The most unexpected but best memoir I read this year was “Down the Drain” by Julia Fox. I couldn’t believe I was reading something real! You love reading books that take place in NYC so I highly recommend it. She is a great writer too!
@@AnaWallaceJohnson It was really good! I anticipated some darkness but I was surprised at how dark it got at times. Everything I knew about Julia Fox was very surface level but the way she described the downtown NYC scene in the late 2000s/early 2010s was so cool and on point.
Good non-fiction and good fiction are complementary palette cleansers. Really good non-fiction writing hits certain spots that very good fiction writing doesn't always hit, but that's likely by design. "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann is probably my fave non-fiction book this year. I have not seen the film yet.
@@AnaWallaceJohnson Since you already enjoy non-fiction, I'm sure you'll find yourself quickly immersed in the writing. The amount of sentences, paragraphs, and pages devoted to detailing the beginnings of the FBI were pleasantly surprising.
Gonna take the rec for A Little History! I thought I hated history when I was younger, but I’ve come to realize it was just the dense, impersonal way that it gets taught in schools so often. It wasn’t until college where I was taking art history classes that I was able to connect history to the current moment and learn to appreciate the humanity in every time period.
Ana, your videos are like my petroleum lamp which never fails to light up after the first spark. It creates the condition needed for reading. You could say your are the pavlovian bell to my reading gland. Which sounds like a line from das parfum, which is a little concerning. Well, keep shining your light!
Top 5 Best Things About Ana Wallace Johnson, 2023: 1) She is so glamorous: Whether tromping through the woods on some misguided vacation, lounging about her luxurious NYC apartment, or prowling the city's bookstores, AWJ brings the Glamour with a capital G. I can only assume the magazine is named after her. 2) She reads. A lot: There is nothing more appealing than someone who loves reading, and AWJ loves reading so much she climbs onto her youtube platform every week to tell us about all her reading. And we are better for it! 3) She is fashionable: And I say this as someone who is known far and wide for having zero fashion sense regarding my own apparel, but I know real fashion when I see it, and AWJ embodies real fashion. She does her own thing, and it always works. That's real fashion. Take notes, people! 4) She's a hipster. But in a good way: Yes, yes, I know, we all know--hipsters are a scourge that should be all exiled to live in Brooklyn together where they belong. But a rare few hipsters, like AWJ, would be given an exemption from this horrific and just punishment because she is the unique hipster who is not a snob! It's true! She freely admits her faults and foibles and actually takes advice that people give her : 0 I know, I know--hipsters take no one's advice but their own! But not AWJ. She has evolved to a higher plane. Perhaps beyond all of us. 5) She likes year-end lists: Year-end lists are the best. They are, frankly, indispensable. Imagine if you fell into a Rip Van Winkle-like sleep (or had some terrible accident that put you into a coma, if you're more fatalistic)--when you woke up after a year, what would you do? You'd check all the year-end lists to see what you missed. And--obviously, people--watch a year's worth of AWJ all in one sitting, which would be like the best thing ever. Can you even imagine?
It’s on my honorable mentions! Only reason I didn’t mention it was because I wanted to add different titles. It’s such a worthy novel of all the praise it receives. I bawled
My favorite non-fiction of this year was "Into the wild". I feel the same about this book as you feel for "Wild". 🙂 Congrats on the 20k, queen! To many more! 💙
love John Krakauer's writing. I walked into a bookstore late 90's I think. they had multiple tables of books and I picked up this one. Before I buy a book I like to read the first page or two before choosing to buy or get it from the library. I started to read and then heard a loud noise that made me look up. My first thought was, oh- I'm still in the same spot in the bookstore and it is filled with people. Looked back down at the book and I was on page 80 or 81! I bought the book. 😂
I haven't read any non fiction this year (other than my curriculum) but I am getting more and more invested in the stories you recommend, I utterly love it.
AWJ, I just finished reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing, you simply must read it! It’s proto-Krakauer, about Shackleton’s 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, you would love it. Hugely recommend, for you especially!!!
I’m going to recommend Liliana’s invincible summer, The climb and waiting to be arrested at night. These are the best non fiction books I’ve read this year
I have to check out some of those books. The books I read consist of a 50/50 fiction and nonfiction work, and in many cases, fiction and nonfiction are conversing. Reading nonfiction works such as Dopesick and Empire of Pain can be paired with a novel by Stephen Markley, "Ohio," Say Nothing can be conversing with Anna Burns' "Milkman". I'm here for books with great storytelling, be it fiction or nonfiction. Also, there's more than one narrative.
Gonna put on my hater-goggles for a moment. I cannot stand these pop-anthropology/history-of-everything books that have been popularized by Sapiens. they infest the non-fiction section of my local book-store that carries new releases, and it reminds me a lot of the gold-rush for pop physics after Hawking's BHOT.
