Some of my favorite non-fiction reads
Nonfiction is a daunting genre to venture into, even for hardcore readers. However, the genre of nonfiction can also expose us to a wide array of perspectives and information that helps us to broaden our worldview. As someone who typically prefers fiction books, these are my top five favorite nonfiction books.
1. MEN WE REAPED: A MEMOIR BY JESMYN WARD
Men We Reaped might be one of the most beautifully written books that I have read this year. It is divided into five sections each about a man that the author lost. It discusses the way that America is failing young black men. I loved the way that this book was organized. Ward alternates chapters of her childhood in chronological order and chapters discussing the lives and losses of the five people that she lost in reverse chronological order until they meet at the point of her first loss. Her grief through the novel is palpable and I actually cried while reading the last chapter.
2. IRENA’S CHILDREN: THE Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children From the Warsaw Ghetto by Tilar J. Mazzeo
Irena’s Children is the account of a woman named Irena Sendler who saved 2,500 children from Poland during Nazi occupation in World War II. Nicknamed the “female Oskar Schindler” Irena, used her access to the Warsaw ghetto as a public health specialist to smuggle Jewish children out and into a network of safe houses across Poland. Irena’s Children is not only an account of the terrible things that were done to the Jewish population by Germany, but also an account of true bravery and sacrifice on the part of not just Sendler, but also the network of people she brought together. I found this book to be so compelling because it helped remind me there are truly good and selfless people in the world who were able to be major instruments of change during a dark and depressing time. And more importantly, it really inspired me to want to be an agent of change, even through small gestures.
3. Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Accompanied by beautiful photographs, Secrets of the Octopus delves into the lives, bodies and brains of these complex and stunning creatures. Montgomery provides compelling first hand accounts with different personalities of octopuses (which apparently is the plural of octopus, not the commonly misused octopi!), which were my favorite parts of the book. I often struggle even more heavily with natural history books but I ended up really enjoying this one. It is relatively short, under 200 pages, and I found it to not use too much technical jargon that some natural history books use that make them more inaccessible. I finished the book feeling like I learned a lot about octopuses but it also left me wanting to learn more. The author, Sy Montgomery, also wrote another book about octopuses called The Soul of the Octopus that I hope to read next.
4. It’s Not About the Burqa by Mariam Khan
It’s Not About the Burqa is a collection of essays from 17 Muslim women about their experience of being a Muslim woman in the West today. The essays cover a wide array of topics and each author’s personality really shines. The editor, Mariam Khan, decided to collect these essays after getting tired of hearing about Muslim women from people who were neither Muslim nor female and created this book to allow readers to get perspectives and opinions directly from the source. I find that essay collections are some of the best books to introduce people to nonfiction because they are much easier to follow and digest. I also like that essay collections allow the portrayal of a lot of different views and opinions, especially as the perspective of a Muslim woman is widely varied. In an age of both Islamophobia and regression of women’s rights in the United States, this book provides important insight into feminism.
5. Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
Mikki Kendall also utilizes essays to candidly explain how feminism often overlooks issues that don’t affect many white women, but do disproportionately affect women of color like gun violence, poverty and homelessness. Hood Feminism exposes the flaws and holes in the current modern feminist movement and explains how we could all do better. Kendall’s writing provides a comprehensive explanation with these issues and helps the reader to understand the frustration and disappointment that she feels about the overlooking of the modern feminist movement of black women and their issues. I read this book for the first time in my sophomore year of high school and it completely changed the way I thought about feminism. It also helped me to fully understand the importance of intersectionality in all social justice movements.
All of these books made reading non-fiction educational while being entertaining! They’re great places to start for anyone looking to delve into the world of non-fiction reading!