Nonfiction Journey Tag

[@Movingthebookmark]

The Dickens biography is great! Ackroyd makes it easy to settle in, its very entertaining. I took my time with that one, about three months, and never lost interest. You will get to know Dickens so intimately. It actually made me cry at the end.

[@booksimnotreading]

Oh, wow! That definitely makes me want to read it more. Thank you so much for sharing!💛

[@marjoriedybec3450]

That's good to know. I've read a lot about him but not that one yet.

[@kathleencraine7335]

Some great recs, Kelly. I do remember what an "event" the Civil War series was. I think it changed American TV in the sense that we experienced the great potential that television can be. Plus I developed a big crush on Shelby Foote and lived for each time he commented. 🤣 (although not a big enough crush to read his tomes....). Besides reading for school, the first nonfiction that I purposely sought out were books on pregnancy, childbirth & child-rearing (Dr Spock, etc.), as I felt so clueless as an expectant new mom. My nonfiction this month is All Creatures Great & Small, and I'm loving it, even tho I'm not an animal person at all.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@kathleencraine7335 Kathleen, thank you so much for sharing all that with me! I need to read All Creatures Great and Small. If you’re not an animal person, but it enjoying it, I might love it! (I loved Shelby Foote in that documentary too! But still haven’t read those books!) 💛📚

[@karinasmith7636]

For NF November, I did two audiobooks Unmasked: My life solving America’s cold case (Paul Holes) and What the dead know (Barbara Butcher) . I am now listening to Catherine The Great. I enjoy reading about history, leadership, and some of my best reads were: The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté / stolen focus / Wordslut / Invisble Women:) happy readings

[@booksimnotreading]

Hello! Thanks so much for sharing some of your favorite non-fiction books are! I appreciate you taking the time. Happy reading!

[@gammaanteria]

Hi Kelly, cool to hear your answers to this Nonfiction tag! I love Werner Herzog too (a friend sent me an action figure of him haha!), though I am much more familiar with his earliest work, so I will have to check out "Happy People." Agreed that "Grizzly Man" is amazing...there's a good deep-dive analysis on Timothy Treadwell on YT by a psychiatrist, Andrew van der Vaart that is worth checking out. The Maysles Bros. did some of my favorite documentaries--"Salesman," "Grey Gardens," and "Gimme Shelter" are all classics. Another one in that same 'verite' style that I love is a 1972 British television documentary called "We Was All One" (it's about old-school East End Londoners adjusting to the changing times and dying traditions of their neighborhood). Best wishes, Joe

[@booksimnotreading]

LOVE that you have an action figure of Werner Herzog! Hilarious! Thanks for sharing with me some of your favorite documentaries! I have been meaning to what Grey Gardens for a long time. There's quite a few people here who like documentaries, so that's exciting. 💛

[@LaurieInTexas]

I love nonfiction and have read a lot of it over my adult life. The first NF book I remember reading is a biography of Abraham Lincoln who I became fascinated with when I was around 10 years old. It would be hard to pick my all-time favorite book because I have read so many amazing books, but the one that made me cry was When Breath Becomes Air. I knew going in that it is a memoir by a neurosurgeon who died from cancer in his thirties, but I was devastated at the end to read his wife's epilogue about his final weeks of life. Typically about 30% of the books I read are nonfiction and it may be more next year with a project I plan to start in December.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@LaurieInTexas Oooohhhh! And are you willing to share what you have planned to start in December? I would love to know! I have an announcement coming soon as well. Great to know how much people on Booktube love non-fiction! 💛

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

❤

[@booksimnotreading]

💛

[@HannahsBooks]

How lovely! I really didn’t create the tag-just borrowed the wonderful frame from the Shakespeare Journey Tag!

[@booksimnotreading]

@@HannahsBooks It only took me a year, Hannah! 💛

[@deborahwager5883]

Sounds like a great list of books! I find myself drawn to science and nature writing and history/biography. Currently reading Prairie Fires, the biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It won the Pulitzer for biography a few years ago. Very interesting--she led a pretty rough life! Thanks for a nice video.

[@booksimnotreading]

Deborah, thanks so much for watching and commenting! I enjoy hearing from you! 💛

[@tess_of_the_books.9312]

Happy people was excellent. 😊

[@booksimnotreading]

@@tess_of_the_books.9312 Agreed! Lovely to hear from you! 💛

[@kfwimmer]

Watching you always makes me feel so good! Thank you

[@booksimnotreading]

Oh, wow! Thank you so much! That is such a kind thing to say. I hope you are well! 💛💛💛

[@AaronReadABook]

You are the second booktuber I've seen recommend The Remarkable Life of Ibelin this weekend, I must check it out.

