#NonFicNov 2022 Week 1

Week 1: (Oct 31-Nov 4) – 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? 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? (Katie @ Doing Dewey)
- TOP 5 non-fiction book
- How the Word Is Passed – Clint Smith (336 pg). ….excellent!! 2021 REVIEW
- Red Zone – P. Hartcher – …very interesting REVIEW
- The Road to Unfreedom – T. Snyder …very interesting – REVIEW
- The Little Devil in America –398 pg H. Abdurraqib ….excellent!! 2021 REVIEW
- Empire of Pain – P. R. Keefe….excellent!! – REVIEW
- A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson (travelogue) – REVIEW
- A Cultural History of Causality – S. Kern- REVIEW
- The Dawn of the Belle Epoque – M. McAuliffe – REVIEW
- The Crossroads of Should and Must – E. Luna – REVIEW
- John Adams – David McCullough biography – REVIEW
- All That She Carried – T. Miles (NF) – REVIEW
- Unbound – Tarana Burke (memoir) – REVIEW
- Thomas Becket – J. Guy (NF) biography – REVIEW
- Theatre & Ireland – L. Pilkingkton – REVIEW
- Patrick Kavanagh – Antoinette Quinn biography – REVIEW
- The Best of Frank O’Connor – F. O’Connor (essays) – REVIEW
- Cézanne: Puissant et solitaire – M. Hoog – REVIEW
- Le maniérisme – P. Falguières – REVIEW
- Bring the War Home – K. Belew – REVIEW
- Writing Deep Scenes – M. Alderson – REVIEW
- Caravaggio – José Frèches – REVIEW
- Les délassiés – T. Porcher – REVIEW
- Le fagot de ma mémoire – S. Diagne – REVIEW
- The Road to Unfreedom – T. Snyder – REVIEW
- The Age of the Strongman – G. Rachman – REVIEW
- La guerre des idées – E. Bastié – REVIEW
- Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission – Y. Katz – REVIEW
- Flyboy in the Buttermilk – Greg Tate – REVIEW
- Stony the Road (NF) – H.L. Gates jr. – REVIEW
- All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep – A. Henry – REVIEW
- Hooked: Art and Attachment – Rita Felski – REVIEW
- When Harlem Was In Vogue – D. Lewis – REVIEW
- Until Justice Be Done – K. Masur – REVIEW
- Stages of Struggle: Modern Playwrights – J. DiGaetani – REVIEW
- Unfollow Me – J. Busby – REVIEW
- Why We Did It – Tim Miller – REVIEW
- Invisible Storm – Jason Kander – REVIEW
- Le Dieu de Dostoïevski – Marguerite Souchon – REVIEW
- Thank You For Your Servitude – M. Leibovich – REVIEW
- Red Zone – P. Hartcher – REVIEW
- Out of Africa – I. Dinesin (memoir)
- Tunnel 29 – H. Merman – REVIEW
- Freezing Order (2022)- B. Browder (memoir) – REVIEW
- The Periodic Table – Primo Levi (memoir) – REVIEW
- The Man Who Could Move Clouds (memoir) – Ingrid Rojas Contreras – REVIEW
- Plot and Structure – J.S. Bell (240 pg ) 2004 REVIEW
- The Figure of the Detective – C. Brownson (216 pg) 2014 REVIEW
- Bloods – Wallace Terry (320 pg) 1984 (NF) REVIEW
- Pushout – M.W. Morris ((303 pg) 2018 (NF) REVIEW
- How the Word Is Passed – Clint Smith (336 pg) 2021 (NF) REVIEW
- The Little Devil in America -398 pg) H. Abdurraqib (300 pg) (essays) 2021 REVIEW
- Empire of Pain – P. R. Keefe (NF) ….excellent!! – REVIEW
- The 1619 Project: The New American Origin Story – Nikole Hannah-Jones (590 pg) REVIEW
Divided in genres:
Literature:
- Writing Deep Scenes – M. Alderson – REVIEW
- Plot and Structure – J.S. Bell (240 pg ) 2004 REVIEW
- The Figure of the Detective – C. Brownson (216 pg) 2014 REVIEW
- A Cultural History of Causality – S. Kern- REVIEW
- When Harlem Was In Vogue – D. Lewis – REVIEW
- Stages of Struggle: Modern Playwrights – J. DiGaetani – REVIEW
- Theatre & Ireland – L. Pilkingkton – REVIEW
- Hooked: Art and Attachment – Rita Felski – REVIEW
- The Dawn of the Belle Epoque – M. McAuliffe – REVIEW
Memoir:
- Out of Africa – I. Dinesin (memoir)
- Tunnel 29 – H. Merman – REVIEW
- Freezing Order (2022)- B. Browder (memoir) – REVIEW
- The Periodic Table – Primo Levi (memoir) – REVIEW
- The Man Who Could Move Clouds (memoir) – Ingrid Rojas Contreras – REVIEW
- Bloods – Wallace Terry (320 pg) 1984 (NF) REVIEW
- Invisible Storm – Jason Kander – REVIEW
- The Crossroads of Should and Must – E. Luna – REVIEW
- Unfollow Me – J. Busby – REVIEW
- Unbound – Tarana Burke (memoir) – REVIEW
- Why We Did It – Tim Miller – REVIEW
- Thank You For Your Servitude – M. Leibovich – REVIEW
- All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep – A. Henry – REVIEW
- A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson – REVIEW (travelogue)
Essays:
- Flyboy in the Buttermilk – Greg Tate – REVIEW
- The Best of Frank O’Connor – F. O’Connor (essays) – REVIEW
- The Little Devil in America -398 pg) H. Abdurraqib (300 pg) (essays) 2021 REVIEW
Biography:
- John Adams – David McCullough biography – REVIEW
- Thomas Becket – J. Guy (NF) biography – REVIEW
- Cézanne: Puissant et solitaire – M. Hoog – REVIEW
- Caravaggio – José Frèches – REVIEW
- Patrick Kavanagh – Antoinette Quinn biography – REVIEW
