I'm one of those people that no matter how many books I have, I can't turn down a sale or a trip to the bookstore. There are no limits to what I'll read and I hope you enjoy my reviews.
I love the saying “Truth is stranger than fiction” because often times when I’m reading a non-fiction book I have to be like, hang on, really? I had no idea that could even happen. For my book choices this week, I literally googled strange non-fiction and browsed what came up in the results – so like most of my reading, its fairly eclectic.
I love medical mysteries and how people solve or attempt to solve them – this shouldn’t be any surprise considering that House was one of my favorite shows when it was on TV. I remember clearly the one episode in house where the wife is ultimately diagnosed with a sleeping sickness – and reading the description of this book it is that episode that came to mind. I found it interesting in the description that the diagnosis of encephalitis lethargica didn’t just result in never-ending sleep but also catatonia, insomnia (which seems very counter to the name of the disease) and Parkinson’s.
I’ve always been fascinated by people who survive shipwrecks, steaming back to my childhood when I read (and loved) The Cay as well as the perennial classic, The Swiss Family Robinson. Island of the Lost also seems to tie in well to my enjoyment of understanding psychology and behavior when faced with challenges. The description reminds me some of how different clans/common groups of people are formed and how they react (or don’t react) in the face of certain stimuli. Bonus, its free to read in Kindle Unlimited if you have a subscription, so its going to the top of my pile.
When I first saw the title of this book, I immediately thought about one of my favorite paranormal romance authors, Molly Harper – she has a vampire romance called Driving Mr. Dead, and while I knew they weren’t related, the idea of someone voluntarily driving in a hearse and picking up bodies just made a shiver go up my spine. It seems to also pair well with Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty which I read a few years ago. Plus the cover with 2 girls sitting on a hearse just made me giggle (much better than some of the other covers for this book that I saw on Goodreads).
One of my favorite non-fiction books from this past year was The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore about Elizabeth Packard who was sent to a mental asylum in the 1860’s for disagreeing with her husband – while The Trials of Nina McCall occurs nearly 60 years later, it seems to have some common themes to the Kate Moore book – I’ve never heard “American Plan” referenced in any of my studies of history (not that I’m actually surprised by that) and it makes me want to read some more on it but as one Goodreads reviewer pointed out finding evidence of it isn’t common because its just not talked about. My academic interests have tended towards public policy in the recent past, so I know i’m going to dig some more in to this.
What Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction books do you recommend?
What can I say? I actually like all of the featured weeks during Non-fiction November – I know that I said last week the book pairings one was a favorite of mine – but so is the Be The Expert/Ask The Expert/Become the Expert. This year I’m going the Become the Expert route based on my desire to continue reading about the role of class and race in the U.S. This theme drew my interest after I listened to Caste by Isabel Wilkerson earlier this year. For me, this week is always fun because I can dig into recommendations for books from a variety of sources – this year my Become the Expert recommendations came from “Readers Also Enjoyed” off Goodreads for the Caste book entry as well as from the Read-alikes section of NoveList (which is a service I just discovered from my library).
The Sum of Us – Heather McGhee – I first came across this book when I was looking for one to nominate for a group read in one of my Goodreads groups. What drew me to this book was that it doesn’t just address racism with relation to the African-American population, but also how it impacts White Americans and individuals who identify with other racial groups. I like the authors’ hypothesis of the Solidarity Dividend that gains will come when we come together across race to achieve goals.
The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein – Recently the Secretary of Transportation (Pete Buttigieg) came under fire for a statement made during a press conference about how infrastructure in the US was influenced by racist policies that placed certain groups of citizens at disadvantages. I had heard about some of these policies (ie. Redlining) in passing but hadn’t read anything in-depth. I figure if I wanted to learn more about these policies, then reading a book about the history of different housing laws and policies would be a good place to start.
Say It Loud – Randall Kennedy – This is a relatively new release (September 2021) but spans two decades of events and derived legal analysis – the listed essays are written by many key contributors to the body of research on race and class in the United States. Topics of essays include The George Floyd Moment: Promise and Peril and The Constitutional Roots of “Birtherism” I’m planning on using this book to fulfill the collection prompt for this year’s event.
