Nonfiction Reader Challenge 2020 (Vol. 1)

I love nonfiction, so I might as well participate in Shelly’s Nonfiction Reader Challenge this year! The challenge will run from January 1 – December 31, 2020. Participants may join at any time up until December 1, 2020.

There are three levels to choose from and I’m going to particpate in the Nonfiction Know-It-All category: Read 12 books, one for each category.

Here are the categories (categories in bold have already been fulfilled – with those reviews below):

1. Memoir
2. Disaster Event
3. Social Science
4. Related to an Occupation
5. History
6. Feminism
7. Psychology
8. Medical Issue
9. Nature
10. True Crime
11. Science
12. Published in 2020

Somewhere admist all the posts and life, I’ve not linked up to this challenge yet…so here’s my catch up post! (I’ll do better about participating each month at the appropriate time! 🤞🏼)

Me by: Elton John ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Me is the first and only autobiography available. In it, Elton John holds nothing back. He spills it all – from his horrifying parents to his drug use to juicy celebrity gossip to his beautiful family with David and their two sons. It is unflichingly honest, even when it makes himself look terrible. He was an addict and it made him treat some of the people closest to him poorly, but he checked himself into rehab and completely changed his life around, all while managing a career that has spanned over fifty years!

Also quite inspiring to me is Elton John’s work within the HIV/AIDS community. Since his nonprofit, Elton John AIDS Foundation, was started in the early 1990s, it has raised over $450 million dollars “to challenge discrimination against people affected by the epidemic, prevent infections, provide treatment and services, and motivate governments to end AIDS”.

Me fulfills the Memoir category for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge.

The Library Book by: Susan Orlean ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have heard high praise for this one, and while I mostly agree, I was a bit bored. There is  A LOT of research and information about libraries (specifically the Los Angeles Public Library), and after awhile, I found myself skimming parts of it. (It also talks about the fire of 1986 that decimated the LA Public Library which was absolutely fascinating!) This book truly is a love letter to libraries, librarians, and even LA itself. It’s worth the read, but also not as good as I was hoping!

The Library Book fulfills the History category for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by: Emily and Amelia Nagoski ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Because of all the hype this book got on #bookstagram last year, I was expecting (and wanting) so much more than what I got. I can understand how this book was helpful to many women; for me, it fell flat. I have spent the better part of the last six years exploring my health and so many of the concepts presented in Burnout were not new news for me. Also, the patriarchy aspect was a little too over-the-top for me. I didn’t totally understand how it fit into the rest of the book and its inclusion felt a little forced, in my opinion.

Burnout fulfills the Medical Issue category for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge.

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World by: Jeff Goodell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was blown away by this well-written book about the looming consequences of the global warming crisis. The bottom line is that sea levels are rising. Many people throughout the world already know this from firsthand experience, but for those of us who live inland and haven’t personally been affected by it, this book puts that information out there in a straight forward way that demands some action…not today, but yesterday! Already a few years past its publication date, this book NEEDS to be read by everyone…because we will ALL be affected soon. We owe our children and grandchildren a better future than what they currently stand to inherit.

The Water Will Come fulfills the Science category for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge.