As a devoted fiction reader, I have long struggled to find books of nonfiction that I enjoy. Either they’re too self help-y or too scholarly (If there are graphs, count me out!). It was only when, years ago, I stumbled across a memoir by Tara Westover called Educated that I came to discover the genre of nonfiction that speaks my language: creative nonfiction (more specifically in this context, memoir).
It boils down to this: I crave a good story! I want a cast of characters as vividly rendered in nonfiction books as they are in good works of fiction. Is that too much to ask?! Well, certainly not for these three writers who earned their spot at the top of my literary list this year: Malcolm Gladwell, Miriam Toews, and Deborah Levy. All three differ in style—and Gladwell is certainly an outlier in terms of genre—but they are united by their remarkable storytelling abilities.
So, if you will, I invite you to follow along as I delve into why I loved Malcolm Gladwell’s book Revenge of the Tipping Point; Miriam Toews’ memoir A Truce That Is Not Peace; and Deborah Levy’s collection of essays called The Position of Spoons!
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (2024) – Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell had been on my radar for quite some time. It was only when I attended his talk in Toronto about his latest book Revenge of the Tipping Point that I decided to delve into his world.
Revenge of the Tipping Point revisits Gladwell’s debut book The Tipping Point by exploring the underbelly of social epidemics. Drawing on extensive research, Gladwell traverses a startlingly diverse range of topics, from Ivy League schools’ investment in sports teams to an epidemic of teenage suicides in a particular gated community; yet in all of his examples he manages to detect a unifying pattern (namely, the emergence of social engineering).
However, it is not the content of Gladwell’s book—though compelling on its own—that sustained my interest, but his writing style. His ability to communicate complex “problems,” he calls them, in a clear and riveting manner is possibly unmatched among sociopolitical writers, because Gladwell tells stories. The people in Revenge of the Tipping Point (as in his other books) become characters and the events become like plots, as richly rendered as in a fiction book.
Now, I will say that Gladwell tends to oversimplify his topics (a habit he himself acknowledges) in order to reach a general audience. As a result, he often sacrifices nuance for neat conclusions. If you’re picky about this, then perhaps this book is not for you. But if you, like me, are not well-versed in the topics Gladwell is discussing and therefore do not really care if he is accounting for all of the variables, then you should definitely give Revenge of the Tipping Point (or Talking to Strangers, another book by Gladwell that I loved) a go!
A Truce That Is Not Peace (2025) – Miriam Toews
For those who do not know her, Miriam Toews is an internationally recognized Canadian writer based in Toronto. (Keep your eyes peeled on the subway!) Toews is known mostly for her fiction, most famously for Women Talking; A Truce That Is Not Peace is only her second work of nonfiction. It also happens to be my second time reading her work! Let me tell you: it did not disappoint.
A Truce That Is Not Peace is, at first glance, a memoir about many things. Told in darkly funny fragments, Toews conjures a winding, non-linear narrative about, it seems, everything—from a pesky skunk in her window well to a present-day confrontation with her ex-husband; from a harrowing bike trip around Europe with her teenage boyfriend Wolfie to her dream for a wind museum. But in this collision of the trivial and the significant—and the past and the present—Toews teases out the subject at the heart of this memoir: her sister’s suicide, which occurred ten years after her father’s suicide. In addition to her fragmentary storytelling, she draws on a series of real letters that she wrote to her sister in the 1980s and ‘90s, at a time when her sister was severely depressed. To a teenage Toews, these letters were intended, in a sense, to keep her sister alive; but as an adult, Toews recognizes that this task for her sister really kept herself alive.
In short, this is a grief memoir. But because it is Toews’ grief memoir, it is as funny as it is sad.
The Position of Spoons: And Other Intimacies (2024) – Deborah Levy
Deborah Levy is my new favourite writer! I was introduced to Levy by my mom, who suggested this summer that I read Levy’s three-part “living autobiography” consisting of Things I Don’t Want to Know, The Cost of Living, and Real Estate. (The Cost of Living was my favourite out of the three!) All three books are a form of creative nonfiction that blends autobiography with meditations on gender, politics, philosophy, and selfhood.
The Position of Spoons is written in a similar vein: creative, autobiographical, and literary. But unlike those earlier nonfiction works by Levy, The Position of Spoons is a collection of essays and short stories; it does not tell one story, but many. Much like Toews (and, in fact, Gladwell), Levy draws on an array of seemingly dissimilar observations, from lemons on a table to her favourite “brothel creepers” (a style of shoe) as a young girl. And in her characteristic style, Levy, like Toews, is able to extract meaning from these details, which are often so trivial—like lemons!—that the reader watches, in awe, as she finds something significant to say. For me, Levy’s storytelling capabilities are unmatched!
So, if you’re looking for an immersive read, I highly recommend all three of these books!