Last week’s kickoff for Nonfiction November was so awesome, thank you to everyone who participated. As of the time I’m writing this post, 60 people had linked up posts sharing their year in nonfiction. They were so fun to read! I tried to get around and comment on every post, but I might have missed a couple (sorry if I did!).

Each week, we’ll have a different prompt and a different host looking at different ideas about reading and loving nonfiction. This week’s host is another one of my favorite bloggers, Sarah at Sarah’s Book Shelves, who is looking at fiction and nonfiction book pairings:

Week 2: (Nov. 5 to 9) – Fiction / Nonfiction Book Pairing (Sarah’s Book Shelves): This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together.

This year, I’m pairing the fiction book I’m currently reading, The Witches of New York by Ami McKay, and a nonfiction book I read earlier this year, Damnation Island by Stacy Horn.

I picked up The Witches of New York after fellow Book Rioter Jenn Northington reviewed it in a recent edition of her science fiction/fantasy newsletter. Here’s her description, which is better than I could ever do: 

A scientifically minded young woman named Beatrice Dunn sets out to get a job in a New York City tea shop run by a soothsayer and an herbalist with one goal: to find out if magic is real. Adelaide and Eleanor, the proprietors, are delighted by their new apprentice but have troubles of their own. … Meanwhile, a local preacher has recently decided that he is on a holy mission to rid New York of witches and their devilish ways, and a possibly-supernatural obelisk is on its way to Central Park.

The book is so great! There’s magic, there’s alternating points of view, there’s historical documents and ephemera… so many of my favorite things. I’ve been reading it a bit at a time for a few weeks now and just savoring every bit.

Damnation Island is a history of New York’s Roosevelt Island in the 19th century. Roosevelt Island (at the time called Blackwell’s) was the site of site of  “a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals.” The island was supposed to be a modern, humane place to incarcerate or house the city’s poorest residents. That didn’t work for long, though, as bureaucrats and politicians slowly eroded support for the facilities on the island.

I thought this was an excellent, readable nonfiction book. Horn has a keen eye for detail, and her sense of storytelling really keeps the book engaging. I also liked the way it was structured, offering a history of each of the institutions on the island that tracked with a general history of that place and how it was shaped by internal and external forces during that time period. 

The reason I wanted to pair these books together is that Blackwell’s makes an appearance during a few scenes in The Witches of New York. The books are mainly set during the same time period, and both have a thread of feminist history running through them that I really liked. They both also use historical documents and writings (probably fictional, in the case of The Witches of New York) to add some color to the story, which is fun.

That’s what I’ve got for this week! Be sure to stop over at Sarah’s Book Shelves to see the other fiction/nonfiction book pairings going up this week!

Hooray, Nonfiction November is here! Nonfiction November — hosted this year by Julie (JulzReads), Sarah (Sarah’s Book Shelves), Katie (Doing Dewey), Rennie (What’s Nonfiction) — is a month-long celebration of everything nonfiction. Each week, we’ll have a different prompt and a different host looking at different ideas about reading and loving nonfiction.

I’m excited to be hosting the first week, where we want to look back at your year in nonfiction:

Week 1: (Oct. 29 to Nov. 2) – Your Year in Nonfiction (Kim @ Sophisticated Dorkiness): 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?

What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?

I’ve read a lot of good nonfiction this year, so I can’t pick just one. Two memoirs I’ve loved are Educated by Tara Westover and Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride. Both are incredible stories by courageous, smart women that really got me right in the feels. Two straight nonfiction books I’ve loved are Never Caught by Erica Dunbar and Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman.

Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year?

I’ve been amassing and reading a bunch of Obama administration memoirs this year. The insanity (and long-term horror) of the current administration has caught up with me, and I am craving nonfiction that hearkens back to a time when our biggest scandals were tan suits and Dijon mustard rather than collusion/admiration of dictators.

Two of my favorites have been From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein and Yes We (Still) Can by Dan Pfeiffer. The two closest to me on my TBR are West Wingers, edited by Gautam Raghavan and To Obama by Jeanne Marie Laskas.

What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?

This is another terrible question! I couldn’t pick just one so here are three:  

• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara for it’s news value and for people looking for genuinely scary (but not lurid or sensational) true crime.
• Bad Blood by John Carreyrou for its intense reporting and bananapants story.
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean for everyone who needs a charming love letter to an institution as amazing as libraries.

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

As I was sorting through my list of nonfiction for the year, I realized that most of my nonfiction reading has been pretty white. I’ve read lots of fiction by authors of color, but apparently much less nonfiction. So, I hope that I can find some great recommendations to round out my reading for the rest of the year.

