Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Margo Jefferson is no stranger to gleaning meaning from cultural moments both big and small. With her second memoir, Constructing a Nervous System, she turns her keen eye on herself and the influences that have shaped the way she sees herself and the world. Though the book—the follow-up to Negroland, which focused on her childhood and coming-of-age—is undeniably autobiographical, it resists the narrative conventions of a traditional memoir. Instead, Jefferson interrogates her place in not only engaging with but also shaping the culture, making for an invigorating examination of the constructs and limitations of identity, especially when it comes to race and class. —Cady Lang
Buy Now: Constructing a Nervous System on Bookshop | Amazon
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Introducing the 2025 Closers
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- Why, Exactly, Is Alcohol So Bad for You?
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- 11 New Books to Read in February
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Column: Trump’s Trans Military Ban Betrays Our Troops
