This year I read Invisible women by Caroline Criado Perez and it was really eye-opening. I knew that research wasn't done on women or that medicine is biased but I didn't know the true extent of bias. She exposes how cars, medicine, AI's, taxes, and a lot more are designed for men and pit women at risk. It's really well researched and if you listen to the audiobook you can tell how angry the author is about this facts.
I never thought I would be much of a non-fiction reader but now I love it and have read much more since around 2016. My favourites are Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates, The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff (my favourite non-fiction read of this year, so heart-breaking but so compelling), Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri, No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb, All That Remains by Sue Black, Kicking Off by Sarah Shephard, Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas, Inferior and Superior by Angela Saini, Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan, Lion by Saroo Brierley, Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, Becoming by Michelle Obama, Educated by Tara Westover, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, Pain and Prejudice by Gabrielle Jackson...Yeah, can't believe there was ever a time where I thought I didn't like non-fiction. Thanks for the recommendations!
I read Educated this year and thought it was really good! Have also read 'Braiding Sweetgrass' by Robin Wall Kimmerer and If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie recently and I thought were fab!!!
Well, I realise that if I read fiction mainly in English, I read non fic mainly in their original French! My favourite, yet untranslated in english, non fic is Sorcières, La Puissance Invaincue des Femmes by Mona Chollet, a feminist essay on the figure of the witch, it's brilliant. Also a philosophical analysis of Game of Thrones by Marianne Chaillan, covering the first 5 seasons (Une Métaphysique des Meurtres) and the last one (Une Fin sombre et pleine de terreur). It's quite fun to delve into the show in a different way. I quite like historical biographies, particularly Mary Stuart by Stefan Zweig. If it's a bit outdated at times, but I love how he draws contrasts between Mary's life and Shakespeare's plays. Claire Harman's biography of Charlotte Brontë is also high on my list of belove non fiction. Then it's travel writing, with Tracks by Robyn Davidson being one of my all-time fave, and A Fortune Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani, which looks at superstition is Asia during a year where he's decided not to fly anywhere, taking a "dare" from a fortune teller who told him he'd die this year in some plane crash. I'm so happy that The Five is available at my library so I'll check it out.
One of my all time favourite nonfiction books is Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. He's better known for Into the Wild. It explores Mormonism and religious fanaticism and it's so interesting. Natives and Lowborn are on my shelf and I really want to read Black and British and The Five too
so many favourites mentioned in here and books on my to read list! two of my favourite non-fic reads this year have been Zami by Audre Lorde and When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrice Khan-Cullors - both excellent memoirs. I’ve just restarted Black and British and I’m excited to continue - his writing is so easy to read and engaging.
The Boys In The Boat by Daniel James Brown .... it is billed as the story of nine young American men and their "epic quest for GOLD at the 1936 Olympics. I read in the story as much, or more, about Joe Rantz. Joe's troubled childhood. Joe finishing his growing up in the Pacific Northwest of the United states. Attending university in Seattle, Washington and discovering rowing in a Crew shell. It is about a period in time in the northwest corner of the United States, about a young man maturing, and about rowing. My daughters rowed in high school and college and were raised in the Seattle area and this, I'm sure, is no small part of why I love it.
I thought 'Hunger' by Roxane Gay and 'Not that Bad' edited by her were phenomenal, and a personal favourite is Truus Menger-Oversteegen's 'Not then, Not now, Not Ever' about three teen girls in the Dutch resistance to the Nazis
The Five was excellent on audiobook. Some of the best non fiction books I’ve read recently are Hidden Valley Road, Bad Blood and The Great Successor. Really looking forward to listening to Black and British, it’s next on my audible list!
So many great ones here! I highly recommend the audiobook for The Five. It’s read by Louise Brealey and she does an incredible job. You can feel her rage about the inequities these women suffered through in the lives.
