I haven’t done a community-building series in a while, and given how much nonfiction means to me on a professional and a personal level, it feels like taking part in Nonfiction November would be more than worthwhile.

Week 1: (Oct. 29 to Nov. 2) – Your Year in Nonfiction (Kim @ Sophisticated Dorkiness):Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

 

My Favorite Nonfiction Read Of The Year?

If I could only pick one, it’d be the one I keep thinking about again and again: Creative Quest by Questlove. I listened to this one on audiobook and it was easily the best-performed audiobook I’ve ever listened to.

The book is about the creative process, without ever being a how-to or really about the process at all. It’s a smart book about how and where creativity can happen and it offers up an array of examples for how some of the most brilliant creatives find their stride. Questlove is enthusiastic and dynamic and insightful and encouraging. My biggest take away was the power in trying, in making mistakes, and in inviting play into everything, even if it doesn’t necessarily feel like it has a purpose. It does.

 

 

 

Is There A Particular Topic I’ve Been Attracted To More This Year?

A topic I’ve always loved and have found myself seeking out this year, especially on audio, are memoirs by women of color. I’ve found I’m reading far more nonfiction this year than normal, in no small part due to the fact I listen to so many of them. I keep most of my print reading to YA or adult fiction, and my audiobook consumption is all adult nonfiction.

I’m currently listening to Reyna Grande’s A Dream Called Home, which is her second memoir. This one focuses on her young adult years, being the first college graduate in her family, and how she came to become a writer.

I barreled through Sara Saedi’s Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card earlier this year and keep thinking about it. It’s full of humor and heart and gives real voice and perspective about being an immigrant in American “without papers.” Nicole Chung’s All You Can Ever Know was a moving read about growing up adopted as a Korean child to white parents in a mostly white community.

I’ve also really loved two books by Jennifer Wright, Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and The Heroes Who Fought Them and It Ended Badly: 13 of the Worst Breakups in History. Both are books about specific incidents in history, but they’re told with this fantastic dark humor that really makes them sing for me.

 

What Nonfiction Book Have I Recommended The Most?

Without question, the book I recommend over and over again — and one that’s absolutely changed my habits — is Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland. Technically, I read this at the end of 2017, rather than 2018, but I’ve recommended it more this year than any other. This was a brutal and powerful read about the ways in which older Americans are “making due” while having little money to live off in their older years. Bruder follows a series of folks who are working seasonal, low-paying jobs that thrive from the work of these older workers, with a really in-depth look at CamperForce, Amazon’s seasonal employees. I have always known Amazon to be a problem with their workers, of course, but this was something else all together. Imagine your grandmother or grandfather walking 15-17 miles a day, getting repetitive injuries, and doing it for 10+ hours a day for a meager $7.25. I can’t.

This is one worth reading in print. The audiobook wasn’t especially great, but the book itself was so absorbing I kept going. It made me change my relationship with Amazon. I’m far less likely to quickly buy something there without thinking, knowing what the cost of my cheap, easy purchase really is on other people.

 

What I Am Hoping To Get Out Of Participating in Nonfiction November

It’s been so long since I’ve discovered new-to-me blogs. This is an opportunity to do that and it’s also an opportunity to write and read about a category of books I like to read because they aren’t the focus of my day-to-day work. I love writing and talking about books, but knowing that my focus is YA and not adult nonfiction….well, I enjoy knowing there’s a space I really get to enjoy books for me on my own accord.

I’m also selfish in liking to know what people are reading and talking about because as a writer and editor of nonfiction, it helps me think about how to be a better writer and better editor.

Plus, I can’t wait to add more nonfiction audiobooks on my to-listen list. Not that I’ll ever run out, but, just in case.