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Hello, nonfiction readers! Despite my interest in catching up on all of 2019’s great nonfiction, I spent most of my holiday weekend reading fiction – first, Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman, then The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, and finally The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.
But I am going to return to my first love, nonfiction, soon! I’m not quite sure what book it will be. I still want to pick up Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moaveni, but at the moment, Samantha Power’s memoir The Education of an Idealist feels like it’s calling my name. I’ve long found Obama administration memoirs inspiring, and so this one written by the youngest United States Ambassador to the United Nations feels like a good way to start wrapping up the year.
It’s been another relatively quiet week for nonfiction news, but there were three stories that piqued my interest:
“OK, boomer” is now going to be a book. Jill Filipovic, a 36-year-old journalist, is writing a book titled OK Boomer: Let’s Talk: Dispatches From a Generational Divide where she’ll take on issues like student debt, health care, and climate change. The book is scheduled for late 2020.
Netflix will be adapting Stephanie Land’s memoir, Maid, into a dramedy series! The series will “chronicle a single mother who turns to housekeeping to — barely — make ends meet as she battles against poverty, homelessness, and bureaucracy” and will be told from the point of view of the woman.
We might eventually know the identity of the anonymous White House whistleblower. In a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” the author of A Warning said: “I am not afraid to use my own name to express concern about the current occupant of the Oval Office. Donald Trump has not heard the last of me.” Honestly? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Over at Book Riot, It’s Read Harder Time
While it’s not specifically nonfiction-related, I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you know that Book Riot’s 2020 Read Harder Challenge has been announced! I failed pretty hard at completing the 2019 challenge, but I always feel reinvigorated going into the new year. And I’m especially excited for the nonfiction-specific tasks this year:
- Read a YA nonfiction book
- Read a graphic memoir
- Read a memoir by someone from a religious tradition (or lack of religious tradition) that is not your own
There are several other tasks that could also be filled with a nonfiction book, if you’d like. Perhaps digging through to make some recommendations will be a future newsletter!
Thanks again for letting me squeeze into your inbox for another week. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kimthedork and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot. Happy reading! – Kim