Books

Genevie Durano

1. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson Wilkerson writes really big books, both in pages and scope. The follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning The Warmth of Other Suns posits that caste, a system of societal hierarchy seen in other parts of the world, is manifested most profoundly in the treatment of Black Americans through historical and contemporary oppression.

2. A Promised Land by Barack Obama This first of a two-volume memoir reminds us that words matter, and they can be eloquent, too. Get off Twitter and savor these 768 pages slowly, because there’s no release date yet for the second part.

2. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell The grief a parent feels over the loss of a child is an immense force. Author Maggie O’Farrell imagines this as the engine that propels William Shakespeare to write his masterpiece Hamlet, after the loss of his 11-year-old son Hamnet to the bubonic plague. It’s a portrait of the Bard as you’ve never seen him—not the literary genius of history, but simply a father overcome with sorrow.

4. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett In a year that had race on the forefront of our national consciousness, this novel about twin sisters during the Jim Crow era who pursue divergent paths—one chooses to pass off as white and the other does not—asks hard questions about racial identity.

5. The End of October by Lawrence Wright There’s no shortage of pandemic lit on the shelves, but Wright’s eerily prescient novel, published just before COVID-19 hit the world in earnest, has so many similarities to our present predicament, this really is one instance where truth is as strange as fiction.

C. Moon Reed

Here’s an unranked list of recommended 2020 books with a local focus or connection.

Eat a Peach by David Chang In this honest memoir, the renowned chef, restaurateur and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious discusses his rise, his struggles with depression and his life as an American child of Korean immigrants.

Sandstone & Silver: An Anthology of Nevada Poets edited by Heather Lang-Cassera Beloved local publisher Zeitgeist Press presents an anthology featuring 55 Silver State poets.

At the Sands: The Casino That Shaped Classic Las Vegas, Brought the Rat Pack Together, and Went Out With a Bang by David G. Schwartz The latest project from the Las Vegas historian and UNLV leader shines light on a pivotal Old Vegas casino.

Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace Intrigue by Geoff Schumacher The longtime journalist and Mob Museum executive delivers a revised and expanded version of his biography of a true Las Vegas icon, offering new insights on Hughes’ interactions with the mob, a CIA project, aviation and more.

The Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time by Ben Ehrenreich The recent Black Mountain Institute fellow explores climate change, the Mojave Desert and more. Publishers Weekly describes it as a “beautiful meditation on adapting to future cataclysm.”

Podcasts

Genevie Durano

There are more than 850,000 podcasts available, covering every topic under the sun. Tune the world out for a bit and start playing catch up.

1. Floodlines This is the story of Hurricane Katrina as you’ve never heard it before, told by people who lived through it. The human toll is heartbreaking, the bureaucratic incompetence maddening. Fifteen years on, the tragedy still stirs up a tidal wave of emotions.

2. Nice White Parents An astounding piece of journalism by Chana Joffe-Walt, this five-part series focuses on one school in Brooklyn, throwing open its doors to reveal the systemic inequity baked into the American education system.

3. 1619 Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Pulitzer Prize-winning series for The New York Times, which traces the impact of slavery in America’s identity, is no less moving in audio form. This is history we didn’t learn at school, taking place before the official founding of this country.

4. The Daily Even in the year of no commute, The Daily, strategically designed to be the length of the average workplace trek (around 22 minutes), continued its dominance in the podcast charts. If you’re a fan, you know your day doesn’t start right without Michael Barbaro’s singular voice diving deep into one important New York Times story.

5. Dead Eyes This might be the most endearing podcast of the year, built around a trauma suffered by actor Connor Ratliff when he was fired by Tom Hanks in Band of Brothers … because America’s Dad thought Ratliff had “dead eyes.”

6. NPR Politics This election year would have been even harder to get through if not for the team at NPR Politics cutting through all the noise.

7. Even the Rich This podcast lifts the veil on famous mononyms like Britney, Beyoncé and Versace, stripping away the artifice of stardom. What’s underneath is rarely pretty.

8.Staying in With Emily & Kumail Need tips on how to live your best quarantine life? Let funny guy Kumail Nanjani and his wife, Emily Gordon, be your audio guides.

9. The Michelle Obama Podcast The former first lady has wisdom to spare, and her podcast is a respite from the nonsense that clogs up our digital lives.

10. Rabbit Hole The internet has transformed not only our daily lives, but our very nature as human beings. If that thought keeps you up at night, this six-part series from New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose is a must-listen.