The new hairstyle is GIVING, Leonie! I agree with the bell hooks recommendation wholeheartedly as well! I love attaching to specific nonfiction writers and reading everything they’ve got. It’s riskier to pick up a random nonfiction than a regular novel.
A great memoir is "Born a crime" by Trevor Noah about his childhood and youth in South Africa. He writes in a humorous tone (great for beginner non fiction readers) but as a reader you learn a lot about the history and society of South Africa. Some of the stories he tells are funny, some are very emotional. Personal experience is mixed with information and his thoughts about certain issues. I've recommended this book a lot and the feedback has always been positive 😊
Thank you for talking about Sapiens. I know it is a very accessible way to get into history/evolution but I have huge issues with how much the author presented his opinions and theories as if they were scientifically proven. There's a lot of questionable things in it, like nudging the idea that "life before settling and agriculture was much better" (it wasn't you died at 20 from a simple flu) or comparing slavery to how we breed animals to eat.
This is exactly what I wanted to say. I've read quite a few critiques of this book by scientists and this consistently comes up. The author has a habit of mixing facts with his own opinions or simply making connections that are not backed up by science. On top of it, some of his beliefs are pretty ethnic supremacist which makes him have visible double standards.
I love picking up a celebrity memoir when I hit a non-fiction reading slump! Especially in audiobook form, it feels like a long voice note from a friend where I'm being filled in on all the tea 😂
If you are new to non-fiction, specifically history, make sure to do research to determine if a book is quality and reliable; university published works are the best in this case, I would completely avoid self-pub lol 13:15 I also had a similar experience with Gun, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond lol
i think nonfiction is my favourite genre when it comes to literature. i think most fiction becomes accessible once you start getting into nf. it slowly integrates itself into your conscious thoughts & decision, bettering them (obv depending upon the nf works one reads. there's abundant senile conservative nf books that should be avoided). apart from that i think, if one takes writing as a medium seriously, they should familiarise themselves with more nf works. even the greatest fantasy authors (le guin, tolkien, grrm, etc) have read political and philosophical works that have influenced that writings, smt p evident in their works! as always, beautiful suggestions (and beautiful hair!).
My fave nonfic recently is "Euclid's Window" by Leonard Mlodinow, about the history of geometry. I never really understood Einstein's field equations until he explained them.
One of my favorite non-fiction books is "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. It basically describes how we are thinking and how that influences our descision making. The author (who has won a nobel price) manages to present topics that seem quite boring (statistics) in a very entertaining way. The whole book is full of examples which the reader can apply to their own life.
Yes, this is a great book! Though be forewarned it does contain math, some of it hard and alluring. Sometimes given a stupid math puzzle I find myself calculating it for the fun of it even tho it's obviously irrelevant to the solution.
The book is full of studies that have low replicablity, some dude with a phd made a website summarizing the % of each chapter & chapter 4 was so low that kahneman himself came forward & acknowledged his mistake lol
@@la8076 Nonetheless, the concept that deep analytical, or 'slow thinking' is more difficult or more stressful than intuitive, or 'fast thinking' was a new way for me to arrive at decisions. Thx
OMG This is the earliest I have ever been!!! I love you soo much Leonie!!! Keep doing what you are doing and I wish you all the success in the world😃😄💖💕
I’m a nonfiction MFA student right now and I love my genre so much. There is so much more to nonfiction than the dry-ass textbooks of high school or the academic papers of college. The only difference is nonfiction is bound to “truth,” but, just like fiction, everything else is malleable.
A few of my favorite non-fiction books are: The Book of Joy by the 14th Dali Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu - basically about how to find joy in suffering via narratives Soul Boom by Rainn Wilson (yes, dwight from the office lol) - discussing different religions and what they have in common and other historical aspects - very easy and fun to read The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter - about how humans are too comfortable and need to push and challenge themselves to grow and find fulfillment- research backed with narrative storytelling
My favorite non-fiction memoirs are Bruce Campbell's books. He puts so much filmmaking information, fun stories, and life experiences that it keeps me very engaged. His audiobooks are awssome too. He always makes little asides during his readings that really add to his stories. He also does some rerecordings every so often to add even more context and fun stories. If you have any interest in filmmaking I high recommend his books and audiobooks.
