Journalism & Publishing
Believe Nothing until It Is Officially Denied: Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerilla Journalism.
By Patrick Cockburn.
Oct. 2024. 320p. Verso, $34.95 (9781804290743). 070.2.
Throughout Believe Nothing until It Is Officially Denied, author Cockburn writes of his journalist father’s ever-present skepticism and dogged dedication to fact above spin. For readers, it will feel like Claud Cockburn’s life often strained credulity. A contemporary of Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden, and George Orwell, Claud was a clarion voice of the time, including through his own publication, The Week, where he aimed his pen at both Nazism and the capitalist establishment. Claud lived, wrote, and romanced across the globe, meeting history where it was being made, including on the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War and in New York City during the Wall Street crash of 1929. Patrick Cockburn writes with a playful flourish and, despite his closeness to the subject, avoids presenting a hagiography. Claud is shown as complicated and stubborn while also being a wholly magnetic figure who was dogged in both holding his beliefs and finding the central truth. A ruminative biography that firmly situates the power of independent, on-the-ground journalism. —Jeff Connelly
Philosophy & Psychology
It Gets Better . . . Except When It Gets Worse and Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me.
By Nicole Maines.
Oct. 2024. 224p. Dial, $29 (9780593243121); e-book (9780593243138). 158.1.
Maines knew from early childhood that she was meant to be a girl. In elementary school, she began to present as female in public. However, when her school refused to deal with harassment from another student, her family filed a lawsuit that eventually made the state of Maine the first to protect transgender people’s rights to use the bathrooms that match their identity. The family’s journey was chronicled in the book Becoming Nicole (2015), by Amy Ellis Nutt. Despite the positive arc of that book, though, Maines’ life was not a perfect climb from trauma to acceptance. This memoir describes the author’s experience of weathering the upheavals of her childhood and getting her first acting roles. With a bright, captivating voice that draws readers in, she discusses the challenges of being a public figure so young and the pressure to be a perfect trans woman. Later chapters drift in focus to touch on fandom and comics. Maines succeeds in showing that it’s okay not to have all the answers in her refreshing and timely memoir. —Laura Chanoux
YA: YAs will connect with Maines’ voice and appreciate her openness about her life. LC.
Religion
Even after Everything: The Spiritual Practice of Knowing the Risks and Loving Anyway.
By Stephanie Duncan Smith.
Oct. 2024. 224p. Convergent, $26 (9780593727751); e-book (9780593727768). 248.86.
We all have moments when we feel that living is filled with risk and question whether that risk outweighs the potential benefits. In her beautiful debut, book editor Smith exhorts readers to lean into and embrace an ever-present God. She relates her own journey through ambivalence, hopes raised and dashed, and ultimately, motherhood during the COVID-19 pandemic, mingled with the liturgical year’s seven seasons (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Ordinary Time) and the lessons each offers. In the first of many paradoxes, a searing miscarriage during Advent and the accompanying profound loss and grief are juxtaposed with the joys of the holidays. As she moves through the church calendar, Smith describes ancient liturgical rhythms that are freshly relevant and of breathless hope in the face of pain and doubt, in a kaleidoscope of colors and emotions. An echoing refrain, “I AM With Us,” anchors Smith’s introduction of a God who became one of us for the purpose of “ushering us into [His] orbit,” and who doesn’t diminish our pain but holds us and sees us through it. As each sacred year begins again, Smith finds an “invitation to go deeper in.” This exquisite memoir will encourage others to find peace and follow suit. —Karen Clements
Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church.
By Gareth Gore.
Oct. 2024. 448p. Simon & Schuster, $30.99 (9781668016145). 282.09.
In 2017, Spanish financial institution Banco Popular collapsed. Numerous shareholders began suing the bankrupt bank, while the dissolution of one of the bank’s largest shareholders raised even more questions. Financial journalist Gore’s inquiries led him to Javier Valls-Taberner, brother of Luis Valls-Taberner, former head of Banco Popular and a devoted member of the shadowy organization called Opus Dei. Luis was one of thousands of men and women who adhered to the dogma espoused by Josemaria Escriva, the Catholic priest who established Opus Dei in 1928. Shrouded in mystery from its humble origins in Spain, the organization established political and financial connections that enabled its global proliferation. Despite its shield of anonymity having now disappeared, its influence is still significant. Gore explores the corruption of faith, money, and politics in this eye-opening exposé. He doggedly follows the money trail that bound Banco Popular to Opus Dei and reveals a web of influence peddling and criminal behavior that persists today. —Philip Zozzaro
Saints, Angels & Demons: An A-to-Z Guide to the Holy and the Damned.
By Gary Jansen. Illus. by Katie Ponder.
Oct. 2024. 432p. Black Dog & Leventhal, $32 (9780762484850); e-book (9780762484867). 202.15.
This reference book describes the more popular of the Catholic Church’s more than 10,000 recognized saints. The author is the executive editor of Loyola Press and has written and edited religious and spiritual books for more than 15 years. The main body of the book is divided into 3 sections: over 500 saints and a few martyrs, 15 pages of angels with a useful description of the 9 orders of angels, and 24 demons. Each saint’s entry includes fast facts (birth and death dates, feast day,