History:
- The 1619 Project: The New American Origin Story – Nikole Hannah-Jones (590 pg) REVIEW
- Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission – Y. Katz – REVIEW
- How the Word Is Passed – Clint Smith (336 pg) 2021 (NF) REVIEW
- Empire of Pain – P. R. Keefe (NF) ….excellent!! – REVIEW
- Pushout – M.W. Morris (303 pg) 2018 (NF) REVIEW
- The Road to Unfreedom – T. Snyder – REVIEW
- Red Zone – P. Hartcher – REVIEW
- Until Justice Be Done – K. Masur – REVIEW
- Stony the Road (NF) – H.L. Gates jr. – REVIEW
- Bring the War Home – K. Belew – REVIEW
- All That She Carried – T. Miles (NF) – REVIEW
- The Age of the Strongman – G. Rachman – REVIEW
French:
- Le Dieu de Dostoïevski – Marguerite Souchon – REVIEW
- Le maniérisme – P. Falguières – REVIEW
- Les délassiés – T. Porcher – REVIEW
- Le fagot de ma mémoire – S. Diagne – REVIEW
- La guerre des idées – E. Bastié – REVIEW
26 Comments
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Reblogged this on penwithlit and commented:
A jolly useful list!
Thanks for the reblog…it was a great non-fiction year!
Thanks for joining in! I’m eager to read your reviews!
Thank you for hosting this challenge!
It is one of my yearly favorites!
A great list! I put The Little Devil in America on my wishlist last year … Have a good month!
The Little Deil in America…is really an amazing book.
Author is so young (mid 30s) and so insightful.
I’ll be watching your blog this month!
Congratulations on a great year of reading nonfiction, and thank you for your recommendations
Thanks for you comment!
The Periodic Table and Plot and Structure both sound up my street (in very different ways) and I hadn’t heard of either – thanks for bringing them to my attention!
The Periodic Table…was absolutely stunning!
It has been on my Kindle for years….and I finally read it.
Thanks for you comment!
What a great year in nonfiction! I’ve seen A Little Devil in America pop in a few lists and I’m really looking forward to getting around to it. It sounds fascinating.
Thanks so much for your comment. Next year I’m shifting to 75% non-fiction and 25% fiction. I want to avoid reading so many fiction books that were just not good IMO. Facts in non-fiction…I can always learn something new about people, things and ideas.
This is VERY impressive!
I see several French books. My 2 favorite nonfiction this year are French:
Yes, I try to read some French books per month… (…waiting for the Prix Goncourt announcement today 12:45 CET) but NF FRENCH is a real challenge! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and NF 2022 list!
Do you mean you find NF more difficult to understand than fiction in French?
Au fait, le prix Goncourt est allé à Brigitte Giraud, pour Vivre vite. Je n’ai rien lu d’elle. Et toi ?
le prix Goncourt est allé à Brigitte Giraud, pour Vivre vite. Je n’ai rien lu d’elle. ….maintenant sur mon TBR!!
Yes, French NF…is a real challenge…so many “facts” I have to look up and not the ordinary “French fiction vocabulary” that I am used to!
Very interesting. As a French teacher, my students manage usually better with NF, because so many words are cognates when you go into a specific field.
Maybe reading the French wikipedia page on the main topic of your book would help, before you go in the book, to familiarize yourself with the vocabulary of that field?
That’s good idea, thanks!
A Little Devil was on my list of favorites too and I’m planning on reading Empire of Pain this month, so I’m excited to see both of these on your list too! :)
Two very memorable books of 2022…
Entering the world of thoughts of H. Abdurraqib was impressive. You would think how can such a young man write so well and show us the world in a new light. I bought his book of poem…but you could read them as a story in prose The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (see blog post 18 June 2022). Abdurraqib has the power to put many concepts or incidents into a few powerful words.
Empire of Pain was revealing, heartbreaking and a book everyone should read!!
Thanks for you comment…!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the nonfiction you read this year. I also read and also deeply enjoyed How the Word is Passed.
Yes, How the Word is Passed was truly inspiring. There are so many great books now by African-Americans…their perspective is so important. I’m trying to decide how to structure my next year’s reading. Do you have any specific genre’s or challenges you are planning to read/join?
So much beautiful nonfiction! I keep seeing the 1619 Project everywhere, I should really pick up a copy. Enjoy your NFN!
Thanks for you comment. I read many NF books in 2022
and hope to read more in 2023. I have a NF list ready as we speak.
I hope to stick to a few reading lists I’m making.