I have decided to participate in Nonfiction November! Here is a link to the announcement if you want to join.
Rennie from What’s Nonfiction is the host for this week and here is the prompt:
It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book!
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
Recommended by: Jaymi @ Orange County Readers
The inspiring story of a son and his dying mother, who form a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close.
Mary Anne Schwalbe is waiting for her chemotherapy treatments when Will casually asks her what she’s reading. The conversation they have grows into tradition: soon they are reading the same books so they can have something to talk about in the hospital waiting room. The ones they choose range from classic to popular, from fantastic to spiritual, and we hear their passion for reading and their love for each other in their intimate and searching discussions.
A profoundly moving testament to the power of love between a child and parent, and the power of reading in our lives.
I had not heard of this book until Jaymi recommended it. It sounds so beautiful and heartbreaking. There is something so endearing about a mother and son forming a book club while the mother undergoes chemotherapy.
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Recommended by: Head Subhead
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary — and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.My Glory Was I Had Such Friends by Amy Silverstein
Recommended by: Joli @ Literary Quicksand
In this moving memoir about the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit, Amy Silverstein tells the story of the extraordinary group of women who supported her as she waited on the precipice for a life-saving heart transplant.
Nearly twenty-six years after receiving her first heart transplant, Amy Silverstein’s donor heart plummeted into failure. If she wanted to live, she had to take on the grueling quest for a new heart—immediately.
A shot at survival meant uprooting her life and moving across the country to California. When her friends heard of her plans, there was only one reaction: “I’m there.” Nine remarkable women—Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann, and Jane—put demanding jobs and pressing family obligations on hold to fly across the country and be by Amy’s side. Creating a calendar spreadsheet, the women—some of them strangers to one another—passed the baton of friendship, one to the next, and headed straight and strong into the battle to help save Amy’s life.
Empowered by the kind of empathy that can only grow with age, these women, each knowing Amy from different stages of her life, banded together to provide her with something that medicine alone could not. Sleeping on a cot beside her bed, they rubbed her back and feet when the pain was unbearable, adorned her room with death-distracting decorations, and engaged in their “best talks ever.” They saw the true measure of their friend’s strength, and they each responded in kind.
Joli said that this is one of those books that everyone has to read. I am always intrigued when people say that about a book! It is sounds beautiful and I love that it focuses on women and female friendships. I can not wait to read it!
The Nature Fix: Why nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams
Recommended by: Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs
From forest trails in Korea, to islands in Finland, to eucalyptus groves in California, Florence Williams investigates the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain. Delving into brand-new research, she uncovers the powers of the natural world to improve health, promote reflection and innovation, and strengthen our relationships. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these ideas—and the answers they yield—are more urgent than ever.I always mean to read more books about nature, and this sounds like a really interesting one! I love that this book seems to focus on how nature makes us feel and the importance of heading outdoors.
Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Did the Impossible and Learned to Disappear by Jim Steinmeyer
Recommended by: Katherine @ The Writerly Reader
Lauded by today’s finest magicians and critics, Hiding the Elephant is a cultural history of the efforts among legendary conjurers to make things materialize, levitate, and disappear. Steinmeyer unveils the secrets and life stories of the fascinating personalities behind optical marvels such as floating ghosts interacting with live actors, disembodied heads, and vanishing ladies. He demystifies Pepper’s Ghost, Harry Kellar’s Levitation of Princess Karnak, Charles Morritt’s Disappearing Donkey, and Houdini’s landmark vanishing of Jennie the elephant in 1918. The dramatic mix of science and history, with revealing diagrams, photographs and magicians’ portraits by William Stout, provides a glimpse behind the curtain at the backstage story of magic.
Katherine says that her favourite topic to read about is magic history, and that is not something I had ever considered reading about before. That is what I have truly loved about this month, I have found so many new bloggers with a wide range of interests. This books sounds so interesting!!
I’m curious about The Professor and the Madman, I’ve heard that one is really good! I added The End of Your Life Book Club too. I’m glad you found so many good recommendations and new bloggers this month!!
It was an awesome month for sure!
Great list, some of these are new to me but they all look so interesting! I’m adding The Professor and the Madman to my TBR immediately!
Doesn’t that book sound so interesting?!
The Nature Fix was so interesting! I hope you like it as much as I did!
I have a feeling I will!! Thank you for recommending it.
My favorite thing about nonfiction in general is when you stumble on a good book and think “I never knew I wanted to know about that!”
That’s so true!