Thoughts & Things

The Best Non-Fiction I've Read So Far This Year

I've read more this year than I have managed in the past few years, so I've managed to find a few reads so far that I have rated five stars. I already wrote of "The Best Graphic Novels I've Read So Far This Year" , and so now we're moving on to the best non-fiction I've read this year. A couple of them are releases from the last couple years, but most of them are slightly aged. Regardless of date of release, I consider all of these to be worth five stars.

Night
By Elie Wiesel
Night is Elie Wiesel's famous memoir of his time during the Holocaust, including the time leading up to it and the time he spent in a death camp. Poignant is an easy word to use to describe the book, but it somehow fails to do it justice. Night reaffirms everything I believe about human rights, and leaves me fearing for the future and crying for the past.

Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood
By bell hooks
Bone Black serves as bell hooks' memoir of her childhood. Every chapter equals three pages, with her story simultaneously being disjointed and cohesive. It essentially serves as a literary quilt, filled with snapshots of memories, and shows some of the path that hooks took to become the woman that she is today.

Between the World and Me
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Between the World and Me is a book length letter that Ta-Nehisi Coates has written to his teenage son. He speaks of his own memories of youth, as well as the current state of affairs in his son's youth. The book examines the entire concept of living as a black man in a white man's world, and the world doesn't come out favourably.

I Came as a Stranger: The Underground Railroad
By Bryan Prince
I Came as a Stranger is a young adult non-fiction book that looks at the complete history of the Underground Railroad, including the history leading up to it. It deals with actual first hand accounts of slaves and slave-owners, and shows the most accurate picture of how the Underground Railroad came to be that I have yet read.

Early London 1826 - 1914: A Photographic History From The Orr Collection
By Jennifer Grainger
When Early London 1826 - 1914 says "early London," it means London, Ontario. Using dozens of historical photographs, this book shows a thorough and fascinating history of the city I reside in. The photographs include people and places, and they are accompanies by detailed explanations that help bring history to life.

(I have committed to blogging daily with Give It 100. This is Day Sixty-Five. Seven days of leave taken total.)