Nonfiction Roundup: April 2022

Below I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in April. All of the mentioned titles are available to put on hold in our catalog and will also be made available via the library’s Overdrive website on the day of publication in eBook and downloadable audiobook format (as available). For a more extensive list of new nonfiction books coming out this month, check our online catalog.

Top Picks

“Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole” by Susan Cain (Apr 5)
Bittersweetness is a tendency to states of longing, poignancy and sorrow; an acute awareness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. It recognizes that light and dark, birth and death — bitter and sweet — are forever paired.

If you’ve ever wondered why you like sad music …
If you find comfort or inspiration in a rainy day …
If you react intensely to music, art, nature and beauty …

Then you probably identify with the bittersweet state of mind. With “Quiet,” Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she employs the same mix of research, storytelling and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, connection and transcendence. Cain shows how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain. If we don’t acknowledge our own heartache, she says, we can end up inflicting it on others via abuse, domination or neglect. But if we realize that all humans know — or will know — loss and suffering, we can turn toward one another. At a time of profound discord and personal anxiety, “Bittersweet” brings us together in deep and unexpected ways.

“Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir” by Wil Wheaton (Apr 12)
From starring in “Stand by Me” to playing Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” to playing himself, in his second (third?) iconic role of Evil Wil Wheaton in “The Big Bang Theory,” to becoming a social media supernova, Wil Wheaton has charted a career course unlike anyone else, and has emerged as one of the most popular and well respected names in science fiction, fantasy and pop culture. Back in 2001, Wil began blogging on wilwheaton.net. Believing himself to have fallen victim to the curse of the child actor, Wil felt relegated to the convention circuit, and didn’t expect many would want to read about his random experiences and personal philosophies. Yet, much to his surprise, people were reading. He still blogs, and now has an enormous following on social media with well over 3 million followers. In “Still Just a Geek,” Wil revisits his 2004 collection of blog posts, “Just a Geek,” filled with insightful and often laugh-out-loud annotated comments, additional later writings, and all new material written for this publication. The result is an incredibly raw and honest memoir, in which Wil opens up about his life, about falling in love, about coming to grips with his past work, choices, and family, and finding fulfillment in the new phases of his career. From his times on the “Enterprise” to his struggles with depression to his starting a family and finding his passion — writing — Wil Wheaton is someone whose life is both a cautionary tale and a story of finding one’s true purpose that should resonate with fans and aspiring artists alike.

“Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe” by Keith O’Brien (Apr 12)
Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground and rows of affordable homes. But in the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly sweet smell of chemicals. In this propulsive work of narrative storytelling, NYT journalist Keith O’Brien uncovers how Gibbs and Kenny exposed the poisonous secrets buried in their neighborhood. The school and playground had been built atop an old canal — Love Canal, it was called — that Hooker Chemical, the city’s largest employer, had quietly filled with twenty thousand tons of toxic waste in the 1940s and 1950s. This waste was now leaching to the surface, causing a public health crisis the likes of which America had never seen before and sparking new and specific fears. Luella Kenny believed the chemicals were making her son sick. O’Brien braids together previously unknown stories of Hooker Chemical’s deeds; the local newspaperman, scientist and congressional staffer who tried to help; the city and state officials who didn’t; and the heroic women who stood up to corporate and governmental indifference to save their families and their children. They would take their fight all the way to the top, winning support from the EPA, the White House and even President Jimmy Carter. By the time it was over, they would capture America’s imagination. Sweeping and electrifying, “Paradise Falls” brings to life a defining story from our past, laying bare the dauntless efforts of a few women who — years before Erin Brockovich took up the mantle — fought to rescue their community and their lives from the effects of corporate pollution and laid foundation for the modern environmental movement as we know it today.