Now it’s your turn! Link up your Nonfiction November blog posts below, or answer them in the comments. We’re skipping round up posts this year, so be sure to also click through and see what other people have shared. And hop on over to Instagram, where we’re doing a photo challenge starting on November 1.

Despite what felt like a pretty slow month of reading in September, I actually finished three excellent new nonfiction releases. Here are some thoughts!

The Class by Heather Won Tesoriero

In The Class, journalist Heather Won Tesoriero spent a year following “a visionary high school science teacher and his award-winning students” through their academic and personal pursuits. The teacher, Andy Bramante, is a former corporate scientist who left his job to teach high school science. He leads the science research program at a Connecticut high school, where students work on projects to bring on the competitive science fair circuit. This book was so incredibly charming. The students are the best possible kind of nerds, their teacher is dedicated but totally human, and the storytelling really brought all of them to life. I loved this one.

I Should Have Honor by Khalida Brohi

Khalida Brohi was born in tribal Pakistan, a place where arranged marriages were common, even expected, and women were expected to always behave with honor. After her beloved cousin was killed in a traditional “honor killing,” Brohi became a young activist, trying to change minds and traditions in rural Pakistan. I Should Have Honor is the story of her coming-of-age as an activist and how her activism affected her relationship with her family. Reading this book reminded me a lot of I Am Malala, and not just because both women are young Muslim activists. I thought the writing style was similar — very conversational and personal — and offered a powerful glimpse into cultures I hadn’t gotten to see before. It’s a very good book.

The Personality Brokers by Merve Emre

I think personality tests are fascinating, so of course I was going to pick up a book all about the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Turns out, it’s not nearly as scientifically rigorous as one might think! The Personality Brokers tells the story of Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, a mother-daughter pair of “homemakers, novelists, and amateur psychoanalysts” who designed the test to bring the ideas of Carl Jung to the masses, then how the test has permeated culture today. I thought the first half the book, the story of Briggs and Briggs Myers, was really strong, but that the narrative petered out a bit near the end. I think I wanted a bit more about contemporary personality testing than I got, but overall it was an interesting read.

Around Here | It has been a long time since I managed to put together one of these life round-up posts. September was pretty hectic, but I’m not sure that’s really a good excuse. I guess life just feels full, but in a way that’s not really exceptional… it’s just life. That seems sad, but it’s really not. Onward!

Reading | I am nearly finished with Susan Orlean’s newest book, The Library Book, a look at the 1986 fire that destroyed more than 400,000 books at the Los Angeles Public Library. It’s also a really effective history of libraries as public institutions, and a portrait of life at the library today. I’m digging it — look for it on shelves October 16.

Watching | Fall television is back! As I’m drafting this post, we’re watching Dancing With the Stars, my not-so-secret reality tv love. The Good Place is an excellent as ever, Superstore and Speechless are charming, and I am enjoying a new show, Single Parents, so far too. Oh! The other show I’ve been relaxing to at night is One Day at a Time on Neftlix. It’s sweet. I’m all in for nice television right now, it appears.

Listening | Rebecca Traister’s interview on the Longform Podcast about women, anger, and her new book, Good and Mad, was such a great listen. Her book is next on my list, after some podcast prep reading.

Promoting | Nonfiction November is coming back! We’ll be kicking off the month of nonfiction discussion right here on October 29, which I think will be fun.

Visiting | This weekend I made another visit to a great Twin Cities bookstore, Moon Palace Books, with a friend who was in town for the Twin Cities Marathon. I managed to keep my shopping to one book I’ve had on my TBR for awhile, Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Kapra Kassabova.

Crafting | I am still working on the Spectrum shawl by Joji Locatelli, my first big knitting project. Things seemed like they were going well, and then I realized I’d messed up a section and had to rip out about a third of my work. I’m almost caught back up but… that was annoying!

Attending | Last month I went to author talks by two great nonfiction authors on back-to-back evenings. The first was Peggy Orenstein, author of a collection of essays, Don’t Call Me Princess, as well as several other books on motherhood, feminism, girls, and sexuality. She’s so smart and funny, I can’t wait to see what she does next.

The second was Eli Saslow, a Washington Post journalist who just published a book about the reformation of a young white nationalist, Rising Out of Hatred. I’m nervous about the subject, and still not entirely convinced that white nationalist thought needs any more publicity (even in a book about a man realizing that the ideology is evil). But Saslow is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, his talk on the book was really smart, and he’s the author of a favorite backlist title, Ten Letters, so I’m willing to give it a shot.

Anticipating | The weather has been pretty unpleasant and rainy lately, but I think we’re going to get some nice fall days soon — chilly but not cold, sunshine, falling leaves means it’s sweater weather! I don’t love saying goodbye to summer, but a sunny fall day outside makes it hurt a little less.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! What are you reading today?