I am only just starting to try to insert some non-fiction into my reading habits, and I can't recommend reading non-fiction about your interests enough. It's a great/perfect way to break in. There are books about everything. Some great stuff about video games out there, every iconic band or artist has at least one or two, books about books, and on, and on. You can watch as many youtube essays (and they are great) as you want but you can only get that kind of insane depth in a long form book.
I just started getting into non finction with your suggestions earlier this year! (All about love was such a good recommandation!) This is such a good video to beging exploring this genre! Thank you Leonie 🫶
Great Recommendations! Also I really like Art History so a majority of what I read is non-fiction and what I recommend to others when they are looking for non-fiction books. For those interested I'd recommend: “The Grand Affair, John Singer Sargent in his world” by Paul Fisher, “Caravaggio a life sacred and profane” by Andrew Graham-Dixon, “The World According to colour, a cultural history” by James Fox. Currently halfway through "So Much longing in so little space, the art of Edvard Munch" by Karl Ove Knausgaard.
Is Madonna With A Long Neck a Caravaggio? I've always liked that painting tho I've only seen it in books. As for Munch, constant is the bombardment of tributes to The Scream, tho his other works are lesser well-known.
I like to couple up my fiction reads with a non-fiction that relates to it in some way or another. That can range from author biographies, over history books to literary analyses and commentary of the work that I am reading. For example I read a few chapters in a book on the history of Greek Literature alongside my read of “The secret history” just for a little more context and to feel more involved in the material ;)
I struggle with nonfiction for various reasons but I am trying (TRYING) to read more so this is very helpful! I LOVE the Tao of Pooh, such a great introductory philosophy book that is short and accessible. Also, memoirs are great, I read three last year (Jennette, Britney, and Jill Duggar), and all three ended up being binge reads. Jennette’s ESPECIALLY really lives up to the hype. She’s a fantastic writer! The one nonfiction book I really want to get to before the end of the year is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. It comes heavily recommended by a friend and they even gifted me a copy. I am thinking about taking it to the café down the street so I can look very chic and educated reading it and they won’t know that I mostly read books for tweens and teens.
really want to recommend rachel aviv’s ”strangers to ourselves” which is about mental illness and and how labels shape us. I’m reading it now and it’s amazing. it’s a mix of essay and reportage, really moving at thought provoking so far
I've found a lot of nonfiction that I've liked through podcasts! Like when a guest comes on to talk about a topic and then it turns out they have a book. I find the podcast episode can be a quick taste test. That's how I first found out about I'm Glad My Mom Died, and also also Doppelganger: Into the Mirror World, and a few others I really ended up enjoying Edit: the podcasts I've watched or listened to that I've found great recs through are Adam Connover's, Matt Bernstein's, and The Financial Diet.
i already consume plenty of non-fiction. once i read one i liked, it was pretty easy to continue on that path! however, i have never thought to look at shownotes and source notes. have def caught myself thinking, “i’d love to read more about this”
An important book for all humans imo is The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah. He discusses how myths around the meaningfulness of labels manifest in different ways and actually basically all supposed groups have nothing homogeneous about them. Another suggestion I have is The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness by Suzanne O'Sullivan. This has majorly influenced how I think about illness (being aware of social and cultural influences) and psychosomatic effects.
Another series of short non-fiction books is the Very Short Introduction series from Oxford UP. There are several hundred of them, covering many topics, usually written by top scholars. They have short but useful bibliographies.
About self-help books: If you’re like me and you absolutely HATE people preaching about how you should live your life without providing any provable source other than “trust me bro”, I highly recommend If Books Could Kill podcast! They criticize popular airport self-help books. I got to know them from a review on Goodreads and never look back. It’s cathartic listening to people more knowledgeable than me discussing why the things I’ve always hated are problematic.
I enjoyed Trick Mirror quite a bit and read it based off your original recommendation. I also keep meaning to start All About Love. Thank you for the reminder. Love your videos!
