Nonfiction November: My (Nonexistent Until Now) Year in Nonfiction

Nonfiction November

I’m excited to participate for the first time in Nonfiction November hosted by Katie at Doing Dewey, Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness, Becca at I’m Lost in Books, and Leslie at Regular Rumination. I realized that I’d read a woefully small number of nonfiction books this year, which is not like me, so I’m excited to make up for that this month!

It's Monday What Are You Reading

I’m also going to link this post to Book Journey’s It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? since it more or less answers the question of what I’m reading.

My Year in Nonfiction

It pains me to write this, but my year in nonfiction has been almost nonexistent…and I didn’t even realize it! When I first found out about Nonfiction November, I checked my 2014 Books Read List and was horrified to discover that I’d only read two nonfiction books that were not cooking books or memoirs. I really like nonfiction and usually read a fair amount of it…what happened this year?! Needless to say, that was certainly a motivation for me to make sure to participate in this event!

What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?

Well, this one isn’t hard to answer considering I haven’t read many yet (but Nonfiction November will improve that a bit)…

Liar Temptress Soldier Spy, Four Women Undercover in the Civil War, nonfiction, Karen Abbott
Review coming this week

What is one topic or type of nonfiction you haven’t read enough of yet?

Definitely sports books – I love reading sports stories and usually read a lot of them (I even have a Sports Books List on this blog). But, I sadly haven’t read a single one this year! I do plan to change that this month with this book about a Pennsylvania steel town’s (Braddock) football team’s amazing 1959 season on the heels of the longest labor strike in U.S. history:

Striking Gridiron, Greg Nichols, nonfiction, sports, football, 1959 steel strike

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

Read some nonfiction to make up for my lack of attention to the genre this year! I’d also like to add some more nonfiction titles to my TBR list.

Here are my reading plans for Nonfiction November (I’ve gotten a head start on a couple of them already)…

Nonfiction November Reading Plans

I might also throw a fiction or two (probably Us by David Nichols and Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich) in there to make sure I don’t suffer from “genre burnout”.

How has your year in nonfiction been so far? Are you participating in Nonfiction November


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25 Comments

  1. Heather wrote:

    I liked Liar, Temptress, Solider, Spy too.

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  2. Amy Reads wrote:

    Sports books is a category I’ve really never touched. I’ve always said, when people admire my book collection, that I have everything except about sports and cars! Perhaps I should remedy that, at least on the sports side.

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  3. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy looks good.

    I normally do not read non-fiction, though.

    I definitely do not read sports books. 🙂

    ENJOY your reading week.

    I found your blog in the comments section of River City Reading’s blog.

    Going to Follow by E-mail if I can.

    Elizabeth
    Silver’s Reviews
    My It’s Monday, What Are You Reading

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  4. Andi wrote:

    It looks like you have some great books lined up for November! I just saw My Salinger Year listed on the Goodreads Choice Awards. Looking forward to your thoughts on it and Liar, Temptress, especially!

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  5. I’m most looking forward to next week, seeing other bloggers sharing their expertise!

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  6. I’d like to read Liar, Temptress, Solider, Spy… fascinating subject!

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  7. bookmammal wrote:

    I’ve been hearing a lot about Liar, Temptress . . . recently–I may have to give that one a try!
    I just picked up Without You There Is No Us from the library but haven’t gotten to it yet–I know next to nothing about the North Korean culture and am looking forward to learning about it.

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  8. Iris wrote:

    Your plans sound so good! I’m curious about all those books, except for well.. the sports book. I’m afraid the sports books are all on my boyfriend’s shelves over here.

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  9. Trish wrote:

    I’ve definitely been seeing Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy all over the place! I’ll look forward to seeing more about what you thought. I’ve also put Without You, There is No Us on my list.

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  10. When it comes to non-fiction, I like history and sports books. Your Sports Books List looks very good. I enjoyed Born to Run and Moneyball and plan to read Seabiscuit and The Boys in the Boat. Good luck with your reading plans for Non-Fiction November!

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  11. Trisha wrote:

    Liar, etc. looks awesome. Great title, great topic, great cover. I am definitely adding that one to the to-read list.

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  12. Sarah, My Salinger Year looked interesting to me when it was released; I’ll be interested to hear what you think! As a huge football fan, I definitely love books about the sport; Striking Gridiron looks really good! Thanks for sharing your plans for Nonfiction November; will definitely keep checking back for updates!

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      I’m almost 3/4 through Striking Gridiron and am enjoying it so far. If you watched Friday Night Lights, I think you’ll like it. Whole small town the world revolves around football feel. It can get a bit X’s and O’s at times, but he did a good job developing the characters (esp the coach), so the X’s and O’s aren’t too painful.

      My Salinger Year is up next…will let you know how it goes 🙂

      Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  13. Looks like you have a great reading list ahead of you, Sarah! I’ll be seeing Karen Abbott at Fountain Bookstore next week and I can’t wait – I think she’ll have some interesting things to add about the book and (hopefully!) Richmond, too.

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      I loved reading about Richmond as well! I feel like I should know more history about my birthplace than I do 🙂

      Posted 11.3.14 Reply
  14. One of my favorite nonfiction books about sports is The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. It’s about the US 1936 Olympic crew team and it just really and truly wonderful. Thanks for joining Nonfiction November!

    Posted 11.3.14 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      I absolutely loved that book – it was one of my favorites (fiction and nonfiction) of last year and definitely my favorite nonfiction. Thanks for stopping by!

      Posted 11.4.14 Reply
  15. Brona wrote:

    I’ve heard My Salinger Year is wonderful, esp for someone who works in the book trade (me)!

    The rest are unknown to me, but since I’m focusing on Australian books this month – that’s probably not so surprising 🙂

    Good luck.

    Posted 11.4.14 Reply
  16. Without You There Is No Us intrigues me. I have heard good things about Liar Temptress but Civil War isn’t really my time period.

    Posted 11.4.14 Reply
  17. Wow, great list. All of those books sound really interesting. I love sports, but it never occurred to me to add some to my list. Maybe next year … 🙂

    Posted 11.4.14 Reply
  18. Katherine wrote:

    I’m totally bookmarking your Sports Books list. I’m not a huge sports fan, but I find sports stories and the sort of behind-the-scenes stuff (like Moneyball) to be really interesting.

    Posted 11.4.14 Reply
  19. Shelleyrae wrote:

    I haven’t read as much non fiction this year as I usually do either, I might have to sign up for the challenge in 2015 to prompt me,

    Read on!
    Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out

    Posted 11.5.14 Reply
  20. Leslie wrote:

    I have Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy on hold at the library, but I don’t think I’m going to get it in time for Nonfiction November. 🙁 But! It will be a good December read too. Nonfiction is for all the time!! Thanks so much for joining in Nonfiction November!!

    Posted 11.7.14 Reply
  21. Christina wrote:

    Oooh, I’m adding Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy to my to-read list. Sounds so interesting.

    Posted 11.8.14 Reply

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