Auntie's Annex: February
Do what you will, you short little month
Hi! Hello! Welcome to another Auntie’s Annex newsletter where I round up what novels I have been reading for myself on the sidelines of full-time parenting and partnering and, suddenly, dog walking. If you want a health argument for adopting a dog, my daily steps have increased by an astounding amount! Puppies: good for your heart in all the ways.
I have a friend (several really) who exclusively read non-fiction. I am telling you this because last month (or was it last year?) I started a non-fiction book and I still haven’t finished it. I am a snail when it comes to reading non-fiction. What about you? Can you lap up a good non-fiction in a day or a week? Or, like me, does it take you half a freaking year. If I renew this book from Libby one more time the library is going to start thinking that there is a glitch in the system. Do you prefer non-fiction or fiction? Why?
For me, the trouble with non-fiction is in the formula. I get that there has to be a thesis, generally stated at the beginning, and the rest of the book is spent building on and defending the thesis with valid arguments, scientific data, research, and anecdotal evidence. I get that the formula is necessary to create a persuasive argument. But by chapter two I start feeling that same sneaking dread when your partner cracks the opening line for a story you have heard one hundred times, that reflex to tune out because you already know the ending. This is NOT a good way to read or approach non-fiction and the problem is me. (Hi)
I don’t know the information being provided in these books!! I am not an expert who has spent years researching, formulating, and collecting information!! Maybe it is an ego problem, maybe it is a patience problem or a laziness thing. Now that I know the premise, I just want to get to the end where all the information comes together for the cumulative grande finale, the swell of the orchestra, the aha! life-changing moment. I know I need to do the work for that end of the book to be powerful, to make the most sense, to come all together, and to be airtight. But sometimes (often) I don’t want to do the work. I get tired or bored or impatient of being introduced to the same idea only this time it is wearing a different hat.
All that to say, I want to practice reading more non-fiction this year because I know I have so much to learn from what non-fiction has to offer. So, I need your help. Tell me your absolute favorite non-fiction books that are going to blow my mind. I want the books so good I leave this year addicted to non-fiction. Fingers crossed.
My favorite non-fiction books of my LIFE thus far:
THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN by Anne Fadiman
Lia is a Hmong child living in Minneapolis who experiences seizures. Both Lia’s parents and her doctors want what is best for Lia. A study of medical care at the intersection of two cultures. I will think about this book for the rest of my life.
THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot
HeLa cells are the first human cell line to successfully be reproduced in a lab and have helped develop the vaccine for polio, helped people study cancer, and have contributed to the medical community at large. Harvested without consent from Henrietta Lacks, a Black tobacco farmer, who was being treated for cancer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. This book looks at the life of Henrietta Lacks, her living relatives, and the impact her cells have had on the world, which raises some very interesting questions about medical consent.
Have you read these books? What was your take? Apparently, my non-fiction niche is medical-based books that delve into anthropological territory. Oh, and anything and everything by Annie Dillard. Do your best!
Now, on to the February shelves:
FEBRUARY’S TOP PICK
ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert
Eve Brown is trying to figure out what is next for her life, but first, she has to drive off some feelings (been there). When she drives into a quaint little English countryside town and follows her appetite to a B&B she notices a “help wanted” sign. Perfect. Jacob who owns the B&B is…not one to make fast friends, but he is desperate for a chef to help him ASAP. Can they get over how much they dislike one another and make a good B&B (or beyond?) team?
February is the month for romance books! I found this book using this fun and silly NYT Quiz. I really liked both Eve and Jacob, they share something (I don’t want to give it away!) in common despite how different they are, and watching them find their footing with one another was a delight. I was happy I am so glad to find out this is part of a series! Part three, actually so OOPS. But I will happily read about Eve’s older sisters in books 1 & 2.
FROM THE STAX
ICEBREAKER by Hannah Grace
When an ill-timed hockey prank throws a wrench in Anastasia’s Olympic goals she will let nothing, not even handsome (and annoying) Nate, captain of the hockey team, stand in her and her partners’ way of making Gold.
When the book started out I was feeling pretty mad that it was gonna be all about what girls ate to stay skinny (or Olympic skater fit) but it turns out that disordered eating was a subplot that was handled and addressed, so hats off to a book where a girl character is learning how to intuitively eat instead of choosing salads and thinking about how they look all the time. My rating for this book? Go Team SPORTS!
ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE (#16) by Louise Penny
Gamache is in Paris, visiting his son, seeing Jean-Guy in his new non-police role, and visiting with his godfather when his billionaire godfather is struck by a car in a very suspicious manner. Investigating the case unfolds layers upon layers of mystery and corruption and it is hard to know who (if anybody) Gamache can trust.
There are so many books in this series!!!!! AHHHH!! But I do love them. I liked the added layers of family drama and getting to see more of Gamache’s relatives.
ERASURE by Percival Everett
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is a writer, professor, and somewhat distant son and brother. His agent refuses his latest manuscript for being too esoteric, his mother’s health is fading, his sister suddenly dies and the latest best-seller hitting the charts reads like a sell-out of being Black in America. In frustration, he pens his own version of what the public expects from “Black America” and the book that was never supposed to be written by Monk becomes an instant phenomenon.
Satire at almost cringe-worthy height, this book is a trip. If I hadn’t picked a romance for my top read, this would have been it. At first, I thought I was going to quit reading it, it was so dry and weirdly aloof. The second part, the book within the book, is a car crash that I couldn’t stop reading because I knew the author was going to take it somewhere interesting, and then…he did. The third part wraps up Monk and his self-hated Nom De Plume in an interesting, dark, and a little bit twisted way. I loved it. I hated it. It made me uncomfortable and made me ask questions and challenge the status quo. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
RECKLESS GIRLS by Rachel Hawkins
Lux moved to Hawaii with the understanding she would soon be sailing the world with her new hottie boyfriend, only to find herself, six months later, being fired from a shitty hotel job. So when her boyfriend gets hired to charter two young women to the potentially haunted Meroe Island on the same day that Lux loses her job, she knows it must be fate playing her hand, and off they go to get a vacation truly off the grid. Until everything starts to go a little sideways.
What starts as an island party ends as a murder party, who will survive? And should they? EEK! I liked the the suspense built as you knew something weird was going to go down but you didn’t know how or when or who. The book also swaps from the present day to the past, where the reader gets some clues and some good character building. Read this next time you go on a beach vacation.
CURRENTLY:
In Hand: Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
In Ear: The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny
On Kindle: Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith (still and maybe for forever. See aforementioned non-fiction reading pace)
ON DECK:
I picked up a copy of The Candy House by Jennifer Egan when I was on a girls’ weekend. So maybe I will actually read it instead of putting it on the shelf! There are still 3 more books left in the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny so I think that will be what I listen to. Kindle will still be Fat Talk. I am sure. I can do it!
TTFN! Tell me about your favorite Non-Fiction book you loved and then we can book club it once I’ve read it.
If you use one of the links above I may (someday) get a small commission. Especially if you tell your friends to use those links too!
Thanks for being here. See y’all again for Auntie’s Annex at the end of March and next week for more kids’ book recommendations. I hope you are reading something delicious, be it fiction or non, at the pace of a cheetah or a slug. What matters is that we are reading, right? Happy reading y’all!
I used to read a ton of non-fiction. I even had a "system" for years where I always had 1 fiction and 1 non-fiction book in progress at a time.
Then at some point two or three years ago I bounced off of multiple non-fiction books in a row and asked what am I even doing here?
In many, many genres of non-fiction the author is struggling against the economic reality that all they need to say can be said in an Atlantic sized article... But that doesn't pay nearly as well as a book and is far less prestigious.
But above and beyond that I look back at many of the non-fiction books that Goodreads tells me I've read and I struggle to tell you even a single thing about it.
I read Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 and apparently gave it 4 stars but couldn't tell you a single even factoid from it.
And I think a lot of non-fiction lovers do it out of misplaced sense that it is "good for them" ... Even though they will literally never watch a documentary.
So nowadays I'm on Team 100% Fiction. A non-fiction book has to be extremely relevant to my actual life for me to give it a shot nowadays.
You've summed up exactly how I feel about non fiction books too, I just want to get to the end and not do the work! I used to read loads of self help non fiction before kids, but have barely read any since. I loved that series with the Brown Sisters from Talia Hibbert, she had loads of romance books, all of them good, I think I've read the majority!