Nonfiction November: My Year in Nonfiction So Far

It’s Nonfiction November, and that always makes me get all wiggly with excitement.

Plus: the streets around me look like this…

…so what’s not to like about this time of year?

We’re starting the month with a question from Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness, one of my favorite bloggers. This week, she poses this series of questions…

Your Year in Nonfiction So Far
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 are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Favorite of the Year

Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm by Jeanne Marie Laskas

Every time I think of this book, I smile. It’s one of those. A definite comfort read, and especially lovely when times are good.

 

Topic

Memoirs! Oh my goodness… this year, the memoirs. I’ve been vicariously living lots of other people’s lives this year and it’s been a year of personal expansion in all kinds of ways. And reading about people experiencing terrific and terrible things has expanded my worldview. It’s one of many factors that make me feel like I’m becoming my better self.

Here are some of the life stories that have inspired me…

• Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm by Jeanne Marie Laskas
• The Exact Same Moon: Fifty Acres and a Family by Jeanne Marie Laskas
• Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly
• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
• No More Words: A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh by Reeve Lindbergh
• West with the Night by Beryl Markham 
• We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True by Gabrielle Union
• Portage: A Family, a Canoe, and the Search for the Good Life by Sue Leaf
• Educated by Tara Westover
• I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
• Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan
• Dinner: A Love Story: It All Begins at the Family Table by Jenny Rosenstrach

Most Recommended

Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly

It’s short, it’s clever, it’s succinct, it’s personal. It’s quite perfect. If you like tiny snippets of story, memoir in bite-sized pieces, poetic and perfect writing, and humor… this one’s for you.

 

Hopes for Nonfiction November

More great nonfiction recommendations by other bloggers. I can’t wait. Based on last year’s Nonfiction November, I read and enjoyed Sloane Crosley’s I Was Told There’d Be Cake (recommended at Books Are My Favourite and Best) and Michael Strahan’s Wake Up Happy (recommended by Kristilyn at Reading in Winter). I’m excited to learn about great nonfiction books that made other bloggers’ favorites lists.