Oh, November, You’ve gone so quickly. I’m sad about that, since talking about nonfiction all month has been so fun. The host for our final week of Nonfiction November is Katie (Doing Dewey). The purpose of this week is to look back on the month and share some of the books that caught your attention:

New to My TBR: It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book!

Even though I’ve been awfully slow to leave comments on all of the posts, I’ve really tried to read all of them. As I read and jotted down books that sounded interesting, I notice two things — there were a ton of books I have on my shelves that I just haven’t read it, and a ton of books I hadn’t even heard of. Here’s are five of each.

Five Books Already on My Shelves

• Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand – Beth (Too Fond)
• Stuck in the Middle With You by Jennifer Finney Boylan — Monika (A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall)
• An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield– CJ (ebookclassics)
• Handling the Truth by Beth Kephart — Melissa (Melissa Firman)
• The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr – Travis (Head Subhead)

Five Books Added to My Shelves

• King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild — Sarah (The Everyday Reader)
• Serving Victoria by Kate Hubbard — Andi (Estella’s Revenge)
• The Birth of the Pill by Jonathan Eig — Shannon (River City Reading)
• A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah — Trish (Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity)
• First Darling of the Morning by Thrifty Umrigar — (Feminist Texan Reads)

There are many, many more books that caught my attention that I could have included, but that’s what I’ve got. I’ll definitely be revisiting the wrap-up posts for each week when I need more recommendations!

One last reminder that our Nonfiction November Twitter hashtag is #nonficnov. The conversation there is awesome.

Finally, a huge thank you to my co-hosts: Leslie (Regular Rumination), Katie (Doing Dewey) and Rebecca (I’m Lost In Books). This month would not have happened without their hard work and enthusiasm. I don’t think Leslie and I could have manged it ourselves this year, so I am so grateful that Katie and Becca joined us. Check back for a wrap-up for this week from Katie.

And thanks to all of you who have participated this month. I can’t believe how much it grew from last year, and how many different people participated. It’s been so much fun.

Time and Place | About 8:30 a.m. at my desk, nothing special here.

Eating and Drinking |  Black tea.

Reading | I had another slow reading week. I finished Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand yesterday morning, but that’s it. I haven’t decided what I want to read next, but I got several good choices in the mail this week: The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum (part of Bex’s Nonfiction Book Swap), Grim Legacies by Jack Zipes (from Princeton University Press), The Lonely War by Nazila Fathi (from Basic Books) and The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (the November Riot Read). And there are still a bunch of books on my Nonfiction November reading list that I haven’t read yet… so many choices!

Watching | I’m still working my way through Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on Netflix. I’m going to be sad when I’m caught up with all of the available episodes. We also went to see Mockingjay: Part I last night — I really enjoyed it! I don’t think they needed to make the book into two movies, but I liked the stuff they added to flesh this one out and where they chose to break the book.

Listening | I’m going to try to start listening to Serial, a true crime podcast that everyone seems to be raving about. It seems like something that’ll be right up my alley.

Making | I worked on a couple of crochet cowls this week. I don’t have any finished pictures — no willing models — but I’ll try to get some up in a week or two.

Cooking | I’m in charge of bringing rolls and condiments (pickles and olives) to Thanksgiving dinner this week. I’m thinking about making these Sweet Potato Biscuits as an experiment.

Blogging | This week I shared some thoughts on diversity in nonfiction as part of Nonfiction November. I also put up a post on The Restless Sleep by Stacy Horn, one of our Nonfiction November readalongs. Work was crazy again this week, so I’m woefully behind on comments… that’s my project for this afternoon.

Promoting | Rebecca (I’m Lost in Books) was the host for this week of Nonfiction November, a discussion of diversity and nonfiction. Her wrap up has a ton of great posts to click though. Katie (Doing Dewey) will be the host for our final week, so make sure to check out her blog tomorrow.

Hating/Loving | I got new glasses this week, which was good and bad. I had a terrible headache the first day I wore them, but it’s better now. I’m not a person who likes to change things, so they’ve taken some getting used to… but I think I love them.

Life Hacking | When I got home from work on Friday I spent about an hour cleaning our house (doing the dishes, sorting laundry, picking up clutter in the living room, clearing off the top of my dresser) before we went out with some friends. I’ve done this Friday evening tidy up for about a month now and I absolutely love it. It’s awesome waking up on Saturday morning and not having to immediately start in on chores.

Wanting | After 11 days where the temperature didn’t get above freezing (horrible), things warmed up this weekend. We’re going to hit 40 degrees today! I want it to stay this warm, but I don’t think that will happen.

Anticipating | I’m so excited to spend Thanksgiving with my family! The boyfriend and I are leaving Wednesday after work and staying with my parents until Sunday. It’s going to be wonderful.

Happy Sunday! What are you reading today?

Updated to Add | I almost forgot! A post I wrote for Book Riot was shared by Reading Rainbow — a personal highlight of the week.

Some books fundamentally impact our lives. “An Ode to Harry Potter & The Magicians” by @kimthedork http://t.co/hvF4YfaSFI via @BookRiot

— Reading Rainbow (@readingrainbow) November 22, 2014

I hate starting out blog posts with apologies, but this tweet from Andi (Estella’s Revenge) pretty much sums up life over the last couple of weeks:

Why did the “I’m too busy to breathe” slumps have to hit during #nonficnov?

