Nonfiction Roundup: January 2021

A new year and more new nonfiction books coming out for you to read! 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 eAudiobook format (as available). For a more extensive list of new nonfiction books coming out this month, check our online catalog.

Top Picks

“Keep Sharp: Build A Better Brain At Any Age” by Sanjay Gupta (Jan 5)
Throughout our life, we look for ways to keep our mind sharp and effortlessly productive. Now, globetrotting neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta offers insights from top scientists all over the world, whose cutting-edge research can help you heighten and protect brain function and maintain cognitive health at any age. “Keep Sharp” debunks common myths about aging and cognitive decline, explores whether there’s a “best” diet or exercise regimen for the brain, and explains whether it’s healthier to play video games that test memory and processing speed, or to engage in more social interaction. Discover what we can learn from “super-brained” people who are in their eighties and nineties with no signs of slowing down — and whether there are truly any benefits to drugs, supplements, and vitamins. Dr. Gupta also addresses brain disease, particularly Alzheimer’s, answers all your questions about the signs and symptoms, and shows how to ward against it and stay healthy while caring for a partner in cognitive decline. He likewise provides readers with a personalized 12-week program featuring practical strategies to strengthen your brain every day. “Keep Sharp” is the only owner’s manual you’ll need to keep your brain young and healthy regardless of your age!

“The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women– and Women to Medicine” by Janice P. Nimura (Jan 19)
Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of “ordinary” womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment. In 1849, she became the first woman in America to receive an M.D. She was soon joined in her iconic achievement by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician. Exploring the sisters’ allies, enemies, and enduring partnership, Janice P. Nimura presents a story of trial and triumph. Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and visionary, but their convictions did not always align with the emergence of women’s rights — or with each other. From Bristol, Paris, and Edinburgh to the rising cities of antebellum America, this richly rese arched new biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women in medicine. As Elizabeth herself predicted, “a hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now.”

“American Baby: A Mother, A Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption” by Gabrielle Glaser (Jan 26)
In 1960s America, at the height of the Baby Boom, women were encouraged to stay home and raise large families, but sex and childbirth were taboo subjects. Premarital sex was not uncommon, but birth control was hard to get and abortion was illegal. In 1961, sixteen-year-old Margaret Erle fell in love and became pregnant. Her unsympathetic family sent her to a maternity home. In the hospital, nurses would not even allow her to hold her own newborn. After she was finally badgered into signing away her rights, her son vanished into an adoption agency’s hold. Claiming to be acting in the best interests of all, the adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. “American Baby” lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and place them with desperate families, fabricating stories about infants’ origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. They struck shady deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific “assessments,” and shamed millions of young women into surrendering their children. Gabrielle Glaser dramatically demonstrates the expectations and institutions that Margaret was up against. Though Margaret went on to marry and raise a large family with David’s father, she never stopped longing for and worrying about her firstborn. She didn’t know he spent the first years of his life living just a few blocks away from her, wondering often about where he came from and why he was given up. Their tale — one they share with millions of Americans–is one of loss, love, and the search for identity. Adoption’s closed records are being legally challenged in states nationwide. Open adoption is the rule today, but the identities of many who were adopted or who surrendered a child in the decades this book covers are locked in sealed files. “American Baby” both illuminates a dark time in our history and shows a path to justice, honesty and reunion that can help heal the wounds inflicted by years of shame and secrecy.