Some Non-Fiction Highlights of the Year (So Far)
Remixing for #44
Hi friends! Your devoted book-suggester-in-chief (I just deputized myself with a clunky moniker, is that weird?) is still on vacay hiatus. I hope you’ve found a way to have some COVID-safe emotional restoration yourself, so we have the resilience to finish the year strong in the business of reading, reflecting, and supporting each other.
In lieu of all new recommendations, for this week, I wanted to highlight a few of my non-fiction and memoir highlights of the year so far. Although 2021 has been a lot of fiction in my world, there have been a few memorable non-fiction standouts that, if you missed the first time, are worth checking out - plus *one* new book that maybe isn’t. It’s the non-fiction remix!
If this topic just does not light you up like a birdhouse in your soul, the archive is chock-full-o-suggestions you might love.
BTW: I so recently gushed about Empire of Pain that it seems blushingly lazy to include it, even for a recap edition. But you should really, really read Empire of Pain, probably my *favorite* non-fiction read this year so far. OK, onward!
Hidden Valley Road tackles schizophrenia, its causes, treatment, and impact, through the lens of a family in the 50s and 60s where *six of the twelve children* ended up developing the disease. It’s a well-researched but empathetically told story of mental illness, accountability, and families. Fascinating and heartbreaking.
Click here for other sociological non-fiction suggestions, if that’s your bliss, like it is mine.
American Kingpin is a crackerjack of a read about the search for the man who created Silk Road on the “dark web.” Breathless storytelling, perfectly laid out, just enough titillating drama to be a Law & Order episode. Loved it.
And because journalists produce *the best* investigative non-fiction, you really need to check these other options out too.
How to Survive a Plague, about citizen activism and community during the AIDS crisis, could not be a more prescient roadmap for These Times. Sometimes a history of an era can be too crammed with peopleplacesandthings, but this is both robust and readable, specific and emotional. Fantastic.
A little more “life in a plague” reading here if you can stomach it.
Uncanny Valley is the memoir I’ve read recently that has imprinted on me most. Part quarter-life crisis, part Big Tech scrutiny, and written at a skill level far beyond any 25-year-old has the right to have. On whichever side of the “tech is evil” discussion you may find yourself, this will make you reconsider your position.
I love memoirs! Memoirs are my favorite! Find more here and here.
And just so you know I’m honest about my recommendations, I’m actually throwing in one new book (!!) that I wanted to love more than I did, which is:
Halfway Home is about the challenges faced by people coming out of incarceration - how much every system works against these folks trying to stay out of prison. This is a topic I feel so strongly about, and I heard about it on Fresh Air so you know I was primed to love it (this is a Terry Gross fan squad, ALWAYS.) For me, it straddled personal narrative and academic analysis a little too inelegantly, doing neither in a particularly remarkable fashion. But it’s an important subject and maybe you’ll love it!
For more reading on incarceration, find some of my favorites here.
Now you - what’s your favorite non-fiction read of the year so far?
A few things you should know:
All links go to Bookshop.org, where you can buy books and support indie bookstores. Which is an easy way to do a good thing!
I am so very grateful for each and every subscriber. So if you find this little ol’ email fun and/or useful, please share it, if you are ever so moved! (And if you *don’t* find it fun and/or useful and you are not required to read it due to genetic, contractual or ride-or-die obligations, please let me know what you WOULD find more useful from a book recommendation standpoint!)
Apparently, goldfish do not have poor memories! This is not book related but I still think it’s something you should know. For years, goldfish have been unfairly maligned and in fact it’s a myth. Goldfish: good memories, bad PR.