Ashley Brown, "Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson" (Oxford UP, 2023)
From her start playing paddle tennis on the streets of Harlem as a young teenager to her eleven Grand Slam tennis wins to her professional golf career, Althea Gibson became the most famous black sport...
24 Feb 202345min
Deborah Holt Larkin, "A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer" (Pegasus Crime, 2022)
In A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer (Pegasus Crime, 2022), Deborah Larkin tells the incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the l...
22 Feb 202344min
Lynn Cullen, "The Woman with the Cure" (Berkley Books, 2023)
The essential contribution of The Woman with the Cure (Berkley Books, 2023) can be summarized in one sentence: like most of its future readers (I assume), I had never before heard of Dorothy Horstmann...
19 Feb 202336min
Patrick Bixby, "Unaccompanied Traveler: The Writings of Kathleen M. Murphy" (Syracuse UP, 2021)
At the time of her death in 1962, Kathleen M. Murphy was recognized as “the most widely and most knowledgeably travelled Irish woman of her time . . . insofar as she let herself be known to the public...
18 Feb 202353min
Stephen F. Knott, "Coming to Terms with John F. Kennedy" (UP of Kansas, 2022)
Political Scientist and presidential scholar Stephen Knott has a new book specifically focusing on the 35th president, John F. Kennedy. This book is not exactly a biography, since it is an interesting...
16 Feb 202347min
Nic Brown, "Bang Bang Crash: A Memoir" (Counterpoint, 2023)
In his memoir, Bang Bang Crash (Counterpoint, 2023), Nic Brown shares his experiences as a rock and roll drummer who abandons his successful music career to pursue his true passion and discovers a dee...
14 Feb 202341min
Winston James, "Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik" (Columbia UP, 2022)
One of the foremost Black writers and intellectuals of his era, Claude McKay (1889–1948) was a central figure in Caribbean literature, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Black radical tradition. McKay’s ...
11 Feb 20231h 49min
Mike Westhoff, "Figure It Out: My Thirty-Two-Year Journey While Revolutionizing Pro Football's Special Teams" (Mascot Books, 2022)
Simply put, Mike Westhoff is the greatest special teams coach in National Football League history. Sharp-witted, creative, and intensely focused, Westhoff spent 32 years working alongside and learning...
11 Feb 20231h 9min