— Andi Miller (@estellasrevenge) November 17, 2014

I had high hopes for a thoughtful, nuanced post to spark discussion about The Restless Sleep by Stacy Horn, one of the two books we’re discussing during Nonfiction November. Instead, work is crazy and my brain is fried, so I’m just going to talk about why I was excited to read this book then open it up for chatter in the comments.

If you recall, my fellow Nonfiction November hosts and I offered up four options for the readlong — one chosen by each of us. The Restless Sleep is the book I suggested, so I was definitely excited other people were up for reading it.

The Restless Sleep got on my radar thanks to one of my favorite nonfiction bloggers (who, sadly for me, hasn’t blogged much lately), Sarah from Citizen Reader. Last summer she wrote a post about Stacy Horn, one of her favorite nonfiction writers. Sarah noted, “I am very fond of her books because they cover a wide variety of topics, she takes fact-checking seriously, and her writing is always very, very sincere.”

At Sarah’s suggestion, I found a copy of Horn’s most recent book, Imperfect Harmony, a mix of memoir, history and science that explores why humans love to sing together. I was struck by how wide-ranging the book was, the unique structure, and how deeply personal the subject was for her and the way she approached it. Since I have a soft spot for true time, The Restless Sleep pushed it’s way onto my reading list.

The Restless Sleep, first published in 2005, is an inside look at the Cold Case Squad of the New York City Police Department. The book looks at the history of the squad and the challenges of investigating cold cases while following detectives through three different cold cases. In addition to write about these crimes, Horn explores the intricacies of police bureaucracy, the process of investigations and the personalities of detectives in this squad.

I really love these sorts of outsider/insider stories, where a writer who is new to a topic tries to make it meaningful to other outsiders. And for the most part, I really enjoyed reading this book.

But I don’t want to let my opinion dictate the discussion to much so I’ll just offer up some questions to spark conversation: What did you think of the book? What did you think of Horn’s approach to the subject? How well did she manage to bring all of these threads together? Did this book make you curious about other police groups or about cold cases in general?

Programming Notes

• Leslie (Regular Rumination) is also writing about The Restless Sleep. You can visit Katie (Doing Dewey) and Rebecca (I’m Lost In Books) for posts on Cleopatra: A Life. Just leave links to your post, if you have one, in the comments.
• Our Nonfiction November Twitter hashtag is #nonficnov. Share posts or chat about the books there too!

It feels like November is just flying by. I can’t believe it’s already the third week of the month. Next week will be Thanksgiving and the week after that it’s already December. Craziness.

The host for week three of Nonfiction November is Rebecca (I’m Lost In Books), who suggested we look at a topic that is getting a lot of attention in the literary world, diversity. Rebecca asks:

Diversity and Nonfiction: What does “diversity” in books mean to you? Does it refer to a book’s location or subject matter? Or is it the author’s nationality or background? What countries/cultures do you tend to enjoy or read about most in your nonfiction? What countries/cultures would you like nonfiction recommendations for? What kind of books besides different countries/cultures do you think of as books of diversity?

I thought about some more creative ways to approach this topic, but ultimately I decided to go with the easy way out and treat the prompt like a survey. Here are some unorganized thoughts on diversity in nonfiction.

What does “diversity” in books mean to you? Does it refer to a book’s location or subject matter? Or is it the author’s nationality or background?

About a month ago I wrote a post about how one of my goals is to pay better attention to reading more books by authors of color. But I think that’s just one way of thinking about diversity. There’s value in reading books about different cultures or places that are written by white authors, even if their experience in a place is very different from the experience a local to that place might have.

What countries/cultures do you tend to enjoy or read about most in your nonfiction?

I tend to read a lot of books focused on issues in the Middle East. A few that come to mind are The Secretary by Kim Ghattas, The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg, Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni, House of Stone by Anthony Shadid, and Hope Street, Jerusalem by Irris Makler. I’m interested in that area because of the complicated gender dynamics and the role that region plays on the world stage.

What countries/cultures would you like nonfiction recommendations for?

One area that I don’t read enough about is Africa. I’ve considered several memoirs by African writers – A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah or Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller – but I just don’t tend to pick them up. I would love some other suggestions for nonfiction set in Africa.

What kind of books besides different countries/cultures do you think of as books of diversity?

My first reaction to this question is to assume that diversity has more to do with different countries or cultures than it does with anything else. However, I think there’s value in thinking about diversity a little more broadly, reading about anything that is not familiar or not part of the dominant culture. One of the things that is great about nonfiction is the way it can help us understand lives that are completely unlike our own.

Before I end this post, a little bit of self-promotion: I’d like to suggest a couple of posts I wrote for Book Riot on diversity in nonfiction: 12 Excellent Memoirs by Authors of Color and 12 Excellent True Stories by Authors of Color. I’m proud of those posts, and I think they’re a great resources of you’re looking for some ideas for diverse nonfiction.

Programming Notes

• Our readalong posts for The Restless Sleep and Cleopatra: A Life will go up on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Follow this link to find out more about the readalongs.
• Our Nonfiction November Twitter hashtag is #nonficnov. The conversation there is awesome.
• A big shout out to my co-hosts: Leslie (Regular Rumination), Katie (Doing Dewey) and Rebecca (I’m Lost In Books). Rebecca is your host this week so make sure to link up your discussion posts and reviews there. Katie will be hosting week four.