Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors, edited by Desiree Cooper (Wayne State University Press). Reviewed by Cheryl A. Head. “Sometimes, a book connects with you viscerally and you don’t know why. That isn’t the case with Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Desiree Cooper. These 33 collected works set in and around Detroit are a contemplation of my own formative years in the city.”

What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption by Paige Towers (University of Iowa Press). Reviewed by Alice Stephens. “The most prolific adoption agency by far was founded by American Evangelicals Harry and Bertha Holt. While their role in intercountry adoption has been examined by adoption-studies scholars, and many cases of fraudulent practices and unqualified adoptive parents have come to light, Paige Towers’ investigation of the Holts’ program, What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption, brings the receipts, and they are horrific and damning.”

Pure Men: A Novel by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr; translated by Lara Vergnaud (Other Press). Reviewed by Susi Wyss. “In his search, Ndéné encounters a cast of characters, each with their own views on queerness. The imam at his mosque declares that homosexuality was imported by the West, the góor-jigéen must be removed from society, and any Muslims who defend them will go to hell. Ndéné’s father, in line to become the next imam, is slightly more tolerant: Even as he tells his son that homosexuality is a choice and he would disown any child of his who chose it, when he fills in for the imam, he calls upon the people to pray for mercy for the disinterred man’s soul.”

Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground by Richie Unterberger (Omnibus Press). Reviewed by Daniel de Visé. “Therein, perhaps, lies a limitation of rock-band biographies. A rock musician’s life plays out as a monotonous procession of shows, punctuated by the occasional recording session, album release, and rehab stay. If you purchase Do What You Fear Most expecting a well-paced narrative and a View-Master reel of the subject, be prepared to do some skimming. This is a book for hardcore fans, and we are many.”

After the Fall: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy, How Politicians Broke Our World by Ian Shapiro (Basic Books). Reviewed by William Rice. “On the domestic front, center-left parties (like America’s Democrats) have spent the past 40 years pandering to an imagined center with neoliberal, trickle-down, supply-side-economic orthodoxy that left most people behind while turbocharging the fortunes of the super-wealthy. The frustration was building for decades, but the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting Great Recession — during which banks were bailed out but underwater homeowners were not — opened the door for right-wing populists like Donald Trump.”

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