NONFICTION NOVEMBER: Your Year in Nonfiction

Week 1: (Oct. 28 to Nov. 1) – Your Year in Nonfiction (Julz of Julz Reads): 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?

The Look Back:
So far this year, I've read 25 non-fiction books, and I rate 9 of them at 4.5 stars out of 5 - very good reads. I just remembered! I need to consider NF books read in December of last year that got missed in the November review last year, so let's add 4 more books to the list.

29 Nonfiction books
10 Audiobooks
15 Female authors


What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?  lol, I can't pick one, here's 8

Murder at McDonalds - Phonse Jessome

In the early 1990s, a McDonalds in Sydney River, Cape Breton was robbed, and three of the workers were killed. It turned out to be 3 local boys, and the community was shocked, to say the least. I remember this happening, and really enjoyed the account written by the local reporter who was just getting started when this horrific crime happened. 

Bad Blood - John Carryrou

The story of the biggest Silicon Valley scam was unbelievable. Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Therano, is a very compelling figure and after reading this book, you will be looking for more info - there is a podcast, The Dropout to check out. 

Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford by Richard Reeves
Biography of the New Zealand half of the Bohr-Rutherford model, I really liked the excitement of the physics discoveries happening in the first half of the 20th century. A visit to Rutherford's research room at McGill university is on my list of 'things to see' in Montreal.

Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson
Steven Johnson makes my 'best of NF' list once again. Everything Bad wasn't quite as excellent as The Ghost Map, but it was a fascinating, well argued read. 

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

Mary Roach does such a great job of digging into some very interesting aspects of science and putting them together in a dry, amusing way. This one follows the digestive system, and highlights some very obscure research being done. 

Educated by Tara Westover

Was this even real? A view into an aspect of off-grid, anti-government lifestyles in America, Tara Westover has to overcome her family and poverty to get an education.

Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer

When an author has a passion for a topic, it really doesn't matter what the topic is, it will be interesting. Kimmerer is a moss expert, and her appreciation and the connections she makes between moss and many other things, was fascinating. I notice moss so much now on my walks.

Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini
I've been watching all the Scientology programs by Leah Remini and Mike Rinder on television so I knew I had to read Remini's memoir, and I was not disappointed. Her rough life in Scientology as a teenager, the Hollywood behind the scenes, and her growing disillusionment with the important people in Scientology, culminating at Tom Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes in Italy.



Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year?
Last year, one of my favourite non-fiction books was I'll Be Gone Before the Dark by Michelle McNamara and it seems to have inspired a good portion of my non-fiction reading  this year as True Crime leads my list of nonfiction reads for the year.

The Dark Heart:  A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator - Joakim Palmkvist (ebook)
The Case of Madeleine Smith - Rick Geary (graphic novel)
The Boy on the Bicycle - Nate Hendley

and crime-related - 
The Library Book by Susan Orleans (based around the LA fire of 1985)
The Threat by Andrew McCabe, (based on the FBI, and threat assessment)
Run Hide Repeat by Pauline Dakin (based on her childhood on the run)



What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?
I guess it depends on who you are. My science teacher friends get Gulp, Force of Nature, and Gathering Moss. But I have recommended all the the eight above at various times to various people this year. 

What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

I like looking back and remembering some great reads, getting some books reviewed, and then reading other posts and getting a verified list of great books to look for next year!


The List December 2018
147. No One Tells You This - Glynnis MacNicol 
148. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness - Sy Montgomery (audiobook)
150. Harry's Last Stand - Harry Leslie Smith (ebook)
154. Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt - Mary Kay Carson

January - November 2019

7. *Bad Blood - John Carryroo 🎧

18. The Library Book - Susan Orlean 🎧
20. Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford - Richard Reeves

26. Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson 🎧
27. Murder at McDonald's: The Killers Next Door - Phonse Jessome  (ebook) 
28. Run Hide Repeat - Pauline Dakin  

