Nonfiction November 2018

Thursday this week - November 1 - I set aside my dark and creepy reading (that I thoroughly enjoyed the past two months in the RIP Challenge) and pulled a BIG stack of nonfiction off my TBR bookcase in preparation for Nonfiction November.

2018’s Nonfiction November is being hosted by Katie at Doing Dewey, Rennie at What’s Nonfiction?, Julie at Julz Reads, Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness, and Sarah's Book Shelves. There doesn't seem to be a sign-up list, but you can read all about the events for the month, weekly topics for blog posts, an Instagram challenge, and more at Sarah's Book Shelves, and there will be link-ups each week.

So, here is the stack of nonfiction books I pulled off my shelves this week - there is NO WAY I will have time to read all of these, but this is the pool I will be choosing from this month:

My choices for Nonfiction November

So, that's 13 print books to choose from:

• An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina (my son read it years ago for World Lit)
• Seven: In the Lane of Hope by Michael J. Marini (a memoir just published by my massage therapist!)
• Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy by Anne Lamott
• H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
• The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow
• Brain on Fire by Susannah Calahan
• The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, and Amanda Pressner
• Almost French by Sarah Turnbull
• Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
• Flawed by Andrea Dorfman
• Escaping Wars and Waves: Encounters with Syrian Refugees by Olivier Kugler

From the top, that's 1 autobiography, 7 memoirs, 3 narrative nonfiction, and 2 graphic memoirs/nonfiction. I forgot to include it in the photo, but I also plan to read The Lyme Solution: A 5-Part Plan to Fight the Inflammatory Auto-Immune Response and Beat Lyme Disease by Darin Ingels and Amy Myers, MD (my son has been fighting Lyme and two other tick infections for 10 years now).

I also have a bunch of nonfiction on audio to choose from, including:

• The Candida Cure by Ann Boroch
• The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebarge
• The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea
• The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton
• On Two Feet and Wings by Abbas Kazerooni
• Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crossley
• Happiness is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old by John Leland
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
  

So, oddly, I am already on my 3rd nonfiction book of the month! I read the bottom two in my stack - both fairly quick graphic novel-style reads - on November 1. I am now reading
Seven: In the Lane of Hope since it was written by a friend, and I plan to start listening to Born a Crime for a read-along just as soon as I finish my last RIP audio book. I am off to a good start!

The week's discussion topic for Nonfiction November is Your Year in Nonfiction So Far. Well, this will be a short discussion for me, since I have read almost all novels!

Here are all the nonfiction books I have read so far in 2018:

• The Adrenal Reset Diet by Alan Christianson
• Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann  
• My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul (memoir)
• Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by Ari Folman and David Polonsky (illustrator) - graphic memoir

That's actually more than I thought! Of these four, the one I liked best and recommend the most is definitely Killers of the Flower Moon, a powerful, moving, forgotten story from history about a horrific series of Osage murders and how the brand-new FBI eventually solved the case. It was absolutely fascinating, and my entire book group loved it (a rarity!).

Since I read mostly fiction, I am excited for this month of exploring nonfiction (and making a dent in my TBR shelves, too).

Are you participating in Nonfiction November?

Any recommendations from among the books on my nonfiction TBR lists?