I also love John Waters, I read a lot of his books this year but not Crackpot just yet. Someone else mentioned Julia Fox's memoir, I loved that too. I got really into celebrity memoirs this year for my nonfiction reads, I typically don't enjoy them but the Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears, and Julia Fox memoirs were great reads.
one of my fav books is one by Raynor Winn, about her and her husband hiking the east coast path in the UK. read it several times now. I believe its called The salt path in English (read it in dutch). And i will definitely read the books by Oliver Sacks and Cheryl Strayed!
I unfortunately had more nonfiction misses this year than hits, BUT the one hit was absolutely amazing - "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan. Hopefully 2024 is a better nonfiction year for me - maybe reading from your list can help with that! 😁
Ah amazing, I love your videos and I love nonfiction books. So this video was the perfect combination. My favorite nonfiction books this year were I am I am I am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell. This book touched me deeply and I am thinking about it a lot even 6 months later. The other one was In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. It is a real masterpiece in my opinion. Very unique writing style and bery personal. At the same time enriched with a lot of knowledge and studies and literature references. I want to reread both books next year. Another great memoir was Know my Name by Channel Miller (about the Stanford rape case). Incredible book that everyone should read. Wild is waiting for me on my bookshelf for years now. I will definitely read it next year.
I'm about to finish Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom. It is about anthropodermic books - books bound in human skin. Explores the stories behind the people who bound them and those whose skin was bound. Fascinating and easy to read. I'm liking it a lot.
Sontag's book was a favorite for me this year. I think I was on an art kick as I also read and really enjoyed Seven Days in the Art World by Thornton and the $12 Million Stuffed Shark by Thompson. That one was an interesting read about the contemporary art and what people will pay for it.
I read „Free: Coming of Age at the End of History“ by Lea Ypi last year and loved it. The author talks about how she grew up in socialist Albania through the lens of her own family. Really interesting and inspiring!
Here's my favorite nonfiction reads of 2023 1. The woman in me by britney spears 2. Spare prince harry 3. What my bones know by Stephenie foo 4. I have the right to by chessy prout 5. Lucky me by sachi parker 6. Pageboy by elliot page 7. Tell me everything by minka Kelly
Great video and some wonderful books. Favourite non-fiction book of this year was the biography of Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley called Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman.
Maybe you cover this in another video, but "Red Comet - The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath" is the best non-fiction I have read. It's a deeply affecting biography. I think I was so moved because I felt I knew Sylvia by the end of the book. Heather Clark spent 8 years writing it, and the effort shows.
My top 10 10. Frankenstein - Mary Shelly 9. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 8. As a Man Thinketh - James Allen 7. Mere Christianity - CS Lewis 6. Notes from the Underground - Feodor Dostoyevsky 5. Inside the Third Reich - Albert Speer 4. John Adam - David McCullough 3. Pax - Tom Holland 2. Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut 1. Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
oooh I love end of year lists! I have found some great books both through best of and worst of lists. This has been a meh year for me for reading in general but especially non fiction. Hoping to get my reading groove back in '24
if you liked dopesick then my memoir called 'not the flag' is about my story and how i became an opioid addict in long island ny early 2000's. The dentist sold me prescription pills and I became hooked, but I had already been infected when I went to Iran for vacation and served in the IRGC in Iran my very first time at the age of 17 and was introduced to opiates there because they were given out like candy. Due to potential retaliation from the Iranian government, I didn't detail too much of my story. I will spill all the beans in detail when my wife and kids arrive in California . A short 50-page memoir outlines the series of events. perhaps you and your audience will enjoy it...I love your channel and your recs!
I laughed when you talked about Wild being so in your face that you didn’t want to read it because I felt the same. I also disliked the gigantic shoe on the cover. A few years ago I read it and it changed my life. Now I keep multiple used book copies of Wild on my shelf just in case I run into someone who has not read it and I think they would love it. I also keep extra copies of The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls for this same purpose. Please, please, please, put down whatever you are reading and get a copy of this book. Don’t watch the movie, read the book. It along with Wild and Just Kids by Patti Smith are the most extraordinary memoirs I’ve come across. By this I mean, there are images and snippets in these books that you can’t forget about. They stay as vivid in your mind as if they were your own memories and the writing is so gorgeous I underline entire passages.
I read white tiger from your another recommendation video, minor problems but it was good so thank you and Congrats on your subscribers. The non fiction I read recently was from spiritual genre "freedom the first and last" by j krishnamurti and I liked it so much that I keep recommending it to everyone. I don't think I have ever seen life in that way and from whatever wakes of life one comes from I do think everyone should give it a try atleast once. Another gorgeous inspiring short book I read was "Jonathan Livingston seagull"; it is about a bird's journey, i know how it sounds but its such a beautiful classic........
