Book of the Day Roundup: June 30-July 5, 2025
Queer Lens
A History of Photography
Paul Martineau, editor
Ryan Linkof, editor
Getty Publications
Hardcover $65.00 (342pp)
978-1-60606-969-1
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Paul Martineau and Ryan Linkof’s evocative photographic history Queer Lens chronicles queer representation in the medium.
Arguing that representation is instrumental to visibility, this book says that photography “queered” the separation between voyeur and subject. Addressing techniques and contexts including vernacular versus fine-art photography, the book’s definition of “queer” encompasses anyone who lives outside social norms, from 1732 onward. Although it focuses on queer experiences and identities in the United States, the book also addresses disparities across the world for people of color, lesbians, and the transgender community and encourages digging into those arenas.
The ranging photographs included herein include pictorialist and photo-secessionist pieces; some depict everyday life, and others are staged, high-budget pieces. The lives of people like Robert Mapplethorpe, who sought to represent gay subcultures like sadomasochism and who had a complicated history representing Black men, and Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transwoman activist vital to the Stonewall Uprising, are covered via enticing biographical details. The sheer number of photographs is astounding but not comprehensive, with work left to be done capturing queer people of color, non-Western subjects, and the transgender community. Regardless, the collection is potent and inspiring.
Some forms of representation are covert, the book notes, allowing queer people to escape ostracization, as with the on-the-border erotic images produced by physique magazines and homophile publications. The way a lone woman’s body takes up space in a frame, or the posing of gay men’s bodies as objects to be desired, are reflected upon as forms of self-empowerment for photographers and subjects alike. Regardless, many of the subjects and photographers were criticized and persecuted for their artistry.
Queer Lens is an empowering photography retrospective that reflects American queer communities.
ALI ORTIZ (April 21, 2025)
The Bear and the Hare and the Fair
Em Lynas
Matt Hunt, illustrator
Nosy Crow
Hardcover $17.99 (32pp)
979-888777210-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Bold swaths of color complement summertime shenanigans in this rhyming picture book about two adventurous friends. Bear is wrested from his chair and towed to the fair by his friend Hare, but they can’t agree on what to ride. Hare likes to swing and twirl, while Bear prefers to thump and bash; a swooping rollercoaster proves a fitting compromise for the unlikely pair. The illustrations play with portrait and landscape orientation to capture the high-octane thrills of a summer carnival.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (June 22, 2025)
History Lessons
Zoe B. Wallbrook
Soho Crime
Hardcover $25.95 (384pp)
978-1-64129-552-9
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
A Black woman in academia mobilizes her research skills to investigate a murder in Zoe B. Wallbrook’s spirited novel History Lessons.
A junior professor at illustrious Harrison University, Daphne studies the history of Black families under French imperialism. When Sam, her famous colleague in the anthropology department, is killed, a last-minute text message from him subjects her to the perpetrator’s continued threats. With the encouragement of Rowan—a local bookseller, former police officer, and Daphne’s irresistible crush—Daphne investigates Sam’s death while uncovering the misogyny, racism, and lies of her college’s new dean.
Despite its violence, the narration is wry, delighting in nerdy and contemporary cultural references. For example, Daphne quips that “she could memorize text faster than AI could generate a sonnet praising Trader Joe’s in the style of Sylvia Plath.” The daily hustle and bustle of the university is enveloped in similar humor: Between jostling with colleagues for faculty dining’s famed food, Daphne observes dueling gluttonous squirrels and satirizes the intellectual proclivities of her students with fond affection.
While the book’s romantic scenes are somewhat contrived—Daphne and Rowan often fall into each other as Daphne’s infatuated inner monologue waxes onward—the strength Daphne finds from their tender banter is heartening. She also draws strength from her loyal friends and loving father. Her growth from “invisible” to “[determining] to write the ending of her own damn story” is engrossing. Thanks to her clever historian’s habit of “[reading] against the grain and [interrogating] every word,” the criminal investigation is multilayered. Daphne stands against systems of abusive power that victimize women, especially those of color, leading to an empowering, satisfying end.
