BOOKSHELF: Exciting New Books for Fall Reading

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Compiled by Jamie H. Vaught

KySportsStyle.com Magazine

--Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild (The New Press, $22.99 paperback) is an intimate glimpse into the cultural factors that gave rise to the right in one of our country’s most overlooked regions—Appalachia. For all the attempts to understand the state of American politics and the blue/red divide, we’ve ignored one critical question: what can economic and cultural loss do to pride? What happens, the author asks, in a work called “one of the year’s most important books” by Counterpunch, when the people of a hard-hit, long-ignored, region are grappling with a loss of pride while being confronted with a powerful political appeal—one that makes it feel “stolen”? Hochschild’s research drew her to Pikeville, Kentucky, in the heart of Appalachia, within the whitest and second-poorest congressional district in the nation, where the city is reeling: coal jobs have left, crushing poverty persists, and a deadly drug crisis has struck the region. Although Pikeville was in the political center 30 years ago, by 2016, 80 percent of the district’s population voted for Donald Trump. The book focuses on a group swept up in the shifting political landscape: blue-collar men. In small churches, hillside hollers, roadside diners, trailer parks, and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, she introduces us to unforgettable people, and offers an original lens through which to see them and the wider world.

--Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe by Brooke Nevils (Viking, $35) examines our most persistent and dangerous misunderstandings, myths and stereotypes about sexual harassment and assault. Through groundbreaking interviews with leading clinicians, forensic professionals, attorneys, and frontline researchers, the book attempts to challenge our understanding of consent, power, and the lingering, often misunderstood effects of trauma and shame. In 2017, the author made a confidential HR complaint about one of the most powerful and familiar faces in media. Twenty-four hours later, the highest paid morning news anchor in history was fired, stunning millions of Americans in one of the MeToo era’s defining stories. Demanding answers—and the intimate details of the most personal and painful humiliation of her life—the press soon discovered her identity. But hers was not the kind of black-and-white story the media knew how to tell. There’d been no explicit threats. She hadn’t screamed, fought, or gone to the police. Instead, she returned to her abuser again and again in a frantic attempt to “fix” an impossible situation that threatened her livelihood and the people closest to her. Brooke’s story serves as a textbook example of an all-too-common scenario that continues to devastate lives and enable abusers.

--Pope Leo XIV: The Biography by Elise Ann Allen (Image, $28) is a deeply personal biography of Pope Leo XIV, featuring his first-ever public interview as pope, from the author, who is a journalist and Rome correspondent for Crux. The author gives readers an intimate and detailed account of the life of Robert Prevost, from his birth in Chicago and his first years as a priest in the Augustinian order to his years as a missionary in Peru and the vital role he came to play in the Vatican as head of bishops. The result is an inspiring picture of a man of profound character, spiritual leadership, integrity, warmth, and citizenship in the world. Pope Leo XIV is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the Church’s pastor—his priorities, convictions, and vision for the future of faith.

--Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House by John Leganski (Regnery, $32.99) takes readers deep into the high-stakes world of Capitol Hill, pulling back the curtain on what it takes to lead one of the most complex and unruly institutions in America: the U.S. House of Representatives. Written by former top congressional advisor John Leganski, this vivid personal memoir chronicles a decade-long battle for the gavel that ultimately erupted in the dramatic January 2023 floor fight to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. Over the course of five extraordinary days and 15 ballots, the contest became the first multi-ballot vote for Speaker in a century, the longest such struggle since the Civil War, and a defining moment in modern House history. Filled with never-before-reported scenes from a showdown that captivated the nation and the world, this rare front-row account doubles as a Rosetta Stone for understanding today’s Republican Party and the unforgiving realities of Washington politics. Along the way, the author offers hard-won lessons in leadership, the art of vote counting, and the human cost of wielding power in the People’s House.

