Here I was thinking Nonfiction November wasn’t happening this year… But it is! With a bunch of new hosts.
It kicks off with My Year in Nonfiction, hosted by Heather at Based on a True Story.
Strictly speaking, I should call it Memoir November (Memvember?!) – doesn’t have quite the same ring but it is more accurate in my case, given that the majority of my nonfiction reading is memoir. Specifically, I’ve read 19 memoirs, and 11 other nonfiction titles this year. The nonfiction I’ve read includes one graphic novel and one poetry collection.
As always, there have been some absolute standouts. Sloane Crosley’s essay collection, Look Alive Out There, made me laugh, and Rob Delaney’s A Heart That Works also made me laugh, but mostly it made me cry. A lot. A lot, and a lot of crying.
Sarah Holland-Batt’s The Jaguar was a wonderful surprise, as was Anna Funder’s clever blend of memoir and biography in Wifedom.
Also on the memoir front, A Kind of Magic by Anna Spargo-Ryan and Graft by Maggie MacKellar have lingered.
Lastly, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown was breathtakingly exciting (it’s hard to write convincingly about sport and maintain the tension); Paperback Crush by Gabrielle Moss was an excellent walk down memory lane; and Saving Time by Jenny Odell provided oodles of food for thought.
Join in next week when Frances from Volatile Rune hosts the topic ‘Choosing Nonfiction’.
I also read The Boys in the Boat in the past year and loved it despite being totally disinterested in sport. It’s a great example of nonfiction that reads as fluidly as fiction.
A Heart That Works sounds very good.
Sign me up to cry over the book by the dad of the baby with a tumor.
Make sure you have LOADS of tissues.
I will…I will…
You are a bit of an expert on contemporary memoir, I think, so I shall look for a couple of these. I always like a good cry.
Expert might be a stretch 😀 but I do love memoirs, and they invariably feature heavily in my list of favourite books at the end of the year.
I’m hearing a lot about Wifedom, I’ll have to look at that one! I’m also interested in the one about time management. How was A Kind of Magic? That one sounds like a book I would enjoy.
I thought I’d commented here the other day but it looks like it didn’t get through. So, if I repeat myself, just repeat.
I love going through all the different lists and find new books. But I am always happy when I find one that I read, as well. In this case “The Boys in the Boat”. What a story!
My Year in Nonfiction.
Nothing wrong with memoirs. I am more for biographies, but they are quite similar. At least you read a variety of subjects, while I read mostly history and a few biographies.
Well you read the one genre (history) that I probably don’t read enough of! When I do, I often feel like I’m back at school, although I loved history at school (particularly modern European and revolutions).
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