Nonfiction November discussion

It is officially November 1st here in the US (I know it was Nov. 1st in other parts of the country all ready).

So let's begin.

Have any of you started and if so what is the book (or books) you're currently on?

I started reading this one last night. It's a long book filled with essays. It might take me the whole month to read it, but that's okay. I plan to read others inbetween.


Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement

I already started What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis for "Web" (obvs would work for Capital too). I picked it up at the free little library in my town and I'm skimming a lot because a) it was published in 2009 so info is out of date, b) I'm not the intended audience (dudebro really hyped about corporate or entrepreneurial world).
But I am enjoying it as a historical artifact/seeing which prediction came true or not.

I have a hard time reading out of date books too. Anything before 2018 is difficult reading for me.

Ron wrote: "I have a hard time reading out of date books too. Anything before 2018 is difficult reading for me."

For me it depends on the topic and type of nonfiction really

I will pick back up De Deventer moordzaak. Het complot ontrafeld which I started in September, but had to put down for a while because of review copies with deadline and also lack of concentration for it. This book is an investigation piece by a journalist, diving into the case De Deventer Moordzaak, and show where the investigation of the police had holes and how they probably locked up an innocent man. Thinking of it, it can both fit Fraude and Web (Web in the sense of Web of lies)

I borrow my books from Libby so I just read them in the order they come off of my hold shelf. The first three books I'll read in November will just happen to be non-fictions. I'm reading Eruption about Eddie Van Halen. A fiction will slip in there The People in the trees, but inspired by true events. Then two memoirs: Thicker than blood and wild. Let's see what other non-fictions Libby brings to me this month...

I will be starting Making It So by Patrick Stewart later today.

I started Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America

So far it reads very easily!

I've started The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. It wasn't on my NN 2023 list but it's a library book and its due date is putting it at the top.

I am currently reading Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything for Fraud

Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks & Micah Sparks

I started my first day of Nonfiction November with 'Because Internet' by Gretchen McCullouch.

I have started Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks, and 365 Days.

I am reading Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. I will use it for web if I decide to do the prompts.

I'm starting the readathon with Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati for Display.

My mood selected a book from the Libby app.

Top Gun: An American Story: Dan Pedersen

I started Black Angels: the Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis last night. Thanks to a long car ride and flight, I am almost finished. I don’t expect to read a book a day this month, but it is nice to have a day to dedicate to reading a great book!

My first book for NFN is Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. It is a definite web of lies and deception.

Also, each night I’m reading one chapter from Sy Montgomery’s How To Be A Good Creature.

Reading Britney Spears's memoir, The Woman in Me. It works for Display as she has been in the public eye since her teen years.

I've started reading 23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang and continue on my journey around the Wild Shores of Ireland by Richard Nairn.

I have picked back up Volume 2 of Annette Rubinstein’s literary criticism series From Shakespeare to Shaw, to finish this month for Display. Because her display of knowledge and critical understanding of English literature is remarkable! And fascinating.

Reading Muppets in Moscow, very engaging and interesting memoir. Perfect fit for display prompt.

Helen wrote: "Reading Muppets in Moscow, very engaging and interesting memoir. Perfect fit for display prompt."

I loved it.

I'm finishing up Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Up next is Killers of the Flower Moon.

Reading The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, and Mutiny in the South Pacific -quite entertaining, debating where to slot it-could go into Web (of deceit) or Fraud (for the crimes)

A Warrior of the People: How Susan La Flesche overcame racial and gender inequality to become America's first Indian doctor by Joe Starita.

I am starting with a graphic novel called "Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?"

I am about halfway through "Ace" by Angela Chen and I'm really enjoying it.

Reading Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” for the prompt of 'web'. Since there is no one word for Latinos it strikes me as a web of terminology: Latinos, Latinx, Hispanic, Mexicans, Mexican Americans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc.

Hi, joined this group and am excited about it. I am about to finish The Golden Boy of Centre Court: How Bjorn Borg Conquered Wimbledon by Graham Denton. Anybody else interested in the golden age of tennis?

Ashley wrote: "I'm finishing up Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Up next is Killers of the Flower Moon."

Ashley, I really enjoyed both books.

I just finished Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination and think I’ll start either Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir or The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust for fraud.

Currently reading Dare to Lead by Brene Brown, Heaven on Earth by N.T. Wright and How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren

Yay! Hello November! I’m currently reading There She Was: The Secret History of Miss America.

I have been reading a lot of different non-fiction books so far this month. I finished Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions first. Then, Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell. Both of those were short. The other book I've finished so far is a great book by epidemiologist Emily Smith titled The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger about Loving Our Neighbors. I'm also reading Amusing Ourselves to Death and The Best American Science and Nature Writing, 2021 edited by Ed Yong.

My second Nonfiction November read was The Autobiography of Jack the Ripper by James Carnac. Is this a confession of the infamous serial killer? Or is it a fictional novel, and therefore, a complete fraud? I’m actually still a bit uncertain.

Okay so I'm currently reading this one for display:

You Are What You Watch

It's a fun book, but it feels more like a textbook, which I don't mind since I like the subject matter, but I know I won't finish it by the end of the month. Because of that I'm still going to add it to my monthly count.

*****

Finished this book and I think it could work for web:

Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels

There is a 'web' of material that can be used when teaching English Language Arts and one of those resources can be through educating with comic books.

*****

Now trying to figure out what to read for my third book.

Loving Nonfiction November, as always!

I just finished Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis for the prompt fraud. Even though I think the book has some flaws, I was fascinated by much of it and really enjoyed the reading experience.

I am currently reading The Long Game: Inside Sinn Féin by Aoife Moore for the prompt web. Haven't gotten far yet, but am excited for it.

Oh I found my next book for the capital prompt:

MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios

*****

I was at the bookstore today and even though I'm a DC girl through and through, this one caught my attention. It was one of those books that by the time I was ready to go I couldn't get it out of my head so I had to get it.

I am currently reading and enjoying The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World and The True Story of the Christmas Truce: British and German Eyewitness Accounts from World War I. Both are really good, IMO.

Starting The Word Detective: Searching for the Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary today, trying to keep up with my library holds at the same time as clearing my nonfiction TBR.

Just finished We'll Always Have the Movies: American Cinema during World War II

and currently reading Hot Toddy: The True Story of Hollywood's Most Sensational Murder

Okay so I'm intimidated by books over 375 pages. So anything above that is a challenge for me. Still even if I don't finish the books by the end of the month I still count them. Plus I annotate my books so that takes a bit longer.

With that in mind I started my book for the 'web' prompt:

UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There

This book is 511 pages.

I found it in the nonfiction section at the bookstore.

Now reading On a Wing and a Prayer: The Race to Save our Vanishing Birds. Amongst other locations, the book discusses the efforts to save birds in the world capital of extinction- Hawaii.

I am now reading "Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and The Spirit of the Sixties" by Mike Marqusee.

Ashley Marie wrote: "Reading Britney Spears's memoir, The Woman in Me. It works for Display as she has been in the public eye since her teen years."

Britney had to go back to the library before I could finish. Starting A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France today instead.

Currently reading Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. It works for capital, since oil, money and greed are at the center of the story.

Ana wrote: "Currently reading Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. It works for capital, since oil, money and greed are at the center of the story."

Nice. What do you think of it so far?

I am currently reading and taking my time with (because I've had other things I've been reading) . This one is interesting so far. I don't know if it would fit any prompts. I did google this and I saw some things that said that people thought this was a hoax so maybe it could fit the fraud prompt??