Reading nonfiction, biographies, etc.?  Please share your ideas.  You choose the number and the books.  It would be great if you could leave a note about each book to let others know how you liked it.  Kudos to Margaret Y. (frogslady) who read 12 books and Shayla B. (ShaylaB) - Simpsonville, SC who read 16 books in 2021.  That's awesome!

1.  The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict, 1/13/2022, 4 stars

1.  A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron (Perhaps it doesn't belong here but it's a dedicated book to dogs and dog lovers everywhere.) Fun, fun read.  Funny, sad at times, but entertaining.  10/25/2022

3.  In  the Company of Rivers: An Angler's Stories and Recollections by Ed Quigley

4.   Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey by Edward Abbey,1/29/2022, 3.5 stars, what Arches was once like before modernizing.  Fascinating.

5.   The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho, 1/25/2022, 4 stars. an interesting pilgrimage

6.  The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis by Simon Goodman, 1/15/2022, 4.5 stars.  Fascinating reading.

7.  Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser. 5/5/2022, long, long but so interesting, 4 stars.  A wonderful story about an amazing woman activist and essayest who rocked our country and the world.  

8.  Coffin Corner Boys: One Bomber, Ten Men, and Their Harrowing Escape from Nazi-Occupied France  by Carole Engle Avriett, 4.5 stars.  Loved reading about George Starks and his crewman whose plane was shot down in WWII.  This is their story and how they survived, many with the help of  brave Frenchmen and women who risked their lives to help them.

9.  The Best American Essays 1998 (Best American), Edited by Cynthia Ozick, 9/12/2022, 3.5 stars. a compilation with lots of short essays that are fun to read.  Some better than others.

10.  The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life by Jasmin Darznik, 9/11/2022, 3 stars, sad story about a woman who had two daughters.  She finally told the second daughter about the first but as the book ended the two had not yet connected.

11.  The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees by Meredith May, i0/29/2022, 5 stars Lovely read that I charish and share with others, particulary DD who raises bees.

12.  West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, 9/21/2022, 4+ stars.  Very interesting and lots of fun.  Take a cross country trip with two giraffes in a truck while being chased by someone who wants to steal them away.

13.  Ireland's Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace O'Malley, 1530 - 1603 by Anne Chambers, 11/12/2022, 4 stars, loaded with historical facts.  Read a histrociaql fiction about this amazing woman that was fun.  This one filled in the historical background

14.  Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, 11/27/2022, 1 star, didn't really like this one.  Stories of three women whose lives were impacted by early secual encounters.

15.   Change Me into Zeus's Daughter: A Memoir by Barbara Robinette Moss

Okay, I'll participate. I appreciate a lot of NF. I read some NF cover to cover but I also skim or simply refer to a NF book. I will set my own standard in that I will claim to have read a NF book if I read much or all of it. Just doing a quick skim through or reference check wouldn't justify counting a book for me. If I counted all the books I skimmed or referred to......well, hundreds over a year's time.  I think if I refer to a book often I might count that one.

I'll begin by reading The Mystery of Mrs. Christie.

I just started Betrayal by Jonathan Karl. I'm alternating between reading that and Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci.

I have a nonfiction and memoir challenge informally set up on my page in Cindy's main Reading Challenge (to read one NF book and one biography/memoir/autobiography per month, at least half of them from my physical TBR shelves), so I'd be in!

On my TBR pile now: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou to mail in Elizabeth's NFVB; A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle by Liza Campbell because I need another Scottish book for Alice's 3 x 3 challenge; and a couple of cooking-related nonfiction books and memoirs.

ETA: My list is Part V here: 2022 General Reading Challenge

12 is such a good number. Maybe I'll push myself to do one more. I already have one just about finished to go out for the Nonfiction box.

1. The Financial Peace Planner : A Step-by-Step Guide to Restoring Your Family's Financial Health Author: Dave Ramsey
2. Pretty in Pink: The Golden Age of Teenage Movies Author: Jonathan Bernstein
3. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Author: Mark Manson
4. Safer Than a Known Way Author: Pamela Rosewell Moore
5. The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion : Revolutionary Program That Lets You Rediscover the Body's Power to Rejuvenate It Author: Pete Egoscue
6. Getting Things Done for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World Author: David Allen, Mike Williams, Mark Wallace
7. F*ck No!: How to Stop Saying Yes When You Can't, You Shouldn't, or You Just Don't Want To (A No F*cks Given Guide (5)) Author: Sarah Knight
8. So Long, Insecurity: You've Been a Bad Friend to Us (Audio CD) (Unabridged) Author: Beth Moore
9. Listen, Love, Repeat: Other-Centered Living in a Self-Centered World Author: Karen Ehman
10. The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth Author: Beth Allison Barr

The Financial Peace Planner : A Step-by-Step Guide to Restoring Your Family's Financial Health Author: Dave Ramsey

This one didn't have much advice that I hadn't heard before, but it did contain some stories that made it a quick read and the stories will help me remember how to make wise choices, I hope.

