Nonfiction Roundup (1/29/25)

Looking for a new nonfiction read to dive into? Check out some of these upcoming recommendations!

THE LAST SECRET AGENT: My Life as a Spy Behind Nazi Lines by Pippa Latour with Jude Dobson
9781250384348 | 5/13/25

From a unique and singular voice comes the incredible true story of the last surviving undercover British female operative in WW2. Pippa Latour parachuted into occupied France in 1944 to conduct sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. Selling soap to German soldiers and hiding codes on a piece of ribbon, she sent back crucial information about troop positions in the lead up to D-Day, and continued her work until Paris was liberated. From her childhood as an orphan in South Africa to her years as an undercover agent, Pippa’s story is that of a woman determined to honor her principles and risk her life to fight against the greatest evil of the 20th century.

THE LAST SECRET AGENT is a posthumously published memoir, co-written with journalist Jude Dobson. Pippa was decorated highly for her actions, including being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire and receiving the Légion d’Honneur in France. For years, Pippa kept her involvement in the war effort secret from everyone, including her family, but for the first time, her story can now be told in full.

PROPAGANDA GIRLS: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS by Lisa Rogak
9781250275592 | 3/4/25

Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo. Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer, was of course one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. These four women, each fascinating in her own right, together contributed to one of the most covert and successful military campaigns in WWII.

As members of the OSS, their task was to create a secret brand of propaganda produced with the sole aim to break the morale of Axis soldiers. Working in the European theater, across enemy lines in occupied China, and in Washington, D.C., Betty, Zuzka, Jane, and Marlene forged letters and “official” military orders, wrote and produced entire newspapers, scripted radio broadcasts and songs, and even developed rumors for undercover spies and double agents to spread to the enemy. And outside of a small group of spies, no one knew they existed. Until now. In PROPAGANDA GIRLS, bestselling author Lisa Rogak brings to vivid life the incredible true story of four unsung heroes, whose spellbinding achievements would change the course of history.

SO GAY FOR YOU: Friendship, Found Family, and the Show That Started It All by Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey
9781250361363 | 6/3/25

In the early aughts, Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey—both young artists trying to figure it all out—met at auditions for what they thought was just an unknown little TV show. Given that it was a show about lesbians living in LA, with the first ever ensemble cast of openly queer female characters, Kate and Leisha knew the project was going to be unlike anything else out there.

What they didn’t foresee was just how huge The L Word would become. One million people watched the premiere, and the show quickly turned into a groundbreaking phenomenon. Its influence on pop culture, in the political arena, and in the lives of queer—and straight—viewers has been lasting, impactful, even life-saving. But in addition to changing the course of television history, The L Word also changed Kate and Leisha’s lives forever. From their first day on set, Kate and Leisha have always had each other’s backs, inseparable to the degree that the joke among the cast was that they were like a pair of pants—you couldn’t have one leg without the other. Hence the name for their podcast, PANTS, born during the pandemic and now downloaded over 20 million times.

SO GAY FOR YOU is a love letter to a life-defining friendship over the decades, and following Kate and Leisha’s unlikely and extremely entertaining journey stumbling from closeted queer kids to LGBTQ+ activists to successful actresses, podcasters, and business owners. Full of never-before-shared glimpses into the making of The L Word, Kate and Leisha’s real-life loves and losses, and their status as queer icons, SO GAY FOR YOU is, at its heart, a book about a deep meaningful connection with your ride or die and the gift of finding your chosen family.

MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE: The Jennifer Dulos Story by Rich Cohen
9780374608064 | 5/20/25

Rich Cohen’s MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE is the chilling, unputdownable story of Jennifer Dulos, a beautiful, rich suburban mother who dropped her kids off at the New Canaan Country School one morning and vanished. Her body has never been found.

Dulos was in the midst of an ugly divorce—one of the most contentious in Connecticut state history. The couple, a beautiful, highly connected pair, met at Brown University, had five children, and led what appeared to be a charmed life. In the wake of her disappearance, Dulos’s husband and his girlfriend were arrested. He killed himself on the day he was supposed to report to court; she was tried and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. A gripping story of status, wealth, love, and hate, MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE peers beneath the sparkling veneer of propriety that surrounded the Duloses to uncover the origins and motivations of a crime that has become a national obsession.