'Ello from the Land of Aus :D I've been reading and listening to a few more non-fiction books this year. Partly inspired by the NF Booktube Prize. Underland and The Sea People were favourites for me. Blew me away. Your list looks like a great list. I loved The Five by Hallie Rubenhold on audiobook, fabulous to give their perspective of women and individuals struggling in Victorian London. Educated by Tara Westover blew me away, it created our best discussion so far in one of my bookgroups. I don't think I've heard of the others, I'll check them out more. I tend to veer towards Australian Non-fiction. My Family History goes back to the First Fleet, so practically a member of my family has been involved in most historical events that have happened to Australians for the past 200 years. I tend to read Australian history from that viewpoint. Also very interested in Australian Indigenous cultures, so read a lot along those lines. A top NF Australian book (2014)- Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe (He refers to one of the research papers my MIL is an author of, on the first page of References), is a groundbreaking summary and more accurate point of view of Indigenous culture than what Australians have been learning up until now. Now reading Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta (2019), it's won a couple of local awards and is recommended by Bruce Pascoe. I think it's about sustainable living from Indigenous philosophies. ruclips.net/video/6PZMGYPqs0Q/видео.html
@@foa2301 Indeed, it's a really important read isn't it. It made me stop and think too. It's definitely something that can't just be read and forgotten. I keep going back to certain parts, and checking things re-reading things. I'm interested to read some of the references. Certainly an eye opener.
I was surprised to see the book the cut out girl because I took it out of the library last week but haven’t opened it yet. My mother’s family was Jewish and I’m always interested in stories of the holocaust so I’m excited to read it. I wasn’t that enamored with “Educated” Due to some of the reasons you mentioned. As a Memoir writer, you have to walk a fine line between not Being self indulgent And giving the reader a reason to identify with you. I found the author distant and hard to understand. This is partly due to her growing up without compassion and care and partly her writing style. I write Memoir so I know how hard it is.I wanted her to be more angry or passionate. You can do that without having a pity party. Aloha
Is there a better smile on youtube. Your videos always make my day more pleasant. I attended Hallie Rubenhold's talk last year at Off the Shelf festival in Sheffield. The abuse Hallie receives from Ripperologists is appauling. The talk was fascinating. This years Off the Shelf starts Sunday if I remember. Many of the talks will be online. My university joint hosts the event. Type in Off the Shelf 2020 or access through University of Sheffield.
Ah thanks for the tip! Yeah I’ve seen her talk about some of it on twitter, it’s incredible how wedded some people are to the idea that all of these women were prostitutes 🤔
@@LaurenWade It was in the era of the 'separate spheres' ideology. Women in the private domestic sphere and men in the public office sphere. Unmarried women were sometimes seen as using prostitution to support themselves although this was not the norm. Before the Ripper period one MP even said there were half a million 'redundant women' in Britain. He said they should be sent to Australia as they could be a distraction to men. Did this in one of my uni modules last year. Hallie is doing a fantastic job giving a voice to these women. Some men now still have the same view.
Thanks for that. If you've enjoyed those medical-adjacent works, I think you would really like The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It's an amazing work of narrative non-fiction that is accessible and heartbreaking and life-affirming all at the same time. I don't think it's terribly well known in the UK, but Fadiman is revered in the US and everything else of hers that I have read has been tremendous also. Cheers.
I love Girls will be girls. I listened it on audiobook for free as my first audible audiobook a few years ago and I loved it so much I bought a physical copy and even contacted the author (she replied!). I would like to reread it, I think some of my views have changed. I recently bought Natives. I'm not British so I hope it helps me to understand a bit better racism and class in the UK. Thanks for the video, I'm looking up the books I had never heard of!
I read White Tears Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad last month - it is about white womanhood as an ideology/power structure and how it is used strategically to silence and marginalise black and brown folks. Very challenging but brilliant - would highly recommend!
You should try Dark Money, gave me a lot of perspective on how much for example climate change was made into a ‘right/left’ issue by billionaires & their lobbiests
Omg I have read Black and British, educated, five. Loved them all and lowbrow is on my tbr list. Great reviews.
So random but I am obsessed with your monthly mood playlists... the tropical one was really great and I think trenchcoat will be too!
Ahh, thank you! 🙌🏻 so glad your enjoying them, I have too much fun making them 🤣
This year I read Invisible women by Caroline Criado Perez and it was really eye-opening. I knew that research wasn't done on women or that medicine is biased but I didn't know the true extent of bias. She exposes how cars, medicine, AI's, taxes, and a lot more are designed for men and pit women at risk.
It's really well researched and if you listen to the audiobook you can tell how angry the author is about this facts.
I would strongly recommend No Visible Bruises (on audio) opened my eyes on domestic violence and the thoughts or assumptions we have. Great video.
I never thought I would be much of a non-fiction reader but now I love it and have read much more since around 2016.
