It is a little over halfway through November, so it is time for a Nonfiction November update.
A nonfiction book challenge was just what I needed to get my reading life back on track. I love nonfiction, but 2020 has not been a good reading year for me. I know that I am not alone with that. 2020 has been rough on many people’s reading life. A goal to read nonfiction books in November has gotten me out of my reading slump.
So far in November, I have finished four nonfiction books and started two others.
I read My Reading Life by Pat Conroy on my Kindle while exercising. I usually run, but because of some hip issues, I am working out on the elliptical that we have in the garage instead. Although I miss running, I am getting a lot of reading done while exercising.
I really enjoyed My Reading Life. It was a book about books and how they impacted the author’s life and writing. He shared the books that inspired him along with the people that helped influence him. It was an essay style read that was easy to pick up and put down.
I also finished She Come By It Natural by Sarah Smarsh. I have so many mixed thoughts about this book. I loved learning about Dolly Parton and the history of some of her songs. She is a fascinating business person, who has done a lot of good for so many people. She has given back to the area she is from through Dollywood, her literacy program, and so much more.
But I didn’t really enjoy this book…I think it was the author’s style of writing. I will share more about that in a full review. If you are a Dolly Parton fan, I think you will like this one, but it wasn’t my favorite book.
My family gave me a really hard time reading a Christmas book during the first week of November, but I am so glad that I read The Characters of Christmas. It was the perfect book for me to read in 2020 to prepare for the Christmas season.
This book was a reminder that Christmas is so much more than just gifts and Christmas decorations. It is the story of Christ’s birth and what His birth meant to all of us. Christ’s birth involved a whole cast of characters that we often forget about. If you need a Christmas read that is a little different, I highly recommend The Characters of Christmas.
The Matriarch might seem like an unusual book to read right now because most of us are tired of politics, but this actually ended up being a great read for November for me. I love reading books about the President’s families, even if I don’t always agree with them, because the families of politicians sacrifice so much for our country.
One of the reasons that I enjoyed this was that it was a reminder that not much has changed in politics. We think they have, but they haven’t. Politics have always been fairly nasty. Yes, social media and 24-hour news have made the problems more visible, but politics have always been about the same.
I also really enjoyed the writing in this book. The author made history and politics interesting. I learned quite a few things about the Bush family that I never knew.