It’s November and you know what that means? It’s Non-fiction November!
I am still fighting a reading a slump over here but I am so excited to get into some great non-fiction reads on my TBR. I can’t promise I’ll get through them all this month but let’s stay positive and jump into the books.
Past time/Pastime: Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father―an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist―who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame.
A memoir felt appropriate for this challenge and how could I not go with Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot. Also, how have I not read this yet? I’ve heard nothing but good things about this book, but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.
Self/Shelf: The Art of Cruelty by Maggie Nelson
Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal imagery. The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the twentieth-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order. What to do now? When to look, when to turn away?
This year I read and completely adored Maggie Nelson’s memoir, The Argonauts. It’s one of those books that stays with you and frankly one of those books I need to reread soon.The Art of Cruelty was not my first choice but after reading the blurb I couldn’t say no. I don’t doubt I won’t love this book.
Wander/Wonder: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine—now with all-new, never-before-published material.
New York Chef Tony Bourdain gives away secrets of the trade in his wickedly funny, inspiring memoir/expose. Kitchen Confidential reveals what Bourdain calls "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine."
I still can’t believe Anthony Bourdain is gone. So of course, I’m devouring anything and everything. It took me a while to shake the disbelief, but here we are. We’re finally picking up his most popular and well known memoir, Kitchen Confidential and you can bet I’ve got high hopes going into this book.
Micro/Macro: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.
I haven’t heard a lot about Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston, but by the sound of this summary it’s got to be an incredible story, one that I can imagine will be difficult to get through. I've got a feeling this will be a favorite and a book that will stay with me for years to come.
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