Nonfiction November 2016 - Next Year's TBR

Nonfiction November is over! Oh no! I immensely enjoyed the opportunity to co-host and look forward to participating in the years to come. Due to an unfortunate setback in my own reading, I only finished one book so far - The Price of Silence, by Liza Long, but I hope to finish Neurotribes by Steve Silberman and The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt before the end of the month. (Reviews to come.)

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

I had lots of pictures to share with you - this one is a bit creepy with the light shining on that missing turkey head. Yes, I'm trying the technique of cooking it upside down and then flipping it the last hour to save juiciness in the breast meat. I'll see in a few hours whether it worked. 

New York Times: 6 Books to Help Understand Trump’s Win

My head has been spinning lately with the election season trying to understand what is happening to our country. I respect the fact that Trump will soon be our president despite outwardly not agreeing with his politics. However, I don't understand the populist movement behind Trump's win. In order to better understand, I wanted to create a list of books to read. My list had gone through several renovations before I discovered this article in the New York Times listing 6 books to help understand Trump's win. Someone did my research for me! Fantastic. Why reinvent the wheel when I had already decided upon three of the six books on the list? So in addition to hosting a literary read-along of the Bible next year,  I will also host a 2017 read-along of these 6 books. As with the Bible read-along, I'm reading them regardless of whether anyone joins me, so if you just want to watch, I'm cool with that, too. Please comment below if you're interested in joining for some or all of them so I know whether I'm going to be making discussion questions. I will read these books in the order listed in the New York Times article because why not? 

Anyone, Trump supporter or not, is welcome to join as long as the dialog remains polite. 

Emerging from Post-Election Blues

Well, I've been absent from the blogging world since the election (besides my pre-scheduled Nonfiction November posts which I'd written earlier in the month). I've been experiencing some post-election blues. It's hard with bipolar disorder to keep my mood within a reasonable range. I went from reading 6 books at once (slight hypomania) to having not picked up or listened to a book since the election. My Nonfiction November reads are definitely going to leak over into December now. 

Nonfiction November 2016: Nonfiction Book Pairings

This week's Nonfiction November prompt, hosted by Sarah at Sarah's Book Shelves, is to pair a nonfiction book with a fiction book. Here's a couple of thoughts based on books that I'm reading right now: 

Nonfiction November: What are you looking for weekly wrap-up

Another great week has passed with Nonfiction November! This week we discussed what you're looking for in nonfiction. This is a wrap-up post to give you an idea of what each person answered to this question. Be sure to check out all the blog posts, as well as participating in next week's book pairing prompt hosted by Sarah @ Sarah's Book Shelves.

Rachel @ Hibernator's Library (me!) said that I tend to like well-researched "textbook-like" nonfiction

Lory @ The Emerald City describes how she  prefers to stay away from textbook-like books and focus on books that have more of a personal feel to them.

Heather @ Based on a True Story outlines 4 characteristics that keeps her interested in nonfiction: authors who're writing about challenges that they've taken on for a certain period of time, authors who write about the travels they undertook while researching a book, books about food, and books about fighting injustice. 

Julie @ JulzReads reads about WWII, Romanovs, and Tudors, as well as space exploration, interesting biographies, mountain climbing adventures, Israel, and true crime.

Amanda @ A Bookshelf Monstrosity is not interested so much in topic as in the style in which the book is written. She enjoys the narrative writing style. 

Steph @ B.B. Toady describes what she's looking for in a nonfiction book cover for a variety of non-fiction subjects. 

Nick @ One Catholic Life likes books that have practical uses like books about spirituality and writing. He also likes books about books. 

Stacey @ Unruly Reader shared a great cover from a nonfiction book that she loves: Chasing Water. 

Risa @ The Next Chapter reads mostly travelogues and memoirs and enjoys "lovely, descriptive, evocative prose."

Katherine @ Writerly Reader  lists authors that she specifically looks for when choosing nonfiction books. 

Ellie @ Curiosity Killed the Bookworm likes books that explore niche subjects from many angles. 

Debbie Rodgers @ Exurbanis gives examples of some subtitles that drew her in. 

Katie @ Doing Dewey makes a good point about how the font on a title may affect a reader's choice. 

Eva @ The Paperback Princess shows us five covers that she really likes. 

Jo Ann @ Lakeside Musing says that she tries not to let covers influence her, and gives examples of several good books, some with inspiring covers and some not. 

Sarah @  Sarah's Book Shelves focuses on reading books that are vetted by trusted sources. 

Juliana @ ablankgarden reviewed Aphra Behn: the Incomparable Astrea, by Vita Sackville-West

Sharlene @ Real Life Reading likes books that are funny and those that have the author's personality infused in the writing. 

 Kailana @ The Written World wants to learn something new - she'll even try reading the drier stuff in order to learn. 

Amanda @ Gun in Act One loves books about feminism and biographies of awesome women.  

raidergirl3@ an adventure in reading gave examples of clever titles that drew her in.  

Death Note, by Tsugumi Ohba

When Ryuk the Shinigami (Japanese god of death) gets bored, he decides to liven up existence by dropping his Death Note on Earth. This Death Note has the power to kill whomever's name is written in the book, as long as the person can visualize the face while writing it. A teenager named Light Yagami finds the book, and decides to use the book for good by killing murderers who have gotten away scott free. But he doesn't account for the police force (including his father as assistant chief) teaming up with L, a mysterious crime-fighting genius. The law wants to keep the law in its own hands, and Light needs to outwit his pursuers. 

What do you look for in nonfiction?

Welcome to the second week of Nonfiction November! This week's topic is:

What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking.

Reading with the Cats

This week was a good one. I didn't do a lot of stuff, so I had lots of extra time to read. I didn't do anything for Halloween since I'd expected to work (in fact, the electricity went out and I got to leave work early, but I was tired when I got home and used the extra time to relax). I'm looking forward to election day coming up. This has been an exhausting election season! I hope you all take the time to have your voice heard on Tuesday. Vote!

Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward

First of all, I will have difficulty in this review expressing how good this book is. It is a memoir about the deaths of several young black men that grew up in a lower socioeconomic class. It shows the difficulties of navigating in a world which most of the readers are unfamiliar with. In Men We Reaped, Ward elicits grief and frustration in the readers which makes it a very difficult book to read. I teared up a few times. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in social issues or emotional memoirs. 

Stiletto, by Daniel O'Malley

Stiletto is the sequel to the fantastic book The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley, and the review contains spoilers for the first book. In Stiletto, Myfanwy Thomas' truce with their enemies the Grafters is beginning to solidify, but the anger and fear on both sides is difficult to dispel. However, they soon realize they have a mutual enemy to fight.