A Black woman professor strives for truth, belonging, and romance in History Lessons, an entertaining mystery novel that is conscious about resisting systemic injustice.
ISABELLA ZHOU (June 22, 2025)
Crush
My Year as an Apprentice Winemaker
Nicholas O’Connell
Potomac Books
Hardcover $32.95 (248pp)
978-1-64012-631-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
In his vivacious memoir Crush, journalist Nicholas O’Connell recounts his recreational winemaking exploits in Washington State.
For fifteen years, O’Connell has been making red wine under the label Les Copains (“The Friends”). Wine grew from a hobby inspired by his junior year abroad in France and his honeymoon trip to the Napa Valley into an obsession. He buys grapes rather than growing his own and produces eight hundred bottles a year.
Devoting one year to the intensive study of winemaking, this amateur pondered whether to go professional. He set off to visit American Viticultural Areas of the West and meet the “founding fathers” of the industry. He volunteered under Bob Betz, who holds a Master of Wine distinction, and toured Oregon. At Robert Mondavi’s California winery, he was in awe of how one man became responsible for “making wine and food a central part of American culture.”
Believing that wine represents an ancient blend of art and science, O’Connell marvels at how myths, traditions, and ceremonies surround the drink, a simple but “wondrous and measureless mystery.” In contemplating flavor profiles and pairings with cuisine and developing intuition about cultivation and harvesting practices, a person can end up “sounding like a medieval alchemist,” he notes.
“Grapes, like people generally, have to suffer to achieve their potential,” O’Connell writes. Many might think of winemaking as “a romantic activity, but there’s a lot of drudgery to it.” Indeed, the book covers both the highs (a bottling party; Robert Mondavi tasting his wine and being complimentary) and the lows (a flat tire on O’Connell’s truck “The Beast”; a fruit fly infestation at his house at fermentation time).
Crush is a lighthearted paean to winemaking as a unique pastime “combining the ephemeral and the eternal.”
REBECCA FOSTER (June 22, 2025)
Bold, Brilliant, and Latine
Meet 52 Latine and Hispanic Heroes from Past and Present
Alyssa Reynoso-Morris
Sol Cotti, illustrator
Wide Eyed Editions
Hardcover $24.99 (64pp)
978-0-7112-9436-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Alyssa Reynoso-Morris’s dynamic mini-biography anthology celebrates Latine and Hispanic lives and legacies through stories of heritage and resilience.
The book introduces fifty-two Latine and Hispanic figures, including scientists, artists, politicians, musicians, athletes, and activists. The profiles trace the subjects’ early beginnings, personal challenges, and enduring cultural and social impacts. From Frida Kahlo’s “rebellious” portraits to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning compositions, the book spotlights Latine visionaries from the 1700s to present day. Each biography includes the individual’s country of origin and lifespan; select profiles are enriched by fun facts and inspiring quotes.
The storytelling is warm, affirming, and accessible, balancing historical reflection and emotive language. Some words, phrases, and numbers appear in bold and italic print to draw attention to significant facts and moments. Some profiles include Spanish words too, underscoring the importance of language in preserving cultural heritage (“Say HOLA to Andrés de Jesús María y José Bello López”).z
The illustrations are a visual feast of colorful backsplashes and thoughtful portraits. Vibrant add-ons echo the achievements of the figures portrayed, making each page informative and interactive. For example, space scientist and physicist Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski is illustrated alongside Isaac Newton’s cradle and an atom.
In the introduction, Reynoso-Morris notes that the Latine community is not monolithic; rather, it includes “a wide range of cultures, countries, traditions, dialects, languages, histories, and experiences.” Thus, the profiles function as both representations and invitations, encouraging sustained dialogue around racial and ethnic identity. This framework extends to the glossary that bookends the collection, wherein sociopolitical terms including “Congress,” “equality,” and “protest” are defined to deepen the book’s educational context.
Featuring fifty-two cultural legends, the biographical survey text Bold, Brilliant, and Latine honors the heartbeat of Latine ancestry by highlighting the brilliance and diversity of those who shape it.
BROOKE SHANNON (June 22, 2025)
Kathy Young
