Washington Post reporter Amy Goldstein spent years tracking the aftermath, going beyond the familiar tale to find out what happens to the people who stay behind to try and pick up the pieces. What happens when a factory town loses its factory? The General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis., closed just two days before Christmas in 2008, an early blow of the Great Recession. We Were Eight Years in Power We Were Eight Years in Power Coates continues to be a vital and timely voice on race, politics and American history. It also includes new work for each year of Obama's presidency, in which Coates reflects on his own thinking and development through a historic and shifting decade. 'We Were Eight Years in Power' by Ta-Nehisi CoatesĪ compilation of some of Ta-Nehisi Coates' most iconic and widely-discussed essays, this book offers reflections on the presidency of Barack Obama, the election of Donald Trump and connections between the two. Their stories are artfully and sparingly captured in this slim book, in which Luiselli recounts the 40 questions she asks each child facing deportation. The children she works with are fighting to stay in United States, hoping to escape poverty and violence in their homelands. Novelist Valeria Luiselli has made a name for herself in the fiction world, but her new book centers around her work as an interpreter for children from Central America navigating the U.S. 'Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions' by Valeria Luiselli In the tradition of Mary Cantwell's classic 'Manhattan Memoir,' Harris' book brings alive a lost time of the city, and the struggles of a young woman torn between her devotion to her career - she would go on to become a celebrated cookbook author - and her nascent love life. She spent her days partying with James Baldwin, cooking with Maya Angelou and being ordered about by the imperial Nina Simone - all of which she recounts in her new memoir. Harris traveled in the circles of Manhattan's intellectual elite. HarrisĪs a young woman in the 1970s, Jessica B. It's a book not unlike the Champ himself - so quick-witted and light on its feet, you might overlook its power and heft. For those who do know Ali's story, Jonathan Eig's propulsive writing, character insights and ability to bring the action of the ring alive on the page make this the Ali biography to read.

For those who aren't familiar with Ali's transformation from divisive political activist to beloved hero, 'Ali: A Life' gives a nuanced and fascinating account of the complicated superstar. Muhammad Ali was not always a revered American icon.

Best books to read 2017 nonfiction