5 Nonfiction Books to Read This Year
Having almost exclusively reached for fiction books all my life, I thought that it was time for a little shake-up. One of my resolutions this year is to read more nonfiction — 6 books, to be exact, one every other month — which I’ve come to realize isn’t quite so dry as I’d first determined, way back in elementary school. (I recently finished reading Michelle Obama’s incredible memoir Becoming, so I think I’m making good headway.)
So, in an effort to keep myself accountable, I’m sharing 5 other nonfiction books that I want to read this year. Let me know if you’ve read any of them, or if you recommend other nonfiction I should add to my list. And, if any of these books spark your interest, shoot me a message — let’s be reading buddies!
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
I first heard about this book while listening to a great Longform interview with Beth Macy, a journalist and author of two other books, Factory Man and Truevine. I worked on a case that was heavily tangled in the opioid crisis while at my former job in law, so I was naturally intrigued. Dopesick presents honest and human portraits of the families and communities struggling with this epidemic as Ms. Macy seeks to answer the question a bereaved mother asked her: Why did her only son die? I’m a little more than halfway through the book now, and already feel like I have a better understanding of how opioid addiction dug its roots into these communities, and how these roots spread, insidiously, across the nation.
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
In a time when accusations of “fake news” and verbal sleights of hand run rampant, it can be tough to sift through overwhelming amounts of information to find the gold nuggets of fact. What’s even harder (and maybe more dangerous) is trying to formulate opinions on global issues — it’s the whole question of “we don’t know what we don’t know.” In Factfulness, Han Rosling reveals ten instincts and biases that distort our perceptions, like our tendency to divide the world into two camps (us vs. them, good vs. bad) and how we perceive benchmarks of progress. When a friend told me about the eye-opening insights this book gave her, I knew I had to swipe a copy. Whoever said ignorance is bliss got it wrong, at least on this count.
The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People
You may have heard of hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”), the Danish concept of cozy contentment and wellbeing that’s swept its way to bookstores, magazine articles, and even the Frozen Broadway musical (about a quarter of the lines in the song “Hygge” go, “hygge hygge hygge hygge”). Last year, my aunt gave me The Little Book of Hygge as a gift, and I found it such a lovely and comforting book to read, especially when things got stressful at work. Its author Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, wrote a sequel of sorts, called The Little Book of Lykke, which explores the six components of happiness, or lykke: togetherness, money, health, freedom, trust and kindness. I’ve been reading this book a chapter at a time over the past couple months — it’s a book best experienced slowly, a daily reminder of the really important things in life.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race
I’ve always felt a little wary about engaging in discussions on sensitive, controversial topics, which I think stems from an awareness that my own knowledge about these things is limited in a lot of ways. The line between opining on an issue and appropriating someone else’s story sometimes feels dangerously thin. It got me thinking: Who has a right to tell these stories? Even if it isn’t our story to tell, what can we do about it? When I voiced these questions aloud, a friend recommended Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, in which psychologist Beverly Daniel Tatum argues that straight talk about our racial identities is needed to enable communication across racial divides. This book seems like a great place to start if you’re also curious about how to effectively engage in conversations about race — a particularly relevant issue in today’s world.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
True crime fans, this one’s for you. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark follows the late crime writer Michelle McNamara’s hunt for the elusive Golden State Killer, a serial rapist and murderer who terrorized California between the 1970’s and 80’s. Though Ms. McNamara tragically died due to accidental drug overdose before the killer was found, her writing revived public interest in the unsolved case, helping to lead to his ultimate arrest in April just last year. I got chills just reading the synopsis, and don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep while reading this book, but this account about murder and obsession seems too intriguing to pass up.
Other nonfiction books on my to-read shelf: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari; Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat; Educated by Tara Westover; How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee; Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
P.S. After writing this post, I have one question: Why do all nonfiction books have crazy long subtitles?