Four Hundred Souls – Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain – I have to say this out loud, I actually didn’t finish How to be Anti-racist (in that the audiobook just wasn’t working for me and I have the print version on my ebook wishlist) – but that being said, Four Hundred Souls went immediately on my to-be-read pile when it was released earlier this year. Similar to Say It Loud, Four Hundred Souls is a series of essays – but rather than key events in history and legal decisions, Four Hundred Souls covers over four hundred years of history.
Broke in America – Joanne Samuel Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox – I’ve always found myself in a relatively privileged situation – meaning that I don’t struggle to find food each day, I’ve had access to good education and consistent employment through my adult life. However, not everyone in the US has had those advantages, in fact from the book description, nearly 40 million people in the US live below the poverty line (as defined by $26,200 for a family of four). I’ve previously read some books about poverty in the US (specifically Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond and $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn Edin) so I’m hoping to broaden my knowledge on this topic to better inform my perspective and understanding.
The South Side – Natalie Y. Moore – as I write this post, I’m sitting in Chicago visiting my sister – so this book caught me eye as it looks at how the city has become segregated which ties into many of the themes mentioned in Caste. As with several of the other books i’ve picked, the story is told through a series of essays. Reviews seem to be kind of hit or miss for this (they seem to bounce between either 1 star of 5 stars on goodreads) – so it will be interesing to see what side i come out on.
It Was All A Dream – Reniqua Allen – Often after reading a news article about a social policy that has detractors, or some kind of event that caused civil unrest – i hear, well, they just need to do better or work harder to get a better life (or other trite sayings). From reading the description, this book tells the stories of young Black Americans trying to do just that. I fall squarely into the millenial population, so the people who’s stories are in this book, are my peers which makes it even more attractive to me.
How To Kill A City – Peter Moskowitz – I remember when I moved to Maryland in 2010, I was working at the Navy Yard and the short 10 minute walk from the metro was just not something you did in the middle of the night (and since I was on shift-work, it was part of my routine) – now, I walk through the same area that has been completely gentrified to include new condos that cost in the 1 million plus range. I had never really thought about the impact those changes have on the general population who can’t afford to live in those areas (and its gotten even worse since the pandemic with the real estate market going insane). That is part of what caught my attention when I was reading the description of this book – understanding how these housing policies affect certain segments of the population.
Dying of Whiteness – Jonathan M. Metzl – I know this book and its connect to the others mentioned in this post is very tenuous but its something that I found intriguing. As I watch the political cycle play out in the US (most recently with the Infrastructure Bill that was just signed), I have to wonder why representatives vote against policies that will help their communities but also why do communities keep voting for people that don’t appear to have their best interests at heart. This book seems like it might try to dive into some of those reasons through the eyes of a Doctor in America’s Heartland. I have a feeling this could be a controversial read which is why I currently have it sitting in my car (in print) and I can’t wait to dig into it – although I likely won’t finish it this Non-Fiction November.
Fucked at Birth – Dale Maharidge – ok so i’ll totally admit that the only reason I added this book to my to-read pile aside from the theme was because of the title. There has been a lot in the media lately about social aid to the population (Universal Pre-K; Universal Basic Income, increases to social safety nets) – the purpose of this book seems to be examining how those could be used to help people get ahead – those who are quote “fucked at birth” and its seen as fate that people just have to live this way. It seems to be a fairly short book – doubt I’ll get it read this month – but i’m intriguing.
Here are a quick summary of a few books that I will help will let me start becoming the expert on race and social class in the US.
Do you have any books that you think I should add to my list?
The Non-fiction November prompt for this week (book pairings) is always one of my favorite ones because I can explore both fiction books I’ve read and what non-fiction books pair well or vice-versa. I have 2 recommendations for if you liked this, you might like this non-fiction option to learn more.
