What did the production of clothing look like before this era of fast fashion? Is the physics of matter a little bit magic? What have we lost as the world’s natural dark recedes in the glare of all our artificial light? You can discover the answers to such questions (and more!) in the recent picks below. Other items of interest include a portrait of the convergence of two lives in Homelands, an art forger’s remembrances and trade secrets in Con/Artist, and an analysis of New Zealand’s extremist underbelly in Fear by Byron C. Clark. And as ever, remember that you can browse all new non-fiction items here and filter by topics of your choosing.

Homelands : the history of a friendship / Ramaswamy, Chitra
“A book about history, friendship, family and what it means to belong, from the award-winning journalist and author of Expecting. This book is about two unlikely friends, one born in 1970s Britain to Indian immigrant parents, the other arrived from Nazi Germany in 1939, fleeing persecution. It is a story about common ground, about migration, anti-Semitism, racism, family, belonging, grief and resilience. This book is about the past and the present. It is about the state we’re in now and the ways in which we carry our pasts into our futures.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The magick of matter : crystals, chaos and the wizardry of physics / Flicker, Felix
“Condensed matter physics is what happens when atoms cluster together to make something of a size we can understand – something like a car, say, rather than a galaxy. It’s what makes things hover in mid-air (magnetic levitation) or crystals glow (thermoluminescence). It’s also what we mean by magick. Join Felix Flicker on an empirical adventure in condensed matter physics, the scientific mechanism behind the mysteries of alchemy, transmogrification, and much more. From the laws of thermodynamics to the seven bridges of Konigsberg, The Magick of Matter is a journey of discovery which will upend everything you think you know about witchcraft, wizardry, and condensed matter physics.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Blk art : the audacious legacy of Black artists and models in Western art / Ware, Zaria
“Black people have been a part of the Western art world since its beginnings. Quietly held within museum and private collections around the world are hundreds of faces of Black men and women, many of their stories unknown. From paintings of majestic kings to a portrait of a young girl named Isabella in Amsterdam, these models lived diverse lives while helping shape the art world along the way. Then, after hundreds of years of Black faces cast as only the subject of the white gaze, a small group of trailblazing Black American painters and sculptors reached national and international fame, setting the stage for the flourishing of Black art. BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place in the mainstream art canon.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The darkness manifesto : how light pollution threatens the ancient rhythms of life / Eklöf, Johan
“How much light is too much light? Satellite pictures show our planet as a brightly glowing orb, and in our era of constant illumination, light pollution has become a major issue. The world’s flora and fauna have evolved to operate in the natural cycle of day and night. But in the last 150 years, we have extended our day – and in doing so have forced out the inhabitants of the night and disrupted the circadian rhythms necessary to sustain all living things, including ourselves. In this persuasive, well-researched book, conservationist Johan Eklöf urges us to appreciate natural darkness, its creatures, and its unique benefits. Educational, eye-opening, and ultimately encouraging, The Darkness Manifesto outlines simple steps that we can take to benefit ourselves and the planet.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Worn : a people’s history of clothing / Thanhauser, Sofi
“In this ambitious, panoramic social history, Sofi Thanhauser takes us from the opulent court of Louis Quatorze to the labor camps in modern-day Chinese-occupied Xinjiang. We see how textiles were once dyed from lichen, shells, bark, saffron, and beetles, displaying distinctive regional weaves and knits, and how the modern Western garment industry has refashioned our attire into the homogeneous and disposable uniforms popularized by fast fashion brands. Drawn from years of intensive research and reporting from around the world, and brimming with fascinating anecdotal material, Worn reveals to us that our clothing comes not just from the countries listed on the tags or ready-made from our factories – it comes, as well, from deep in our histories.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Fear : New Zealand’s hostile underworld of extremists / Clark, Byron C.
“Speaking after the chaos of the protest that stopped the nation, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference, ‘One day, it will be our job to try and understand how a group of people could succumb to such wild and dangerous mis- and disinformation.’ That day isn’t in the future. Mis- and disinformation had been identified as a problem before the convoy to parliament had even been suggested. While that protest looked like something that ‘couldn’t happen here’, things that supposedly couldn’t happen here seemed to be happening with alarming frequency. We are no longer living in ordinary times, where political violence is unimaginable, and conspiracy theorists are marginal figures whose ideas can be laughed at. How did things get to this point?” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Women in white coats : how the first women doctors changed the world of medicine / Campbell, Olivia M.
“Women in White Coats tells the remarkable story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, changing how women received health care. In the early 1800s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they lacked accessible, humane medical care. Motivated by personal loss and outrage, these three women faced countless obstacles and prejudices while earning their medical degrees and paved the way for others to do the same. With gripping storytelling based on extensive research, Campbell tells the courageous history these women made by becoming doctors, detailing the boundaries they broke to reshape how we receive medical care today.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Con/artist : the life and crimes of the world’s greatest art forger / Tetro, Tony
“The world’s most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters – exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio.” (Catalogue)

We have a whole lot of variety for you in this month’s non-fiction picks. Polly Morland writes about an anonymous country doctor in A Fortunate Woman, which echoes an earlier book about a doctor in that very same community, revealing all that has changed as the years have passed and all that has stayed the same. Noah Charney has put together a guide to western art that is perfect for anyone looking to delve into the painterly parts of history, with all the explanations a novice might need. For our film aficionados, there’s Hollywood: The Oral History, which pieces together hundreds of archived interviews with famed directors and movie stars, as well as many of the workers behind the scenes, to bring the tale of that hive of cinema to life. Lastly, we’re also intrigued by Listen to the Land Speak. This book has an Irish lens, and author Manchán Magan focuses on the intertwined strands of land, history and mythology, attempting to counteract a widespread modern disconnect by showing what wonders and stories might be found in the ancient landscape.