My favourites are Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates, The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff (my favourite non-fiction read of this year, so heart-breaking but so compelling), Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri, No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb, All That Remains by Sue Black, Kicking Off by Sarah Shephard, Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas, Inferior and Superior by Angela Saini, Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan, Lion by Saroo Brierley, Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, Becoming by Michelle Obama, Educated by Tara Westover, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, Pain and Prejudice by Gabrielle Jackson...Yeah, can't believe there was ever a time where I thought I didn't like non-fiction.
Thanks for the recommendations!
I've only read Educated from this list, so I've added all the others to my TBR!
I read Educated this year and thought it was really good! Have also read 'Braiding Sweetgrass' by Robin Wall Kimmerer and If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie recently and I thought were fab!!!
Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine is my favourite non fiction book
THE FIVE is just so good
Well, I realise that if I read fiction mainly in English, I read non fic mainly in their original French! My favourite, yet untranslated in english, non fic is Sorcières, La Puissance Invaincue des Femmes by Mona Chollet, a feminist essay on the figure of the witch, it's brilliant. Also a philosophical analysis of Game of Thrones by Marianne Chaillan, covering the first 5 seasons (Une Métaphysique des Meurtres) and the last one (Une Fin sombre et pleine de terreur). It's quite fun to delve into the show in a different way.
I quite like historical biographies, particularly Mary Stuart by Stefan Zweig. If it's a bit outdated at times, but I love how he draws contrasts between Mary's life and Shakespeare's plays. Claire Harman's biography of Charlotte Brontë is also high on my list of belove non fiction.
Then it's travel writing, with Tracks by Robyn Davidson being one of my all-time fave, and A Fortune Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani, which looks at superstition is Asia during a year where he's decided not to fly anywhere, taking a "dare" from a fortune teller who told him he'd die this year in some plane crash.
I'm so happy that The Five is available at my library so I'll check it out.
One of my all time favourite nonfiction books is Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. He's better known for Into the Wild. It explores Mormonism and religious fanaticism and it's so interesting.
Natives and Lowborn are on my shelf and I really want to read Black and British and The Five too
I've got Natives on my TBR pile at the moment, definitely need to get to it soon!
so many favourites mentioned in here and books on my to read list! two of my favourite non-fic reads this year have been Zami by Audre Lorde and When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrice Khan-Cullors - both excellent memoirs. I’ve just restarted Black and British and I’m excited to continue - his writing is so easy to read and engaging.
That was great. Earlier this year I read Francesca Wade’s Square Haunting. It was wonderful.
The Boys In The Boat by Daniel James Brown .... it is billed as the story of nine young American men and their "epic quest for GOLD at the 1936 Olympics. I read in the story as much, or more, about Joe Rantz. Joe's troubled childhood. Joe finishing his growing up in the Pacific Northwest of the United states. Attending university in Seattle, Washington and discovering rowing in a Crew shell. It is about a period in time in the northwest corner of the United States, about a young man maturing, and about rowing. My daughters rowed in high school and college and were raised in the Seattle area and this, I'm sure, is no small part of why I love it.
You started this list very strong!
Great choices. Educated was one of my top ten of 2019.
You are glowing, Lauren!❤️
I thought 'Hunger' by Roxane Gay and 'Not that Bad' edited by her were phenomenal, and a personal favourite is Truus Menger-Oversteegen's 'Not then, Not now, Not Ever' about three teen girls in the Dutch resistance to the Nazis
I want to read hunger and anything else by Roxanne Gay. I’ve read only good things about her.
@@MarilynMayaMendoza I have yet to read any of her fiction but I've bought Ayiti already and am excited
The Five was excellent on audiobook. Some of the best non fiction books I’ve read recently are Hidden Valley Road, Bad Blood and The Great Successor. Really looking forward to listening to Black and British, it’s next on my audible list!
So many great ones here! I highly recommend the audiobook for The Five. It’s read by Louise Brealey and she does an incredible job. You can feel her rage about the inequities these women suffered through in the lives.
Non-fiction November is coming so thank you for giving me such great recommendations, I specially want to read Girls will be girls
I’m looking forward To non-fiction November too
'Ello from the Land of Aus :D
I've been reading and listening to a few more non-fiction books this year. Partly inspired by the NF Booktube Prize. Underland and The Sea People were favourites for me. Blew me away.
