10 Non-Fiction Books to Read This Winter 2014-2015
With the short days of winter having arrived, we’ve turned our attention to compiling a list of reading material to get writers through until spring. There’re lots of great books to choose from, so we’ve shortlisted this selection of 10 non-fiction books that are making their way up the bestseller ladder. Enjoy!
1. Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace – Anne Lamott
A compilation of new and selected essays written with Ms. Lamott’s stylistic humor and self-deprecation, Small Victories offers insights into the human condition. Drawing from her own experiences with family and friends, Ms. Lamott connects with the reader at a deep, heart-felt level. With wit and intelligence, she delves into the trials and tribulations of daily life and gives us her stories as a vessel to shift our perspective from the “why me?” mindset to the one of gratitude and appreciation. Small Victories could be called Small Miracles as she invokes the grace of forgiveness with her charming storytelling.
2. Dreamers and Deceivers: True Stories of the Heroes and Villains Who Made America – Glenn Beck
Engaging stories of American history’s visionaries and black hats, Mr. Beck uses his considerable storytelling skills to delve into the characters’ psyches. Using perspective to look back on these fascinating people and events, he shows how they affected not only their times but also the future. Each chapter centers around a person or historical event told in an anecdotal style, as Mr. Beck draws us into these spellbinding vignettes. History made interesting and exciting.
3. The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age – Astra Taylor
Proponents of the new digital media landscape make promises of a utopian society with unrestricted communication, autonomous artistic expression and a cultural balancing of society. But Ms. Taylor challenges the presumptions that the new media is an improvement over the old guard, pointing out the contradictions contained in today’s technological consortiums – elitist control of access, surreptitious marketing, and an unrealistic emphasis on personal popularity.
A savvy analysis of digital reality, The People’s Platform summons the reader to question the kind of culture and democracy we’re creating with our tacit agreement to cede power and control to the monopolies of the 21st century. Excellent reading for anyone who uses the internet.
4. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History – Elizabeth Kolbert
More than any other species on the planet, mankind alters the Earth in ways that compound change in a frightening manner, accelerating the destruction of the very forces that support life here. A sobering and disturbing subject, Ms. Kolbert reports with clarity the hard science and historical concepts behind the impact humans are having on our environment and ecology as a bona fide, destructive geological force. Told with scientific exactness, wit and lucid prose, The Sixth Extinction reads like a good thriller – enthralling, compelling and gripping. An important and enlightening read for our times.
5. Little Failure, A Memoir – Gary Shteyngart
A best-selling novelist, Mr. Shteyngart’s memoir is full of humor and pathos as he explores issues of ethnicity, immigration, integration and creative expression. Refreshingly free of blaming others for life’s foibles, Mr. Shteyngart exposes his every wart and floundering efforts to fit in with droll candor. The descriptions of his outlandish family and the cultural ridiculousness of both the old world and the new, are poignant and heartrending. A wonderful foray into the alchemy of turning misery into art.
6. The Motivation Manifesto – Brendon Burchard
Peak performance trainer Brendan Burchard has delivered a towering work that will shake even the most lethargic out of their familiar comfort zone. The Motivation Manifesto urges us to reclaim our personal power by overcoming the twin demons of external, social oppression and our own inner resistance of self-doubt, fear and daily distractions. Much more than the trite euphemisms found in a majority of self-help books, Mr. Burchard provides deep psychological insights combined with wisdom that will inspire you to think carefully about accepting mediocrity for one more day.
7. Monster – Steve Jackson
From the fascinating world of true crime, Monster is a well-researched and compelling account of repeat offender Thomas Luther and the dogged pursuit by Detective Scott Richardson to bring him to justice. The reader gets to know both sides of Tom Luther, as well as the other characters involved, as Mr. Jackson skillfully guides us through their motivations, insights and fears in this compellingly well-written case study.
8. The Secret History of Wonder Woman – Jill Lepore
Pulp fiction comes to real life in this wonderfully bizarre tale of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Marston, who is equally famous for the invention of the lie detector. Racy, colorful and improbable, Ms. Lepore investigates the contradictions behind the man responsible for one of America’s leading icons of feminism.
9. The Empathy Exams – Leslie Jamison
In The Empathy Exams, Ms. Jamison delivers an exquisitely written series of essays on pain -emotional, psychological and physical pain, and asks primary questions about the reality of pain itself. Penned with humor and keen insight, The Empathy Exams offers a peek into out mind’s inner workings in relation to the way we judge and relate to empathy. Philosophical and passionate, it’s a moving attempt to guide us into being more generous and genuine in the manner in which we relate to ourselves and others.
10. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions – Randall Munroe
Funny, entertaining and strangely heart-warming, What If is written in a breezy style with quirky sketches illustrating the mathematical and scientific points outlined in Mr. Munroe’s explanations. He offers scientifically sound answers to strange and inane questions (many of which he receives at his science Q&A blog) in a way that makes science fun and approachable. Not your typical science and technology textbook.
And there you have our selection of 10 non-fiction books to read over the long winter months, ones that will hold your attention and entertain. Some science, a bit of true crime, a dash of philosophy and the wacky origins of Wonder Women… showing that truth really can be stranger than fiction!
