> NEW AND NOTABLE
The Devil You Know, Charles Blow (HarperCollins) As we head into February, Black History Month, the American broadcaster and commentator has released a book for the times — starting with an interview with Timuel Black, just before his 100th birthday. Black was part of the initial “Great Migration” of Black people from the South, where they had formed a majority of the population in some states, to northern states including Illinois and Pennsylvania, among others. Blow talks about that history, about racism in the U.S. and about reversing that migration. Powerful, with personal stories — he mentions a photo of his great-great-grandmother, who was born a slave, smileless, with her hair wild: “her worries were by no means about the shallowness of glamour but the existential threats to her survival.” With the victory of two Black senators in the 2020 election in Georgia, Blow argues that a reverse migration, back to the South, is already underway and it, combined with political activism, means you can change the South. And if you change the South, he recently said in an interview with MSNBC, you change America.
This Is the Voice, John Colapinto (Simon & Schuster) Canadian journalist and author Colapinto, who is now a full-time writer for the New Yorker, lost his voice after singing with his rock band, a result of ramping up his voice after spending much of his time writing, silently. So began a journey that started with doctor’s appointments and led him into an exploration of the human voice and human speech. It’s about the physicality of the voice: how it developed (in lungfish millions of years ago!); the physicality behind how a voice like Barbra Streisand’s, for example, is so close to perfect; and the science behind how our voices actually work. But it’s also about how our voices helped society develop; the social impact our voice has. It goes down rabbit holes such as fetal hearing and the impact of our mother’s voice during pregnancy. Or how the fact that we can vocalize our ideas has made us the dominant species. Not something we’ve likely thought much about but, like most great nonfiction, it’s a fascinating blend of science, anthropology, sociology and culture. This might, dare I say it, also be the perfect audio book.
The Don, Lorna Poplak (Dundurn Press) A bit of local history to round things out this week in Lorna Poplak’s prodigiously researched look into “The Don: The Story of Toronto’s Infamous Jail” — also known the Toronto Jail, the Old Don, the Toronto gaol — from the beginning of its construction in 1858 up to the current day. Poplak offers insights into not just the history of the jail itself, but into the development of the city and attitudes around crime and punishment. Quotes from papers and newspaper accounts and other records bring the history together in one place; the voices bring it to life, and it’s always interesting to look back at some of the most infamous crimes the city has seen.