The work of the rural Kansas native, journalist and National Book Award-finalist journalist (for Heartland) combines political analysis with memoir. This volume collects more than a decade of her insightful and affecting essays, which debunk the dangerous and sentimental myths that media get wrong about “red states” and the working class (with pieces on the socioeconomic significance of dentistry, for example, or recollections of working as a Hooters girl).

For the 75th anniversary of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the D.C.-based history professor revisits George Orwell’s dystopian classic and cautionary tale. The book unpacks the fictional Oceania and the author’s prescient commentary on surveillance states, human rights violations and the rise of misinformation; and applies its warnings against totalitarianism and abuse of power to the eerily familiar present and near-future political scenarios.

The science writer for London’s Natural History Museum surveys the staggering range of sexual behaviour and adaptation in the animal, fungus and plant kingdoms. His findings – for instance, how the males change sex in clownfish colonies to lead (once the dominant female dies) – offer an important perspective on what is “natural” through the diverse sexual expressions of the natural world, with plentiful colour photos.

The former Newsweek reporter behind Witness to the Revolution – the acclaimed oral history of American society during the turbulent Vietnam War years – turns her gaze to second-wave feminism. Her new book compiles intersectional firsthand accounts featuring memories by more than a hundred women across the political spectrum, who organized and protested during the crucial decade from 1963 to 1973. You’ll hear from heroes like radical feminist activist and journalist Susan Brownmiller; and Jane O’Reilly, who wrote the cover story of the first issue of Ms. Magazine, “Click! The Housewife’s Moment of Truth.”

The focus in this British academic’s consideration of the first 18 months of COVID-19 is on contemporary Black music and online cultural events, like the Verzuz DJ Battle series where celebs like Ludacris and others play hits in friendly rivalry; director Steve McQueen’s five-film Small Axe anthology; TikTok’s ironic Don’t Rush (video) Challenge, and their role in combating lockdown isolation. It’s an engaging analysis of the meaning and power of music to shape collective response and resilience during the pandemic.

The 1956 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott was made famous by Rosa Parks –  but did you know there was a similar four-month protest of discriminatory practices in 1965 England called the Bristol Bus Boycott? Together with his siblings Yinka and Kemi, the British-Nigerian broadcaster, filmmaker and professor of public history has created this book of days that delivers the sprawling scope of both widely and lesser-known Black history in bite-sized morsels. As promised by the title, this all-ages educational journey delivers facts, with context, for every day of the calendar.

This history and tribute to the life and career of internationally renowned Kaigani Haida fashion artist Grant, who lives in Tsawwassen, B.C., is told through photographs, commentaries and her own reminiscences. With the launch of her Feastwear collection in 1989, she bridged Haida regalia with western fashion. The book charts Grant’s groundbreaking influence on the modern Indigenous fashion movement, with Vogue declaring it a “long-overdue celebration.”

Piqued by a 2016 article, the American entrepreneur and New York Times-bestselling author set out to uncover more on expert distiller Nearest Green, the enslaved Black man in 1850s Tennessee credited as Jack Daniel’s assistant. The truth, revealed here through extensive archival research, is closer to the opposite: Green taught young assistant Jack Daniel how to distill whiskey, using a technique known as the Lincoln County Process. It’s a remarkable read, made all the more so now that Weaver works with his descendants to produce Uncle Nearest brand whiskey at the site of his original still.