Non-Fiction

Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children

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by Mac Barnett
First sentence: “If you’re a children’s book author (I’m a children’s book author), people will often ask you if you plan on ever writing a real book.”
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Release date: May 5, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Content: While it’s written with an adult audience in mind, I’m sure some kids will find value in this as well. It will be in the Literary Reference section of the bookstore.

This is, in short, a defense of the value of children’s literature. Not the value of children’s literature for children, but the value of it in its own right. Barnett makes some pretty general assertions: children deserve good literature because children are people too, and writing books for children doesn’t make anyone any less of a writer than someone who is writing books for adults.

It’s pretty simple, and yet it’s told with Barnett’s trademark humor. He analyses Goodnight Moon, and highlights the genius of Margaret Wise Brown. He tells a bit about how he became a writer for children. But mostly, he’s just advocating for books children want to read.

As someone who’s been interested in, read, and championed children’s literature for years (30? Since I had my oldest? Maybe longer), I wholeheartedly loved this little book. No, it’s not really anything I haven’t thought or heard before, but I’m glad that Barnett’s out there putting it into words. It’s entertaining, it’s educational, and it’s a delight to read.

Audiobook: Black AF History

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by Michael Harriot
Read by the author
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing in this, including multiple f-bombs, and true to its title, Harriot doesn’t water down the abuses of white people in history.

This one is exactly what it says: American history through the lens of Black people. It starts in the pre-colonial era and goes through the present day, which is a lot to ask out of one book. That said, I think Harriot does a good job making history both interesting and challenging. I thought, when I began, that I wouldn’t learn anything after reading Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi, but I learned a bunch. Hariot doesn’t just stick with “known” history – he weaves in stories from his family history, giving this book a distinctly personal touch. I liked his three little questions at the end of each chapter and the supplemental stories.

And, on top of that, Harriot is an engaging and funny writer/narrator. I know he wasn’t going for “funny”, but sometimes hard truths go down better with a laugh. Like his conversations with Racist Baby, or when his uncle “took over” the narrative.

It was tough listening at times, though I think it’s a good thing to be challenged in what one has learned. It’s good for that, yes, but I also think it’s a book worth reading on its own merit.

Patchwork: A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen

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by Kate Evans
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Content: It’s a bit cumbersome being a hardcover graphic novel, but otherwise, there’s nothing. It’s in the Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

This is a slightly fictionalized biography of the life of Jane Austen. It’s different in that Evans takes a look at the fabrics in Austen’s life – one of the more interesting parts is when Evans breaks down the history of individual fabrics that Austen would have had use of – and she also extrapolates elements of Austen’s life from her novels. I found it beautiful and interesting – mostly because I enjoyed Evans’s art and her take on Austen’s life, but also because I found the notes and the use of Austen’s book fascinating. I didn’t really learn anything – I’ve read other books about Austen, her works, and her life, but I found this one enjoyable and (more particularly) a beautiful book.

Separation of Church and Hate

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by John Fugelsang
First sentence: “I’m here because two people broke a promise to God.”
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Content: There is some swearing, including a couple of f-bombs. It’s in the Religion/Philosophy section of the bookstore.

I picked this up because we were selling a ton of it at the bookstore back before the holidays, and I got curious. It’s basically Fugelsang’s treatise to MAGA “Christians” – he was raised Catholic by a former monk and nun who left and got married – about specific issues that conservatives like to use the Bible to back up their position. It’s not as theological as I thought it would be, but then Fugelsang is not a theologian, he’s a comedian.

That said, he has some good points on many of the topics – from birth control to LGBTQ issues to feminism to white supremacy – and even though it’s not as deep as I wanted it to be, it is a good look at the Bible, Christianity, and Jesus’s teachings.

It’s not a keeper, though.

Audiobook: Bread of Angels

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By Patti Smith
Read by the author:
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is talk of drugs and death. It’s in both the Biography and Music sections of the bookstore.

I have no connection to Patti Smith at all – never listened to her music, and only knew who she was because my previous boss adored her. But when we were looking at road trip audiobooks, Russell decided that this sounded interesting, so I was game.

It’s basically her life story – from a childhood in poverty to being in the right places and meeting the right people in New York in the 1970s, to a marriage and early widowhood in the 1980s, through until today. There were some interesting parts, and she’s not a bad writer, though she is a poet and tends to take Meaning in things where others might not.

She’s not a great audiobook narrator, though. She pauses at odd times, and she has weird inflections. I suppose that could give it character, but in the end, it was just mildly annoying.

I suppose if I had a connection to her somehow, I might have liked this one more, but as it is, it was just kind of meh.

Audiobook: One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

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by Omar El Akkad
Read with the author.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is talk of the genocide in Gaza and abuse by immigration officers. It’s in the Current Events section of the bookstore.

