I decided to give Non-fiction it’s own review this year because I’ve read 20 titles – the highest number I’ve read in a year, making up fractionally under 15% of books read. This is a trend I hope to continue, for I’m enjoying non-fiction more these days, but as you’ll see below – the areas I gravitate towards are quite well defined in general! The title links will take you to my reviews.
Memoirs & Biographies:
- Medical –
- Ground-breaking heart surgeon Stephen Westaby’s Fragile Lives was superb.
- Paul Kalanithi’s posthumously-published memoir of becoming a neurosurgeon and then dying of cancer was heart-breaking.
- This is Going to hurt – Adam Kay’s diaries of his days as a ‘junior doctor’ were hilarious, but asked some serious questions about the NHS.
- Rock ‘n’ Roll
- Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen was a mixture of memoir and essay. Steely Dan were one of my favourite bands.
- That Close by Suggs – cheeky and nutty – this book was a joy to read.
- The Importance of Music to Girls by Lavinia Greenlaw – vignettes of musical memoir growing up in the 1970s
- Other
- To War With Whitaker by the Countess of Ranfurly – this was our book group read for ‘Egypt’.
- The Day That Went Missing by Richard Beard – Shocking, heart-rending. Writing therapy for the author’s soul.
- Outlandish Knight by Minoo Dinshaw – the 784 page biography of an historian I’d never heard of, but who lived to 97 and knew everyone was interesting.
- Unaccompanied Minor by Alexander Newley – The son of Antony Newley and Joan Collins tells about his childhood, featuring many of his own paintings.
Science:
- Medicine
- Folk Medicine by D.C. Jarvis – the health benefits of apple cider vinegar
- A Cabinet of Ancient Medical Curiosities by J.C. McKeown – some of the ancients’ beliefs and practises are quite alarming!
- Popular Science
- Ladybird Expert Series 117, Vols 1-3 – What fun! Accessible and mostly well-written (especially the Jim Al-Khalili one).
- Deviate by Beau Lotto – slightly disappointing book about the science of perception.
- The Science of Food by Marty Jopson – entertaining and fascinating in equal measure – I learned a lot from this book.
The Arts, and Books about Books:
- The Bestseller Code by Jodie Archer and Matthew L Jocker – absolutely fascinating analysis and machine reading.
- The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler – despite the skew towards male authors, a book to expand your wishlists for sure.
- Hit Makers by Derek Thompson – songs, TV, film – interesting analysis from both the psychology and business side of things.
- A Literary History of Science Fiction, ed Roger Luckhurst – Set of essays from the British Library, only just finished, so still mulling this book.
Miscellaneous:
- Lagom by Lola A Akerstrom – you can read about this one in yesterday’s post!
As to which, if any, of these will make my year-end best of list – you’ll have to wait until the 31st!
Have you read much non-fiction this year?
Impressive list. Above all have taken note of that Donald Fagen book as I loved Steely Dan – ‘Peg’ is my favourite song of all time. My non-Fiction choices this year are much less and much narrower than yours!! – just a biog of the footballer Denis Law and ‘Nileism’ a book about my favourite band ‘The Blue Nile’ ( if you’ve never heard them I’d thoroughly recommend!!!!)
The Blue Nile – I actually owned a copy of their first album A Walk Across the Rooftops on Linn records – but the CD got badly damaged and I threw it away. It would be a collector’s item if it had survived intact! The Donald Fagen book is excellent.
I’m keen to read Adam Kay’s memoir and The Book of Forgotten Authors. I’ve read and loved the other two medical memoirs you highlight.
We both love medical memoirs, don’t we! Here’s to the Wellcome Prize 2018…
Absolutely! I’ll be shocked if Fragile Lives isn’t on the shortlist. If I do a shadow panel again, can I count you in?
Absolutely!
I’ve shied away from This Is Going to Hurt thanks to all the Twitter hype but I trust your judgment, Annabel. On the list it goes!
It was brilliant. He managed to get the combination of hilarity and the burn-out he suffered just right.
I’m on 74 fiction / 64 non-fiction at the moment, reading two non-fiction and two fiction currently, and that’s about normal for me. I’ll probably make my Best Of half and half as I usually do. I haven’t read any of these that you list!
I’m so impressed you read so much non-fiction. I ought to branch out a bit in terms of the scope of nf books I read but I have shelves full of potentially good entertainment and music memoirs still to read and plenty of more psychological fare. I really want to tackle some of these in 2018.