The 52 Book Club: 2025 / 2026 Challenge discussion

WEEKLY CHECK-IN
November 5, 2023 -- Week 45

We've just released our November mini-challenge and it is all about NON-FICTION!

So, give us your best suggestions for non-fiction reads. (Any non-fiction genre!) OR tell us what books you're planning on reading for the mini!

I read The Woman in Me and I am planning to read Dear Dolly for this mini challenge as well!

I'm a history nerd, so I like anything history-related. I also enjoy humorous memoirs. For this month's mini-challenge I'm thinking I might read What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe. I haven't decided on the second one yet

I have read so many non-fiction books especially on audio, which is my preferred audiobook genre. Here are some of my 5 star audiobooks that I have listened to this year:
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
The Teachers: A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession
Poverty, by America
King: The Life of Martin Luther King
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over
America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

When Breath Becomes Air
Don't Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Grant
Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret ServiceYou Ought to Do a Story About Me: Addiction, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Endless Quest for Redemption

Non-fiction generally comprises around 40% of my regular reading. There are a couple authors of non-fiction that I go to first for science type nf: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku, Mary Roach.

I was already going to read Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-day by Stephan Talty for fun, and Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land for a book club. I also have The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin by Adam Hochschild on interlibrary loan, in case the first one doesn't work out.

I rarely read non-fiction, so this may be a struggle for me.

I am just starting You Don't Belong Here How Three Women Rewrite the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker. The account of three remarkable female journalists who broke through the barriers of women as war correspondents.

I'm planning to read Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna for this mini-challenge, bc I can use it for prompt 30 too. I just need to find another non-fic with a different theme :D

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes
Listened to the Audiobook and was in love!

Right now I am reading Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies. I am not 100% sure about my second read, but am considering The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History.

I read two books for Non-Fiction November:

1. The Two-Headed Whale: Life, Loss, and the Tangled Legacy of Whaling in the Antarctic by Sandy Winterbottom

2. Easy Charcuterie Boards: Arrangements, Recipes, and Pairings for Any Occasion (I love reading cookbooks. So inspiring!

I will probably read a few more before the end of the month. Will see!

I recommend the books of Bill Bryson for those who are hesitant about non-fiction. He writes on a large variety of topics. Perhaps pick up one of his travel books first, or I'm A Stranger Here Myself, a collection of his article for a newspaper. He's very humorous

I try to read at least one NF book a week. I don't always succeed, but I do end up averaging 5-6 NF books a month.

This month, I've read Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Have a few more to go this month:

Bryan Stevenson: Just Mercy (memoir/political activism)

Jeannette Walls – The Glass Castle (memoir)

MT Anderson – Symphony for the City of the Dead (history + music!)

Weird for me to read so many memoirs, because I'm not a huge fan of the genre. But this month is weird that way.

I don't go out of my way to read non-fiction because I already read plenty of it. I used to read non-fiction pretty much exclusively but I have since matured & learned how to appreciate fiction, & now non-fiction makes up 30-40% of my reading.

So far this month, I have read "The Witching Year" by Diana Helmuth (not as good as I hoped it would be, but certainly of interest to readers intrigued by the more rigidly Wiccan doctrines of modern witchcraft) & "Grimoire Girl" by Hilarie Burton Morgan (fun enough but also an easy miss--I had no idea Morgan was a celebrity so I was expecting a much more substantial book than I got).

On deck, I've got "Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, & A Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country" by Sierra Crane Murdoch. I only have two prompts left in the 52 Books challenge & one of them is an author with the same name as me. My name is pronounced the same as Sierra, so this is the book I chose. I'm also planning to read "The Wager" by David Grann, which is the newest by the author of "Killers of the Flower Moon," & I have several ARCs to read & review: "Data Baby" by Susannah Breslin & "Dolls of Our Lives" by the women who produce the titular podcast (about American Girl dolls--they used to quote my book reviews a lot in the early days!--both those books are out now), & "I Cannot Control Everything Forever" by Emily C. Bloom, which is out in spring 2024.

Jeni wrote: "I'm a history nerd, so I like anything history-related. I also enjoy humorous memoirs. For this month's mini-challenge I'm thinking I might read [book:What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd ..."

My daughter is obsessed with the What If books!

I love to mix in nonfiction to break up the fiction. I'm on that is all over the map when it comes to Nonfiction books. I like a little bit of everything from memoir to microhistories to narrative histories.
I probably won't be joining the Nov mini since I'm a bit behind on the regular challenge.
Here are some of my favorite nonfiction books I've read
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Glad You're Here: Two Unlikely Friends Breaking Bread and Fences byWalker Hayes
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity byKatherine Boo

I do like to listen to nonfiction books in the audiobook format better than fiction. There have been interesting ones I've enjoyed just to learn more about a variety of topics.
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton
The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss by Anderson Cooper
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Rosemary Sullivan
The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott

Just thought this might inspire someone :)