New in April: Non-Fiction

 April is turning out to be a big month for books!  While there is a lot of good fiction on the publishers’ calendars, there are some very interesting non-fiction books a well.  Here are a few of them:

Dame Judi Dench, the wonderful British actress who has delighted audiences with her performances in movies including a turn as M in the James Bond series, turns her attention to her stage work. In Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, she offers insight into the Bard’s plays as well as anecdotes about her roles in them.  According to the publisher, this includes having a live snake in her wig and cavorting naked (albeit painted green) in the countryside.

 Doris Kearns Goodwin is known for her insightful, well-written books on history.  Her newest book, An Unfinished Love Story, is a very personal look at America in the 1960s, when her husband Richard worked for leaders such as Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy.  The book came about as she and her husband began sorting through boxes of papers from that era during the last years of Richard’s life, bringing a mature assessment to both people and events.

Anne Lamott brings her insight to one of our basic emotions in Somehow: Thoughts on Love.  It’s not just romantic love under consideration here, but platonic love, family love, and spiritual love.  

Erik Larson is well known for his riveting non-fiction that has readers turning pages as if reading a thriller.  The author of Devil in the White City, Isaac’s Storm, and In the Garden of Beasts turns his attention to the American Civil War in his new book, The Demon of Unrest.  Larson examines the time between Lincoln’s election and Ft. Sumter which the publisher describes as “a political horror story.”

 

Author Salman Rushdie survived an assassination attempt in August 2022, when a knife-wielding assailant stabbed him several times. In Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, his publisher tells us that Rushdie “reminds us of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable. Knife is a gripping, intimate, and ultimately life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.”

 

James Patterson is known for his many, many, many fiction books, but of late he has turned his attention to non-fiction, writing about true crime, combat veterans, police officers, nurses, and more. His latest non-fiction title is The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians and I have to say that several staff members are really looking forward to this one!