--How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University by Theo Baker (Penguin Press, $32) is written by an undergraduate student whose reporting led to former Stanford Marc Tessier-Lavigne's resignation. When the author joined the student newspaper and started poking around the Stanford president’s record, he discovered never-reported allegations of research misconduct in studies published across two decades bearing Tessier-Lavigne's name. Only one month into college and thousands of miles from home, Baker began receiving anonymous letters, going on stakeouts, and tracking down confidential sources. High-powered lawyers and public relations teams were hired to attack his reporting. Stanford opened an investigation into its own leader. And by the end of the year, Tessier-Lavigne was out as president. This is the incredible journey of a reluctant teenage reporter who uncovered a story that shook the scientific world and became front-page news across the country. It is also an unprecedented inside view of the students learning to rule the world—and what they’re learning from those who already do. How to Rule the World  is a shocking, hilarious, and moving debut, showcasing Silicon Valley’s training ground as never before.

--Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative by Evan Barker (Threshold Editions, $29) exposes how the Democratic Party was hijacked by out-of-touch activists, coastal elitists, and powerful special interests. Packed with insider revelations and razor-sharp commentary, the author, who is a former Democratic campaign operative and political strategist, takes readers deep inside the machine to show how the party that once championed the working class lost its soul. In August 2024, standing on the floor of the Democratic National Convention, Barker hit her breaking point. In that moment, she saw what no one inside the party dared admit: the Democrats had lost their way, and there was no path back. Born into a union family in the Kansas City heartland with a rare genetic lung disease, Barker lived and breathed Democrat. The Democratic Party, she believed, was built to help people like her. Pulling back the curtain on the world of donors, strategists, politicians, and activists that runs the party, Nothing Left is a blistering, behind-the-scenes look at the party’s transformation from working-class champion to elite echo chamber.

--All the Presidents' Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America's War on Terror by Peter Bergen (W.W. Norton & Company, $32.99) is an eye-opening history of the United States’ war on terror across four presidential administrations. Based on hundreds of interviews, the 401-page hardcover focuses on critical decisions of four successive presidents―Bush, Obama, Biden, and Trump―and their global consequences. One of the few journalists to interview Osama bin Laden and have unparalleled access to the U.S. intelligence community, the author covers the history that might have been avoided: the many terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups around the world; the rise of al-Qaeda in Iraq, largely responsible for the Iraqi civil war in the mid-2000s; the birth of ISIS; the resurrection of Afghanistan’s Taliban; and Trump’s war with Iran. All the Presidents’ Wars is essential reading to understand America’s devastating war on terror and to avoid the mistakes of the past.

--American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Bradley B. Onishi (St. Martin's Essentials, $29) is a chilling and urgently needed exposé on the forces pushing American politics and religion toward a post-constitutional autocracy. From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural pulpits, from Catholic monasteries to Beltway think tanks and Project 2025, a convergence is underway. Reactionary Catholics dream of a new Christendom. Protestant pastors invoke divine right over democratic rule. Tech billionaires, led by the likes of Peter Thiel, argue that freedom and democracy are incompatible. Their solution? A singular ruler to bring “order” out of what they see as liberal chaos. With a theologian’s sensibility, a journalist’s touch, and a historian’s eye for how movements evolve and adapt, the author traces the strange alliance between spiritual warfare and Silicon Valley libertarianism. At the center of it all is the desire for an unbound executive―one man, beyond checks, beyond balance, beyond democracy. It’s an organized attempt to abandon the American experiment altogether. As the 2024 election fades into history and a new political order takes shape, American Caesar is not just a warning. It’s a map of how we got here―and a call to act before the Republic as we know it becomes just another chapter in a forgotten history book.

--All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump by Anthony Scaramucci (Henry Holt and Company, $29.99) offers a new, eye-opening answer, rooted in history, business, and the author’s firsthand experience, that reveals the true origins of America’s current political crisis. The author, who once briefly served as the Trump White House communications director, charts how both political parties, over three decades, made a series of catastrophic decisions that quietly dismantled the system supporting the American dream. First came Bill Clinton’s trade deal with China, which opened U.S. markets while abandoning American workers. Next, George W. Bush’s choice to wage war while cutting taxes, exploding the deficit. Finally, Barack Obama’s bank bailout, which saved Wall Street but left millions of ordinary families behind. Each decision deepened inequality, corroded trust, and fueled the anger that empowered Donald Trump’s rise and his ongoing assault on democracy and the rule of law. A product of the working class who rose to the heights of finance and power, Scaramucci brings a rare insider’s perspective to how both parties lost touch with the people they once represented.