You’re Ready for International Dog Day

Love One Direction or need a new nonfiction book

Hi friends,

Hope you had a good weekend. I had a great time celebrating Bookstore Romance Day with my pals at East City Bookshop.

Speaking of romance, last week I mentioned the Romance for Maui auction (it’s open till 3PM EST today — get your bids in). There’s now a second bookish auction to support relief efforts in Hawaii. Bidding starts today and runs through the end of the week. It’s a great chance to provide help to people in need while doing some shopping for yourself.

And, now, what to read if …

You’re Celebrating International Dog Day

The Headmaster’s List by Melissa de la Cruz

I will likely celebrate International Dog Day this Saturday by giving Ellie an extra-long belly rub and a handful of blueberries (she loves them). If you are looking for a book to pair with your dog days of summer, grab a copy of Melissa de la Cruz’s YA thriller The Headmaster’s List, featuring a fabulous service dog, Riley.

My hot dog with Doug Salati’s Hot Dog

The book’s main character, Spencer Sandoval, starts working with Riley after she survives a deadly car accident just before the start of her senior year of high school. Spencer remembers nothing from the crash, but learns a sophomore died and her ex-boyfriend Ethan was behind the wheel. None of the details make sense — why was she even in the car with her ex? Why was the new girl Tabby with them? — and what she learns from a local true crime podcast makes Spencer even more confused. With Riley by her side, she launches her own investigation.

The Headmaster’s List is a cross between “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Riverdale” — with a dash of “Gossip Girl.” It’s a twisty, entertaining thriller with a cast of characters that feel like real teenagers. The audiobook kept me going on dog walks during ninety-degree days last month, and for that, I am grateful.

Reminder rec: For a more conventional International Dog Day pick, consider London’s Number One Dog-Walking Agency by Kate MacDougall, a joyful, poignant coming-of-age memoir with dozens of pups.

You’ve Ever Loved Something Deeply Uncool, Part 2

Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany

I was delighted when a bunch of you mentioned you loved Tabitha Carvan’s This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch, one of my fave books of last year. If you loved that one, check out its spiritual sister, Everything I Need I Get From You, Kaitlyn Tiffany’s book about how fan girls created the social internet.

Tiffany, a reporter for The Atlantic and self-proclaimed One Direction fan girl, introduces readers to 1D lovers who screamed so loud at concerts they damaged their lungs and the girls — from all parts of the world — who used digital trickery to drive the band to the top of the charts. Underlying the anecdotes she shares, including one particularly hilarious bit about a shrine to Harry Styles’ vomit in LA, is a careful documentation of the ways these fans pioneered the use of GIFs, memes and other now-common forms of internet communication. She connects the dots between early internet message boards and today’s stan wars (online battles between obsessive fans), as well the ways the popularity of One Direction conspiracy theories foreshadowed some of the more insane commentary on the web today.

I love anything that takes women’s interests — romance novels, reality shows or boy bands — seriously instead of mocking them, and Everything I Need I Get From You does that in spades. Tiffany shows fan girls are so much more than the screaming lunatics they’re portrayed as in the media. Even if they do lose their voices woo-ing at concerts, they’re creating and shaping our culture in ways big and small. (This is extra worth reading if you’ve been following the BookTok/HockeyTok drama.)

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You Want a Gripping, Nonfiction Read

The Fishermen and the Dragon by Kirk Wallace Johnson

In The Feather Thief, one of my favorite books of the last few years, Kirk Wallace Johnson wove a wild tale about obsession, Victorian fly fishing and a plumage heist. With his new book, The Fishermen and the Dragon, he applies the same impeccable reporting and storytelling skills to a dark period in America’s recent past — the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in 1980s Texas.

In the late 1970s, shrimpers and crabbers in the Texas Gulf Coast found their nests were coming up empty. Although there were many causes for the small catches — in particular, pollution from nearby chemical companies — the local fishermen blamed Vietnamese refugees who had recently settled in the area. After a Vietnamese immigrant killed a white crabber in self-defense, the Ku Klux Klan took the opportunity to stoke racial division and told the refugees they had 90 days to leave Texas, or it would “be a helluva lot more violent than Vietnam!"

Drawing on boxes of never-before-published materials and dozens of interviews with victims, investigators, Klansmen and locals, Johnson presents a tale that is both devastating and fascinating. I learned so much from this book, about the KKK, but also about fishing, environmental law and small-town corruption. A must-read for narrative non-fiction fans.  

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Thanks for reading — and don’t forget to check out the Maui relief auction.

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