There are different ways to look at people who can tolerate Klosterman. I must figure that you are of a very sweet nature and feel bad for him, bless you. To think that you were just being born when some of us were being exposed to his early drivel in the pages of the then-existent New York Press. Then the big publishers started printing his books with "Cocoa Puffs" in the titles. Perhaps yours is a more forgiving generation!
One of my favorite nonfiction books of the year was Muppets in Moscow by Natasha Lance Rogoff. Games Without Rules The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan by Tamim Ansary was good too.
I liked it a lot! I think it’s a book perfect for the outdoorsy type. Not a massive standout, but stunning writing and just reaffirmed how much I’d love to live so far away from everything
I meant to read "Wild" ages ago and only picked it up about a month ago. I liked it, but found it a bit slow in places. Still it's a wonderful read. I'm currently reading The Puma Years by Laura Coleman. Maybe you know, maybe you don't. This is also a memoir and if you like animals this might be worth checking out. Thank you for sharing your list.
I can see that! I listened to it on audio, so I think the experience was a bit different. It’s the type of book I want to consume while moving, if that make sense! I love animals!!!
My favorite line from Wild: "Besides, I already knew about the ten thousand things. They were all the named and unnamed things in the world and together they added up to less than how much my mother loved me. And I her."
Yes! Well half of it in 2018. I ended up meeting a touring band halfway through and the drummer asked me to start a vocal side project with him. So I left the PCT to pursue that! The experience changed my life anything can happen on that trail! Loved it I had 0 overnight camping experience and it was exactly what I needed at the time. Love your personality by the way, keep doing you! My PCT 'trail family' friend I made while hiking also hiked the AT and she didn't like it very much but she finished it. Highly highly recommend. Even if you are just considering it, do it!
Also I just broke my leg 3 days ago skiing, and I reall appreciatr you making these videos. My goal for the beginning of my recovery is 0 movies only books. Appreciate the reccomendations. I hope you have fun acting!
I’ve only read three non-fiction this year: I’m Glad My Mom Died, Atomic Habits, and (currently reading, more than half way through) The Myth of Normal. I would recommend all three. Edit: I read Wild about 10 years ago and I still think about it! Not sure if she still has a podcast but I loved all her love and relationship advice.
The best non-fiction I read this year was Into Thin Air, i had to let Jon know its effect on me and he acknowledged my comment. Krakauer is a fantastic writer, I'm getting through his works one at a time.
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. and Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun were my favorites this year. Oh and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I know we're on the same page about this book lol and I'll die on this hill.
My favorite nonfiction books that I read this year are Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami (my first Murakami and I loved it) and Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. Congratulations on reaching 20,000 members!!🎉 I found your channel when it was around 900 ❤
great list!! idk if this counts as non-fiction but i loved the everyman’s pocket poems books and libraries collection. also i love the color in your videos, makes them so much fun to watch!
I am not a fan of nonfiction but listening to you talk about these books has made me want to read some of them. I am definitely intrigued by An Anthropologist on Mars. I also want to read Wild. I am struggling with the aging process and need some encouragement. I have some spinal issues that limit my mobility and it is very stressful. I find books about people who face challenges but succeed against the odds very motivating. So, maybe that book is just what I need.
I only read two non-fiction books this year and I loved them both. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell (the writer of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). And The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. It reads like a novel.
أهلا وسهلا How old are you, do you work out ? You look like a model by the way Do you live in a castle? Your house looks a lot like mine and I haven't seen many houses decorated like that in the western world except castles or mansions. Sorry for all my questions, youtube recommended me your channel btw.
I definitely get what you mean about historical nonfiction. This year has been the first time I've really dove into historical fiction - I'd kind of put off a lot of nonfiction for a while because it can be daunting when you don't know where to start, especially in the case of historical or medical nonfiction. But this year I'm the dramaturg on a production of Marie Antoinette (a play by David Adjmi), so a natural part of researching her has involved reading about her. I've admittedly not finished either of the books about her that I'm reading because I'm also reading a lot of other things for school or leisure or personal research, but it's been interesting reading Stefan Zweig's biography alongside Antonia Fraser's biography, among other shorter articles and essays here and there. What I've found in my research so far is that a lot of writing on Marie Antoinette can get very dense because she had quite an eventful life (and death), but also, for lack of a better way of putting it, no one seems to really have a normal opinion about Marie Antoinette. So some of the writing about her can get very unhinged as well, which says a lot about the way Marie Antoinette is situated in history and culture, but also sometimes makes the reading process simultaneously frustrating at times and easier to lean into or even entertaining. Approaching some of these books I was very nervous about getting overwhelmed or feeling stupid by dense historical information (which granted, sometimes can still happen), but then some of these texts would have kind of bizarre passages that even if they were off-putting politically, they would be kind of funny to me because it felt like a crack in the façade of the super cerebral, academic ("unbiased") image that these biographers hold, if that makes sense. Also, I reread Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and that piece always hits for me. Bechdel is a fascinating person to me, and I wish more people knew about her beyond being the name in the Bechdel test. To me, Fun Home is very well crafted both in terms of being a graphic memoir as well as a literary piece. It's certainly not an easy read emotionally, but it's something that a part of me thinks everyone should read at some point in their life. I've been wanting to read more nonfiction in general, and some books on my list for that include other works by Alison Bechdel, as well as a lot of books by Oliver Sacks, and many of the books you've mentioned (I too am greatly entertained/intrigued by John Waters).
