Fear not! Valentine’s Day isn’t the only thing bibliophiles can expect to occur in February because new releases of every genre and niche are celebrating their birthdays as well. Since SFF often gets its flowers before all else, our recommendations this time are a tribute to the nonfiction-loving crowd with four upcoming releases that will steal your heart and mind. Read on to find your next favorite book!
Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling by Henry Lien
In Western art and literature, diversity is often a term found in discussions of developer or character identity. Still, author and instructor Henry Lien argues that the word encompasses creative structures as well. From the Super Mario video game franchise to The 1,001 Nights and so on, Lien compares and discusses the story structures utilized in different cultures throughout time, examining the East Asian four-act structure of kishōtenketsu alongside Western storytelling classics. Lien also introduces inquisitive writers to nested and circular structures, explaining the value of diversity in their form as well as identity. Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling is slated for release on February 4, 2025.
Who I Always Was: A Memoir by Theresa Okokon
When Theresa Okokon was nine years old, her father returned to his childhood home in Nigeria to pay his respects at his own mother’s funeral — and Okokon never saw him again. His death, odd and inexplicable, rattled her family with momentous grief, pivoting the course of their lives in directions they never expected. Now, Okokon returns to that sense of loss in a series of personal essays on belonging, abandonment, and uncertainty, examining how heartache changed her life and identity as well as discussing her experience as a young Black girl in the suburbs of Wisconsin. Who I Always Was: A Memoir is slated for release on February 4, 2025.
After the North Pole: A Story of Survival, Mythmaking, and Melting Ice by Erling Kagge
On March 8, 1990, Erling Kagge and Børge Ousland began their expedition to the North Pole, armed with nothing except their skis, personal supplies, and sleds to hold those belongings. 58 days later, on May 4, they became the first people to succeed without the aid of motorized vehicles or sled dogs. Now, Kagge— an author, renowned explorer, and philosopher — narrates his historic achievement in a memoir about human endurance and the relationship mankind holds with nature, sharing his and Ousland’s story through a trail of fascinating memories. After the North Pole: A Story of Survival, Mythmaking, and Melting Ice is slated for release on February 11, 2025.
Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays by Edgar Gomez
Edgar Gomez was taught that when his mother had a stroke, she would be angry at him if he called an ambulance their family couldn’t afford. Years later, he and his friends would Venmo each other the same 20 dollars to keep them afloat in an emergency. These lessons of survival guided Gomez’s young adult life, eventually exposing the myth of the American Dream as exactly that — a scam designed to keep everyone in line. Now, Gomez writes his memories in a defiant series of essays, recounting what it means to find love and community on your own terms when it seems like the world is against you. Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays is slated for release on February 11, 2025.
These four amazing titles are only a handful of the new releases we’re anticipating to find on our shelves in February. Remember to support these authors by pre-ordering!
If you missed our last set of recommendations, take a look at January 2025 Nonfiction: Fresh Reads for the New Year.
If you want to pre-order a copy of one of these books ASAP, check out Non-Fiction Titles for the Enlightened Mind on Bookstr’s Bookshop!