Risk Is Right: Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It Author: John Piper

This was so short I'm not even counting it in my book totals, but it was a book on my TBR, and now it is not! But it had some good information in it.

Pretty in Pink: The Golden Age of Teenage Movies Author: Jonathan Bernstein

Finally got to this one. I had been meaning to read it for some time, but finally did because it was chosen in a box. This was much more detail than I really wanted, but I enjoyed reading about movies I remember watching.

In March I read one nonfiction book, I think... I have a pile of books I read and haven't put on the PBS BIR yet, but I don't think any others are nonfiction.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Author: Mark Manson

This book turned out to be pretty good. I could do without the incredible number of uses of the word fuck, but the author's premise that we can only give priority to a limited number of topics and we need to just jettison the rest from causing us stress and guilt was pretty good. i'm glad I read the book and I did learn a lot and will try to bring this viewpoint to bear in my life.

I'm already finished with a book for April!

Safer Than a Known Way Author: Pamela Rosewell Moore

I really enjoyed this book. This woman followed Jesus in many places. She grew up in England, and then she did a short term (one year) of service in Kenya. Then she went to Holland and worked with Brother Andrew in his Bible-smuggling mission. Later, she became the companion of Corrie Ten Boom. This was really fascinating! Her main theme was that the way to follow Jesus is to fully surrender your need for control of your life, but that the rewards of doing that are amazing.

I read this one:

The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion : Revolutionary Program That Lets You Rediscover the Body's Power to Rejuvenate It Author: Pete Egoscue

It made a lot of sense, and I think I will try the exercises.

I've been reading the last few months, but also moving, so I never found the time to update all my reading challenges. I did put books on the BIR, but a batch at a time, not really the day I finished them. But here are books I didn't discuss here:

Getting Things Done for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World Author: David Allen, Mike Williams, Mark Wallace

I loved this book! I use David Allen's principles from Getting Things Done, but the way things were described for teens just made things click even more. I keep checking it out on Libby just to reread certain chapters and apply them even more thoroughly in my life.

F*ck No!: How to Stop Saying Yes When You Can't, You Shouldn't, or You Just Don't Want To (A No F*cks Given Guide (5)) Author: Sarah Knight

I guess all the f*cks are to get attention. The basic premise is ok - we have limited time and attention, and life's too short to say yes to things that don't fit in our lives. but I don't need all the profanity! But it was worth reading.

So Long, Insecurity: You've Been a Bad Friend to Us (Audio CD) (Unabridged) Author: Beth Moore

Shockingly, I didn't like this one! I like most of what Beth Moore writes, but this one just didn't seem as relevant. I finished it, because I had it on audiobook and I was taking a lot of long drives with the moves, but it was just meh for me.

Listen, Love, Repeat: Other-Centered Living in a Self-Centered World Author: Karen Ehman

This one I loved. I copied a few of the quotes and tips because I need the reminders.

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth Author: Beth Allison Barr

This one took a long time to read, but it was fascinating. It was a scholarly book, so it took some digesting, but it was fascinating to see how choices in translation misled people about what the Bible actually says. It was frightening at the end about how some of the "modern" ideas are actually heresies that were denounced as heresy centuries ago.

I've actually read quite a few NF this year, somewhere between 35-40, on a wide variety of topics from politics. history (several on local history), art themes, word trivia, photography, humor (God knows I need the laughs), and a surprising number that relate to maps (I love maps).  But what stands out in skimming through the titles on my book log for the year is the number of fiction books that are based on real world and historical fiction.  Some so-so, some were excellent.  Here are some of the more memorable in both categories:

NF:

- The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Micheal Lewis.  An excellent prelude to how things went so wrong in being prepared for and dealing with Covid.  

- Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek, MD.  WARNING: This book is not for the faint of heart but it is, nontheless, a very compelling, fascinating, and heartbreaking story of a woman who ends up as a medical examiner/forensic pathologist in NYC.  Especially tragic as she was there for 9/11.

- Roswell: The Chronological Pictorial by Thomas Carey.  UFO crash or weather balloon?  This book has the pictures and first hand stories, you decide.

- The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede.  A powerfully unlifting story about one of the worst days in world history.  My only disappointment in this book is that while the story was written a year after the events, I wish there'd been an addendum a decade on.  

- Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson.  (This one is for you Teri - if you read this)  Alternating between really interesting and running on endlessly in certain portions, this is a book about the world history of how we cook and what tools we use to do it.  Some sections were really fascinating, others, not so much. 

- Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin.   This book was more engaging than I expected, mostly due to two reasons.  First, as an AF "brat" whose father flew on B-52s and regularly stood "alert," the "Cold War" was the backdrop of my childhood.  Second, by pure coincidence I was reading at the same as Fallout, a fictional novel titled: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, and many of the events and personalities that featured in the latter were documented in the former.  

[will list some of the other novels based on real events I've enjoyed this year at a later date]

Thanks for the reviews, rjvagabond! I'm about to get The Premonition from the Big Lists swap, and I've had Consider the Fork on my bookshelf for years and keep meaning to get to it. Motivation!