It feels insufficient to call this merely a book. Combine the audiobook and the actual physical book (which I got from my library), and it becomes an experience of awe and inspiration.

Acclaimed author George M. Johnson (All Boys Aren't Blue) wrote this collection to educate young adults (and adults like me!) about Black queer artists from the Harlem Renaissance. In the intro, he discusses how these artists have been doubly ignored because of their identities and race and how he wants to shine a light on them since they've been ignored by traditional curricula.

Short-and-sweet, each chapter highlights a different person, from Josephine Baker to Langston Hughes to Aliane Locke to Zora Neale Hurston. Paired with Charly Parker's stunning images, the actual physical book is informative, enlightening, and visually stunning. If you listen to the audio, it's an extra treat. George reads it himself and brings passion and verve to the narration.

I really liked this book! George doesn't hold back when it comes to calling out history and society for muting the talent and achievements of these people. He also takes care to discuss the nuance of how even some of these "flamboyants" weren't accepting of certain genders or race (Josphine Baker, although bisexual, treated her gay son differently than the rest of her children).

I think this would make a great addition to any high school history class to offer a often overlooked group of talented, inspiring artists.

This timely nonfiction book relates the story of a trio of Kansas militia members who conspire to bomb a Somali-immigrant apartment complex in their town of Garden City, KS. Dan Day, a Kansas resident and neighbor, ends up infiltrating the group as an FBI informant to catch them before their plans reach fruition. Historian Dick Lehr has written a propulsive and, at its core, terrifying story that assesses just what a danger domestic terrorism is in the United States of today.

Fueled by racism, an irrational love of guns and gun culture, far-right narratives inspiring hate against then-president Obama and immigrants coming to the United States, and a twisted version of Christianity, these three men amped up their hate from racist rants in private Facebook chatrooms to actually building bombs (using YouTube tutorials!) and setting the date for the murder of hundreds of Somalis. The tightrope Dan walks as a father, husband, and Christian who is against the racism he hears from these men, while keeping up appearances by echoing much of what they say is fascinating and keeps the story moving.

My only quibble was a lack of a larger discussion about this epidemic. What encouraged these men to hate and to try and act on that hate (even to their own detriment) is alluded to be a host of things, but I would have liked a larger discussion about how the rhetoric of supposedly "legit" politicians and newscasters also works to encourage these behaviors and suggestions on what can be done to curtail it.

All in all, I was hooked on this very necessary book. If it's not a warning, I don't know what is.

John E. Douglas, the FBI criminal profiler whose work inspired the Netflix show Mindhunter, details the case of Larry Gene Bell, a serial killer who murdered two girls (Shari Smith, 17; and Debra May Hemlock, 9) in South Carolina in the mid-1980s. Douglas shares the details about how he concocted a profile of Bell and how that profile led to his arrest.

The profiling portion of this book is a fascinating look at the meticulous process and the emotional/psychological/situational information the is considered to create these dossiers of killers. Douglas is a master and even the part where he sets up the killer to incriminate himself is especially interesting.

Yet the part that intrigued me most was Douglas's specific experience with the Smith family. His analysis of them also, in a sense, uses his powers of emotional/behavioral assessment to show that while the killer's actions could be predictable those of a very faithful family devastated by unimaginable could not be predicted. Their strength in the face of tragedy was especially commendable.

The prose is propulsive and keeps you interested as law enforcement ferrets out and nails the killer. This true-crime is definitely a standout in the genre.