A fortunate woman : a country doctor’s story / Morland, Polly
“Polly Morland was clearing her late mother’s house when she found a battered paperback fallen behind the family bookshelf. The book was A Fortunate Man, John Berger’s classic account of a country doctor, and this chance discovery led Morland to the remarkable doctor who serves that same valley community today. After half a century of seismic change, A Fortunate Woman sheds light on what it means to be a doctor in today’s complex and challenging world.” (Adapted from Amazon UK)

The 12-hour art expert : everything you need to know about art in a dozen masterpieces / Charney, Noah
“Interested in art but feel under-informed? Curious but afraid you might not “get” it? The 12-hour Art Expert  guides readers through a select series of masterpieces of Western art – from cave paintings to sharks in formaldehyde. This book’s twelve chapters teach readers about art, the art trade, art history and more, all in a thorough (though concise) fashion.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Cold fish soup / Farrer, Adam
“Before Adam Farrer’s family relocated to Withernsea in 1992, he’d never heard of the Holderness coast. The move represented one thing to Adam: a chance to leave the insecurities of early adolescence behind. And he could do that anywhere. What he didn’t know was how much he’d grow to love the quirks and people of this faded Yorkshire resort. While Adam documents the minutiae of small-town life, he lays bare experiences that are universal. Cold Fish Soup is an affectionate look at a place and its inhabitants, and the ways in which they can shape and influence someone, especially of an impressionable age.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

How to stand up to a dictator : the fight for our future / Ressa, Maria
“Maria Ressa has spent decades speaking truth to power. Now, hounded by the state, she has multiple arrest warrants against her name, and a potential 100+ years behind bars to prepare for – while she stands trial for speaking the truth. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is the story of how democracy dies by a thousand cuts. It maps a network of disinformation that has netted the globe – from Duterte’s drug wars, to America’s Capitol Hill, to Britain’s Brexit, to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare, to Facebook and Silicon Valley, to our own clicks and our own votes. Told from the frontline of the digital war, this is Maria Ressa’s urgent cry for us to wake up and hold the line, before it is too late.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Hollywood : the oral history / Basinger, Jeanine
“From the archives of the American Film Institute comes a unique picture of Hollywood from its beginnings to its present day. Gleaned from nearly three thousand interviews, Hollywood: The Oral History lets a reader “listen in” on candid remarks from the biggest names in front of the camera, to the biggest behind it, as well as the lesser known individuals that shaped what was heard and seen on screen. The result is lively, funny, insightful, historically accurate and, for the first time, authentically honest in its portrait of Hollywood. It’s the insider’s story.” (Adapted from Amazon UK)

No country for eight-spot butterflies : a lyric essay / Aguon, Julian
“No Country for Eight-Spotted Butterflies is a collection of soulful ruminations about love, loss, struggle, resilience and power. Part memoir, part manifesto, the book is both a coming-of-age story and a call for justice – for everyone but, in particular, for indigenous peoples – his own and others.” (Catalogue)

Small fires : an epic in the kitchen / Johnson, Rebecca May
“Cooking, we are told, has nothing to do with serious thought; the path to intellectual fulfilment leads directly out of the kitchen. In this electrifying, innovative memoir, Rebecca May Johnson rewrites the kitchen as a vital source of knowledge and revelation. Playfully dissolving the boundaries between abstract intellect and bodily pleasure, domesticity and politics, Johnson awakens us to the richness of cooking as a means of experiencing the self and the world – and to the revolutionary potential of the small fires burning in every kitchen.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Listen to the land speak : a journey into the wisdom of what lies beneath us / Magan, Manchán
“Our ancestors lived in a unique and complex society that was inspired by nature and centered upon esteemed poets, seers, monks, healers and wise women, all of whom were deeply connected to cycles of the land around them. This relationship to the cycles of the natural world – from which we are increasingly dissociated – was the animating force in their lives. With infectious joy and wonder, Manchán Magan roams through Ireland’s ancient bogs, rivers, mountains and shorelines, tracing our ancestors’ footsteps.” (Catalogue)

The ransomware hunting team : a band of misfits’ improbable crusade to save the world from cybercrime / Dudley, Renee
“Scattered across the world, an elite team of code crackers is working tirelessly to thwart the defining cyber scourge of our time. Again and again, an unlikely band of misfits, mostly self-taught and often struggling to make ends meet, have used their skills to save millions of ransomware victims from paying billions of dollars to criminals. Working tirelessly from bedrooms and back offices, they’ve rescued those whom the often hapless FBI has been unwilling or unable to help, establishing themselves as the most effective force against an escalating global threat.” (Adapted from Catalogue)