Well, it's that time of year again. Time to reflect on last year, and look forward to what is coming this year. I've just posted my "best of" list on my SFF blog, so I figured I should probably post one for my oft-ignored nonfiction blog.
So, in no particular order, here are the top ten nonfiction books I read in 2021.
I really love narrative nonfiction, and I'm a bit obsessed with communism and know almost nothing about Albania, so put all that together and you've got the kind of nonfiction read that keeps me rooted in place. Stunningly written, this book is an intimate exploration of communist Albania. Unforgettable, poignant, and unexpected, this book was absolutely stunning and is highly recommended for anyone who has similar interests to mine.
This one might be my favorite book from 2021, period. Absolutely gorgeous prose, Cal Flyn takes readers through a tour of abandoned places throughout the world, and explores the ways human and nature bump up against each other, and what happens when nature reclaims old places. I think a lot of nature writers tend to get bogged down with poetry, but Flyn walks a tight line, never too purple and never too dry. This book was absolutely gorgeous exploration of time, and abandonment.
Another narrative nonfiction that blew my socks off. I read this book in a day. It's about a town in Pennsylvania, and what happened to a few families living there when Range Resources showed up to start fracking. To say this book sucked me in is an understatement. I cannot begin to tell you how horrified and captivated I was by what happened to the people in this book. Illuminating in the extreme, Amity and Prosperity read almost like a nightmarish thriller more than nonfiction.
I enjoy true crime but I don't read a lot of it. This book, however, was a bit different. While it tells the story of a serial killer who preyed upon gay men in the 80s and 90s, what really got me to engage with this Last Call was how well the author humanized the victims. Not only do they come across as people (often, I feel like authors who write true crime focus more on the criminal and not enough on the victims, to the point they feel like two-dimensional cutouts rather than actual people), but Green did a fantastic job of showing who the victims were as people, and some of the struggles they faced. All of this is set against the backdrop of the AIDS scare. It's a powerful, poignant story that's true strength is in its humanity.
I love Lydia Kang. She's got this knack for science writing that just works for me. Her ability to distill complex topics in digestible bites is something to truly appreciate. Plus, she balances her serious topics with just enough humor to make them enjoyable. I always learn a lot from her books, and this one is no different. I am a bit fascinated by pandemics, and always have been. Here, Kang takes readers through a tour of several heavy-hitting pandemics, illnesses, and the like, as well as some important historical points (like the birth of the germ theory, etc.). It's horrifying, yes (the chapter on ebola was absolutely unforgettable) but it's also really interesting. Packed full of information, this book was easy to read, illuminating, and extremely unforgettable.
This book is a love letter to books. I got this book as an ARC from the publisher, and I blasted through it in record time. I couldn't put it down. Mary Wellesley takes readers on a tour through several manuscripts, talks about the people who wrote them, the information that can be gleaned from them, and how they fit into their world at the time as well as how they were discovered, avoided (or not) catastrophe, impacted events and more. Perhaps what I loved so much about this book was how Wellesley managed to take the authors of these works, and breathe life into them. Under her hand, they became real and they mattered to me. This book offered me a unique glimpse into the past that I am still thinking about all these months after I read it.
I went on a bit of an Afghanistan bender this year, to better understand what was happening over there. About halfway through said bender, this book released and I snatched it up. I will admit, this book made me basically boil with rage. From front to back, I was so aghast by so many different things covered, I think I'm still sorting through it all. This book details the Afghanistan war through hundreds of interviews, and the Pentagon Papers. It is... really something to behold as it sheds light on aspects of the war that are, quite frankly, uncomfortable. Absolutely captivating and incredibly important, this one will make you look at the war in Afghanistan differently.
One of my favorite podcasts is about cybercrime. The host was interviewing the author of this book about this book, and I was so fascinated by everything that came out of her mouth, I immediately bought the book and DEVOURED it. I'm not a person who knows much about this sort of thing. In fact, I hadn't ever even heard the term "zero day" before that interview. This is extremely informative and important but more than that, Nicole Perlroth does a fantastic job at taking complicated information and making it easy for her reader to understand. I never once felt lost or bogged down by terminology. This reads almost like a thriller, but the information dealt with here is extremely important and more than a bit fascinating. This one has made me look at technology and my relationship to it differently.
This might be one of those books I'm eternally telling literally everyone I meet to read. Not only is the writing superb, but the care with which Christina Lamb addresses those she interviews, and her readers as well, is something to be admired. More, though, Lamb sheds a light on the plight of women in conflict areas. It's not pretty. It's not easy to read. There were a few times I had to walk away from the book and collect myself before I returned to it. A true tour-de-force of misery, this book gives a voice to the voiceless. I honestly think this one needs to be mandatory reading.
Like the previous book, I think this one should be mandatory reading as well. This book is about the origins of "genocide" and "crimes against humanity". It's a personal and profound look at the two men who coined those terms, their upbringing, their lives, the things that happened that brought them to a point where they even needed to create terms like that. It's powerful, and I don't say that lightly. This book profoundly moved me in extremely unexpected ways. Stunningly written and beautifully told, East West Street is a powerhouse of a nonfiction book which culminates in the Nuremberg Trials and leaves us all with lessons that resonate even today.
Honorable Mentions
Anything this author writes is pure gold. Last Witnesses is a narrative nonfiction about World War II as told through the eyes of the (now adult) children who lived through it. It's hard to read, and there's a bit of misery exhaustion I felt by the end of it, but it's so beautifully written, as are all of Alexievich's books. Poignant and remarkable, readers get to experience World War II through the children most impacted by it. Last Witnesses is powerful and unforgettable.
As you can tell, I've got a bit of a World War II fascination. I also find dictators to be some of the most interesting people to read about. So stick all that into one book and you've got something that really revs my engines. I absolutely loved this book. The comparing and contrasting of Hitler and Stalin was extremely well done and interesting. I loved the photos in the book, and the comparing and contrasting of these two leaders helped shine a bit of a different light on some aspects of World War II that I thought I knew a lot about but ultimately really didn't. If your interests run similar to mine, this one is a must read.
This one is a mammoth. I mean, the book clocks in at 960 pages, and it's the first book in a two book series on Abraham Lincoln. I usually have to be in the right mood to read presidential biographies, but this one was impossible to put down. To say it is detailed might be a gross understatement, but somehow Burlingame keeps those details interesting. Nearly everyone in the US knows the highlights of Abraham Lincoln, but I realized very early on, that I really didn't know much about the man at all. Being able to fill in many of the gaps about this man, and put him in context with his time and place in the world really helps me understand not just Abraham Lincoln, but the times in which he lived. This is a remarkable biography and a must-read for anyone interested in a detailed look at this man, or the times in which he lived.
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