Okay wait adding one final thought - I also read I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright this year, which is a play that falls in the category of documentary theatre (specifically using verbatim theatre). I'm curious what you'd think of that play, or of the work of someone like Anna Deaveare Smith (in terms of her work in documentary theatre - in her TED talk "Four American Characters" one of the pieces that now lives in my brain is "A Mirror Held to Her Mouth.") Getting more into the activism/political movement aspects of documentary theatre there's also the work of Augusto and Julian Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, etc. I've learned about them in school quite a bit but I'll admit I've never actually seen/participated in any of the work of Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. I did attend a workshop by Julian Boal though and he and his family are fascinating people.
my favourite non-fiction memoir was the argonauts by maggie nelson, honestly was amazing! my other fav was ‘chopin: a journey through romanticism’ by paul kildea, such a great music nonfiction read🙏🫶
The most unexpected but best memoir I read this year was “Down the Drain” by Julia Fox. I couldn’t believe I was reading something real! You love reading books that take place in NYC so I highly recommend it. She is a great writer too!
How does she stay awake…?
I’ve heard it’s an absolute trip! I believe everything she talks about… NYC really is full of that craziness!
@@AnaWallaceJohnson It was really good! I anticipated some darkness but I was surprised at how dark it got at times. Everything I knew about Julia Fox was very surface level but the way she described the downtown NYC scene in the late 2000s/early 2010s was so cool and on point.
Good non-fiction and good fiction are complementary palette cleansers. Really good non-fiction writing hits certain spots that very good fiction writing doesn't always hit, but that's likely by design. "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann is probably my fave non-fiction book this year. I have not seen the film yet.
I’ve seen the movie! It was amazing i think its the best film i watched in 2023 and i go to the cinema almost every week
Okay, okay, okay. You’re the 50th person to tell me how great KOTFM is. I’ll search for a copy 😜
@@AnaWallaceJohnson Since you already enjoy non-fiction, I'm sure you'll find yourself quickly immersed in the writing. The amount of sentences, paragraphs, and pages devoted to detailing the beginnings of the FBI were pleasantly surprising.
Gonna take the rec for A Little History! I thought I hated history when I was younger, but I’ve come to realize it was just the dense, impersonal way that it gets taught in schools so often. It wasn’t until college where I was taking art history classes that I was able to connect history to the current moment and learn to appreciate the humanity in every time period.
SAME! I failed my AP History exam, which is strange because now I prefer historical nonfiction over anything!
Ana, your videos are like my petroleum lamp which never fails to light up after the first spark. It creates the condition needed for reading. You could say your are the pavlovian bell to my reading gland. Which sounds like a line from das parfum, which is a little concerning. Well, keep shining your light!
Hahaha hey now, I love this! Thank you for this 🔥🔥🔥🔥
I always to try non fiction bok groups ...never find them.
Top 5 Best Things About Ana Wallace Johnson, 2023:
1) She is so glamorous: Whether tromping through the woods on some misguided vacation, lounging about her luxurious NYC apartment, or prowling the city's bookstores, AWJ brings the Glamour with a capital G. I can only assume the magazine is named after her.
2) She reads. A lot: There is nothing more appealing than someone who loves reading, and AWJ loves reading so much she climbs onto her youtube platform every week to tell us about all her reading. And we are better for it!
3) She is fashionable: And I say this as someone who is known far and wide for having zero fashion sense regarding my own apparel, but I know real fashion when I see it, and AWJ embodies real fashion. She does her own thing, and it always works. That's real fashion. Take notes, people!
4) She's a hipster. But in a good way: Yes, yes, I know, we all know--hipsters are a scourge that should be all exiled to live in Brooklyn together where they belong. But a rare few hipsters, like AWJ, would be given an exemption from this horrific and just punishment because she is the unique hipster who is not a snob! It's true! She freely admits her faults and foibles and actually takes advice that people give her : 0 I know, I know--hipsters take no one's advice but their own! But not AWJ. She has evolved to a higher plane. Perhaps beyond all of us.
5) She likes year-end lists: Year-end lists are the best. They are, frankly, indispensable. Imagine if you fell into a Rip Van Winkle-like sleep (or had some terrible accident that put you into a coma, if you're more fatalistic)--when you woke up after a year, what would you do? You'd check all the year-end lists to see what you missed. And--obviously, people--watch a year's worth of AWJ all in one sitting, which would be like the best thing ever. Can you even imagine?