WHACK JOB: A History of Axe Murder by Rachel McCarthy James
9781250276735 | 5/13/25

For as long as the axe has been in our hands, we have used it to kill.

Much like the wheel, the boat, and the telephone, the axe is a transformative piece of technology—one that has been with us since prehistory. And just as early humans used the axe to chop down trees, hunt for food, and whittle tools, they also used it to murder. Over time, this particular use has endured: as the axe evolved over centuries to fit the needs of new agricultural, architectural, and social development, so have our lethal uses for it.

WHACK JOB is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII’s favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture. WHACK JOB sheds brilliant light on this familiar implement, this most human of weapons. This is a critical examination of violence, an exploration of how technology shapes human conflict, the cruel and sacred rituals of execution and battle, and the ways humanity fits even the most savage impulses into narratives of the past and present.

THE IDEOLOGICAL BRAIN: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking by Leor Zmigrod
9781250344595 | 3/25/25

In THE IDEOLOGICAL BRAIN, Leor Zmigrod explains how the origins of our political and social beliefs are held in the makeup of our minds. Her cutting-edge research investigates the effects of believing passionately in rigid doctrine not only on our opinions and morals, but also on the fundamental structures of our brains. Merging psychology, politics, and philosophy, the book reveals how ideologies become physically ingrained in our bodies, even when politics isn’t on our minds.

Guiding readers through her experiments, Zmigrod discovers that people across the ideological spectrum, whether on the Far Right or Far Left, struggle to change their thought patterns when faced with new information. She then investigates whether their brains have functioned this way since birth, or have come to embody this behavior over time in what she calls “the epigenetics of extremism.” Finally, she reflects on the social and political implications of this research, providing insight into how we can, individually and collectively, all remain open-minded ourselves.

EMINENT JEWS: Bernstein, Books, Friedan, Mailer by David Denby
9781250193407 | 4/8/25

Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. Brilliant, brash, yet soulful, they were 100 percent Jewish and 100 percent American. They upended the restrained culture of their forebears and changed American life. They worked in different fields, and, apart from clinking glasses at parties now and then, they hardly knew one another. But they shared a historical moment and a common temperament. For all four, their Jewish heritage was electrified by American liberty. The results were explosive.

As prosperity for Jews increased and anti-Semitism began to fade after World War II, these four creative giants stormed through the latter half of the twentieth century, altering the way people around the world listened to music, defined what was vulgar, comprehended the relations of men and women, and understood the American soul. They were not saints; they were turbulent and self-dissatisfied intellectuals who fearlessly wielded their own newly won freedom to charge up American culture.

Celebratory yet candid, at times fiercely critical, David Denby presents these four figures as egotistical and generous—larger-than-life, all of them, yet vulnerable, even heartbreaking, in their ambition, ferocity, and pride.

BLACK POWER SCORECARD: Measuring the Racial Gap and What We Can Do to Close It by Andre M. Perry
9781250869715 | 4/15/25

Historically, Black Americans’ quest for power has been understood as an attempt to gain equal protections under the law. But power in America requires more than basic democratic freedoms. It is inextricably linked with economic influence and ownership—of one’s self, home, business, and creations.

Andre M. Perry draws on extensive research and analysis to quantify how much power Black Americans actually have. Ranging from property, business, and wealth to education, health, and social mobility, BLACK POWER SCORECARD moves across the country, evaluating people’s ability to set the rules of the game and calculating how that translates into the ultimate means of power—life itself, and the longevity of Black communities. Along the way, Andre M. Perry identifies woefully overlooked areas of investment that could close the racial gap and benefit everyone. An expansive take on power supported by documentation and data, BLACK POWER SCORECARD is a fresh contribution to the country’s reckoning with structural inequality, one that offers a new approach to redressing it.