The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery
Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley edited this collection of essays about post-slavery life for African-Americans. It’s an indictment of the continued racial injustice and bigotry that has left African-Americans disadvantaged in every category from wealth and health to graduation to incarceration rates. Authors include actor and director Tim Reid, former Detroit News columnist Betty DeRamus, and actress Aisha Hinds. (Wayne State University Press, $27)
Number One Chinese Restaurant
This first novel from Lillian Li, who graduated from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, is set in a Maryland restaurant called The Beijing Duck House. The story is a deep dive into how lives are impacted when disaster strikes a family-run restaurant. The cast of characters includes Jimmy Han, the owner who wants to escape to a fancier restaurant, his older brother Johnny, whose daughter Annie is involved with Pat, the son of long-time employee Nan. It’s a dark comedy that explores themes of youth and aging and the pluses and minuses of family ties. (Henry Holt, $22)
Red State Blues: Stories from the Midwestern Life on the Left
A collection of stories from “true blue” voters — the progressives and activists — who are lodged in “red” states, Red State Blues is a pushback against the view that the Midwest is monolithically “Trump Country.” Authors include journalist and scholar Sarah Kendzior, Kenyon College President Sean Decatur, Pittsburgh City Councilman Dan Gilman, and more. (Belt Publishing, $20)
Rosie, A Detroit Herstory
We’ve all heard the story about how women workers took over the assembly lines when the men were off fighting World War II. In this book, writer Bailey Sisoy Isgro and artist Nicole Lapointe team up to educate children on this time in history when Detroit became the Arsenal of Democracy. To help younger readers, it includes a glossary of difficult concepts and a timeline of events. (Wayne State University Press, $17)
What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City
This account of the Flint water crisis is told by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who was instrumental in helping prove that Flint’s kids had been exposed to lead. She takes on the “misguided austerity policies and callous bureaucratic indifference” that led to the Flint crisis. (One World, $28)
The Booster: How Ed Martin, The Fab Five and the Ballers from the ’hood Exposed the Hypocrisy of a Billion-dollar Industry
Carl Martin gives his take on the University of Michigan’s Fab Five basketball scandal and the money machine college hoops has become. Co-written by longtime Hour Detroit contributor Jim McFarlin, it tells the story of what drove Martin’s father, Ed, to “open his heart and his wallet” to young basketball players — a practice that launched multiple investigations into the practice of making payments to college athletes. (Men for Others LLC, $30)
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