Oh baby!!! You’re too kind and wonderful and all of the above pertain to you too tehehehe
the best nonfiction book i read this year was “when breath becomes air” and it was PHENOMENAL
It’s on my honorable mentions! Only reason I didn’t mention it was because I wanted to add different titles. It’s such a worthy novel of all the praise it receives. I bawled
My favorite non-fiction of this year was "Into the wild". I feel the same about this book as you feel for "Wild". 🙂 Congrats on the 20k, queen! To many more! 💙
Love ya! Thank you so much!! And so many books with ‘Wild’!! I feel you on the love for them :))
love John Krakauer's writing. I walked into a bookstore late 90's I think. they had multiple tables of books and I picked up this one. Before I buy a book I like to read the first page or two before choosing to buy or get it from the library. I started to read and then heard a loud noise that made me look up. My first thought was, oh- I'm still in the same spot in the bookstore and it is filled with people. Looked back down at the book and I was on page 80 or 81! I bought the book. 😂
its "could not care less". if you could care less that means you do care some.
I haven't read any non fiction this year (other than my curriculum) but I am getting more and more invested in the stories you recommend, I utterly love it.
Love ya!!! Thank you for being here this year.
I’m more of a non-fiction reader too
AWJ, I just finished reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing, you simply must read it! It’s proto-Krakauer, about Shackleton’s 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, you would love it. Hugely recommend, for you especially!!!
!!!!!!! Deeply obsessed with Shackleton since a young age. Sounds like a book for meeeee
I’m going to recommend Liliana’s invincible summer, The climb and waiting to be arrested at night. These are the best non fiction books I’ve read this year
who wrote the climb please?
So intrigued by The Climb!
The Glass Castle is 👌 top tier this year. Heartache and heartwarming wrapped in 1
happy that Oliver Sacks and Susan Sontag are on your list ...cheers!!!
the editing on this video is beautiful
So much ❤️❤️❤️
I have to check out some of those books. The books I read consist of a 50/50 fiction and nonfiction work, and in many cases, fiction and nonfiction are conversing. Reading nonfiction works such as Dopesick and Empire of Pain can be paired with a novel by Stephen Markley, "Ohio," Say Nothing can be conversing with Anna Burns' "Milkman". I'm here for books with great storytelling, be it fiction or nonfiction. Also, there's more than one narrative.
Oh, I love that idea. I’ve heard a lot about “Ohio.” Multiple people have recommended it
Gonna put on my hater-goggles for a moment. I cannot stand these pop-anthropology/history-of-everything books that have been popularized by Sapiens. they infest the non-fiction section of my local book-store that carries new releases, and it reminds me a lot of the gold-rush for pop physics after Hawking's BHOT.
I also love John Waters, I read a lot of his books this year but not Crackpot just yet. Someone else mentioned Julia Fox's memoir, I loved that too. I got really into celebrity memoirs this year for my nonfiction reads, I typically don't enjoy them but the Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears, and Julia Fox memoirs were great reads.
I love those queens. I think it’s great people are taking control of their own narratives!
Just loved Wild - “Everything is Figure-Outable” by Marie Forleo… Inspiring pick me up…
Wow, yes. That sounds like an absolutely inspiring read
Is Barry Lopez on your radar? Because I think you might really enjoy (well, any of his, but especially) "Horizon".
Looked him up immediately after this comment. So on my radar now
“Hello Molly!”, “In the Dream House” and “Why Fish Don’t Exist” are some of my favorite nonfiction books of this year.
In the Dream House is SO stunning
100 Years War On Palestine by Rashid Khalidi + many more Palestinian non fiction about the occupation.
Great recommendation!
one of my fav books is one by Raynor Winn, about her and her husband hiking the east coast path in the UK. read it several times now. I believe its called The salt path in English (read it in dutch). And i will definitely read the books by Oliver Sacks and Cheryl Strayed!
Oh wow! Yeah, that sounds like exactly something I’d love
I had to force myself to read fiction after a lifetime reading non fiction.
The way this came on the day that I've been searching through my StoryGraph for book recs. Beautiful!
It’s here and ready to go, baby!
your videos are a combination of my two favourite things: literature and unintentional asmr.
omg. Best compliment ever. I watch asmr every night 💤
the Dali Lamas book freedom in exile is a good non fiction biogrophy
you have an extraordinary knack for seducing the mind effortlessly, but please stop making me buy books thank you 😅
Hahaha thrift all the way, baby!!
