Throughout the month of November, bloggers Liz, Frances, Heather,  Rebekah and Deb invite you to celebrate Nonfiction November with us.

Liz writes: ‘Meet your hosts! Liz (that’s me!), who blogs at Adventures in reading, running and working from home, is an editor, transcriber, reader, reviewer, writer and runner. She likes reading literary fiction and nonfiction, travel and biography. Frances blogs about the books she has read at Volatile Rune and is a published poet, reviewer, sometime storyteller and novelist. Heather of Based on a True Story lives in Ohio with her husband, surrounded by lots and lots of critters! Rebekah reviews social justice books on She Seeks Nonfiction. She is a Pittsburgh-based activist, graphic designer, and cat parent. Deb, who blogs at Readerbuzz, is a Texas librarian-for-life who swims, rides her bike, draws, writes, and loves to read nonfiction-that-reads-like-fiction, literary fiction, classics, and children’s picture books.’

I don’t think I’ll be taking part every week, but this week I am.

Week 1 – Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
(Hosted by Heather of Based on a True Story)

Nonfiction Read Since December 1, 2023, linked to my reviews, where they exist.

1. Just One Thing by Michael Mosley 5*
2. A Memoir of My Former Self by Hilary Mantel 5* – In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,” she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.” A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.
3. Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench, Brendan O’Hea 5*
4. Maiden Voyages by Sian Evans 5*
5. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell 4*

1. Great Meadow by Dirk Bogarde 5* – Seen through the eyes of a 10-year old in the late 1930s, this novel recaptures an idyllic childhood, a time of love and gentleness with its sounds and scents intact, whilst the world beyond went to war. It was a great pleasure to read, taking me back to a time before I was born, to that time between the two World Wars, covering the years 1930 to 1934. Dirk (Derek) Bogarde was born in 1921 and his sister Elizabeth in 1924. Theirs was a somewhat privileged childhood, with a live-in Nanny, Lally, who also ran their household. Their father was the art editor of The Times and their mother was a former actress.
2. The Art of Laziness: Overcome Procrastination & Improve Your Productivity by Library Mindset 2* – There’s nothing new in this book for me, but it’s a good reminder about what I already knew.
3. Getting Better by Michael Rosen 5* Michael Rosen has grieved the loss of a child, lived with debilitating chronic illness, and faced death itself when seriously unwell in hospital with Covid. In spite of this he has survived, and has even learned to find joy in life in the aftermath of tragedy. In Getting Better, he shares his story and the lessons he has learned along the way. Exploring the roles that trauma and grief have played in his own life, Michael investigates the road to recovery, asking how we can find it within ourselves to live well again after – or even during – the darkest times of our lives. Moving and insightful, this is a wonderful book.
4. Gladys Aylward: My Missionary Life in China by Gladys Aylward 3* Gladys was convinced that she called to preach the Gospel in China and in 1930 went to Yangchen, in the mountainous province of Shansi, a little south of Peking (Beijing). She worked with a 73-year-old missionary, Jeannie Lawson in an inn where, in the evening, they would entertain their guests with stories from the Bible. Gladys also began taking children into her home, and soon she had an orphanage with about 100 children. Then in 1938 in the spring of 1938, Japanese planes bombed the city of Yangcheng, killing many and causing the survivors to flee into the mountains. Five days later, the Japanese Army occupied Yangchen. She and the children fled walking over the mountains to Sian. In 1957, Alan Burgess,The Small Woman, which I read in my teens. So when I saw this autobiography I was keen to read it.

My favourites are the six books I gave 5 stars to on Goodreads. I like to read books on a wide variety of topics, such as history, philosophy, religion, biography, and diaries and letters. And currently I’m reading Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews In Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 by Ian Black, an immensely detailed book; and Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn, about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and fortress islands – and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place.

By participating in Nonfiction November I’m hoping this will encourage me to read more nonfiction rather than picking up the next novel to read and I’m looking forward to seeing what others recommend.

Are you participating in Nonfiction November this year? Leave me a comment or a link to your post–I’d love to see what you’ve read this year.