Because I have a personal penchant for alliteration, I’ve been reading nonfiction in November for the past few years. Only a couple of months ago did I discover that Nonfiction November is An Actual Thing, an established book-blogging meme:
Announcing Nonfiction November
I apologize to the hosts for not acknowledging them in past years, and I’m eager to participate properly this year. Since about 98% of the books I read are novels, I look forward every year to concentrating on nonfiction in November.
Over the years most of my nonfiction reading has been memoirs, particularly women’s memoirs. I got so involved in that topic that I went back to school in my late 50s and got a degree in psychology. I wrote my dissertation on life stories. Since then, I’ve been amazed at how often I recognize novelists using elements of life story psychology (technically known as narrative identity theory) in their books.
Most recently, I’ve been interested in how readers talk about their experiences with reading, particularly reading fiction, and more particularly their childhood reading. I’ve therefore been reading nonfiction books that deal with that topic, which has in turn lead me to an exploration of how memory works. These are the general areas that I’ll be reading about this month.
Almost all of the nonfiction I’ve already read in 2024 falls under those topics:
- The Lives of Literature: Reading, Teaching, Knowing by Arnold Weinstein
- The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode
- Why We Read by Shannon Reed
- Rewrite Your Life by Jessica Lourey
- My Hijacking by Martha Hodes
The single exception is Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard. In anticipation of Nonfiction November, I put off reviewing those books, so reviews of some of them will be upcoming throughout the month.
Although my own nonfiction reading this month will be quite focused, I look forward to hearing what other book bloggers are reading. I love a well written piece of creative nonfiction, and I look forward to learning about a lot of new (new to me, not necessarily recent) books to add to my TBR shelves. I’m particularly interested in memoir, biography, social and cultural history, literary history and criticism, reading, and writing.
I will be promoting #nonficnov24 on Mastodon.
© 2024 by Mary Daniels Brown
I can highly recommend the memoir The Night Gallery of My Mother by Sandra Tyler, which I read recently. I have a review of it coming out on Nov. 5 in MasticadoresUSA.
Thanks, Liz, I’ll check it out.
You’re welcome, Mary.
I enjoy books about reading too. Why We Read sounds interesting!
Thanks for reading and commenting, Helen.
Ok that is too funny that you were doing your own Nonfiction November (kind of like a Taco Tuesday?), not knowing it was already a thing.
I look forward to your review of The Lives of Literature as the summary on Goodreads doesn’t really tell me much.
Also looking forward to your review of Why We Read. Curious to know what is funny about it?
The Hijacking book sounds good, too, so I am curious to hear what you liked / didn’t like about it.
I love a good book about books and reading. Nice focus!
A fascinating story there – to get so involved in people’s life stories that it leads to a degree in Psychology. I think that’s amazing. Thanks so much for sharing your choices Mary and for taking part in Nonfiction November.
Your research sounds fascinating!
I enjoy books about books & reading, too. Adding Why We Read to my list – thanks!