What It’s About: Shoplifting, says Shtier (via reviewer Rachel Syme), is one of the many “activities we all think about but never discuss,” exactly the kind of taboo subject I like to read about in nonfiction. The statistics about shoplifting shared in Syme’s review of The Steal are pretty startling:
Retail losses due to shoplifting have risen 8.8 percent since the start of the Great Recession.
American families pay the highest “crime tax” in the world (the money each family “loses to theft-related price inflation”).
Shoplifting a $5 heirloom tomato from Whole Foods means the store needs to sell $166 to deal with the loss.
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What It’s About: The 2008 presidential election was a big one for a number of reasons, but the narrative this book focuses on is the role of women as candidates, spouses, and commentators. Traister, a reporter for Salon, offers an account of the election, covering a range of women including Sarah Palin, Tina Fey, Katic Couric, and Hillary Clinton and exploring the different reactions the candidates received throughout the election season.
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What It’s About: Twenty-nine and recently unemployed, Noelle Hancock felt lost and anxious. Then one day she saw a quote on a coffee shop blackboard that convinced her to make a change:
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
Inspired by good old Eleanor Roosevelt (and in the spirit of other trendy, “year in the life” memoirs), Hancock decided to spend the rest of the time before she turned 30 doing a “Year of Fear” — trying the things that scared her most.
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What It’s About: In a “stranger-than-fiction twist on the classic American success story” journalist Mark Seal profiles Christian Gerhartsreiter, a German immigrant who came to the United States and passed himself off as a member of the Rockefeller family for more than 30 years.
As he took on a series of fictional identities, “Clark Rockefeller” moved through social spheres across the country, eventually marrying a businesswoman with a Harvard MBA. Rockefeller received his comeuppance, however, after his divorce, when a kidnapping charge exposed his ludicrous past and connection to a disappearance in California in the 1980s.
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I check out and buy a lot of books that end up getting returned or languishing on my shelves unread for reasons that have nothing to do with the book. I wanted to find a way to highlight those books, so decided to start a new weekly-ish feature called “Off the Stacks.”
Each week in “Off the Stacks” I’ll highlight one recent nonfiction that I want to read but, because I can only read so many books, may not get to try. I’m hoping that by highlighting titles this way, I can encourage other people to give the book a try, and, if it’s great, consider nominating it later this year in the Indie Lit Awards.
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I’m in the middle of reading The Long Goodbye by Meaghan O’Rourke, the story of O’Rourke’s experiences after her mother’s death from at age 55. While I don’t actively seek out memoirs about grief, it seems like they have been a big part of my reading lately.
About a month ago, I read an article in the New York Times where O’Rourke and Joyce Carol Oates discuss why they chose to write about their own losses, and why books about loss can resonate with readers.
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This is, I think, the oddest Narrative Nonfiction 5 list that I’ve put together. I’m not really that passionate about ocean creatures, but I just happened to see a lot of books on this topic come out recently that looked interesting, and the list sort of fell together from there. And, I have a special guest recommendation from a friend Erin, a science journalism student at UW-Madison where I did my Master’s.
But enough with the introduction, on to the books!
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I’m not sure if Halloween ranks as my favorite holiday, but it’s definitely up in the top few. And the whole nature of Halloween lends itself to lots of good and spooky nonfiction. In honor of this awesome holiday, I’ve got a Narrative Nonfiction 5 list that I hope you’ll enjoy. The list features books from authors Mary Roach, Deb Blum, John Berendt, Wade Davis, and Karen Palmer.
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My love for football and great narrative sports writing have come up a couple of times on the blog, which makes today – the first game of the NFL season – the perfect day for a Narrative Nonfiction 5 on pro football.
Come tonight, I’ll be settled in with my roommate watching the Minnesota Vikings take on the New Orleans Saints and cheering for the team that consistently breaks my heart. I can’t wait.
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This is a little bit of a nontraditional Narrative Nonfiction 5 list, since I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call most of these books “narrative nonfiction.” They’re more classic nonfiction, even though the bits I’ve read of each do have a conversational style that I really appreciate.
The books on this list are all responses to the fact that technology is changing us as individuals and a society – some think for the better, and some think for the worse. Ever since I started my new job (working for a engineering trade magazine), it seems I can’t get enough of this discussion, and wanted to share some of the books I’m most excited about reading with you.
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