I’m so busy, with so many different things at the moment, that I’m simply going to jump straight into this challenge. I’ll save the friendly chit-chat for the comments I expect to make as I travel around all the other participants posts.
Week 1: (Oct. 28 to Nov. 1) – Your Year in Nonfiction (Julz of Julz Reads):
Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions –
(1) What was your favourite nonfiction read of the year?
- To start with I will list my non-fiction reads over the past 12 months by genre.
- Favourites will be highlighted.
Memoir/Biogrpahy
Nature/Science/Environmental
Feminism
Health/Self-help
(A) The Feel Good Menopause Guide by Nicola Gates (Not yet reviewed)
History/Politics
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World: Illustrated Edition by Peter Frankopan (Not yet reviewed)
Indigenous
(A) On Identity by Stan Grant (Review to be published. Link is to my goodreads page of quotes.)
Food
(A) Family: New vegetable classics to comfort and nourish by Hetty McKinnon (Recipes to try)
Lifestyle
Books on Books
The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Miserables by David Bellos (Review to be published)
Art
Children’s
(A) Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe (Review to be published. Link is to my goodreads page of quotes.)
(2) Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year?
- I can see that memoir/biography has stayed my favourite form of non-fiction (no surprises there!)
- The pleasant addition this year has been an increase in the use of and interest in cooking interesting things again now that B22 and B19 have moved out of home (we love them heaps but it’s lovely just being two grown ups, eating grown up food again).
- I’m also enjoying the gorgeousness of coffee table books more.
(3) What nonfiction book have you recommended the most this year?
- Any Ordinary Day
- Mirka & Georges
(4) What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
- to show off the wonderful Australian non-fiction books I’ve read this year.
- to finish the three (Australian) non-fiction titles half-read by my bed.
- to find the next must-read bio/memoir.
- I’m also keen to hear about more graphic non-fiction & finally read my copy of Andrea Wulf & Lillian Melcher’s illustrated The Adventures of Alexander Humboldt.
This Reading Life 
Oh, cool – I decided not to do this one as I have to just get through books on the TBR and I read a lot of nf anyway. But it's going to be fun reading everyone's posts. I like that you read a good amount of nf anyway.
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Oh my gosh Brona. You read more non fiction in a year then I read in about three. I recognise a few of the titles on yiur list thiugh have only read one of them – Becoming by Michelle Obama. Or at least I will have read it by the one of the week…..Karen @bookertalk
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I actually surprised myself Liz, by how much nf I had read this year. I didn't feel like I'd read much at all…and I guess if you take out the kids books and cookbooks, the numbers look less impressive. Still 37 nf books out of a total of 96 (which is just over 40%) books read this year is a reasonable ratio.
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My non-fic is usually pretty heavy on the Australian titles (as it is most years) so I'm not surprised you don't recognise many of the titles! In fact 57% of my nf reads were Aussie – doing my bit to keep our book economy healthy!!Becoming was a lovely life-affirming, down to earth memoir – I'm sure you'll enjoy it too.
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Bravo, bravo, bravo! Great mix of non-fiction books.An Ordinary Day…..just never leaves my mind.I will take time to investigate your list more closely this afternoon…while I have a glass of wine…(see my blogpost dd 29.10.2019)
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Nice job!
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wow, what a list! I have to look into your nature books. I loved so much The Novel of the Century!
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I grabbed five of your books to add to my tbr. I hope I can find them here soon. It's awfully frustrating when Australian books don't appear in the US like they should.
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I don't think I've heard of Any Ordinary Day, but I definitely am going to seek it out.
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City of Trees sounds so lovely and perfect and I am definitely adding it to my list! Thanks for sharing your reads.
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So did I, & now I'm trying to remember why I didn't write a review for it??
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I guess the US market is such a crowded market & the American publishers only take on such a small amount of work published in other countries that it must feel hit or miss to you when searching for specific title from overseas. You could try our local publishers websites to see if you can buy them as ebooks that way.i.e. Allen & Unwin, Penguin Random House Australia, Hachette Australia, Hardie Grant, Harper Collins, Text Publishing just to name a few.
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It talks about surviving the aftermath of a tragedy with discussions on the nature of resilience, coping strategies, the impact of media attention. Highly recommended, even though all the examples are Australian and very well-known to us, they may not be to overseas readers.
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I read it at the same time I was reading The Overstory by Richard Powers whilst I was holidaying in Far North Queensland on the edge of the Daintree Rainforest – the perfect way to enjoy both of them 🙂
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I plan to read The Overstory early in 2020 and will add City of Trees to complement it. Thanks!
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Excellent post. I sniggered at the idea of eating changes once the kids leave the nest – we will be there ourselves in a few year…
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Don't get me wrong, I love lasagne, schnitzel, tacos, burritos and pesto pasta…but after a decade, it's wonderful to finally cook with chillies, to eat seafood every second or third night and to have an occasional meat-free meal 🙂
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Now you just need a trip to a rainforest to read them 🙂
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What a impressive (& varied) list of nonfiction you've read this year! Happy reading in November!
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Great list! You have such a wide variety of interests. I tend to stick to memoir.
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I’ve now added Any Ordinary a Day to my wishlist, thanks Brona
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I love that you broke your list down by genres (and that you have so many different genres!) It gives me ideas of how to branch out in my nonfiction reading!
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Hi! You've got a great selection there! I see you like science and social issue books. Have you heard of the Wellcome Book Award? It's for medicine. I'm going to be reading through some of the shortlists soon. Alternatively, also working through the reading suggestions for the National Book Foundation's Literature for Justice? Gonna work on some of those, too.
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I love the Wellcome Prize lists and was very sad to hear earlier in the year that they are taking an indefinite break. But there are still oodles of the older books I have yet to read, including Educated and The Trauma Cleaner from this year's longlist. The other book prize you might like to check out too is the Royal Society Science Book Prize. I get a lot of my favourite non-fiction books this way, including The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf.
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Wow, I'm interested in pretty much every book on your list! You've read about so many fascinating topics. I'll definitely be revisiting this post when we talk about which books we added to our to-read lists this month 🙂
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