12 works of nonfiction you need to read this summer

From fascinating memoirs to absorbing essay collections, add these Canadian and international nonfiction books to your reading list this summer.

On Account of Darkness by Ian Kennedy

In the nonfiction book On Account of Darkness, Ian Kennedy collected over 100 years of stories about athletes who triumphed despite systemic racism. Focusing on Ontario's Chatham-Kent region, the book exploreshowthe history of sport in the region is a microcosm for the successes and challenges non-white athletes have faced forgenerationsacross Canada. Combining individual stories of athletesand social commentary, Kennedy examines systemic racism and Canadian multiculturalism against the backdrop of sports history.

• Exploring how sports, racial history intertwine in an Ontario community

Based in Erie Beach, Ont., Kennedy is a sports journalist and secondary school teacher. In 2011, he founded theChatham-Kent Sports Network,an online news outlet covering both amateur and professional athletes.

Rehearsals for Living by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

The concept behind the book Rehearsals for Living formed during the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. Authors Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson began writing each other letters a gesture sparked by a desire for kinship and connection during a trying time. Rooted in Black and Indigenous perspectives on race, gender and class,Rehearsals for Living is an epistolary dialogue about the world we live in and a need for change.

• Why Robyn Maynard wrote a book exposing the underreported history of racial injustice in Canada
• Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on Indigenous freedom and creating change

Maynard is a Montreal-based Black feminist writer, activist and educator. Maynard's writing and work focus on documenting racist and gender-based state violence. Her debut book, Policing Black Lives, traced the underreported modern and historical realities of anti-Blackness within a Canadian context.

Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, activist, musician, artist, author and member of Alderville First Nation. Her work often centres on the experiences of Indigenous Canadians. Her books include Islands of Decolonial Love, This Accident of Being Lost, As We Have Always Done and Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies.

The Next Chapter20:03Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on Rehearsals for Living

Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson talk to Shelagh Rogers about their book, Rehearsals for Living.

The Naked Don't Fear the Water byMatthieu Aikins

Journalist Matthieu Aikins leaves behind his passport and identity to follow a young Afghan named Omaras he leaves his war-torn country. Omar and Aikinsjourney across land and sea from Afghanistan to Europe, coming face-to-face with smugglers, cops, activists and other refugees.

The Naked Don't Fear the Wateris a story about friendship across borders, as it shines a light on the heart of the migration crisis.

• Journalist's undercover journey with Afghan refugees exposes 'hidden violence' at borders

Aikins is a Canadian journalist living in Kabulreporting on the war. He is also a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a contributing editor at Rolling Stone.The Naked Don't Fear the Wateris his first book.

Tanqueray by Brandon Stanton and Stephanie Johnson

The online world met Stephanie Johnson, better known as Tanqueray, in 2019 through a photograph shared across social media. Millions followed her story, photograph by photograph, as she shared snippets fromher brutal childhood to trying to make itin a world of go-go dancers and hustlers, dirty cops and gangsters. Now, in collaborationwith photographer and co-author Brandon Stanton, Johnson shares the full story in her book,Tanqueray.

Johnsonis best known as "Tanqueray," the American burlesque dancer who took New York City by stormin the '70sand then became an online media sensation in 2020 when photographed for Humans of New York. She lives in Manhattan.Tanquerayis her first book.

Stanton is a photographer, writer and the creator of the viral social media projectHumans of New York. He is also the creator of the bestselling booksHumans, Humans of New York,andHumans of New York: Storiesas well as the children's bookLittle Humans.

The Power of Teamwork by Dr. Brian Goldman

The Power of Teamworkshows how a team approach to medicine can improve more than our healthcare systems. This new model can lead to better customer service, solidify the provision of social services to troubled youth, make professional sports teams perform better, and even help women break the glass ceiling.

Dr. Brian Goldman is an ER doctor and a bestselling author. He is the host of CBC Radio'sWhite Coat, Black Art,and theCBC podcastThe Dose, which is about the latest in health news. Goldman lives in Toronto.

Some of My Best Friends byTajja Isen

Some of My Best Friendsis an essay collection that examines race, social justice and the limits ofgoodintentions. The timely bookexplores issues such the animationindustry's pivot away fromcolourblind casting, the pursuit of diverse representation in the literary world, the law's refusal to see inequality,the cozy illusionsof nationalism and more.

