Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all three are books that caught my attention during Nonfiction November 2022.

World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Summary: a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.

I’m thinking: Yes.

Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson

Summary: In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a stark portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. In 1979, another diary rattled the culture – the posthumous memoir of an alleged teenage Satanist, Jay’s Journal.  Both books came from the same author: Beatrice Sparks, a serial con artist who lied her way to the National Book Awards.

I’m thinking: Yes.

Sealand by Dylan Taylor-Lehman

Summary: In 1967, retired army major Paddy Roy Bates cemented his family’s place in the history books when he inaugurated himself King of the Principality of Sealand, a micronation situated on a World War II anti-aircraft gun platform off the coast of England. Incredibly, the self-proclaimed independent nation still stands and has its own constitution, national flag and anthem, currency, and passports.

I’m thinking: No (I think you can get the bulk of the bizarre story here).