35. The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump - Andrew G McCabe 🎧

42. The Princess Diarist - Carrie Fisher 🎧
47. Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity - David Bodanis

53. Educated - Tara Westover (ebook)
59. District Nurse: My Life as a Nurse in the 1950s - Patricia Jordan

63. The Morningside World of Stuart McLean - Stuart McLean 
65. Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter - Steven Johnson
69.  The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator - Joakim Palmkvist (ebook)
73. Antonia and Her Daughters - Marlena De Blasi

79. Tear Down This Wall: A City, A President, and a Speech That Ended the Cold War - Romesh Ratnesar 🎧
81. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal - Mary Roach 🎧
82. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States - Sarah Vowell 

87. Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 🎧
90. Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers - Deborah Heiligman 🎧 
91. Death to All Sacred Cows - Beau Fraser 🎧



94. The Case of Madeleine Smith - Rick Geary
95. Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology - Leah Remini
100. Gathering Moss - Robin Wall Kimmerer

116. Talking to Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell   🎧

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books I'd Give Different Titles To

The topic of this week's Top Ten Tuesday is Books I'd Give Different Titles To. For links to other entrants, and for future topics for Top Ten Tuesday, check out That Artsy Reader Girl. I don't have ten books this week, but some categories fill out the list.

Small Island by Andrea Levy
I wrote in my review my problems with the title, but in retrospect, I made the point quite well for the title Small Island. My suggestion was Queenie.


This is a timely topic, as I've just finished several Shari Lapena books, and I was not pleased with two of the titles. I want a title that lets me know what the book is about. A Stranger in the House and An Unwanted Guest just don't give the full effect. I have to be able to remember what the book is about, and neither of these do that.

      A Stranger in the House
There is not an actual stranger in the house, it is more of a metaphor representing do we really know somebody? But with a suspense book, and the very cliche events that happen in this book, a metaphoric title is a little above its station. Or as Ricky Skaggs sings, Don't Get Above Your Raisin. Did anyone else watch the Ken Burns Country Music miniseries on PBS? I quite enjoyed it, and have been listening to a lot of old country music lately. 

An Unwanted Guest
I really liked this Shari Lapena suspense book, but again, the title doesn't quite give the effect. This was a locked room mystery, set in an isolated, storm stayed group of tourists at a cabin. Clearly one of the guests was unwanted, but a title that evoked Agatha Christie's  And Then There Were None was called for here.

Most mystery books, especially Louise Penny, Robert Galbraith, some Agatha Christie have titles that do not help me remember what the book is about at all.

Some of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamauche book titles like The Brutal Telling, A Great Reckoning, Still Life, Kingdom of the Blind, and the latest - A Better Man are so bland, and nondescript. 

I've loved the Cormoran Strike books by Robert Galbraith, but the titles don't help at all - Cuckoo's Calling, Career of Evil, The Silkworm, and Lethal White. I don't even remember the plots for the most part, but then these stories are more about the Cormoran and Robin relationship. 

Another set of books with misleading titles are the Ann Patchett's books Commonwealth, and State of Wonder. Part of the problem is that I mix up Patchett with Barbara Kingsolver, and some of her book titles that I haven't read yet - Small Wonders and The Lacuna. 

CHALLENGE: Reader's Imbibing Peril 14th Annual

I'm going into this challenge a little backward - I never officially joined, but it is a challenge I've participated in nearly every year. Instead, since I was already reading books themed with 

Mystery.

Suspense.

Thriller.

Dark Fantasy.

Gothic.

Horror.

Supernatural.

I'm going to give a little September update of some of my reading.

These are my favourite types of books so it is no challenge at all to read them. 

The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan, 10h 19min

read by Aoife McMahon

My new favourite police series! So well written, so well plotted, McTiernan is the perfect author to tide you over between waiting for Tana French Dublin Murder Squad books and the next Robert Galbraith Cormoran Strike book. I would include this series along with those other two. 

Set in Galway, Ireland Corman Reilly has been relegated to investigating cold cases when his girlfriend Emma, comes across a dead body hit by a car and he takes charge of the case. When the dead girl is found to have the ID of the heir to a successful research company, the investigation gets trickier. Office politics are also interfering with the investigation as Reilly is relatively new to the squad and isn't sure who is working with or against him. 

