Nonfiction November – Week 2
This week’s link-up is hosted by Rachel at Hibernator’s Library. The prompt for this week’s Nonfiction November entry asks what I look for in nonfiction reading.
More than anything, I want to learn from NF. I want to investigate ideas or times or places that I’m not familiar with. And I tell myself I’m particularly interested in anything to do with Canada, some things France, history, country living (especially moving to the country), or things bibliophilic. But what I’ve actually read over the last ten years leans toward food and memoirs. Oops!
I know I’m not big into how-to or self-help or business and I want my nonfiction to be narrative. Occasionally, I’ll work hard to take in a topic (and feel better for it) but generally I’d like to skip textbook or reference style NF.
For some reason, although the cover doesn’t seem as important to me as it does with the novels I read, the title does. And oddly, sub-titles have huge appeal for me.
So books like Lawrence Scanlan’s Heading Home: On Starting a New Life in a Country Place (Canadian, country, subtitle) or Adam Gopnik’s The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food (France, food, subtitle!) have huge appeal.
For the record, I’ve read Heading Home more than once and love it, and since I’ve greatly enjoyed at least two of Gopnik’s other NF books (Paris to the Moon and Winter: 5 Windows on the Season) I’m putting The Table Comes First at the top of my TBR list – in fact, I just reserved it at the library.
What about you? What do you look for in your non-fiction reading?
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What we think we like, and what we actually read can be two different things!
I forgot to say I like food books, and that I don’t like self-help.
Nonfiction books often have the best subtitles!
It’s actually quite sobering, raidergirl, to compare the actual with the ‘what I thought’, in so many things in life. {sigh} 😉
that Gopnik’s book sounds interesting
I agree, Emma! I’ll let you now how it pans out.
Subtitles have become an art in themselves these days! I really like the sound of “Heading Home” and the “The Table Comes First” (and appreciate the elaboration given by the subtitle.)
Yeah, I’m not sure, Lory, whether I would have even glanced at The Table Comes First if it hadn’t been for the subtitle.
The fact that you liked Heading Home so much (which I just added to my to-read list) makes me think that you might be interested in Field Notes: A City Girl’s Search for Heart and Home in Rural Nova Scotia by Sara Jewell. Not so much a memoir as a series of essays. I thought it was good, and it takes place not far from either of us – Pugwash and Oxford area!
Oh, Naomi, thanks so much! I had somehow missed Field Notes, I’ve just requested it by inter-library loan. (Shouldn’t every library in NS have a copy?!) It sounds perfect for me and I’m excitedly looking forward to it.
I don’t really like how to or business. I do like self help especially if it’s about getting fitter/healthier, and I love travel memoirs.
Yes, travel memoirs can be really interesting, Vicki.
I realized this week that I love a good subtitle too!
It’s wonderful how this challenge is making us crystallize our feelings about nonfiction, Katherine!
Gopnik is a particular favorite of mine, too. Somehow I missed Winter. Off to add it to my TBR now.
I almost missed The Table Comes First, Deb. It’s great to have the blogosphere for recommendations!
I haven’t read any food books. I’m more interested in travelogues and memoirs, and I find, perhaps, history concerned with Asia and the Sub-continent. I also like to read Christian non-fiction. (Sigh…I’m beginning to realise, when I wrote my post, I didn’t think it through enough!!)
Asia and the Sub-continent: a fascinating subject, Risa, and one I would never have thought of for NF reading.
Adam Gopnick’s Paris to the Moon is one of my favorite nonfiction books. He is the editor of the New Yorker. Great read.
I knew he worked for the New Yorker, Loren, but I didn’t realize he was editor. He’s also Canadian (well, by now, probably dual citizenship) having grown in Montreal, Quebec.
I adored The Table Comes First. Hope you enjoy it. Memoirs are among my favorite things to read, and I’ve become particularly fond of foodie memoirs in recent years even though I don’t cook.
Your recommendation is high praise, Rebecca! I’m sure to enjoy The Table Comes First!
I want to learn from NF as well but I don’t want it to read like a textbook.
Agreed, Kathy!
I look for novel-like qualities in my non-fiction reading. *grin* Of course.
Truth be told, most of us do, Marcie. 🙂
Titles, especially subtitles, are a lot more important than covers in nonfiction for me, too. Heading Home sounds like a book I’d enjoy, and Paris to the Moon has been on my shelf for years. Really need to pick it up and read it.
Have you read The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers by Josh Kilmer-Purcell? Josh is one of The Beekman Boys, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him (and Brent Ridge) at local events. The audio version is great, too. Think you would might like this one!
The Bucolic Plague sounds like something I would love! Thanks for the recommendation, JoAnn.
I really enjoyed Paris to the Moon and love food memoirs…didn’t realize he’d written one! Will to the TBR – thanks for the rec.
I hadn’t realized either, Sarah, until I went to Amazon for the image for From Paris to the Moon. lol
Expanding ones knowledge really is the whole idea of it, isn’t it? I used to be in the habit of reading for just pleasure, which is okay, but I walked away not changed at all, and often forgetting about the reading experience altogether because I was not choosing books that were memorable or that were capable of changing me in any sort of way. Now I put effort into choosing books that will stay with me for a lifetime, whether they be fiction or nonfiction.
I certainly feel better about myself and my reading when I do that, Toady. The older I get, the more I realize that I can’t waste time on books that don’t work for me.
Haha, you’re the 3rd NFN-er to mention the importance of subtitles that I’ve seen. And you’re right — a great subtitle can really grab attention and also properly set your expectations as to content/tone.
lol, I know, Louise! After I wrote and posted this, it seems that every second NFN post I read mentioned the importance of those ‘after the colon’ titles. 🙂
I think looking back often reveals we’re not reading what we think we usually read! I think I intend to read a lot more weighty tomes and then have a busy life so pick up light and short titles all the time.
{sigh} it’s true, Ellie. I’m the say way about those ‘weighty tomes’.
I like reading biographies of past American Presidents. But sometimes they have long dry sections. What I like most is learning things I didn’t know before and having a good narrative storytelling style to get me through the learning-:) Two of my favorites over the years are The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Devil in the White City. I also love biographies of authors whose novels I have read.
Judy, reading about the lives of past presidents is a good way to get history but I confess there are only a limited number that appeal to me. I’m hoping to read Devil in the White City when I do a Chicago reading month in the next year or two.
I often wonder why our libraries don’t seem to have all the local books. It seems to me that they should! (I know – money.)
{sigh} Yes, money. And I don’t suppose everybody wants to read local all the time. But, still . . . .
P.S. I just (digitally) stumbled on The Chateau by William Maxwell. Wonder if you’d like that one — if you haven’t already read it.
The Chateau sounds charming, and I have not read it. Thanks for the recommendation, Rebecca!