If you're intimidated by non-fiction, check it out from your library/Libby instead of buying it! I find, as a person who loves podcasts, that I can get through non-fiction books in audio form much faster than I can in print form. Experiment, see what format works best for different genres for you!
I was eyeing I'm glad my mom died at the library and i finally placed a hold bc of this video lol I have a couple non-fiction in my tbr I'd like to get to at some point but i think an ebook will be a good introduction
Even if a book is providing scientific information, it should always be taken with a grain of sault. Presenting information in a certain way and omitting studies that don't fit your theory influence the overall message. Not to mention that new studies are published all the time and many theories that were believed in in the past have been proven incorrect now. There are also disputes among scientists, different experts can have different opinions so never treat anything as sacred text and always cross-reference ❤
Love your videos! Would you consider doing a video about how you tend to annotate and tab your books? I have tried to do this in the past but always end up hating how I do it. Maybe I’m too critical of my own thoughts lol
Sapiens is a book that casually plays around with the concept of scientific accuracy by including some scientific facts and the author randomly connecting them to his preferable opinions to reach desirous conclusions. The book has been criticized by several scientists and many of the ideological opinions and conclusive leaps the author has taken have been debunked.
For anyone interested in cults, I highly recommend a book about Scientology called “Going Clear” by Lawrence Wright. It has such a crazy history, and I still can’t believe they’re allowed to do what they do.
The problem is when ppl hear nonfiction their easiest reference is high school textbooks or stuff they had to read in college. There is sooooo much more to nonfiction than that. I’m an MFA student in nonfiction rn and I love my genre so much. The only difference between fiction and nonfiction is that I am bound by “truth” in my writing. Everything else is as malleable as ever. Nonfiction rules
Indeed, you can be construed as a scholarly “dudette”,especially when you wear glasses, ideal candidate for 5 Sigma Clubs for women. That’s why guys you date don’t ask you questions, scared to sound stupid. Not that I’m not one also, but I have a list of questions that will make you dizzy, everything about you since you learned to walk. Then, get into the juicy part, so, start recalling stuff wayyyy back :-░ Happy face.
Whenever you talk about philosophy you’re kind of diminishing the points you made in your previous vid about women *not* being intellectually inferior lmao
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Can't believe RUclips kept this from me for 2 minutes
The new hairstyle is GIVING, Leonie!
I agree with the bell hooks recommendation wholeheartedly as well! I love attaching to specific nonfiction writers and reading everything they’ve got. It’s riskier to pick up a random nonfiction than a regular novel.
A great memoir is "Born a crime" by Trevor Noah about his childhood and youth in South Africa. He writes in a humorous tone (great for beginner non fiction readers) but as a reader you learn a lot about the history and society of South Africa. Some of the stories he tells are funny, some are very emotional. Personal experience is mixed with information and his thoughts about certain issues.
I've recommended this book a lot and the feedback has always been positive 😊
Thank you for talking about Sapiens. I know it is a very accessible way to get into history/evolution but I have huge issues with how much the author presented his opinions and theories as if they were scientifically proven. There's a lot of questionable things in it, like nudging the idea that "life before settling and agriculture was much better" (it wasn't you died at 20 from a simple flu) or comparing slavery to how we breed animals to eat.
This is exactly what I wanted to say. I've read quite a few critiques of this book by scientists and this consistently comes up. The author has a habit of mixing facts with his own opinions or simply making connections that are not backed up by science. On top of it, some of his beliefs are pretty ethnic supremacist which makes him have visible double standards.
Omg, I definitely wasn't ready to see Cari and Lexi in Leonie's videos anytime❤
I love picking up a celebrity memoir when I hit a non-fiction reading slump! Especially in audiobook form, it feels like a long voice note from a friend where I'm being filled in on all the tea 😂
This video is so useful, I'd love to get into more non-fiction!
just a week or so ago i was thinking about how i wanted to start reading more nonfiction. great timing!
