An Unspeakable Hope

December 1, 2022

In Why Fathers Cry at Night, Newbery Medalist and New York Times best-selling author Alexander (Swing) blends memoir and love poems, recalling his parent and his first years of marriage and fatherhood as he ponders learning to love (50,000-copy first printing). After abandoning her marriage as the wrong path, Biggs looked at women from Mary Wollstonecraft to Zora Neale Hurston to Elena Ferrante as she considered how to find A Life of One's Own. A celebrated New York-based carpenter (e.g., his iconic Sky House was named best apartment of the decade by Interior Design), self-described serial dropout Ellison recounts how he found his path to Building. Shot five times at age 19 by a Pittsburgh police officer (a case of mistaken identity that amounted to racial profiling), Ford awoke paralyzed from the waist down and learned he was a new father; a decade later, he recounts his path to social activism and An Unspeakable Hope for himself and his son. From the first Black American female designer to win a CFDA Award, Wildflower takes James from high school dropout to designer of a sustainable fashion line showcasing traditional African design to founder of the booming social justice nonprofit Fifteen Percent Pledge (businesses pledge to dedicate 15 percent of their shelf space to Black-owned brands). Minka's fans will proclaim Tell Me Everything when they pick up her hand-to-mouth-to Hollywood memoir (30,000-copy first printing). In Whistles from the Graveyard, which aims to capture the experience of confused young millennials in the U.S. Marines, Lagoze recalls serving as a combat cameraman in the Afghan War and witnessing both bonding with locals against the Taliban and brutality toward innocent people by young men too practiced in violence. To cement ties with his eldest son, star of Netflix's hit Dead to Me, veteran actor and New York Times best-selling author McCarthy found himself Walking with Sam along Spain's 500-mile Camino de Santiago. A first-generation Chinese American with a seafaring father and a seamstress mother, Pen/Faulkner Award finalist Ng (Bone) recounts being raised in San Francisco's Chinatown by the community's Orphan Bachelors, older men without wives or children owing to the infamous Exclusion Act. Thought-provoking novelist Pittard (Reunion) turns to nonfiction with We Are Too Many, an expansion of her attention-getting Sewanee Review essay about her husband's affair with her best friend (80,000-copy first printing). Delighted by all the queer stories she encountered when she moved to Brooklyn, book publicist Possanza uses Lesbian Love Story to recover the personal histories of lesbians in the 20th century and muse about replacing contemporary misogynistic society with something markedly lesbian. In Uncle of the Year, Tony, Drama Desk, and Critics Choice Award nominee Rannells wonders at age 40 what success means and whether he wants a husband and family; 19 original essays and one published in the New York Times. Describing himself as Uneducated (he was tossed out of high school and never went to college), Zara ended up as senior editor at Fast Company, among other leading journalist stints; here's how he did it (30,000 copy first printing.)

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2023
Racially implicated police violence finds an unlikely redemptive turn in this memoir by a survivor. On Nov. 11, 2012, Ford was pulled over by Pittsburgh police for allegedly running a red light. Mistaken for a gang member with a similar name, he was ordered to step outside his car. When he did not immediately comply, he was shot five times, paralyzing him from the waist down. During the trial, "all three officers were claiming they believed their lives were in danger." However, the jury decided that the police response was unwarranted. Given his experiences, Ford has many valuable lessons to offer. "Now I know that I might not have been shot had I said to the officers, 'I'm uncomfortable. Please have your supervisor come here to the scene.' These are words all young Black men should know," he writes. Angry and yearning for revenge, Ford began to absorb peacemaking lessons of the sort offered at one turn by Quaker activists and at another by an entrepreneur who advised him to invest the proceeds of his legal settlement. Speaking to young people about his experiences also began to change some of his views. "If I killed a police officer," he asks, "what example would that set for these youth who believe in me? Who follow me? What example would it set for my son?" Anti-police activism gave way to an unexpected reconciliation with the officer who shot him. More, Ford urges a kind of enlightened capitalism amid a closing self-help manifesto: "Money talks. Activists must learn to engage in conversations across the racial, political, and financial divide, for only the sharing of widespread resources can bring about change. If we build more businesses, if we generate more jobs, if we grow the economy, everybody wins." A timely book about resiliency that will find both advocates and detractors but is well worth hearing out.

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