Your list looks like a great list. I loved The Five by Hallie Rubenhold on audiobook, fabulous to give their perspective of women and individuals struggling in Victorian London.
Educated by Tara Westover blew me away, it created our best discussion so far in one of my bookgroups.
I don't think I've heard of the others, I'll check them out more. I tend to veer towards Australian Non-fiction.
My Family History goes back to the First Fleet, so practically a member of my family has been involved in most historical events that have happened to Australians for the past 200 years. I tend to read Australian history from that viewpoint.
Also very interested in Australian Indigenous cultures, so read a lot along those lines.
A top NF Australian book (2014)- Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe (He refers to one of the research papers my MIL is an author of, on the first page of References), is a groundbreaking summary and more accurate point of view of Indigenous culture than what Australians have been learning up until now.
Now reading Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta (2019), it's won a couple of local awards and is recommended by Bruce Pascoe. I think it's about sustainable living from Indigenous philosophies.
ruclips.net/video/6PZMGYPqs0Q/видео.html
I have read quite a few of these. Great recommendations. Check out 'invisible women' by Caroline criado Perez. It's fascinating and very provocative.
I'm slowly reading that book. It's difficult to read because it's really opened my eyes. But so important to read
@@foa2301 Indeed, it's a really important read isn't it. It made me stop and think too. It's definitely something that can't just be read and forgotten. I keep going back to certain parts, and checking things re-reading things. I'm interested to read some of the references. Certainly an eye opener.
I really loved girls will be girls and am hoping to get to the five soon, so I feel in good hands 😅
Thank you!
I was surprised to see the book the cut out girl because I took it out of the library last week but haven’t opened it yet. My mother’s family was Jewish and I’m always interested in stories of the holocaust so I’m excited to read it. I wasn’t that enamored with “Educated” Due to some of the reasons you mentioned. As a Memoir writer, you have to walk a fine line between not Being self indulgent And giving the reader a reason to identify with you. I found the author distant and hard to understand. This is partly due to her growing up without compassion and care and partly her writing style. I write Memoir so I know how hard it is.I wanted her to be more angry or passionate. You can do that without having a pity party. Aloha
Is there a better smile on youtube. Your videos always make my day more pleasant. I attended Hallie Rubenhold's talk last year at Off the Shelf festival in Sheffield. The abuse Hallie receives from Ripperologists is appauling. The talk was fascinating. This years Off the Shelf starts Sunday if I remember. Many of the talks will be online. My university joint hosts the event. Type in Off the Shelf 2020 or access through University of Sheffield.
Ah thanks for the tip! Yeah I’ve seen her talk about some of it on twitter, it’s incredible how wedded some people are to the idea that all of these women were prostitutes 🤔
@@LaurenWade It was in the era of the 'separate spheres' ideology. Women in the private domestic sphere and men in the public office sphere. Unmarried women were sometimes seen as using prostitution to support themselves although this was not the norm. Before the Ripper period one MP even said there were half a million 'redundant women' in Britain. He said they should be sent to Australia as they could be a distraction to men. Did this in one of my uni modules last year. Hallie is doing a fantastic job giving a voice to these women. Some men now still have the same view.
Thanks for that. If you've enjoyed those medical-adjacent works, I think you would really like The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It's an amazing work of narrative non-fiction that is accessible and heartbreaking and life-affirming all at the same time. I don't think it's terribly well known in the UK, but Fadiman is revered in the US and everything else of hers that I have read has been tremendous also. Cheers.
I love Girls will be girls. I listened it on audiobook for free as my first audible audiobook a few years ago and I loved it so much I bought a physical copy and even contacted the author (she replied!). I would like to reread it, I think some of my views have changed. I recently bought Natives. I'm not British so I hope it helps me to understand a bit better racism and class in the UK.
Thanks for the video, I'm looking up the books I had never heard of!
I read White Tears Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad last month - it is about white womanhood as an ideology/power structure and how it is used strategically to silence and marginalise black and brown folks. Very challenging but brilliant - would highly recommend!
You should try Dark Money, gave me a lot of perspective on how much for example climate change was made into a ‘right/left’ issue by billionaires & their lobbiests
Oooh that’s sounds equally fascinating and infuriating!
Say Nothing by Keefe
Losing earth sounds fantastic. Do you have any other environmental or climate change recs?
No unfortunately, that’s the only one I’ve read so far! X