If you are new to non-fiction, specifically history, make sure to do research to determine if a book is quality and reliable; university published works are the best in this case, I would completely avoid self-pub lol
13:15 I also had a similar experience with Gun, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond lol
I love that you featured Lexi. She's hilarious, kind, and educated in her thoughts.
i think nonfiction is my favourite genre when it comes to literature. i think most fiction becomes accessible once you start getting into nf. it slowly integrates itself into your conscious thoughts & decision, bettering them (obv depending upon the nf works one reads. there's abundant senile conservative nf books that should be avoided). apart from that i think, if one takes writing as a medium seriously, they should familiarise themselves with more nf works. even the greatest fantasy authors (le guin, tolkien, grrm, etc) have read political and philosophical works that have influenced that writings, smt p evident in their works!
as always, beautiful suggestions (and beautiful hair!).
I've read so many self help books over the last 20 years it's unreal 😂 your guide seems really sound, thank you for sharing!
Exactly the literary guide I needed to push me into reading more nonfiction, ur videos are always so interesting! TYSM ❤❤❤
As a Social Studies teacher, I am a hardcore nonfiction reader! Love it! Always good to see/hear you, Leonie! Hope you are well!
I love medical non fiction books like The Emperor of all Maladies, The Gene, The Butchering Art, etc. Awesome video.
It’s like you’ve been reading my mind! I really want to read many non fiction books in 2025!
Love the lighting of this video! And also that you are talking about a topic that isn't mentioned typically on booktube
All my fav RUclipsrs are posting today ❤❤ Love your vidsss
My fave nonfic recently is "Euclid's Window" by Leonard Mlodinow, about the history of geometry. I never really understood Einstein's field equations until he explained them.
Yes, I agree: Part of my satisfaction with BookTube is that which you describe as non-fiction. I like intelligent input, so Thx!
One of my favorite non-fiction books is "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. It basically describes how we are thinking and how that influences our descision making. The author (who has won a nobel price) manages to present topics that seem quite boring (statistics) in a very entertaining way. The whole book is full of examples which the reader can apply to their own life.
Yes, this is a great book! Though be forewarned it does contain math, some of it hard and alluring. Sometimes given a stupid math puzzle I find myself calculating it for the fun of it even tho it's obviously irrelevant to the solution.
The book is full of studies that have low replicablity, some dude with a phd made a website summarizing the % of each chapter & chapter 4 was so low that kahneman himself came forward & acknowledged his mistake lol
@@la8076 Nonetheless, the concept that deep analytical, or 'slow thinking' is more difficult or more stressful than intuitive, or 'fast thinking' was a new way for me to arrive at decisions. Thx
OMG This is the earliest I have ever been!!! I love you soo much Leonie!!! Keep doing what you are doing and I wish you all the success in the world😃😄💖💕
It's so good to see that we like the same books! I've read/ have been wanting to read almost all the books you recommended!
I love braiding sweetgrass! Great pick :)
I’m a nonfiction MFA student right now and I love my genre so much. There is so much more to nonfiction than the dry-ass textbooks of high school or the academic papers of college. The only difference is nonfiction is bound to “truth,” but, just like fiction, everything else is malleable.
A few of my favorite non-fiction books are:
The Book of Joy by the 14th Dali Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu - basically about how to find joy in suffering via narratives
Soul Boom by Rainn Wilson (yes, dwight from the office lol) - discussing different religions and what they have in common and other historical aspects - very easy and fun to read
The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter - about how humans are too comfortable and need to push and challenge themselves to grow and find fulfillment- research backed with narrative storytelling
I love picking up a biography from time to time, I absolutely loved "I'm glad my mom died" as well as for example "Beyond the wand"
Yes, I've heard only good things about the McCurdy memoir.
My favorite non-fiction memoirs are Bruce Campbell's books. He puts so much filmmaking information, fun stories, and life experiences that it keeps me very engaged. His audiobooks are awssome too. He always makes little asides during his readings that really add to his stories. He also does some rerecordings every so often to add even more context and fun stories. If you have any interest in filmmaking I high recommend his books and audiobooks.
just as i was thinking to start reading non-fiction, u posted this! love u leonie!
