Tag: memoirs

Guest Posting On Hungry Bookworm Site Today: 12 Memoirs For Nonfiction Newcomers

12 Great Memoirs For Nonfiction Newcomers

I’m really excited to have the opportunity to share a guest post today on the wonderful Megan’s blog The Hungry Bookworm. Since Megan primarily features fiction, and I tend to review a lot of nonfiction, I thought I would give some recommendations of nonfiction titles for readers who might not typically read nonfiction.

I decided to focus on memoirs because I find that they make great ‘gateway drugs’ for nonfiction newcomers. With their more personal and narrative style, they provide a much easier bridge into nonfiction for lovers of fictional stories. In fact, some of the stories within the memoirs I picked for this post are so incredible, they read like novels. Head over to The Hungry Bookworm to read my post!

15 Summer 2017 Nonfiction Releases I’m Excited About!

15 Summer 2017 Nonfiction Releases I'm Excited About On Novels And Nonfiction

Since there are so many great Summer book lists out there that focus on new releases in the fiction sphere, I thought that I would choose to center this new release post on nonfiction releases only. They’re definitely treated a bit as the ugly stepchild of the book blogging world sometimes, but since they’re my favorite (give me all the memoirs, historical tomes and weird books about scientific phenomena) I’m here to give them some love.

It’ll be hard (or impossible) for me to read all of the 15 books listed below, but I’m definitely planning to get my hands on Into The Gray Zone by Adrian Owen, My Glory Was I Had Such Friends by Amy Silverstein, Unbelievable by Katy Tur, and The People Are Going To Rise Like The Waters Upon Your Shore by Jared Yates Sexton. For the other ones, wish me luck! It’ll be hard to resist picking up Bugged and The Last Castle as well.

If you’re looking for some perfect book lists of fiction picks for the summer, here are links from two of my favorite book blogs that you can consult:

Modern Mrs Darcy’s Summer 2017 Reading Guide
Sarah’s Bookshelves Summer 2017 Reading Guide

For all of the great new nonfiction though, keep reading!

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Ten Unbelievable Books About Scientology – Updated Scientology Book List

10 Unbelievable Books About Scientology Book List On Novels And Nonfiction

It may sound weird but Scientology is one of my favorite topics to read about. You may have noticed a trend in my reading that has to do with cults and escape stories, and it’s true, I’m a sucker for reading about people who find themselves in incredible and disturbing circumstance and are able to make their way out of them. It also doesn’t hurt that Scientology is essentially bat-shit crazy, and therefore makes for endlessly engrossing reading. It’s hard to believe that a ‘religion’ that abuses its adherents to the degree to which Scientology does could continue to survive, but the brain washing perpetrated by the ‘church’ on its believers is so complete it’s hard to understand.

My very first post on this blog was a Scientology book list, and it has proven to be a very popular post. I thought I would dust it off with extended versions of the 3 original reviews plus new reviews of 3 more books that were in the original book list, but that I hadn’t read or reviewed yet at the time. These are Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman, Ruthless by Ron Miscavige and Blown For Good by Marc Headley, and they’re included at the top of the post. At the end I’ve also listed four more books I’m thinking of tackling next once I feel the need for a little more Scientology madness. You can be sure they’ll also deliver.

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My Spring 2017 TBR List

My Spring 2017 TBR List On Novels And Nonfiction

I’m hoping to read a total of 40 Books in Spring 2017. That includes 16 Nonfiction titles (some centered around booklists I’m planning on World War II and China), 13 Contemporary Fiction books, 4 Historical Fiction books and 7 Classics (including 3 for an Author Spotlight on Virginia Woolf that was pushed to this season). In addition I’ll be reading 3 books that are not included in this post for my April 2017 Book Of The Month package, which I will be selecting in the future.

For full disclosure, since Spring technically started on March 19th, I’ve actually already read and even reviewed a few of the titles on this list, like Cannibalism by Bill Schutt and Before The Rains by Dinah Jefferies.

Of course plans change, as is only too obvious by the fact that some of the books on this list are carryovers from last season that I didn’t end up getting to. I think A Little Life, Lonesome Dove and House Of Leaves may actually have been carried over twice now, so those are definitely on my must-get-to list. I like to plan out my posts for the blog on a seasonal basis because it gives me a framework within which to work and also by which to measure my progress. If I don’t end up getting to all of them and pick up something else instead, that’s okay.

Hope you find some inspiration for your own TBR list from mine!

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12 March 2017 Releases I’m Excited To Read – #BookRelease

12 March 2017 Book Releases I'm Excited To Read On Novels And Nonfiction

Another month, another list of a dozen books I hope to find time to read someday! The FOMO is strong with these ones, but I’m trying to be realistic about how fast I can get through books and how fast I can also post about them. I may only read half of these at some point in the next few months, but I found all of these titles deserving of mention.

I hope you’ll find something in my list that’ll catch your eye and luckily enough, most of these titles are currently available for request on Net Galley (a resource for book bloggers and reviewers to get access to ebook versions of books for free in return for honest reviews), so I encourage you to look them up and request them if you’re interested.

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Just Read: #UnderTheTuscanSun By Frances Mayes (20th Anniversary Edition)

Under The Tuscan Sun Book Review On Novels And Nonfiction

When I looked into choosing Under The Tuscan Sun as my next Blogging For Books selection, I couldn’t believe that the book was actually published in 1996 and that it is now being released in a 20th Anniversary Edition. I was a bit skeptical of whether the descriptions of Italian life would feel authentic to me, coming from a foreigner, but I immediately fell in love with Frances Mayes’ writing and points of view on Italian culture. She’s really intent on learning as much as she can about Italian traditions and on immersing herself in the authentic life of the small Italian town she lives in.

I decided to watch the movie based on the book and starring Diane Lane and Raoul Bova (if you don’t know who Raoul Bova is, do yourself a favor and Google him). It came out in 2003 and to be honest felt over-caricatured and quite dated. The book in comparison still feels fresh and applicable to the current reality of Italian life in small towns in the Tuscany countryside. Another major difference between the book and the movie is that in the movie, Diane Lane’s character is recently divorced and travels alone to Tuscany to restructure Bramasole (the old house she’s bought), and hopefully also find love. In the book, on the other hand, Frances Mayes is actually remarried and restructures Bramasole with the help of her new husband Ed. I just wanted to specify for people who loved or hated the movie, that the memoir has a completely different feel and even a different storyline. It stands apart from the movie and is worth a read for its own merits.

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