What I read this week
REAL AMERICANS by Rachel Khong
Oh shit, I was 100 pages in when I sent out this newsletter last week, and then everything changed around page 125. I love when that happens, when suddenly you realize you’re reading a different book than the one that marketing copy led you to believe you were reading. I’m not gonna spoil any surprises. Just know that Real Americans is the story of a biologist who flees China during the Cultural Revolution, and the stories of her American-born daughter and grandson. It’s an absorbing intergenerational drama with just a hint of the speculative weaved in, but grounded by the author’s so-vivid-it-hurts depictions of alienation and existential loneliness. (I also really like reading about rich people.)
BITE BY BITE by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
One of those delightful little books that you can read in a day or spread over a period of time in order to savor it. Sweet but not cloying, Bite by Bite is a collection of essays about food told from both personal and historical perspectives, complete with luscious illustrations by Fumi Nakamura. Poet Nezhukumatathil writes about fruit as passionately as you might expect, but the book also contains exquisite little essays on waffles and rice. She beautifully makes the case that even the simplest of foods can act as one’s very own madeleine de Proust.
THE ARSONISTS’ CITY by Hala Alyan
I didn’t mean to read two family sagas in a week, with themes of immigration and American assimilation, but sometimes it just works out that way and I’m not mad. I love Hala Alyan’s poetry (her new collection just came out in March) and her 2020 novel about an incredibly flawed but endearing family from Beirut (and Damascus) contains so many perfect sentences. Alyan is also a master of juxtaposing petty little personal dramas with huge ever-relevant themes like how little dignity there is in living under occupation.
On Kristi Noem and Other Grifters with Publishing Deals
I wasn’t going to talk about Kristi Noem. I haven’t even seen the John Wick series because I cannot stomach the idea of murdered dogs. In so many respects Noem is a clown who is simply not worth the time; her downfall is fast approaching. But.
Center Street, which is an imprint of Hachette and the publisher of other luminaries like Donald Trump, Jr. and Jeannine Pirro, decided that Noem was worth their time. Her new book, No Going Back, which I am absolutely not linking to, is out today. The subtitle of the memoir is The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward and of course the book contains lies, one whopper which has recently come to light.
No, Kristi Noem never met with Kim Jong Un, even though the finished book says explicitly that she did. Not only does the book say that Noem had met Kim Jong Un, but she herself said out loud that she had met him because she narrated the audiobook version of her memoir. Unless they have ghostwriters doing that part now, too.
She likely also didn’t meet with Emmanuel Macron or Nikki Hailey. She was likely just making shit up, which is generally frowned upon but not unheard of in book publishing.
Here is where I’ll remind you, and myself, that nonfiction does not mean “true.” It’s a marketing term for a book in which the author(s) purports to tell the truth. The sad fact is that many books are not fact-checked at all. In most publishing contracts, it’s the responsibility of the author rather than the publisher to make sure the facts are correct. As you might imagine, some authors try harder than others. (Publishers will say that they simply don’t have the money to pay for fact checkers, which is a weak excuse in an era when politicians of all stripes are consistently getting 6-and 7-figure book deals).
In the Trump era the lies have become more blatant (claims that Trump won the 2020 election are a real doozy for literally any imprint distributed by a major publisher, no matter how conservative, not to question), but the issue is not only a conservative one. We’ve got Gladwell, we’ve got Michael Wolff, we’ve got whichever side gets stuck with Naomi Wolf.
Many (most) books are imperfect; that’s not the (main) problem. It’s just that some authors (and publishers) make more of a good faith attempt to avoid or to fix errors than others. When publishers platform bad faith actors, they are complicit in spreading lies. Some lies, like Noem’s, are mostly harmless, but others not so much.
Publishers will cry freedom of speech when challenged about bad faith actors, but freedom of speech is a term that gets weaponized with such frequency that it barely means anything anymore. It’s a slippery slope, they’ll say, if we start restricting conservative authors, who could be next? To which I say no one is trying to censor any writers; we just want publishers to platform “authors” and ghostwriters who have a healthy respect for facts.
Jimmy Fallon Reading Face as palate cleanser
The premise is a little silly but the book is actually pretty good, well-paced. More people should actually, you know, read it.
New releases, 5/7/24
I haven’t read them yet, but here are today’s releases that I’m most excited about. The to-read pile is getting out of control.
THE BODY FARM by Abby Geni
SHANGHAILANDERS by Juli Min
THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley
HOW IT WORKS OUT by Myriam Lacroix
FIRST LOVE by Lilly Dancyger
I'm really enjoying your newsletter!
And thank you for linking to books you like -- and judiciously NOT linking to others.
I am so excited for Real Americans! I am the bottom of a long library list. I think your parenthetical comment about reading about rich people could be a whole newsletter...why is that so satisfying??