In this short memoir/accounting of the genocide in Gaz, El Akkad talks about how it is to be Muslim in the west, and how the ideas of justice and freedom are so far from what Americans, at least, believe them to be, that it’s laughable. There is heartbreak, despair, and pain and a lack of hope that anything will ever change. Except, in the writing of this, El Akkad bears a witness to the pain and maybe by reading this, there is a small amount of hope that things will become more just and truly free.

I don’t usually say books are important; I don’t really believe that there are books that everyone should read. And yet, as I was listening to this, feeling El Akkad’s pain – feeling the pain of the Palestinians who have been obliterated, feeling the pain of the people who have been unjustly detained – I realized that this is a book that, in order to change, everyone must read. If you read this and come out unchanged, you have a heart of stone.

There is pain out there; pain that must be stopped. And, the very least we can do is be a witness for the people who can’t speak.

Audiobook: The Gales of November

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by John U. Bacon
Read by Johnny Heller
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There are some harrowing instances, and talk (of course) of shipwrecks. It’s in the History section of the bookstore.

I honestly didn’t know much about the Edmund Fitzgerald and its wreck in Lake Superior, except the Gordon Lightfoot song (though I have been to the shipwreck museum in Whitefish Bay). That said, I didn’t know everything, and Bacon looks at all the aspects of it. From sailing on the Great Lakes (more dangerous than the ocean, believe it or not) to the importance of shipping, to the history of the ship, to the actual circumstances of the ship sinking. It’s a social history as well as a history of the ship, looking at the sailors’ lives, as well as the shipping industry as a whole.

And it was utterly fascinating. Having grown up in Michigan, I adore the Great Lakes, but I didn’t realize just the scope of the impact the lakes have had over the years. I found myself wanting to stay in the car listening. Heller was a fine narrator, but it really was the story that carried this book.

A remarkable book about a fascinating incident in time.

Inspired

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by Rachel Held Evans
First sentence: “Once upon a time, there lived a girl with a magic book.”
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Content: It’s accessible and not too scholarly. It’s in the Religion and Philosophy section of the bookstore.

In this thoughtful work of scriptural examination, Evans looks at the stories in the Bible and deconstructs them. She asserts that the Bible isn’t an instruction manual, at least not in the way modern Christians have come to think of it, but rather a collection of stories that are meant to instruct, to challenge, and yes, to inspire.

I don’t know what I expected going in, but Evans’s writing is so accessible, so comforting, that even though she’s talking about challenging things, I was willing to take them in and think about them. She makes excellent points about faith and community, and about the dangers of prooftexting and being too absolutist about the Bible. Everything in context, as it should be.

A very good read.

Paper Girl

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by Beth Macy
First sentence: “It was June 2023, and Silas James had just graduated from Urbana High School, forty-one years after I wore that same insignia.”
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Release date: October 7, 2025
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at the bookstore.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and mention of sexual abuse. It will be in the Biography section of the bookstore.

When Beth Macy graduated from Urbana High School in 1982, she was able to go to a four-year college on a Pell Grant, since she came from a poor household. She used it as her ticket out, moving first to Georgia and then to Virginia. But, 40 years later, as divisions in her family and between her high school friends grew, she returned to find out why the graduation rate dropped, the addiction rate soared, and it’s harder than ever to get out of the poverty people find themselves in.

It’s a good story, as Macy recounts her troubled childhood with an alcoholic father, interspersing that with the stories of some of the students and people she met over the course of the year and a half she researched this book. She talked to many of the kids she went to school with, trying to understand where they were coming from politically, even as she found them on ever-widening divides. She explores the ways in which poverty makes life challenging and the ways that trauma continues to affect people. She is staunchly anti-Republican, detailing all the ways the Republican party hurts the people it claims to help, but she is not pro-Democrat, faulting them for not reaching out to the poor working class in order to help. It’s a challenging read at times, but it’s a good one: Macy is a good writer, and she has empathy for the people she’s writing about.

It’s an excellent, and important, book.

Audiobook: Wild for Austen

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by Devoney Looser
Read by Marisa Calin
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: It’s a bit scholarly, but for the most part, it’s pretty accessible. It’s in the Literary Reference section of the bookstore.

Looser’s thesis is simple: the wider reading world has spent too long defining Austen as “tame” and “safe”, when – according to Looser- she isn’t. Her books (and her life) are not quiet and demure, and instead should be considered “wild” (subversive, maybe? Especially for the time they were written), and Looser sets out to explain why.

On the one hand, I think Looser’s thesis is a bit unnecessary: who considers Austen to be tame? Those who haven’t read it? Maybe. That said, I was fascinated by the way Looser broke down the books, pointing out the ways in which Austen was subverting, poking fun at, and exposing parts of the society she was writing about. After looking at all of Austen’s books (including Lady Susan and her juvenilia), Looser delves into Austen’s life, and then the way her books have continued to be relevant. I’m not sure how much someone who isn’t really familiar with Austen’s works will like this one, but I found it fascinating.

The narrator was excellent as well; she kept the book from being overly scholarly (not sure how much I’d have liked it if I’d read it), and was engaging to listen to.

Definitely recommended.