a meticulously researched look at his young life, his war service, his road to the presidency — and his assassination.

Many readers are familiar with the paintings of The Goldfinch and The Girl with the Pearl Earring, if only because of the novels of the same name. But what many people don’t know is that in Holland in 1654, there was an explosion in the city of Delft at a gunpowder store. That blast killed hundreds of people, including Carel Fabritius, The Goldfinch painter, and wounded thousands. And it very nearly killed Johannes Vermeer, who painted The Girl with the Pearl Earring. This is a concise, fascinating little book on the tragic event.

Dickey is no stranger to strange and fascinating subjects, having authored fantastic books about such interesting and unusual subjects as saints, ghosts, and cryptozoology. This time, he turns his eye to the fears of America through the ages, and how those fears fueled belief in secret societies, and whether those fears have been founded or not. (Full disclosure: The author is a friend of mine, but I was a big fan of his work before he became a friend.)

In this must-read work, Ramsey dissects the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. Partially fueled by politics and racism (quelle surprise), its prevalence as a story in the news drove racially motivated arrests and mass incarceration. This is an examination of those years told through the eyes of four people who experienced it, and a look at its legacy and the history it left this country.