[@booksimnotreading]

You MUST! I probably should have made a video about just it. I've already watched it twice but could easily watch it again! 💛

[@charlesbarrowbooks]

Hey Kelly, great video. I usually have a non-fiction book on the go at the same time as a novel, though (oddly) not at the moment. I'm a big fan of film and cinema, so read a lot of film star auto/biographies, and books about the industry, particularly the old Hollywood studio system. If I need a lift, mood-wise, I always turn to one of Bill Bryson's books. He never fails to make me laugh out loud (I know better than to read one of his books on public transport now). One non-fic that I'm saving until January is Barbara Streisand's recent autobiography Barbara. Like Ackroyd's Dickens, it's a big one, at 970 pages long. It should keep me going for a while.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@charlesbarrowbooks I feel like I have read SOMETHING by Bill Bryson, but I can’t think what so maybe that isn’t the case? I’m always looking for authors who can make me laugh out loud. And as there is no public transportation here - or at least, not much - I never have to worry about laughing while reading. Barbara sounds epic, but she has lived quite the epic life, I’m not surprised her autobiography is so big. Always good to have something to look forward to! Thanks for sharing with me! 💛

[@charlesbarrowbooks]

@@booksimnotreading If I had to guess at a Bryson that you might have read I'd guess at his biog of Shakespeare. And if I had to recommend another title it would be 'A Short History of Nearly Everything.' just endlessly fascinating and funny.

[@genteelblackhole]

What a great selection of books, I'll have to add some to my wishlist! 💜 For documentaries, I highly recommend Tim's Vermeer, directed by Teller (of Penn & Teller). It's about a man who had a theory about how Vermeer achieved such realistic paintings, so he set out to prove his theory by recreating it... despite having no previous experience of painting!

[@booksimnotreading]

I've seen a documentary about the guy who painted a Vermeer - not sure if it was the same one, but definitely about the same person. I loved it! Thanks for sharing with me!💛

[@lynnh.4439]

My love of nonfiction started as a kid. I discovered a collection of biographies written for children at my public library. To this day (50+ years later!) I can describe what they looked like (orange and white hard cover) and exactly which shelf they were on. I probably read them all at least twice. Now though I favor NF adventure stories. The Emerald Mile and Endurance: Shackleton’s incredible Journey are two of my favorites. I highly recommend both!

[@booksimnotreading]

Hello, Lynn! What a cool experience to find the collection of biographies when you were a child. I will definitely look into your non-fiction recommendations! Thank you so much! 💛

[@AmandaJHMorton]

Gotta love Herzog's sly judgmental comments in his narration of his documentaries, lol. The Gleaners and I is one of the best for documentaries. I was really captivated by the story of the boys stuck in the cave in Thailand a few years ago as seen in the documentary The Rescue (also the feature film Thirteen Lives). Moving Midway was a great documentary set in North Carolina, where the owners of an old plantation house picked up the house and moved it to a less developed area. I really loved it because it reminded me of home. I read more nonfiction than novels, no question, but I'm not always reading your traditional popular nonfiction. A few nonfiction books I absolutely loved were Libraries in the Ancient World, An American Childhood, Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains, and Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of the World's Most Mysterious Continent. Have you seen the documentary Kedi about cats in Istanbul?

[@booksimnotreading]

@@AmandaJHMorton I think I have seen the cat documentary, but none of the other films you mentioned! Thank you so much for sharing some film and book recommendations with me! 💛

[@stuartgriffin1001]

My favorite documentary is Carl Sagan's Cosmos series. I think I originally saw it on PBS. We got it on VHS. I watched at least some of the episodes multiple times. You mentioning Ken Burns reminded me of the PBS series he did about the history of baseball. I remember it fondly. Recent non-fiction books I loved are The Hidden Language of Cats: How They Have Us at Meow by Sarah Brown, Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, and The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of Their Lost World by Steve Brusatte

[@booksimnotreading]

@@stuartgriffin1001 Stuart! Those are some really diverse recommendations, I love it! Your comments always cheer me up. I haven’t seen Cosmos. I am afraid of space! Maybe this is why I have a hard time with science fiction. It’s just too big for me. But all your book recommendations sound interesting. Thanks for sharing! 💛

[@stuartgriffin1001]

@@booksimnotreading It makes me happy that your comments cheer you up. You're welcome