I unfortunately had more nonfiction misses this year than hits, BUT the one hit was absolutely amazing - "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan. Hopefully 2024 is a better nonfiction year for me - maybe reading from your list can help with that! 😁
what a name for a book! I’m getting deeper into random backlist books and 2001 seems like a good year to check out books from
Ah amazing, I love your videos and I love nonfiction books. So this video was the perfect combination. My favorite nonfiction books this year were I am I am I am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell. This book touched me deeply and I am thinking about it a lot even 6 months later. The other one was In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. It is a real masterpiece in my opinion. Very unique writing style and bery personal. At the same time enriched with a lot of knowledge and studies and literature references. I want to reread both books next year. Another great memoir was Know my Name by Channel Miller (about the Stanford rape case). Incredible book that everyone should read.
Wild is waiting for me on my bookshelf for years now. I will definitely read it next year.
I read the first two! Loved In the Dream House so much!! What a writer!!
I'm about to finish Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom. It is about anthropodermic books - books bound in human skin. Explores the stories behind the people who bound them and those whose skin was bound. Fascinating and easy to read. I'm liking it a lot.
WHAT! Omg. There really is a book about everything. Love it.
Sontag's book was a favorite for me this year. I think I was on an art kick as I also read and really enjoyed Seven Days in the Art World by Thornton and the $12 Million Stuffed Shark by Thompson. That one was an interesting read about the contemporary art and what people will pay for it.
Ooooh. I love me some contemporary art narrative. I’m gonna look for that on audiobook. I’m interested in what they say about it
I loooove Oliver Sacks! He has such a sympathetic, human approach to psychology
You couldn’t have said it any better. 100% agree
ZMM is still my favorite.
I read „Free: Coming of Age at the End of History“ by Lea Ypi last year and loved it. The author talks about how she grew up in socialist Albania through the lens of her own family. Really interesting and inspiring!
Here's my favorite nonfiction reads of 2023
1. The woman in me by britney spears
2. Spare prince harry
3. What my bones know by Stephenie foo
4. I have the right to by chessy prout
5. Lucky me by sachi parker
6. Pageboy by elliot page
7. Tell me everything by minka Kelly
Love to see the Britney Spears on here. I want to read it, too
Loved what my bones know!!
Great video and some wonderful books. Favourite non-fiction book of this year was the biography of Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley called Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman.
Is Agatha one of your favorite authors? I haven’t read any of her books!
She is definitely one of the writers who inspired me to write and just love her mystery books, so worth a read.
Maybe you cover this in another video, but "Red Comet - The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath" is the best non-fiction I have read. It's a deeply affecting biography. I think I was so moved because I felt I knew Sylvia by the end of the book. Heather Clark spent 8 years writing it, and the effort shows.
My top 10
10. Frankenstein - Mary Shelly
9. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
8. As a Man Thinketh - James Allen
7. Mere Christianity - CS Lewis
6. Notes from the Underground - Feodor Dostoyevsky
5. Inside the Third Reich - Albert Speer
4. John Adam - David McCullough
3. Pax - Tom Holland
2. Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut
1. Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
oooh I love end of year lists! I have found some great books both through best of and worst of lists. This has been a meh year for me for reading in general but especially non fiction. Hoping to get my reading groove back in '24
my favorite things are end of year lists. I’ll read them all lmao
if you liked dopesick then my memoir called 'not the flag' is about my story and how i became an opioid addict in long island ny early 2000's. The dentist sold me prescription pills and I became hooked, but I had already been infected when I went to Iran for vacation and served in the IRGC in Iran my very first time at the age of 17 and was introduced to opiates there because they were given out like candy. Due to potential retaliation from the Iranian government, I didn't detail too much of my story. I will spill all the beans in detail when my wife and kids arrive in California . A short 50-page memoir outlines the series of events. perhaps you and your audience will enjoy it...I love your channel and your recs!
I laughed when you talked about Wild being so in your face that you didn’t want to read it because I felt the same. I also disliked the gigantic shoe on the cover. A few years ago I read it and it changed my life. Now I keep multiple used book copies of Wild on my shelf just in case I run into someone who has not read it and I think they would love it. I also keep extra copies of The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls for this same purpose. Please, please, please, put down whatever you are reading and get a copy of this book. Don’t watch the movie, read the book. It along with Wild and Just Kids by Patti Smith are the most extraordinary memoirs I’ve come across. By this I mean, there are images and snippets in these books that you can’t forget about. They stay as vivid in your mind as if they were your own memories and the writing is so gorgeous I underline entire passages.
Delaney's book shook me too. I listened to it, narrated by him. Don't read it if you are not prepared to cry...and laugh, also.
If Wild is your favorite out of this group, try Lost on the Appalachian Trail.
Will be gonna buy Eiger Dreams Wind
I hope I'll love them!
What a non-fiction charming girl!!!
Hugs!
Love your cardigan! Where is it from? :)
Awesome to find someone cool that talks about non-fiction as well!
I read white tiger from your another recommendation video, minor problems but it was good so thank you and Congrats on your subscribers.
The non fiction I read recently was from spiritual genre "freedom the first and last" by j krishnamurti and I liked it so much that I keep recommending it to everyone. I don't think I have ever seen life in that way and from whatever wakes of life one comes from I do think everyone should give it a try atleast once.
