NONFICTION NOVEMBER Week 5: New to My TBR
Nonfiction November is being hosted this week by Katie at Doing Dewey.
Oh, my! I’ve seen about a hundred books this month that I want to read. I had to narrow it down, guys. Sorry for anyone I missed.
First – the answers to my call for experts on making big later-in-life changes, and for downsizing. Thank you to all who commented on this post!
Life Changes:
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Suess (to be covered in a separate post, coming soon) recommended by Brona at Brona’s Books
The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 by Molly Peacock also by Brona, and seconded by Rebecca at Bookish Beck and Marcie at Buried in Print (Doesn’t this look luscious?)
A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives by Lisa Congdon also cited by Rebecca
Heather at Gofita’s Pages praised Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak a Language from Anywhere in the World by Benny Lewis
Downsizing:
Duane Elgin’s Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich was applauded by Jane at Hotchpot Cafe as the “bible” of downsizing from a cultural perspective
Rebecca also appreciated Year of No Clutter by Eve O. Schaub
The Year of Less by Cait Flanders was cited by Jade of Reading with Jade as being thought-provoking in terms of downsizing
Genevieve Parker Hill’s Minimalist Living: Decluttering for Joy, Health and Creativity was recommended by Michael at Inexhaustible Invitations as dealing with lifestyle shifts in general, in addition to offering practical advice about how to declutter
I also picked up a couple of other helpful resources:
GrowingBolder.com website and podcast also endorsed by Jane and
The Minimalists podcast applauded by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best
I already have Voluntary Simplicity and Eva Schaub’s book on my bedside table, and have the rest of the above list reserved at the library.
Further down my TBR I added:
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper
and
Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Languageby Eva Hoffman
I’ve misplaced the names of the bloggers who recommended these. If it was you, please let me know!
Although not part of a Nonfiction November post, Christie at the Ludic Reader highly praised Orchestra in My Garden: Lessons Learned from Digging Deep by Linda Brooks
I saw Educated by Tara Westover on many blogs this month, but it was Rebecca at Bookish Beck who was either the first who mentioned it, or the first to convince me to read it. She called it “one of the most powerful and well-written memoirs I’ve ever read.”
And last, but certainly not least, two books on race because I have biracial grandchildren and because I can’t see race as anything but a social construct:
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
and
Good White People: the Problem with Middle-Class White Anti-Racism by Shannon Sullivan, both brought to my attention by JoAnn of Lakeside Musing who has done a prodigious amount of reading on this subject.
What a great month. Thanks for all the great recommendations – it was really hard to narrow my list down.
Do any of my choices tempt you?
P.S. The links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.
I was deeply moved by Between the World and Me. I plan to read Lost in Translation soon because Eva Hoffman is such an amazing writer. I own The Paper Garden, started it once and got distracted. I have a close friend who just loved it.
Those all look great, Debbie. We have similar taste in non-fiction (although I haven’t yet tried that truck story to really test the theory)! I’m still reading The Paper Garden and it wins the award for book-I-take-my-glasses-off-for-most-often-to-peer-at-it-from-nose-level because the illustrations are just fascinating. I think it was A Life in Books who recommended the Hoffman (which I also thought remarkable, but many years ago): does that sound right? I’m not sure she was actually participating in the event, but maybe just chatting?
So many good books here! I enjoyed the audio version of Word By Word, read by the author. Educated is everywhere! I listened to that one, too, and parts were a little too intense for me… reminded me of The Glass Castle. Between the World and Me really is a must read, and I have high hopes for Good White People. It’s been a great month!!
Thanks for the shout-out! It looks like you got great recommendations all around, and I will enjoy seeing how you learn from these books and shift your life. Such an exciting time for you.
I just ordered Good White People. I’ve been looking for a book to help me do more to oppose racism, and this sounds like a good place to begin reading about this issue.
Yay for Educated! That was one of my favorites of the year.
I loved your choosing some titles from your ASK AN EXPERT post. Sounds like you got some great ideas from it.
And, I don’t think I saw Good white people come up but that sounds interesting. I have an article on the topic – not related to this book I think – in my list of articles to read, and I’m really keen to read it (says she who somehow hasn’t managed to do so yet.)