This week kicked off one of my favorite bookish events of the year: Nonfiction November! It's a month of celebrating, highlighting, and recommending nonfiction books and reflecting on weekly discussion prompts. A stellar group of bloggers is hosting.
Liz (Adventures in reading, running and working from home)
Frances (Volatile Rune)
Heather (Based on a True Story)
Rebekah (She Seeks Nonfiction)
Lisa (Hopewell’s Public Library of Life).
I’m a bit late to the party, so let’s waste no time getting things started with our prompt for Week One.
Week 1: (Oct 31-Nov 4) – Your Year in Nonfiction, hosted by Heather (Based on a True Story)
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?
Of the 62 books I’ve read this year (so far!), 33 of those were fiction titles and 28 were nonfiction. That’s a typical breakdown for me, although my pace feels a bit slower than usual. (This has been The Year of the DNF.) Still, more than half of my nonfiction selections wound up being 5 and 4 stars, and I thought I would share those with you today. No surprise, most of these are memoirs.
5 stars
My six top nonfiction reads are all memoirs, and half of those are by the same author. For years I’d heard great things about Abigail Thomas’s writing and decided it was time I discovered her work.
Tasha: A Son’s Memoir by Brian Morton
Hatching: Experiments in Motherhood and Technology by Jenni Quilter
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life by Abigail Thomas
A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
4 stars
Dearly by Margaret Atwood
Emily Dickinson Face to Face by Martha Dickinson Bianchi
A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung
Talking to My Angels by Melissa Etheridge (audio is the way to go with this one, as you might imagine. Melissa sings a bit throughout.)
Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation by Camonghne Felix
Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
Bury Me in My Jersey: A Memoir of My Father, Football, and Philly by Tom McAllister
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Spare by Prince Harry
Have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments!
About half of my nonfiction books are also 4 or 5 stars; glad to hear it's the same with you because I suspected maybe I've been too generous. lol. But also, like you, I'll put a book down if it's not good so that skews the curve. Glad to get more suggestions of memoirs. I've only read Spare in your list here; I found it so intriguing!
Wow, thanks for all these recommendations! I read a lot of non fiction, and I’m always looking for new ones. I’ve read many of these, but found some new titles for my library list.
Right now I’m re-reading Katherine May’s Wintering. Also reading Living Resistance and Native, by Kaitlin Curtice.