As the nation tries to process the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, authors are digging into the complicated intersection of policing and politics. Here are two of the most recent. And for lovers of birds (aren’t we all?), we have Minnesota breeding birds and poems about herons.

“The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence & the Politics of Policing in America” >> by Michelle S. Phelps (Princeton University Press, $29.95)

…in the initial BLM protest years, groups like BLM Minneapolis, NAACP Minneapolis, CUAPB, TCC4J, and Justice for Justine all worked together to organize protests and push for policy change. The killings of Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, Justine Damond, and others activated an advocacy field fighting against police violence, bringing new voices and energy into the movement. — from “The Minneapolis Reckoning”

The years before and after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, including the protests against police, can be confusing for even the most aware citizens. There was violence, calls for reform or abolishment of the police department by Black Lives Matter and other organizations, all tangled up with Minneapolis politics. If you want one book to put everything that happened in those years in perspective, “The Minneapolis Reckoning” gives you what you need to know in one volume. Phelps, associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, has published her research in national media and on NPR as well as other outlets. Writing in a clear and reader-friendly voice, the author traces the long road involving calls for police reform and dissects what happened when the Minneapolis City Council pledged to “end” the police department, a plan ultimately rejected by the voters. In interviews with officials, as well as residents of the North Side neighborhoods, she looks at what “reform” meant to different people when the police are supposed to both promise the state’s protection and threaten violence.

Hats off to Phelps for giving readers such a concise dive into a complicated subject that will affect Minneapolis into the future. She will introduce the book at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 9, at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls. In conversation with Cinnamon Pelly, president and CEO of Pillsbury United Communities. Free. Registration required. Go to magersandquinn.com/events.

“The Summer of 2020: George Floyd and the Resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement” >> by Andre E. Johnson and Amanda Nell Edgar ($25 paperback).

In what could be considered a companion book to “The Minneapolis Reckoning,” this one looks at the perspectives of individual participants who contributed to the BLM movement’s impact and global success throughout 2020. The authors interviewed activists, from seasoned organizers to first-time protesters, to discover what BLM meant to those who participated in this large social movement but were ill-equipped to maintain and harness the political momentum for achieving lasting equity and justice. Andre Johnson is associate professor of rhetoric and media studies at the University of Memphis; Nell Edgar studies issues of race and racism as they intersect with other identities, particularly gender and class. Their book’s topics include George Floyd and the meaning of Black Lives Matter, protesting in the face of compounding threats, intersectionality as a personal investment, the role of faith, religion, and spirituality in the BLM movement, and the role of electoral politics.

Books for bird lovers

The birds are back, trilling, squawking, chattering, darting here and there from feeders to nests. Minnesota is a land of bird lovers and two separate programs Thursday, May 9, will salute books about our feathered friends.

University of Minnesota Press has given us a wonderful gift in “The Breeding Birds of Minnesota: History, Ecology, and Conservation” ($59.95), offering 630 pages packed with detailed information about some 250 birds, including colored photos, breeding habitat maps, population abundance and prospects for the future.

UMP introduces this heavy volume as the first comprehensive and in-depth assessment of Minnesota’s breeding birds in nearly a century, written by Lee A. Pfannmuller, Gerald J. Niemi and Janet C. Green. Pfannmuller served as state planning coordinator and interim executive director at Audubon Minnesota and director of the Division of Ecological Resources at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Niemi is a retired professor of biology who was director of the Center for Water and the Environment at the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Green has been observing and studying Minnesota birds since the 1960s, involved with the National Audubon Society, the Duluth and Minnesota Audubon Societies, the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union and the DNR advisory committees. The author of many books, she is co-founder of Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory.

“The Breeding Birds of Minnesota” will be launched with a program featuring Pfannmuller and Niemi at 7 p.m. at Bell Museum, 2088 Larpenteur Ave. W., St. Paul. Register at: bellmuseum.umn.edu/event/.

Across the river in St. Paul at the Grand Hand Gallery, 619 Grand Ave., there’ll be a celebration of “Broad Wings, Long Legs: A Rookery of Heron Poems” (North Star Press, $17), a slim paperback made up of 55 Minnesota poets celebrating this iconic bird. Edited by James Silas Rogers, the anthology includes well-known state poets such as Patricia Barone, Robert Bly, Philip S. Bryant, Margaret Hasse, Deborah Keenan, James Lenfestey, Jim Moore, Ethan McKiernan, William Reichard and Cary Waterman. The free program includes readings by Rogers with contributors Donna Isaac, Suzanne Swenson and Michael S. Moos. It begins at 6 p.m.