Heroine – Mindy McGinnis and Dopesick – Beth Macy
So I actually read Heroine a couple years ago, but as I was listening to Dopesick right before Non-Fiction November kicked off, I knew that I wanted to pair the two of them together for this week’s feature. Heroine pairs well with Dopesick because it’s the story of someone who finds themselves addicted to the painkillers prescribed to help after a car accident. I thought McGinnis did a great job of developing the character and paralleling many of the themes that were echo’d in Dopesick. I don’t know if McGinnis read Dopesick while she was writing Heroine, but they felt like they worked well together.
New York 2140 – Kim Stanley Robinson and The Water Will Come – Jeff Goodell
So I feel like I’m kind of cheating here because I’m actually halfway through New York 2140 right now – but I’ve had this desire to read more about Climate Change over the past few months and this is a good science-fiction to get you started. The Water Will Come is the non-fiction I’m pairing it with because it directly addresses the threats from rising sea levels around the world and how various countries are attempting to deal with these rising levels, how they are developing barriers to try and prevent the continual flooding. I’m currently enrolled in a graduate program for National Security and a recent assignment involved doing an infographic on a threat to National Security. I chose to do rising sea levels, due in part to what I had listened to in New York 2140 already, as well as my affiliation with the Navy. It was honestly scary to read some of the climate modelings that has been done, related to sea levels and the potential cost associated with reinforcing buildings/building new ones etc.
What About You – what fiction books have you read this year that would pair with non-fiction? What books should I add to my (ever-growing) to-be-read pile?
Non-Fiction November is an event I always look forward to because it makes my TBR pile just explode and then for the next year, I have a good list of non-fiction books to choose from. I love reading people’s blog updates to see what they read the previous year and what they are considering reading for the upcoming month. This first week of Non-Fiction November is dedicated to reviewing books read during the last year and highlighting favorites.
While I was reviewing all the non-fiction books that I read during the last year, it was pretty easy for me to identify which ones had risen to the top of the pile for my favorites. It kind of surprised me that several of my favorites were memoirs or biographies – one was even the memoir of an animal (and I had a couple other similar books during the year).
Books Most Recommend: I’ve probably recommended all of my favorite books at least once. Several (Fallout, Dopesick and TheWoman They Could Not Silence), I’ve mentioned in my current master’s programs as books that fit various topics we were discussing. Caste is a book that should be part of any college curriculum in history or sociology – it is a must-read to me. A Promised Land made me feel both alternately sad and happy at the same time – there was something soothing about listening to Former President Obama reading his memoir and I can’t wait for the second book to come out (maybe in 2022?).
Most Common Theme: Looking back through my 2020-21 reads, I didn’t really have any prominent themes that stuck out to me – if I had to say one, then it probably would have been World War 2 non-fiction – I read a couple of books about different concentration camps, as well as one about the detonation of the atomic bomb (Fallout – which was also one of my favorite reads).
Non-Fiction Reads from December 1, 2020 to October 31, 2021
As promised, here is my first post back after my hiatus – a wrap-up of my October reading. I know that it looks like a crazy amount to some people, but my normal reads can exceed 30+ books a month – so the 16 books seen here is definitely on the low-end of a normal month tally.
Favorite Books of the Month
Dopesick – I saw this was being made into a Hulu mini-series, but I knew that I wanted to read/listen to it before watching the adaptation of it – its also been loitering on my TBR pile for several years. Dopesick garnered one of my few 5-star reads of the year – yes, it was more of a human interest story, vs. hard-hitting reporting on the opioid crisis – but I was sucked in because I felt like I was rooting for the people who were featured, wanting them to kick their addiction. I was also surprised how much of it was set in the area where I went to college (Virginia Tech – Blacksburg, VA) because the epidemic was in that area while I was going to school and I don’t remember hearing anything about it.
Battle Royal – if you take Great British Baking Show, mix in a Rivals to Lovers theme and a royal wedding – then you would have the major thematic elements of Battle Royal. I was totally sucked in during the reading – I didn’t want to put it down, which resulted in a few last nights of reading and blurry eyes the next day in class. The author (Lucy Parker) is a new to me author, but not a new author – so I’m excited to check out some of her backlist.