[@mame-musing]

Back in the 90’s after binging on Graham Greene novels I read that huge three volume biography of Greene by Norman Sherry. Greene lived quite an incredible life. Not always nice but definitely interesting. To tackle a biography (or history) that large I think you need to be really interested in the topic. Glad to hear your comments about “My Life in France” by Julia Child since I just picked it up at a library sale last week.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@mame-musing Yes, you have to be really excited about something to commit to that. I’m so glad you picked up My Life in France! You are in for a treat! 💛

[@janepetrie1654]

Hi Kelly, I'm definitely going to watch the Netflix documentary you recommended. My youngest is a gamer, so I'll try and get him to watch it with me.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@janepetrie1654 It’s amazing! Let me know what you think when you watch it. 💛

[@AZsunflower]

Mine probaby was "Diary of Anne Frank". Many, many years ago. At 74 I can't remember that far back. I also loved "Saved by a Horse".

[@booksimnotreading]

@@AZsunflower I’m embarrassed to say I still haven’t read The Diary of Anne Frank! I really should remedy that. Maybe I will add that to my 2025 TBR. Is Saved by a Horse the sequel to Chosen by a Horse? Thank you so much for watching and commenting! 💛

[@AZsunflower]

@booksimnotreading I just checked 'Diary of Anne Frank' out from the library to read again. Yes, put it on your list. Sorry on the horse book, I just put the title wrong in my comment.

[@Montie-Adkins]

Most of my non-fiction reading is science stuff. And it's a lot. Here's some: The Science In Science Fiction by Peter Nichols. Mining The Sky by Lewis, which is all about the large sum of stuff we can mine in the solar system (The asteroid belt could support quadrillions of people) The Astronomy Cafe by Odenwald The Physics of Star Trek by Krauss Where is Everybody by Stephen Webb Are We Alone in the Cosmos edited by Ben Bova And Immortality by Ben Bova. For anyone, if you want to try some but are not science minded, the first one is the best of all starts.

[@booksimnotreading]

Thanks so much for sharing! 💛

[@binglamb2176]

I am weirdly fascinated by the Civil War fueled in large part by Ken Burns and Shelby Foote's appearance in the series. In fact, during the pandemic, I read the massive 3 volume Civil War history written by Mr. Foote. It was fantastic and I really enjoyed it since it is a readable as a novel. I guess it was predictable that I would like it because of the subject matter and the fact that my non-fiction tastes are mostly history and biography.

[@booksimnotreading]

That is SO cool you read the three-volume Shelby Foote history of the Civil War. I have wanted to ... but again a bit intimidated. I heard a story - not sure if it's true - that Shelby Foote called Ken Burns after The Civil War aired and told Burns he had made him (Foote) a millionaire! LOL! I love Shelby Foote's anecdotes throughout the documentary. 💛

[@binglamb2176]

@@booksimnotreading I don't doubt it!😄

[@angelaluz405]

My favorite nonfiction books are My Thoughts Be Bloody by Nora Titon (a biography of the entire Booth family, not just the one who assassinated Lincoln), Showman (I forget the author)--a biography of golden age Hollywood film producer David O. Selznick, Quiet by Susan Cain, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and Sermon on the Mount by Richard Rhor. I love nonfiction. This year I am currently reading a book about internet romance scammers called Keanu Reeves Is Not in Love with You and Hollywood: An Oral History. I am also reading a couple of cookbooks and a religious nonfiction called Everything Belongs. I really should get Seabiscuit. I loved her other book!

[@booksimnotreading]

I have read Quiet by Susan Cain, but I need to add some of these to my TBR. Thanks so much for sharing with me, Angela! 💛

[@marciajohansson769]

Hey Kelly, A topic near and dear to my heart lately! Currently listening to Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot and Currently reading: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. I hope to get to these two for #nonfictionnovember Patriot: A memoir by Alexei Navalny and Framed : Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey. My younger self would never have imagined loving nonfiction as I do now. Some of my favorites from this past year are: -White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg -audio -Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer *****The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O'Connor -Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Queer Histories by Diarmuid Hester --The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni Hope all is well with you and yours. Take care

[@booksimnotreading]

Marcia, thank you so much for sharing these titles with me! It's great! I appreciate you chiming in. What do you think? Will Nonfiction November continue without its founder? 💛

[@marciajohansson769]

@@booksimnotreading I am not sure what happened to my previous reply but let me try again. I sure hope that Olive hands the torch to someone to keep #NonfictionNovember going strong! If you want to see what other nonfiction books I have read check out my goodreads book challenges for the past couple of years. Take care. Keep up the great content!

