These are the best non-fiction books ever (for book lovers)!!!

[@nakulyadav9287]

Thank you for sharing these. I am a 27 year old man from India exploring non fiction and philosophy these days. The passion with which you explained the topics the books revolved around was amazing to see. Please keep posting. Have a good day :)

[@curioushmm9027]

wow....am adding this to my wish list immediately. thanks and happy 2023,

[@AnnNovella]

you’re welcome!

[@christinaalvarez332]

Thank you for the wonderful recommendations! I added a bunch to my TBR.

[@AnnNovella]

You’re welcome, Christina!

[@jammiez2805]

This is the 1st time I've listened to one of your videos and I just loved it! The books sound so good that you mentioned. I had to laugh about your comment on the Out of Africa movie where Robert Redford washes Meryl Streep's hair. I watched it recently and that gave me a chuckle. You really make me want to read the book.

[@AnnNovella]

It is written with so much love!

[@ffridiejr]

Congo has been on my TBR forever; you inspired me to bump it to the top of the list. Thanks for the video.

[@AnnNovella]

You’re welcome!

[@scottgraham1143]

I'm always interested in reading writers from outside the Anglosphere, so Congo sounds fascinating. I've recently learned so much about the horrors committed by the British Empire from foreign writers as it seems they have more freedom to talk about it. British writers were never quiet about the Congo, though.

[@AnnNovella]

There is another work by him that is now being translated: Revolusi. It’s about Indonesia.

[@luciuslomax336]

Because in that part of the world it was the French and Belgian's committing horrors

[@eiketske]

I loved loved loved Congo! I met him once when he was on Aruba together with Rodaan al Galidi. It was a wonderful time.

[@AnnNovella]

oh how cool!

[@AnnNovella]

oh how cool!

[@hartereads]

I'm late to this video but just wanted to say that I love your picks. I have the Highsmith waiting. Many of the others are new to me. Thank you for such thoughtful reviews of unique and wonderful books.

[@AnnNovella]

that’s so sweet!

[@heathergregg9975]

Ann, since you enjoyed "Out of Africa" I think you would also enjoy reading "West with the Night" - Beryl Markham's own memoir of Kenya at the same time - her life entwined with Karen, including friends in common. It's a good companion piece.

[@AnnNovella]

noted!

[@heathergregg9975]

@@AnnNovella let me know your thoughts once you've read it, whenever that is, I'm sure you've many books ahead of it in your TBR. But it is very well written.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Great list! I have Out of Africa I think. The Highsmith book sounds fascinating! Maybe I’ll read it after we’ve read her books.

[@AnnNovella]

It’s 1000 pages, Olly!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@AnnNovella might take a couple of days then

[@gloriathompson423]

wow! this was excellent. subscribing

[@readingwithlaurane2490]

I hope to get to Congo next year! And will also keep my eye out for Abramovic, she is a fascinating person!

[@AnnNovella]

She is!

[@BookwormAdventureGirl]

Great list. Ann. I have Out of Africa on my TBR shelf. Will have to look at some of the others. They all sound good. 😊💙

[@AnnNovella]

Out of Africa is a great read!

[@michellesmelancholia]

Great list Ann! Added Congo to my TBR and quite intrigued by Marina Abramovic's memoir... although I'm pretty sure you could convince me to read any of the books in your list!

[@AnnNovella]

Haha, thank you! 📚🤓

[@TheGerbita]

I will definitely look into Marina’s bio and Letters…

[@AnnNovella]

You are in for a treat!

[@joniheisenberg]

New subscriber here. Thank you for highlighting Patricia Highsmith, one of my favorite writers. I need to pick up a biography of her soon. Have you read Heather Clark’s biography of Sylvia Plath “Red Comet”? It is a marvelous book.

[@AnnNovella]

Hi Joni, I have it on my shelf and is on my TBR. Welcome btw!

[@joniheisenberg]

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did! Currently reading Beverly Gage’s masterful biography of J. Edgar Hoover entitled” G-MAN J.Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.” It is fascinating. Also just started “The Shards” by Bret Easton Ellis.

[@AnnNovella]

@@joniheisenberg i really liked The Shards. G-man sounds interesting🤓

[@erinh7450]

Wow, I feel like I've been reading parallel books! The Congo book you suggest is on my shortlist for next year - previously the only book I've read on the subject was King Leopold's Ghost, which was I thought amazing and really opened my eyes, as embarassingly enough I hadn't realized the extent of Belgium's influence and history in Africa. I've only seen the movie version of Out of Africa, but I have read Beryl Markham's memoir West with the Night, which is also fantastic, and turns out Denis was two-timing Karen with Beryl while flying around Africa, so he figures prominently in that memoir as well. And last year I read a book of interviews with women who had spent time in Russian gulags, and one of them was with a woman who knew Marina Tsvetayeva's daughter there, and had a bunch of her (Marina's daughter Ariadna's) letters to Boris Pasternak, with whom she maintained a correspondence until his death, and many of those letters are reprinted in the book (Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag by Monika Zgustová)

[@AnnNovella]

wow, that is really parallel 😳🤓

[@erinh7450]

@@AnnNovella I know, right? I'd never even heard of Marina Tsvetayeva before this year, now she's coming up all the time! 😂 I'm interested to hear that Out of Africa is so different from the movie - I'll have to get to it! You should read Beryl Markham's too! Denis flitted about with some amazing women, lol.

[@StephanieJCohen]

Well since I consider Susan Sontag to be absolutely brilliant (her and Hannah Arendt), I am now going to have to check out Patricia Highsmith’s diaries. I have a biography of Highsmith on TBR, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Maybe will read the two in conjunction with one another, though will be a while before I get there since I have a lot of TBR books. 😊

[@AnnNovella]

She has time. 🙌🏻

[@StephanieJCohen]

@@AnnNovella 😉

[@lgtsln]

Apparently the Congo never was a Belgian colony, rather it was the personal fiefdom of King leopold II.

[@AnnNovella]

At the beginning it was his personal property, and then he donated it to Belgium and it became a colony.

[@krzysamm7095]

Patricia Highsmith book sounds very interesting

[@AnnNovella]

It really is!

[@jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

More books for my want to read list. I think I have read more by Patricia Highsmith than any other female author, but there is still so much of her oeuvre I haven't read. I read King Leopold's Ghost about the brutal colonial regime in Congo, it was very disturbing, as is the whole history of colonialism.

[@AnnNovella]

Congo is even better.

[@BrandonsBookshelf]

What a list!

[@AnnNovella]

Yes indeed, what a list. All books you would love.

[@royreadsanything]

I nearly saw Marina Abramovic once but the queue was too long

[@AnnNovella]

yep, I get that. 🤓

[@royreadsanything]

@@AnnNovella...I had to get to a work thing, it wasn't that my desire to see her couldn’t stand the wait. Though I can't now remember what the work thing was: I bet I'd remember the performance piece!

[@Gen-yh1jz]

❤

[@lindysmagpiereads]

🐌🥬👜😂

[@AnnNovella]

Yes, can you imagine? 😂😂😂