Manners & Mutiny – I’m not sure why the last 2 books in the Finishing School series (this one and Waistcoats & Weaponry) hung out on my TBR pile for so long – in fact Waistcoats & Weaponry sat half-finished for several years until I picked it back up in September. These last two books wrapped up the series in a pretty bow – which is something I always appreciate because I don’t have to pick up another series to see what happens. But I can see how things that happened in the Parasol Protectorate were set up in this series. I can’t wait to read more books by Gail Carriger in the future (the next series up is the Custard Protocal)
Least Favorite Books of the Month
The Echelon Vendetta – As I was reading this, I quickly realized why it had loitered on my Kindle TBR pile for close to a decade (I picked it mostly for a challenge that involves reading books that have been on your TBR shelf for a long time). While the plot was semi-decent – it was just a bit ehhh for me…won’t be continuing the series, but glad to get it off my epic TBR pile.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before – While this was marketed as YA, I can’t help but think the actions of the protagonist were definitely on the very young side of the spectrum, even though she was supposed to be a junior in High School. I don’t know if she was supposed to seem that naive, but when compared to other YA written in the same time frame, with similar aged characters, her character just didn’t work for me. But I know other people who have enjoyed this book and the subsequent ones. Won’t be continuing the series and I don’t think I even want to try the movie on Netflix.
That about wraps up my October – How was yours? What good books did you read? Any recommendations for me?
After struggling for a couple hours last night to get my WordPress account log-in working, I finally got in and was mildly shocked to realize that its been nearly a year since I’ve blogged (363 days to be exact). I guess life just got away from me – my last post occurred during Non-Fiction November 2020 while I was deployed (I was in Greece at the time). I got back mid-2021 and rolled right into an academic program – so all my reading/blogging time has been taken over with studying and paper writing school. But I’m going to try and start again, at least monthly to provide a summary of what has gone on in the previous month.
I’m so excited that Nonfiction November has kicked off (yeah, I admit, i’m kind of a dork). Typically I try to read 1-2 non-fiction books a month – but that just depends on what else is going on in life and around me. For this post (My Year in Nonfiction) – I went back through my Goodreads records to identify the books that i’ve read since NF November finished last year. Its always an insightful kind of exercise
Dec 1, 2019 to October 31 2020 Non-Fiction Book List
Memoir – The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I kept the patio, lost the lawn, and fed my family for a year
Memoir/Animals – Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero
Memoir/Graphic Art – Prison Island: A Graphic Memoir
Memoir – Love Is a Mix Tape
Memoir/Social Justice/Social Movements – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Memoir – I Have Something to Tell You
Memoir/Social Justice – When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
Memoir/Graphic Art – They Called Us Enemy
Memoir – From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home
Biography – A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival
Biography/Books About Books – Bowie’s Bookshelf: The Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie’s Life
Biography – Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Biography/History – Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America
True Crime – The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI’s Original Mindhunter
True Crime – The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia
True Crime – Mrs. Sherlock Holmes
True Crime – Hell in the Heartland: Murder, Meth, and the Case of Two Missing Girls
True Crime – American Predator
Gender Studies – Men Explain Things to Me
Gender Studies – Three Women
History/Gender Studies – Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court
History/Military – Joe Rochefort’s War
History/Significant Events – The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
History/Sports – One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season
History/Social Movements/Social Justice – Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
Economics – Free: The Future of a Radical Price
Cookbooks – Cook Once, Eat All Week: 26 Weeks of Gluten-Free, Affordable Meal Prep to Preserve Your Time & Sanity
Self-Help – Päntsdrunk (Kalsarikänni): The Finnish Path to Relaxation (Drinking at Home, Alone, in Your Underwear)
What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?
