Nonfiction November- Week 1



Fine, fine, it's not November quite yet, but this week kicks off the festivities hosted by lots of awesome bloggers, the first being my friend Julie! There are prompts for the week, so instead of getting too creative I'm just going to use them to get started. 

What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?
I just checked my Goodreads account and I've read 22 so far this year, of 61 (I've listened to a few, too, but I have this thing about counting audiobooks as books read... I just don't. But that's me). This is pretty high, compared to most years, where it's probably more of a once-a month sort of thing. It's so hard to choose a favorite, since the topics are pretty diverse. Some ones that stood out were Trevor Noah's Born a Crime, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by Jessica Lahey, Can We All Be Feminists edited by June Eric-Udorie, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell, and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat (yes, a cookbook, but I read it cover-to-cover). 

Do you have a particulate topic you've been attracted to more this year? 

I liked parenting books that promote challenging your kids (useful for my five-year-old and my high-school students), progressive causes (race, gender, etc...), and running (I am the slowest runner on ever, but I love stories about athletes. I'm also a huge sucker for anything food or restaurant-related. 

What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? 

I have recommended Born to Run by Christopher McDougall a million times, as well as Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor. I love David Sedaris, too. 

What is one type/topic you haven't read enough of yet? 

I don't think I could ever get enough or running or food/restaurant books, but I'd like to read more science-driven texts, too. I started off at UCLA as a premed student and worked for four years for a vascular surgeon, so biology and health are of huge interest to me. 

What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? 

First and foremost I hope it helps motivate me to blog a little more than I have been. I have so many ideas for posts, but not enough time. I'm such a completionist, though, that if I say I'm going to stick to this I will. And I'm hoping just getting back into the habit of posting more will catalyze even more writing. I'm also really excited to read posts from others and discover new authors. 

17 comments:

  1. Born A Crime was so good! Did you listen to the audiobook of that? He reads it himself and it's perfect.

    Thinking about running books...if you haven't read Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, I think you'd enjoy it. 😊

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    1. I was going to recommend Murakami to you, but I see that Monika has beat me to it! Hopefully two votes will be enough to make you read it asap (if you haven't already).

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    2. I love that book! (and him in general)

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  2. I never read Born a Crime, but I think I should read it now. Thank you for recommending it.

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  3. I just purchased I Am I Am I Am at Half Price Books. Hoping I can get to it soon.

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  4. I'm listening to Rise of the Ultrarunners now. I hate running but I love running books. Rich Roll's book is good too.

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  5. 22 nonfiction books this year - that's amazing!

    I haven't openly admitted it, but I definitely think that Nonfiction November is going to motivate me with blogging more also. I've barely been posting - it has been quite sporadic - but I think the prompts & interacting with new to me bloggers is going to give me that push I need creatively.

    Happy reading this November!

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  6. Congratulations with that 22 NF reads! Plus - it sounds like you have quite a few winners as well - win-win. I saw that you mentioned David Sedaris: we just saw him last night when he came to town to speak, and OMG. We laughed so much! Highly recommend that if/when he comes to your area, that you get tix somehow. (Might want to leave the young one at home though!) ;-)

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  7. Born A Crime was excellent on audio! Maggie O'Farrell sounds so interetsing... hard to believe one person can have so many brushes with death.

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  8. So glad to see you participating this year. I'll be posting about Space (science) in my expert post. Other science titles you might like are Pleased to Meet Me and Pandemic. And of course, anything by Mary Roach

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    1. I will check those out. I've read one or two by Mary Roach and totally loved her.

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  9. I soooo need to read Born A Crime!

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  10. I’ve added Born a Crime to my wishlist, thank you

    Please stop by to see my Introduction to NonFicNov

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  11. I also enjoy reading about food and progressive causes :) One of my favorite recent science/medical reads is Superbugs. It was a really engaging story from a doctor who both sees patients and does research on developing new antibiotics. Both sides of his work were fascinating!

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  12. I loved Born A Crime! It was smart and funny.

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