Nonfiction November: Week 1 Intro Post

I missed last week! Boo. But here it is a week late.

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 is one topic or type of nonfiction you haven’t read enough of yet?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Favorite nonfiction read of the year? Hands down it is Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. A fascinating and disturbing look at humanity in general and the Troubles specifically.

My nonfiction reading has been all over the map this year. I've hit a lot of celebrity memoirs. I'm always interested in history and I had to read more about Chernobyl after I watched the HBO series. And science-based books also showed up.

Say Nothing and Chase Darkness with Me by Billy Jensen (this was an interesting followup to Michelle McNamara's book) have been on my list of recommendations this year.

I have not read enough history and feminism. I have a bunch of TBR books on U.S. history, world history, and feminism or books written by feminists, etc that I've been meaning to get to for a very long time. Also philosophy, specifically books about philosophers that kind of sum up their ideas and why they're useful.

I love Nonfiction November because I get a chance to reflect on my nonfiction reading so far this year. I get to interact with other nonfiction readers. And I get a ton of new recommendations to add to my ever-growing list!

Here's my list of nonfiction ranked from favorite on down since last Nonfiction November:

• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
• Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
• Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future by Kate Brown
• All that Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black
• How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
• Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl: A Memoir by Jeannie Valasco
• I'm Just a Person by Tig Notaro
• Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology by Caroline Paul
• Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children by Kath Shackleton
• Era of Ignition: Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution by Amber Tamblyn
• Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa V. Harris-Perry
• Hello World: Being Human in an Age of Algorithms by Hannah Fry
• We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union
• Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame by Mara Wilson
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean
• Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey
• The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R.B.G. Vs Inequality by Jonah Winter
• Who Is Sonia Sotomayor? by Megan Stine
• Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka
• Countdown: 2979 Days to the Moon by Suzanne Slade
• Chase Darkness with Me: How One True-crime Writer Started Solving Crimes by Billy Jensen
• The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell

The Conquest of Happiness was definitely my least favorite nonfiction book this last year but the last few are mixed in with the juvenile nonfiction I read with my son as well and they were all pretty good. So the first few were some of my favorites and Russell's book was my least favorite.

Thanks to all who are hosting and participating! Yay!