Another gorgeous inspiring short book I read was "Jonathan Livingston seagull"; it is about a bird's journey, i know how it sounds but its such a beautiful classic........
Great recommendations. Really. I think the idea of following a bird around is a fascinating idea!
A Life of One’s Own Nine Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs and Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose were my 2 nonfic faves this year!
Oh, love the sound of the Joanna Biggs one.
There are different ways to look at people who can tolerate Klosterman. I must figure that you are of a very sweet nature and feel bad for him, bless you. To think that you were just being born when some of us were being exposed to his early drivel in the pages of the then-existent New York Press. Then the big publishers started printing his books with "Cocoa Puffs" in the titles. Perhaps yours is a more forgiving generation!
Hahahahaha I love this comment. I can see how he could ruffle some feathers. But the Nineties was surprisingly good!
One of my favorite nonfiction books of the year was Muppets in Moscow by Natasha Lance Rogoff. Games Without Rules The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan by Tamim Ansary was good too.
Oooh, sound right up my alley!
Highly recommend “tiny beautiful things” by Cheryl Strayed, if you haven’t read it already!
Noted! It’s on my radar!
What did you think of The Solace of Open Spaces? I own it but haven’t started! ❤️
I liked it a lot! I think it’s a book perfect for the outdoorsy type. Not a massive standout, but stunning writing and just reaffirmed how much I’d love to live so far away from everything
i find non-fiction reads quite daunting however this was great condensed material for me to pluck the courage and dive in ✨
Start small or on audiobook! Treat it as a documentary or podcast
I meant to read "Wild" ages ago and only picked it up about a month ago. I liked it, but found it a bit slow in places. Still it's a wonderful read. I'm currently reading The Puma Years by Laura Coleman. Maybe you know, maybe you don't. This is also a memoir and if you like animals this might be worth checking out. Thank you for sharing your list.
I can see that! I listened to it on audio, so I think the experience was a bit different. It’s the type of book I want to consume while moving, if that make sense! I love animals!!!
My favorite line from Wild: "Besides, I already knew about the ten thousand things. They
were all the named and unnamed things in the world and together they added up to less than how much my mother loved me. And I her."
Omg. Surge of memories. I loved that book
Hike the pct instead it's more fun
I’ve been thinking it might be. Have you hiked it???
Yes! Well half of it in 2018. I ended up meeting a touring band halfway through and the drummer asked me to start a vocal side project with him. So I left the PCT to pursue that! The experience changed my life anything can happen on that trail! Loved it I had 0 overnight camping experience and it was exactly what I needed at the time. Love your personality by the way, keep doing you! My PCT 'trail family' friend I made while hiking also hiked the AT and she didn't like it very much but she finished it. Highly highly recommend. Even if you are just considering it, do it!
Also I just broke my leg 3 days ago skiing, and I reall appreciatr you making these videos. My goal for the beginning of my recovery is 0 movies only books. Appreciate the reccomendations. I hope you have fun acting!
I loved "Crackpot" by John Waters ! He is hilarious !
He is my baby boy
I’ve only read three non-fiction this year: I’m Glad My Mom Died, Atomic Habits, and (currently reading, more than half way through) The Myth of Normal. I would recommend all three. Edit: I read Wild about 10 years ago and I still think about it! Not sure if she still has a podcast but I loved all her love and relationship advice.
I think I’m going to revisit Wild once a year. It riled something up in me
The best non-fiction I read this year was Into Thin Air, i had to let Jon know its effect on me and he acknowledged my comment. Krakauer is a fantastic writer, I'm getting through his works one at a time.
JK IS THE PEOPLE’S PRINCESS!! He’s my favorite and I love him. Into thin Air is spellbinding
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. and Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun were my favorites this year. Oh and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I know we're on the same page about this book lol and I'll die on this hill.
I totally trust your opinions on books if you love WITAWITAR. One of my all time faves
@@AnaWallaceJohnson AN HONOR
My favorite nonfiction books that I read this year are Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami (my first Murakami and I loved it) and Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. Congratulations on reaching 20,000 members!!🎉 I found your channel when it was around 900 ❤
Omg!!!! You’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Thank you for continually being here, Cathy
Love this list. A great underrated Patrick Radden Keefe book is The Snakehead! He’s one of my favorite authors.
Haven’t even heard of it!! Thank you for that rec!
I've been watching through your old vids and it's been fun watching your sub count climb so quickly from around 15 k to now 21.3! congrats :D
Thank you!!! I’m so happy and grateful!!
great list!! idk if this counts as non-fiction but i loved the everyman’s pocket poems books and libraries collection. also i love the color in your videos, makes them so much fun to watch!
