As one would probably expect when dealing with a newsroom, non-fiction is an ever present reading category for our staff. This week’s selections lean heavily into the genre, from essays on feminism and investigations on the reality of lithium all the way to the narrative format in a story of life and death in a small town in southern Argentina. We’re also engulfed in the history of how Homo sapiens evolved, as well as a graphic novel version of a dystopian book of one of Argentina’s most important writers.

Hood Feminism: notes from the women that a movement forgot, by Mikki Kendall (Viking, 2020, 258 pages)

A clear-eyed and personal call to truly make feminism intersectional from “the feminist people call when being sweet isn’t enough.” Kendall explores issues overlooked by the mainstream feminism movement —overwhelmingly white, straight, and cisgender— to showcase everyone being left behind. From poverty to the adultification of Black girls, Kendall says the book isn’t meant to be an easy read but an opportunity to learn and do the hard work. – Valen

Los suicidas del fin del mundo, by Leila Guerriero (Planeta, 2020, 236 pages)

This brooding chronicle of a series of youth suicides in the bleak Santa Cruz oil town of Las Heras is a testament to the value of slow journalism. Guerriero follows the deceased’s family and friends, as well as the characters she meets around town, through her visit and keeps in touch over the course of several years. The result is a portrait of life and lives in a town that, as she often reminds us, is utterly ignored by Buenos Aires, in a style reminiscent of Chicas Muertas, Selva Almada’s book about four femicides from before femicide had entered Argentina’s conceptual radar. Guerriero’s prose style is detailed and evocative, but I still sometimes struggle with the minute detail and blow-by-blow accounts privileged by narrative nonfiction. -Amy

Crónicas del litio, by Ernesto Picco (Futurock libros, 2022, 320 pages)

Latin America has the largest lithium reserves on the planet, and its exploitation poses several challenges for Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. In this book, the author combines historical information, current data and life stories gathered in several trips to these places to see firsthand how this economic activity is impacting communities. Excellent journalistic research, as well as entertaining and very well written. – Estefanía

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari (Harper, 2015, 464 pages)

The book explores the history of humankind and the rise of the homo sapien species. I am about 100 pages in, but it explores how there were a variety of other human species on Earth for a long time. The book discusses how Homo sapiens were a relatively unimportant species for a significant period of time and how we came to be the only human species. It specifically explores how the uniquely human trait of “gossiping” and the ability to believe in a collective ‘“false reality” led to our success as a species. It is just now delving into how Homo sapiens permanently altered the Earth’s ecosystems, specifically looking at the colonization of Australia. -Ella

La Ciudad Ausente, by Ricardo Piglia (Libros del Zorro Rojo, 2008, 89 pages) 

It’s a graphic novel based on Piglia’s original La Ciudad Ausente, published by Editorial Sudamericana in 1992. Its set during the military dictatorship in which a reporter gets strange messages from a woman who is also a machine. It’s a bit confusing to read but full of literary references to James Joyce as well as Argentine literature. Some of the confusion is purposeful, as it’s a meditation on the role of art and journalism under oppressive regimes. The reporter in the book is also based on Robert Cox and Rodolfo Walsh. The artwork is very unique as well, crudely drawn but incredibly detailed in black and white with lines and pictures melding into one another. There is also an English version, published in 2000 by Duke University Press. -Thomas