I am only just starting to try to insert some non-fiction into my reading habits, and I can't recommend reading non-fiction about your interests enough. It's a great/perfect way to break in. There are books about everything. Some great stuff about video games out there, every iconic band or artist has at least one or two, books about books, and on, and on. You can watch as many youtube essays (and they are great) as you want but you can only get that kind of insane depth in a long form book.
I just started getting into non finction with your suggestions earlier this year! (All about love was such a good recommandation!) This is such a good video to beging exploring this genre! Thank you Leonie 🫶
Great Recommendations! Also I really like Art History so a majority of what I read is non-fiction and what I recommend to others when they are looking for non-fiction books. For those interested I'd recommend: “The Grand Affair, John Singer Sargent in his world” by Paul Fisher, “Caravaggio a life sacred and profane” by Andrew Graham-Dixon, “The World According to colour, a cultural history” by James Fox. Currently halfway through "So Much longing in so little space, the art of Edvard Munch" by Karl Ove Knausgaard.
Is Madonna With A Long Neck a Caravaggio? I've always liked that painting tho I've only seen it in books. As for Munch, constant is the bombardment of tributes to The Scream, tho his other works are lesser well-known.
Leonieeeee I love love LOVE your videos!! I hope you are proud of yourself!! ❤❤❤❤
I like to couple up my fiction reads with a non-fiction that relates to it in some way or another. That can range from author biographies, over history books to literary analyses and commentary of the work that I am reading. For example I read a few chapters in a book on the history of Greek Literature alongside my read of “The secret history” just for a little more context and to feel more involved in the material ;)
It's so nice to discover that Leonie watches the same youtubers 😊
I struggle with nonfiction for various reasons but I am trying (TRYING) to read more so this is very helpful! I LOVE the Tao of Pooh, such a great introductory philosophy book that is short and accessible. Also, memoirs are great, I read three last year (Jennette, Britney, and Jill Duggar), and all three ended up being binge reads. Jennette’s ESPECIALLY really lives up to the hype. She’s a fantastic writer!
The one nonfiction book I really want to get to before the end of the year is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. It comes heavily recommended by a friend and they even gifted me a copy. I am thinking about taking it to the café down the street so I can look very chic and educated reading it and they won’t know that I mostly read books for tweens and teens.
really want to recommend rachel aviv’s ”strangers to ourselves” which is about mental illness and and how labels shape us. I’m reading it now and it’s amazing. it’s a mix of essay and reportage, really moving at thought provoking so far
I've found a lot of nonfiction that I've liked through podcasts! Like when a guest comes on to talk about a topic and then it turns out they have a book. I find the podcast episode can be a quick taste test. That's how I first found out about I'm Glad My Mom Died, and also also Doppelganger: Into the Mirror World, and a few others I really ended up enjoying
Edit: the podcasts I've watched or listened to that I've found great recs through are Adam Connover's, Matt Bernstein's, and The Financial Diet.
thank you for this
i already consume plenty of non-fiction. once i read one i liked, it was pretty easy to continue on that path! however, i have never thought to look at shownotes and source notes. have def caught myself thinking, “i’d love to read more about this”
Your videos are like therapy leonie ❤
are you hiding in my room?👀 i just wrote down my 2025 goals that include 10 nonfiction! i needed this video
An important book for all humans imo is The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity
by Kwame Anthony Appiah. He discusses how myths around the meaningfulness of labels manifest in different ways and actually basically all supposed groups have nothing homogeneous about them.
Another suggestion I have is The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness by Suzanne O'Sullivan. This has majorly influenced how I think about illness (being aware of social and cultural influences) and psychosomatic effects.
Another series of short non-fiction books is the Very Short Introduction series from Oxford UP. There are several hundred of them, covering many topics, usually written by top scholars. They have short but useful bibliographies.
I love that series! I’ve been collecting anything they have to do with space and stars. ❤
I picked up a book about Marcus Aurelius from the library, and ended up loving it so much I went and bought it from Amazon.
If you haven't read Doppleganger by Naomi Klein you should give it a go. I think it covers a lot of the interests you've talked about in recent videos
Your hair is so gorgeous!
your hair looks so cute girl!! love the color and cut
LOVE your hair!
