#NonficNov
Click on the logo to see the detailed schedule
As every year, a bunch of really cool bloggers are co-hosting Nonfiction November.
Here is the topic for week 1:
Your Year in Nonfiction:
Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions:
What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?
What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?
What is one topic or type of nonfiction you haven’t read enough of yet?
What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
First of all, here is the recap of the nonfiction I have read (the links will send you to my review when it’s posted):
Biographies:
- A Forger’s Life, by Sarah Kaminsky
- Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
- Marie Antoinette’s Darkest Days, by Will Bashor
- Manderley Forever, by Tatiana de Rosnay
- The Madeleine Project, by Clara Beaudoux
- Bonjour Kale, by Kristen Beddard
- Audubon, on the Wings of the World, by Fabien Grolleau
- A Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People, by Nadieszda Kizenko
About books:
- The World Between Two Covers, by Ann Morgan
- The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of les Misérables, by David Bellos
About nature:
Unseen City, by Nathanael Johnson
Orthodox spirituality:
- Amour Sans Limites, by Lev Gillet
- To Open One’s Heart, by Michel Evdokimov
- The Typikon Decoded, by Job Gretcha
- The River of Fire, by Alexandre Kalomiros
- Le Regard du Ressuscité, by Archimandrite Gabriel
16 books so far.
By the end of the year, I also plan to read or finish reading:
- A Taste of Paris, by David Downie
- Man of God: Saint John of Shanghai & San Francisco, by Peter Prekrestov
- The Sherlock Holmes Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained), by DK Publishing
- A Curious Collection of Dates: Through the Year with Sherlock Holmes, by Leah Guinn, Jaime N. Mahoney
- Chronicles of a Liquid Society, by Umberto Eco
What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?
Click on the covers to read my detailed reviews
I had to pick 2 titles!
What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?
Plus of course the top 2
What is one topic or type of nonfiction
you haven’t read enough of yet?
As usual, current issues!
What are you hoping to get out
of participating in Nonfiction November?
Get acquainted with more nonfiction readers and good titles unknown to me.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE NONFICTION THIS YEAR?
Words And Peace 
I can mention a few since I have been reading mostly nonfiction this year. Will Bashor’s history of “Marie Antoinette’s Darkest Days,” which I reviewed for France Book Tours in March, is a favorite despite the sad circumstances it describes, because it was so well done.
I was also very impressed by “Imagine Heaven” by John Burke which reports on the growing body of near-death experiences documented by physicians and other researchers. It is a detailed ethnographic study of people’s reports which are remarkably similar even across cultures.
I can also recommend the series of books by physicist-turned-theologian Fr Robert Spitzer: Finding Happiness, The Soul’s Upward Yearning, God So Loved the World, and the latest one, The Light Shines On in the Darkness, about the meaning of suffering and the implications for our lives. I do note the similarity of the last one to the title of your book, A Light to Enlighten the Darkness! Light is so intimately related to the nature of God, it cannot help but keep coming up! 🙂
Hope this Nonfiction November is great for you, as the past year’s list of books has been.
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Thanks for your reference and your sweet mention of my own book. I read another similar book some time ago on near-death experience. Fascinating. I’m going to look into Spitzer, thanks
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Honestly, I don’t know how you do it! That’s an impressive list.
I enjoyed “Born a Crime” very much. I am torn on my non-fiction faves this year between “As Always, Julia,” a collection of letters from Julia Child to her friend Avis DeVoto written before and during the time Julia was writing “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and “No Ordinary Time,” a biography of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II.
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thanks. my secret is no children, no TV, so I read a lot every night after work and cooking. I have read another very interesting book on Julia Child, years ago. I’ll recommend No Ordinary Time to my husband, who loves American history
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I, too, loved Novel of the Century! It might be my favorite book of the year. I look forward to reading more of your Nonfiction November posts.
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thanks for stopping by. I’m going to visit your post to see what other nonfiction you would recommend, a bit of Catholic-Orthodox dialog here 😉
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Well, I can pat myself on the back that I wanted to read more about current events this year and I did! But I feel I neglected some of my other loves, memoir, literary biography, and narrative nonfiction history. I would love to read the Daphne Du Maurier bio since i read three of her books this year.
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oh yes, you will love her bio! So i’m going to your blog to see what current events books you recommend
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I read The Unwinding, Dark Money, Strangers in Their Own Land, Hillbilly Elegy, White Trash, and Listen, Liberal … haven’t reviewed them all yet though.
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thanks for sharing
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The World Between Two Covers looks interesting! I love books about books. I hope you can find some more non-fiction recommendations this month – good luck!
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you would love it then! enjoy your month of Nov. I finally found your blog, so will comment on your post. youe comment ID is still sending us to your former blog
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Pingback: Nonfiction November – Sharing Introductions | JulzReads
Ive not read The World Between Two Covers but I followed Ann. Organ’s blog during her initial project. It was fascinating to read the process she used to decide what to read.
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I did too. You REALLY need to read her book. It’s not the collection of her reviews. It’s an in depth analysis, and very well structured as well
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I read a few reviews of it – some were quite dismissive which I thought was unfair
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oh wow, seriously! I have not bumped into these, very sad and really unfair
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That was my feeling too – one criticism was that she wrote the book as if she was the first person to realise that translated books were in a minority when other people had been talking about this for years. My thought was that what did it matter – she was highlighting an issue that needed to be highlighted
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really, stupid criticism. I didn’t have that impression anyway.She was just pushing the point and commenting it more, rather
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Exactly!
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I just learned about The Novel of the Century in another Nonfiction November post! The World Between Two Covers sounds interesting, too.
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yes, 2 amazing books! at the end of my video on Bellos’s book, I recommend a link where he presents his book, really neat to watch as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOgVEzifUIc
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Born a Crime is showing up on so many lists this year! I definitely need to get around to reading it!
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It was a real eye opener for me
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Nice selection of books you’ve read this year! I hadn’t heard of the Daphne du Maurier biography, but I finally read Rebecca this year. I was also impressed by Tatiana de Rosnay’s writing in Sarah’s Key, so I may have to check that one out.
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I think you would really enjoy this biography, so well done
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I love Les Miserables and I think I might have to look up The Novel of the Century, which I’d never heard of – thanks for bringing it to my attention 🙂
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you will love it!
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Pingback: Nonfiction November: New to my TBR – louloureads
I have a hard time saying no to books about books, so I’ll definitely be checking out your favorites from the year 🙂
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we seem to have some problems in common, lol
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