Tag: nonficnov

Bookworm Blogging

Nonfiction November: My year in non-fiction

Sarah

Hello everyone! Nonfiction November is once again upon us. I think it’s been a couple years since I’ve participated, but I do love nonfiction so I always look forward to it! Here is the prompt for this week’s post:

Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

I’ve read only a handful of nonfiction books this year — less than usual — but I’ll run through them quickly here.

Surviving the White Gaze, This Common Secret, and I’m Afraid of Men were all hard-hitting memoirs. I read all three for school but got to choose two of them myself; regardless I’m glad I read all of them! Glamour Magic was sort of a spiritual/self-help read that I enjoyed, even if I thought it was imperfect. Investing Is Your Superpower was a little girlboss but still super helpful for learning some more about how money works and how to make decisions.

I am in the midst of another self-help book that I’ll probably share later. I do have some more memoirs on my TBR to read soon — memoirs tend to be my favorite kind of nonfiction. I’m hoping Nonfiction November will help to jumpstart my nonfic reading again! I’ve definitely been struggling with it a bit this year.

If you’re participating in Nonfiction November, please feel free to share your posts below so I can check them out!

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Nonfiction November Week 5: New to My TBR

Sarah

Week 5: (Nov. 25 to 30) – New to My TBR (Rennie @ What’s Nonfiction): It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book!

It’s time for Nonfiction November! For the final week I’m sharing new additions to my TBR. I apologize because for most of these, I don’t have someone specific to link back to but I will where I can!

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Nonfiction November Week 4: Favorites

Sarah

Week 4: (Nov. 18 to 22) –Nonfiction Favorites (Leann @ Shelf Aware): We’ve talked about how you pick nonfiction books in previous years, but this week I’m excited to talk about what makes a book you’ve read one of your favorites. Is the topic pretty much all that matters? Are there particular ways a story can be told or particular writing styles that you love? Do you look for a light, humorous approach or do you prefer a more serious tone? Let us know what qualities make you add a nonfiction book to your list of favorites.

It’s time for Nonfiction November! This week I’m sharing some of my favorite nonfiction books.

I feel like I haven’t stopped talking about American Predator since I read it but it is so unbelievably enthralling! I really cannot recommend it enough.

Similarly, I’ve brought up Evicted a lot this month. This is such an insightful book that really opened my eyes to aspects of poverty I hadn’t been educated on before.

I spent most of my childhood idolizing Monty Roberts. In his memoir, The Man Who Listens to Horses, Monty details his life and how he’s learned to communicate with horses using their own language. I think I’ve read this probably 4 or 5 times over the years and believe I even have an autographed copy!

Mara Wilson’s memoir Where Am I Now? is interesting, entertaining, and accessible. It was a quick and enjoyable read and I highly recommend it!

Ask Me About My Uterus was really the first time I had heard much about endometriosis. I read an ARC of it almost two years ago and was earlier this year diagnosed with endometriosis. I’ve been meaning to reread this book — part memoir, part educational — through the lens of what I’ve experienced since my first time through. Even if you don’t suffer from endo, I think this is a quite important, and engaging, read.

I read NurtureShock for a Psych class in college. I was impressed by the different points it made. Each chapter reads like an essay on a different topic, and the format really works.

Whipping Girl is written by a trans woman, and discusses the discrimination that trans women tend to face. This book was the first thing that helped me really get what people meant by “transmisogyny” and I found it really eye-opening in a lot of ways.

A Cat Named Darwin made me cry my damn eyes out, but I loved it.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark was fascinating, terrifying, and ultimately heartbreaking. I don’t think you need me to hype it up any more for you.

I’ll be honest, I don’t remember a lot about Lessons from a Child, but I read it for my Teaching Writing class in college and found myself heavily impacted by it. I think it’s an interesting read even if you don’t intend on teaching one day.

While Sex at Dawn had its criticisms, I found it quite interesting and felt validated by it as a polyamorous woman.

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Nonfiction November Week 3: Be the Expert

Sarah

Week 3: (Nov. 11 to 15) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Katie @ Doing Dewey): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share three or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).

It’s time for Nonfiction November! This week I’ve chosen sort of a broad topic in the “Be the Expert” challenge: social justice in the United States. Looking through my nonfiction shelf, three different books that I wanted to share stuck out to me, and they all had in common criticisms of various aspects of America today.

Evicted is disturbing book about how the landlord/tenant relationship works. It’s super well-written and absolutely infuriating.

Dopesick is also infuriating and disturbing, but it’s about the immorality of some pharmaceutical companies — specifically in the lens of drug addiction. I didn’t quite finish reading this one, but that was definitely a me thing.

Policing the Black Man is an eye-opening look at the history of racism and criminal justice in America. It’s actually a collection of essays, so part of its strength is the breadth of viewpoints it’s able to provide.

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Nonfiction November Week 2: Fiction/Nonfiction Pairing

Sarah

It’s time for Nonfiction November!

Week 2: (Nov. 4 to 8) – Fiction / Nonfiction Book Pairing (Sarah @ Sarah’s Book Shelves): This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story.

Lilli de Jong is about a young woman who is forced to leave her family and hide away in order to cover up for her pregnancy, after which she is expected to give up and forget her child. I believe the author had mentioned The Girls Who Went Away as one of the books she read while researching her novel. It’s currently on my TBR so I’m hoping to get to it at some point, but this is pairing makes a lot of sense to me.

The Lovely and the Lost is a YA mystery about a family who raises search & rescue (SAR) dogs. It honestly made me want to drop my life and go train SAR dogs (not happening). So, obviously it makes the most sense to pair it with a book about actual SAR dogs. Scent of the Missing is a nonfic book about SAR dogs that I JUST added to my TBR but am now excited about picking up!

Is this cheating? Yes. Do I care? Absolutely not. The Pisces was potentially my top book of 2018 and I will not stop raving about it. So Sad Today is a collection of essays written by the same author. Lucy is sad. Melissa is sad. Need I say more? I haven’t even read So Sad Today yet but I WILL and I am positive these two will go together wonderfully.

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Nonfiction November Week 1: Year in Nonfiction

Sarah

It’s time for Nonfiction November! I didn’t have time to participate last year, but am quite happy to this year. 🙂

Week 1: (Oct. 28 to Nov. 1) – Your Year in Nonfiction (Julie @ Julz Reads): Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

I’ve read fifteen nonfiction books this year, over a variety of topics, but I’d guess there were a lot of memoirs. One of the exciting things about nonfic books is that they often include references to other books, which I sometimes end up adding to my TBR. It’s fun when a book allows you to develop a specific interest, and then gives you some other reading material to try out!

Some of my favorites this year:

American Predator was a very recent read that absolutely blew me away.

What Doctors Feel discussed doctors’ emotions and how they impact patient care.

Sex at Dawn took a different perspective on human sexuality than one usually sees.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark was a great albeit heartbreaking read about the Golden State Killer.

Evicted shed light on the absolutely unreal housing system in America today.

Throughout Nonfiction November, I’m hoping to find some more nonfiction books that draw my attention (not that my TBR needs anything added to it) and am also looking forward to checking out what other bloggers have to say. Let me know if you’ll be participating in Nonfiction November, and what some of your best nonfic reads have been this year!

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