Born in Toronto,TajjaIsenis awriter, editor and voice actor. Currently based in New York,Isenis the editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine.Some of My Best Friendsis her debut book. She also co-edited the essay collectionsThe World as We Knew ItandThe Walrus Book of True Crime.

Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud

In his memoir, Elamin Abdelmahmoud recounts his experience leaving his native Sudan and moving to Kingston, Ont. Like all teens, he spent his adolescence trying to figure out who he was, but he had to do it while learning to balance a new racial identity and all the assumptions that came with being Black and Muslim.

Son of Elsewhere explores how our experiences and environments can define our identity and who we truly are.

• Elamin Abdelmahmoud is on a journey of rediscovery

Abdelmahmoud is the host of CBC's weekly pop culture podcast Pop Chat, co-host of CBC's political podcast Party Lines and a frequent culture commentator for CBC News. He's a culture writer for BuzzFeed News, where he also writes their daily morning newsletter, Incoming.

The Sunday Magazine26:01How Elamin Abdelmahmoud found home in 'elsewhere' as newcomer to Canada

Good Mom on Paper, edited by Stacey May Fowles & Jen Sookfong Lee

Good Mom on Paper is a collection of 20 essays from writers includingHeather O'Neill, Lee Maracle, Jael Richardson, Alison Pick and more. The collection is an honest and intimate exploration of the complicated relationship between motherhood and creativity. These essays examinethe often-invisible challenges of literary life as a parent and celebrate the systems that nurture writers who are mothers.

• 39 works of Canadian nonfiction to watch for in spring 2022

Stacey May Fowles is an award-winning journalist, essayist andauthor of four books. Her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Elle Canada, The Walrus and elsewhere. Fowles lives in Toronto, where she is working on her fourth novel and a children's book.

Jen Sookfong Lee is a writer from Vancouver. Her books include The Conjoined, which was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize;The Better Mother, which was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award;The End of East;and Finding Home.

The Next Chapter17:06Jen Sookfong Lee on The Shadow List Poems

Jen Sookfong Lee talks to Shelagh Rogers about her collection of poems, The Shadow List.

How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil

How the World Really Worksis a nonfiction work that looks at the lasting impact of modern science and technology. This book is a researched "reality check" as it uses data to explain seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity including our dependency on fossil fuels and the legacy of globalization.

Vaclav Smil is a Canadian author and academic. He is the author of over 40books withtopics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment and public policy.

Lost in the Valley of Deathby Harley Rustad

Justin Alexander Shetler was an American who wastrained in wilderness survival. He travelled across America by motorcycle and then made his way to the Philippines, Thailand and Nepal, in search of authentic and meaningful experiences. After several weeks of training, Justin embarked on a journey through the Parvati Valley, a remote and rugged corner of the Indian Himalayas, never to return.

Lost in the Valley of Deathis about Shetler'sdisappearance and presumed death and the many ways we seek fulfilment in life.

Harley Rustad is a writer, journalist and editor from Salt Spring Island, B.C. He is the author ofBig Lonely Doug,which was shortlisted for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.Lost in the Valley of Deathis his second book.

The Sunday Magazine28:55Martha Wainwright is turning the page on her family's story

Stories I Might Regret Telling Youby Martha Wainwright

In her memoir, Martha Wainwright reflects on her tumultuous public life, her competitive relationship with her brother and the loss of her mother. She writes about finding her voice as an artist, becoming a mother herself and making peace with the past.

Stories I Might Regret Telling Youoffers a thoughtful and deeply personal look into the life of one of the most talented singer-songwriters in music today.

• The rebirth of Martha Wainwright

Wainwright is a Canadianmusician and artist. She is the daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister of singer Rufus Wainwright. She lives in Montreal.

The Sunday Magazine24:33David Sedaris on his father's death, division, and choosing one thing to be terribly, terribly offended by

Happy-Go-Luckyby David Sedaris

American writer and humorist David Sedaris is back to chronicle both the inner workings of his life and the recent upheavals in America and the world. Processing, among other things,the death of his father, the Trump era and life in lockdown, hecaptures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about love, life, tragedy and our desire for connection.If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than Sedaris.

Sedarisis the bestselling author of several books, includingCalypso,Theft by Finding,Me Talk Pretty One DayandLet's Explore Diabetes With Owls.