I walked longer when I was listening to this book as I didn't want to stop listening. This is my new standard of what makes a great read.

A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena, 8h 52min

read by Tavia Gilbert

After two great books by Lapena earlier this year, I decided to finish off her backlist with A Stranger in the House, another suspense filled thriller type book. Unfortunately, this one did not work as well for me. There was too much thinking about what someone might think, and not enough just reacting. This would be her follow up book to her successful debut, The Couple Next Door and I'm glad this was the last book of hers that I got around to reading. Her later books were better and I would still read Lapena again.

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, 

read by Nicola Barber

I'm not finished with this audiobook yet, but it fits perfectly with the RIP theme. Set in a boarding school in east end London, an American student starts the year at the same time that a Jack the Ripper copy cat is recreating the famous murders from 1888. Rory comes from the Louisiana, with all its gothic-ness, and begins to experience some supernatural events, like the guy who is always in the library that no one else has ever noticed. I'm liking this so far, although I'm not sure I'm pleased to see there are three more books in the series. I guess I'll see how much I like it if I want to read more.

(note to self: stop listening to murder mysteries when walking in the evening now that it is dark so much earlier. I've spooked myself a few times now while walking and listening!)

Options for October:

Woman in Black by Susan Hill (already started)
The Suspect by Fiona Barton
The Crossing Place by Elly Griffiths
A Better Man by Louise Penny
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Book Titles with Numbers In Them

I can't believe I missed this Top Ten Tuesday topic yesterday! I've been missing my blog, as back to school September whacks me in the head again. I had a great summer. I got a Fitbit, and started getting a big walk in everyday. Now that I am back to school, it is still important for me to try and get that walk in. Walking and audiobooks have been a perfect combination for me. So, between trying to exercise, and back to work full-time something has to give. It's been correcting, and my blog! 

I saw some blogs yesterday, with this fun list and I was annoyed I had missed it. But hey, I can still participate and I am going to. Here's my list of  great books I've read with numbers in the title.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Such a great fun story! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton, and it was one of the first that made me realize that when the book is good, even 14 hours is not a long time.

One Good Turn Kate Atkinson

A Jackson Brodie mystery, which is timely as there is a new book, Big Sky, that I am waiting to get from the library. Excellent series, and if you get a chance to find the BBC mini series, I highly recommend.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

This was a delightful children's book about a gorilla living in a 'zoo' in a mall. Touching and easy to read, there may have been tears at the end.

Sisters in Two Worlds by Michael Peterman

I loved this nonfiction scrapbook about those famous Canadian settler sisters, Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. Lots of background, and primary sources, fans of history should definitely check this out.

Seven Days by Deon Meyer

Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer

Two fast action mysteries from South Africa make my list because I love Deon Meyer's Bennie Griesel police mysteries and he has two with numbers in the title. Read them in order if you can, but read them.

The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor by Sally Armstrong

Hmm, a second Canadian settler book? That seems odd. This one is a fictionalized account (based on true legends) of the author's great grandmother, and how she survived in rural New Brunswick, having tons of kids and several husbands. 

Housekeeping vs the Dirt: Fourteen Months of Massively Witty Adventures in Reading Chronicled by the National Book Critic by Nick Hornby

I was going to avoid books with the number in the subtitle, but when I saw the Nick Hornby book, I remembered how much I enjoyed reading his books of essays about reading, and life. 

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

In the early 2000s, I devoured all books Kinsella, both her Shopaholic books and her stand alones, like Twenties Girl. Kinsella does a great job of the chick lit book, but there is always a little more, the writing is a little better. This was a great book about a girl whose dead grandmother comes back to somewhat haunt her. But in a nice way.

4:50 to Paddington by Agatha Christie, a Miss Marple Mystery

How many books did Agatha Christie write? 66 novels? So amazing. I love Poirot when I was younger, loved her short stories, but when I found Miss Marple a few years ago, I was so glad I hadn't read any of her stories before, because I got to enjoy a whole set of mysteries, like 4:50 to Paddington.