Aw I adore your hair❤ I’m sending you love (:
About self-help books: If you’re like me and you absolutely HATE people preaching about how you should live your life without providing any provable source other than “trust me bro”, I highly recommend If Books Could Kill podcast! They criticize popular airport self-help books.
I got to know them from a review on Goodreads and never look back. It’s cathartic listening to people more knowledgeable than me discussing why the things I’ve always hated are problematic.
I enjoyed Trick Mirror quite a bit and read it based off your original recommendation. I also keep meaning to start All About Love. Thank you for the reminder. Love your videos!
If you're intimidated by non-fiction, check it out from your library/Libby instead of buying it! I find, as a person who loves podcasts, that I can get through non-fiction books in audio form much faster than I can in print form. Experiment, see what format works best for different genres for you!
I was eyeing I'm glad my mom died at the library and i finally placed a hold bc of this video lol I have a couple non-fiction in my tbr I'd like to get to at some point but i think an ebook will be a good introduction
Even if a book is providing scientific information, it should always be taken with a grain of sault. Presenting information in a certain way and omitting studies that don't fit your theory influence the overall message. Not to mention that new studies are published all the time and many theories that were believed in in the past have been proven incorrect now. There are also disputes among scientists, different experts can have different opinions so never treat anything as sacred text and always cross-reference ❤
Love your videos! Would you consider doing a video about how you tend to annotate and tab your books? I have tried to do this in the past but always end up hating how I do it. Maybe I’m too critical of my own thoughts lol
In how to find non fiction books I would add if you are a college or university student check out your institution's library.
My favorite non-fiction book is "Laziness Does Not Exist" by Dr. Devon Price, PhD.
I'm gonna do a reading challenge on the shortest day and try to spend as many hours of daylight reading. Now I want to add in a bunch of nonfiction!
Sapiens is a book that casually plays around with the concept of scientific accuracy by including some scientific facts and the author randomly connecting them to his preferable opinions to reach desirous conclusions. The book has been criticized by several scientists and many of the ideological opinions and conclusive leaps the author has taken have been debunked.
I almost screamed when i saw cari
cari lexi and mina??? oh the TASTE
For anyone interested in cults, I highly recommend a book about Scientology called “Going Clear” by Lawrence Wright. It has such a crazy history, and I still can’t believe they’re allowed to do what they do.
Hey gurl!!!
I love your content❤
I just impulsively chopped my hair off just like yours 😃
Never comment on videos but had to say the haircut is so cute (!!)
Put me down also for your favorite book. "Que viva el amor, sincero, ardiente y profundo." Amen !
The problem is when ppl hear nonfiction their easiest reference is high school textbooks or stuff they had to read in college. There is sooooo much more to nonfiction than that.
I’m an MFA student in nonfiction rn and I love my genre so much. The only difference between fiction and nonfiction is that I am bound by “truth” in my writing. Everything else is as malleable as ever. Nonfiction rules
Brilliant video
Great video. 😊
Am I allowed to watch this if i only read non-fiction.
Your hair ate and left zero crumbs
i had no intention of reading non ficiton before this video
New video 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Yayyyyy!!!!!!❤❤
i need a new vlog pls🙄
1 minutes 👍
i cant even read!!!!! what are you doing to meeee
Indeed, you can be construed as a scholarly “dudette”,especially when you wear glasses, ideal candidate for 5 Sigma Clubs for women. That’s why guys you date don’t ask you questions, scared to sound stupid. Not that I’m not one also, but I have a list of questions that will make you dizzy, everything about you since you learned to walk. Then, get into the juicy part, so, start recalling stuff wayyyy back :-░ Happy face.
8 seconds ago
Whenever you talk about philosophy you’re kind of diminishing the points you made in your previous vid about women *not* being intellectually inferior lmao
Omg what book was that with the hot take about being trans? How does the author explain trans women? XD Guess women just like the patriarchy/s
Is that a new hairstyle? It's fantastic, love it. With this make up just 🤌🏻💋😍