This is always a hard question for me to answer because I read such a diverse range of books and topics. If i had to pick (like really twist my arm kinda pick) – then I could narrow my favorites down to 2. Joe Rochefort’s War (Elliot Carlson) and One Shot at Forever (Chris Ballard). – I just finished up Joe Rochefort’s War in October – if you are interested in military history, especially World War 2/ war in the pacific, then this is a book that would likely interest you. CDR Joseph Rochefort was the Officer in Charge of Station Hypo in Pearl Harbor and was key in identifying where the Battle of Midway was going to take place. If you have seen either the new 2019 Midway movie or the older one – he is depicted as wearing a dressing gown and slippers (and per his biography he did because the space was so cold and clammy). – As I was reading One Shot in Forever (while stuck on pre-deployment COVID restriction of movement in Italy) – the thought that kept running through my mind was how has this not been turned into a Disney movie yet? If you like movies like McFarlane USA and Miracle, then this is a book you may enjoy.
Left: Joe Rochefort’s War; Right: One Shot At Forever
Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year?
In general, I’ve maintained my pretty diverse range of non-fiction reads. Memoirs and Biographies have typically been top of my most read list over the last few years; followed close behind by True Crime. I think the one topic this year that hasn’t been as present in previous years is the the Social Justice/Social Movement type books – this had definately not been a topic that I had really explored in the past – beyond reading Just Mercy a couple of years ago – but with the events of 2020 and the ongoing civil unrest related to deaths of African American citizens by police – its definately something I wanted to become more informed about. Locking Up Our Own was probably one of the more insightful about racial profiling; and then reading When They Call You a Terrorist by one of the founders of Black Lives Matter highlighted huge gaps in my awareness of ongoing issues.
Left: Locking Up Our Own; Right: When They Call You A Terrorist
What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?
Nonfiction seems to be my least recommended books in general – likely because most places where I make recommendations are heavy with genre readers. That being said – i’ve definately recommended One Shot in Forever to a couple of people, including one person who blogs sports books (he’d actually already read it – but that counts right?) I’ve also recommended American Predator and Killer Across the Table (as audiobook listens) to a few people – I mean King George himself (aka Jonathan Groff) narrates Killer Across the Table).
What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
What i always want to get out of Nonfiction November – most books added to my already huge TBR pile. Ha! But there is some truth in that – i like seeing what other people are reading and recommending – and I tend to keep a running list of books that catch my eye – either mentioned on Goodreads, Twitter or Blogs (I mean, i do this during the year, but on average I add probably double the books during this month). I also like finding books I can recommend to my local library system to buy (in a perfect world, I would love a job buying books for a library but alas….)
I’m always excited when I start seeing the discussions about Non-Fiction November each year. I wait to see what the prompts are going to be and how people interpret them; dig through my pile of unread non-fiction books to see what I have that fits prompts and in general, just add more books to my TBR pile like crazy 😉
One of the first things that I normally do when I prep this intro post for the year is to go back through my Goodreads records and count up how many non-fiction books i’ve read in the lead up to November and reminise on which ones were favorites of mine.
After I look at my year in review of non-fiction; then I start digging into the books that I want to read this month. Sometimes those choices are driven by various reading challenges that I participate in. For example, this year, the first two books on my Non-Fiction November pile are books to finish out my Fall 2020 Seasonal Reading Challenge (SRC). SRC is a Goodreads group where every three months you read books based on a series of tasks/prompts – these prompts are either developed by the moderators or if you finish the challenge, you get an option to develop a task. These two books are Seven Signs of Life (Aoife Abbey) and Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton (Tilar J. Mazzeo)
Next up in the developing a Non-Fiction November reading pile is any books that I have on my Advanced Readers Copy shelf that I need to get caught up on. However, since i’ve been deployed for the last five months, I’ve really dialed back on the number of ARC’s i’ve requested – so for year, this will likely be a low number of books (but i’m sure I have a couple I could dig out of the pile).
Finally, I get to the prompts given to Non-Fiction November participants by the organizers. For 2020, these prompts are: 1) Movement, 2) Buzz, 3) Discovery and 4) Time. Its up to the participants to determine how to interpret those prompts. This year, I have the limit that because I’m not home with a ready access to my normally awesome library for print books – I’m sticking to books in the Overdrive or Hoopla apps that I can borrow – but in some ways this is fun/entertaining because I discover books that I never would have found otherwise.