Oh, I love the every man’s! I saw one the other day with poems dedicated specifically to dogs 🐶 ❤️
Love your channel! Any plans on a holiday book guide? For different people in your life… enjoyed the last one
I ran out of time!! I’m sorry. Next year!
Affected?
I am not a fan of nonfiction but listening to you talk about these books has made me want to read some of them. I am definitely intrigued by An Anthropologist on Mars. I also want to read Wild. I am struggling with the aging process and need some encouragement. I have some spinal issues that limit my mobility and it is very stressful. I find books about people who face challenges but succeed against the odds very motivating. So, maybe that book is just what I need.
I’m so sorry for your pain. It’s not an easy process. These books help in ways that remedy parts of us we didn’t realize need help, too! Sending hugs
Hope you have a happy holiday!
bloody love an end of year list
Absolutely same
Omg I'm so earlyyyyyy lyyyyyy❤
Muah!!
I only read two non-fiction books this year and I loved them both. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell (the writer of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). And The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. It reads like a novel.
I read the Maggie O’Farrell! Definitely good-wild stories of survival!!
أهلا وسهلا How old are you, do you work out ? You look like a model by the way
Do you live in a castle? Your house looks a lot like mine and I haven't seen many houses decorated like that in the western world except castles or mansions. Sorry for all my questions, youtube recommended me your channel btw.
Oh brother.
@@SaraTurnbull-bs7jh I know sorry 😂
@SisterFleurElinora She is stunning though 😊
A most attractive woman.
I gotta get a woman with hair like yours and one that plays with it as much as you do
hahaha my hair is my superpower
@@AnaWallaceJohnson well it worked on me
I definitely get what you mean about historical nonfiction. This year has been the first time I've really dove into historical fiction - I'd kind of put off a lot of nonfiction for a while because it can be daunting when you don't know where to start, especially in the case of historical or medical nonfiction. But this year I'm the dramaturg on a production of Marie Antoinette (a play by David Adjmi), so a natural part of researching her has involved reading about her. I've admittedly not finished either of the books about her that I'm reading because I'm also reading a lot of other things for school or leisure or personal research, but it's been interesting reading Stefan Zweig's biography alongside Antonia Fraser's biography, among other shorter articles and essays here and there. What I've found in my research so far is that a lot of writing on Marie Antoinette can get very dense because she had quite an eventful life (and death), but also, for lack of a better way of putting it, no one seems to really have a normal opinion about Marie Antoinette. So some of the writing about her can get very unhinged as well, which says a lot about the way Marie Antoinette is situated in history and culture, but also sometimes makes the reading process simultaneously frustrating at times and easier to lean into or even entertaining. Approaching some of these books I was very nervous about getting overwhelmed or feeling stupid by dense historical information (which granted, sometimes can still happen), but then some of these texts would have kind of bizarre passages that even if they were off-putting politically, they would be kind of funny to me because it felt like a crack in the façade of the super cerebral, academic ("unbiased") image that these biographers hold, if that makes sense.
Also, I reread Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and that piece always hits for me. Bechdel is a fascinating person to me, and I wish more people knew about her beyond being the name in the Bechdel test. To me, Fun Home is very well crafted both in terms of being a graphic memoir as well as a literary piece. It's certainly not an easy read emotionally, but it's something that a part of me thinks everyone should read at some point in their life. I've been wanting to read more nonfiction in general, and some books on my list for that include other works by Alison Bechdel, as well as a lot of books by Oliver Sacks, and many of the books you've mentioned (I too am greatly entertained/intrigued by John Waters).
Okay wait adding one final thought - I also read I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright this year, which is a play that falls in the category of documentary theatre (specifically using verbatim theatre). I'm curious what you'd think of that play, or of the work of someone like Anna Deaveare Smith (in terms of her work in documentary theatre - in her TED talk "Four American Characters" one of the pieces that now lives in my brain is "A Mirror Held to Her Mouth.") Getting more into the activism/political movement aspects of documentary theatre there's also the work of Augusto and Julian Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, etc. I've learned about them in school quite a bit but I'll admit I've never actually seen/participated in any of the work of Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. I did attend a workshop by Julian Boal though and he and his family are fascinating people.
You might like Queen of Fashion by Caroline Weber. It's the fashion biography of Marie Antoinette. I remember enjoying it, but it's been a while.
@@melissamybubbles6139 That's actually on my list!
Can we stopppp talking about Skillshare? We've seen it. Everybody has this same sponsor. We got it.
my favourite non-fiction memoir was the argonauts by maggie nelson, honestly was amazing! my other fav was ‘chopin: a journey through romanticism’ by paul kildea, such a great music nonfiction read🙏🫶
The argonauts is ridiculously beautiful. Really shifted my perspective on writing a bit
Yeah, I'm reading more nonfiction recently also.
I put Regarding the Pain of Other on Hold at the NYPL. So I'll read that one.
Make sure you look up the pics while reading it. Feels like a museum tour