[@marjoriedybec3450]

Here are my 28 favorite NF books, many of which have made me cry. Two influential people? Shakespeare and Picasso. NOTE: I've truncated excessively long titles. The Art Dealers, L Coppet; Tomboy Bride, HF Backus; How NY Stole the Idea of Modern Art, S Guilbaut; Out of this Century, P Guggenheim; Positively 4th St, D Hajdu; Will in the World, S Greenblatt; Paris to the Moon, A Gopnik; Dispatches from the Edge, A Cooper; Diary of a Young Girl, A Frank; Joan of Arc, H Castor; In Montmartre: Picasso & Matisse, S Roe; Rainbow Comes and Goes, A Cooper; Ninth Street Women, M Gabriel; Leonardo da Vinci, W Isaacson; Me, E John; What Is the Grass, M Doty; Miracle and Wonder, P Simon and M Gladwell; The Slip, P Peiffer; Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, J Dench; Northern Voices: ... the Poetry Beat, M Pride; Running for the Hills, H Clare; My Life in France, J Child; Diet for a Small Planet, F M Lappe; The Greater Journey, D McCullough; The Table Comes First, A Gopnik; Hill Women, C Chambers; We Don’t Know Ourselves, F Otoole; Picasso’s War, H Eakin. I'm hoping you'll ask me specifics, so please do. marjorieapple.substack.com

[@booksimnotreading]

@@marjoriedybec3450 Unfortunately, I’m getting ready for bed right now, but it’s a great list. Some of those books I have already read and some I own, but haven’t read. I do appreciate you taking the time to share your list with me! I love Paris and the art world, so thank you so much for sharing! 💛

[@4szct5091ytlt]

The earliest non-fiction reading experience for me was when the movie Outbreak came out. I was a weird kid asking my parents for books about viruses and only wanting to read them and nothing else. I thought one day I was going to work for the CDC. Wished I tracked what I read back then. Audrey Hepburn by Nick Yapp is the earliest specific book I can recall before keeping a reading log. Worse Than War by Daniel Goldhagen should have brought me to tears, but it just made me very angry.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@4szct5091ytlt What is Outbreak? Sounds a bit like Contagion. I love that you thought you were going to work for the CDC! Not everyday you hear that. I’m always glad to hear when people have a log of their reading. How long have you been doing that? 💛

[@TimeTravelReads]

I've got a huge biography of Winston Churchill I'm a bit intimidated by. I don't normally watch TV or stream. My dad watches documentaries about dudes who created factory foods.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@TimeTravelReads To each his own, I guess! You need to find someone with Netflix so you can watch The Remarkable Life of Ibelin! It’s amazing. Good luck with Churchill in the future! 💛😃

[@katsbooks2631]

I love documentaries too! How do you find ones you want to watch? Seabiscuit was a fun book to read! I preferred the book over the movie as I usually do. I still haven’t read Unbroken even though I think I will probably like it because of Hillenbrand’s writing.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@katsbooks2631 There are so many documentaries! It is hard to know what to watch. My husband keeps pretty good track of what’s happening in the movie industry and he finds stuff much more than I would. Seabiscuit is great! I prefer it to the movie as well. Such an incredible story! When you get to Unbroken, let me know. I’ll be curious to hear what you think! 💛

[@KellyAnneReads]

I wasn’t much of a reader, but I started to get more into reading this year and started a bookstagram page… I’m currently reading ‘Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal’ by Jeanette Winterson

[@booksimnotreading]

Hello! Do you go by Kelly or Kelly Anne? Either way, thank you so much for watching and commenting! I hope your Jeanette Winterson book is good. Happy reading! 💛

[@KellyAnneReads]

@ happy December! Just Kelly is fine… I’ve managed to finish Winterson’s memoir just in time to wrap up nonfiction November, didn’t get much reading done as I’m usually quite a slow reader. Do you usually have a holiday/Christmas TBR?

[@booksimnotreading]

@@KellyAnneReads I always read A Christmas Carol … sometimes there are some other ones, sometimes not. It depends!

[@AZsunflower]

I know I am weird. I love documentaries but NOT Ken Burns. I find his films boring.

[@booksimnotreading]

@@AZsunflower 😂😂😂 There is room for a lot of opinions here. So no judgement from me that you find Ken Burns boring! I don’t think that makes you weird! Thanks so much for watching and sharing your thoughts! 💛