r/nonfictionbooks

Hello everyone!

In order to get some more discussions going about different Non Fiction books we will have a weekly thread to talk about different sub-genres or topics.

Which books do you think are good beginner books for someone that wants to learn a bit more about the topic or wants to explore the subgenre? Which books are your personal favorites?

• The  Mod Team

Hi everyone!

We would love to know what you are currently reading or have recently finished reading. What do you think of it (so far)?

Should we check it out? Why or why not?

• The r/nonfictionbooks Mod Team

Looking for some real gritty honest memoirs about overcoming trauma, addiction, other tough life situations. Like Anthony Bourdain tone of voice. Making a gift for a friend in recovery so please help

The initial part of this post is a brief review of five books, followed by questions for discussion.

I have recently been on a memoir kick, my recent favorites being:

- My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

- Coming to My Senses by Alice Waters

- Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

- Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

- Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Bourdain

+ The Diaries of Anais Nin (not sure this counts as memoir per se, but still a fascinating account of a life and inner world).

I was pleasantly surprised by the Alice Waters book, as it was well-written and traced the very eclectic and interesting life she led before and after opening Chez Panisse. Travels, adventures in other lands, protests at home in California, coming of age during the 1960s and 70s.

I loved the Gerald Durrell book, his writing is tender and beautiful and paints a vivid portrait of his family’s life growing up on a Greek island in the 1930s. I’ve read some books by his brother, Lawrence Durrell - who was “actually” a writer - but I preferred this one by his little brother. It felt real and pure, good-hearted in a way not many books feel.

Kitchen Confidential is interesting for anyone, particularly if you have worked in the service industry, but maybe also if you haven’t. It gives a rare look into what happens behind the scenes, and offers a glimpse into the particular mind of its writer. Bourdain was a fascinating person even outside of his culinary career, so I enjoyed this one a lot.

Crying in H-Mart - beautifully written, I found I couldn’t put it down once I started. It is deceptively simple, dealing with the more mundane parts of life as well as the more extraordinary, and was one of the only books in recent history to make me cry.

Four Seasons in Rome - I recently spent some time in Italy and enjoyed reading this account of a year spent living in Rome. It’s equally poetic and honest, telling not only of the culture they dove into (him and his wife), but also the challenges of raising two young children (newborn twins) while living in a new and different place. An easy and enjoyable read with lush and vidid descriptions of time and place.

Anais Nin - I recently read Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller and then got into Anais Nin’s writing, to see the other end of the stick, so to speak. Her writing is real and unfiltered, her diary entries ranging between poetic and illusory. I loved reading them and it made me even more curious about both her’s and Miller’s lives, as well.

After reading these memoir-style books, I began thinking of the genre as a whole. It’s one of my favorite things to read, yet I don’t hear about memoirs nearly as often as literary fiction or other types of writing. I wanted to ask:

- Do people (you, who’s reading this) still read memoirs?

- Are they lumped in with literature, or do they usually have their own place?

- What do you think is the value of writing a memoir-esque piece of writing in today’s day and age?

- Would you read a “memoir” of an average, normal person’s life, or only one of someone famous or already well-known?

I’m curious to hear from literature readers about their thoughts on memoirs as books and as a genre of its own right.

Experiment I ran this year: instead of reading 3 unrelated books, I read 3 books on the same theme (decision-making).

The books: Thinking Fast and Slow (Kahneman), The Psychology of Money (Housel), and Predictably Irrational (Ariely).

What happened when I read them as a cluster:

1. The contradictions became visible. Kahneman says we are predictably irrational due to cognitive biases. Housel says our financial decisions are rational given our personal history -- they just look irrational from the outside. These are fundamentally different claims. Reading them separately, I would have agreed with both. Reading them together, I had to actually think about which framework I believed.

2. The examples reinforced each other. Ariely's auction experiments illustrate Kahneman's anchoring bias with better data. Housel's Bill Gates/Kent Evans story makes Kahneman's luck-vs-skill argument tangible. The books TEACH each other.

3. I retained more. Seeing the same concept (loss aversion, framing effects, narrative bias) from 3 angles cemented it. Three months later, I can explain these concepts from memory. After reading a single book on a topic, I usually forget the details within weeks.

My recommendation: pick a topic you care about. Read 3 books on it in sequence. You will learn more from that cluster than from 3 random books, guaranteed.

Good clusters I have planned:

• Habits: Atomic Habits + The Power of Habit + Tiny Habits
• Focus: Deep Work + Essentialism + The One Thing
• Stoicism: Meditations + Letters from a Stoic + The Obstacle Is the Way

Has anyone else tried reading in clusters? What combinations worked well?

Hello everyone!

We all enjoy reading non-fiction books and learning some fun and/or interesting facts along the way. So what fun or interesting facts did you learn from your reading this week? We would love to know! And please mention the book you learned it from!)

• The /r/nonfictionbooks Mod Team

Accelerationism as far I am concerned pertains to

1. religious zealous people creating the ideal conditions (accelerating them) for arrival of awaited saviour. Eschatology and stuff. Comparative one would be great

2. Transhumanist one merging of man and the machine ( popular among both aisle of political spectrum)

3. American empire decline and it's acceleration.

Books any of these wider topic is highly appreciated

Hi everyone!

We would love to know what you are currently reading or have recently finished reading. What do you think of it (so far)?

Should we check it out? Why or why not?

• The r/nonfictionbooks Mod Team

Hello everyone!

In order to get some more discussions going about different Non Fiction books we will have a weekly thread to talk about different sub-genres or topics.

Which books do you think are good beginner books for someone that wants to learn a bit more about the topic or wants to explore the subgenre? Which books are your personal favorites?

• The  Mod Team

Looking for a short and sweet non-fiction to get me back on track for my yearly reading goal. Ideally would like something:

200 pages or less

Light-Hearted, fun topic

Interested in nuclear war books? Just read Nuclear War: A Scenario and The 2001 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks. Would love to discuss

Hello everyone!

We all enjoy reading non-fiction books and learning some fun and/or interesting facts along the way. So what fun or interesting facts did you learn from your reading this week? We would love to know! And please mention the book you learned it from!)

• The /r/nonfictionbooks Mod Team

I've just finished reading Sandi's memoir and really enjoyed doing so. It is exactly as described in the blurb. Even so, I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was a more traditional memoir.

Once I'd stopped thinking about the book being autobiographical and full of historical details, I read it with ease.

I remember seeing Sandi as Ethel in the kids' show No 73 back in the 1980s. Learning that she had been successful in theatre and stand up prior to appearing on TV didn't surprise me at all.

I loved reading about women of note, who are often overlooked in traditional history. Sandi's activism and the founding of the Women's Equality Party reminded me that as far as we've come, we have a long way to go. That is much more evident 6 years after the book was published. The danger today is losing the rights that we have gained.

A funny and thought-provoking read.