For movement, the first thought/image that came to mind was ballerina’s dancing and moving to the music. There was one cover that had caught my eye about a year ago at the library that I decided had to go on the pile -the cover of Taking Flight to me is the epitome of movement – a ballerina flying through the air.
For Buzz, I was hoping to read a new non-fiction that is getting a lot of attention (aka Buzz) – Unfortunately, the list of holds at my library for the book I wanted to read (Group – Christie Tate) is about 6 months for ebook/audio right now. So my alternative is a book where the featured subject buzzes…the annoying Mosquito.
Right now, I have a choice of two books for the discovery prompt that I’m considering. Oh, who am I kidding? – I’m going to try to read/listen to both of them. These came when I searched science +discovery in the Overdrive catalog and then narrowed down the results to non-fiction (this search method has typically rewarded me with fairly solid choices to consider).
For the final prompt – time – there is a diverse range of options – from the self-help books about how to manage time better (always interesting to “time” being a common word found in many political memoirs – but we’re just not going to go there right now….
Right now I have this prompt narrowed down to three books – 1) a book about solving murders from a specific time period (the Civil Rights era); 2) a book about a specific time/place in history (World War 2 in Oak Ridge, TN) and 3) a biography “time”less classic movie – The Princess Bride (I just watched this less than a month ago and even 20 years later – for me – it still stands the test of time).
So that’s my intro to Non-Fiction November! Who else is participating and what books are you most excited to read?
Ahh readathon hours 13-18 – also known as 3am until 8am Greek time or the time where Dee passes out facedown in her pillow spread diagonally across the queen sized bed. Ha! To be honest, i didn’t actually read/listen to much in this block of tmie. I had every intention of only napping for a couple of hours but alas, that didn’t happen.
During this time period, i read/listened until about 4:30am – during which time I finished up The Light Over London (Julia Kelly). Overall t read, however, i felt like everything just wrapped up too quickly – the whole dual time-line reveal all culminated around 90% but it just felt really quick. A solid 3 star read for me. I also listened to another 39 minutes of His Only Wife.
Books/Pages Read During This Time:
His Only Wife - 21pgs
The Light Over London - 225pgs
Total Pages: 246pgs
Half-way done! I can’t believe that its 3am and i’m still awake (although, there is a 99.9% chance that I’m going to nap during the next 4 hours). This last four hours included me needing to charge both my kindle and phone – so I spent a chunk of time working on the one print book that I have in progress (Joe Rochfort’s War). I’m also listening to His Only Wife (Peace Adzo Medie) – but right now I’m still listening to the portion I had previously read.
During hours 9 through 12, I also finished up Take Two (Mia Masters/R. Ramsey), as well as Sleep Tight (Anne Fraiser). Take Two was, to be honest, mediocre at best but since I borrowed it through Kindle Unlimited, I didn’t lose money on it (since I’ve already read enough books this month to exceed the cost of my subscription). Sleep Tight was a decent suspense, I’m not sure why it has been on my to-be-read pile for so long (according to my records, I bought it in 2011). I also started The Light Over London (Julia Kelly), a WW2 historical fiction/romance. This is right up my comfort read alley – although I haven’t read any boks about the Gunner Girls (who served in the British Army in an Anti-aircraft gun unit). I also continued reading some more of The Only Plane in the Sky (for time sequencing, the plane just hit the Pentagon – the 3rd of the planes of that were hijacked that day). The Librarian of Auschwitz (Antonio G. Iturbe) and Flood (Andrew Vachss) rounded out my reading for the last 4 hours.
Pages/Books Read During This Time:
His Only Wife - 56min/30pgs
Take Two - 122pgs
Sleep Tight - 143pgs
Joe Rochfort's War - 49pgs
The Only Plane in the Sky - 35pgs
Flood - 68pgs
The Librarian of Auschwitz - 64pgs
The Light Over London - 111pgs
Total Pages: 622
Dee's Book Blog 