Week 3 (11/13-11/17) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. You can be as creative as you like!
If this is your first time participating and this one was hard for you….same. The more I participate in NFN, the better I get but I honestly think about this post all year. I used to think we were limited to only what we read in the last year for both fiction and nonfiction! Why did I make it so hard??
Our host is Liz, who blogs at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working From Home, is an editor, transcriber, reader, reviewer, writer and runner. I have been following Liz for years and her book reviews are wonderful but the energy she brings to the book blogging community is, frankly, unparalleled in my experience.
MY PAIRINGS
The Divorce Colony by April White was a fascinating look at how lax residency requirements, and a few other things, made Sioux Falls, South Dakota an accessible place for women to get a divorce in the late 1800s – early 1900s. This was revolutionary for its time. Some women left one marriage for another. Others, struck out on their own. Divorce is a difficult thing for many reasons but, it is historically the first time women were free to prioritize their wants and needs, especially in an era when women had so few rights.
Finlay Donovan by Elle Cosimand is a series I simultaneously could not put down and didn’t not want to finish. Thankfully, book four is coming out soon. Finlay is a writer whose husband cheated and, after divorce, she is trying to finish her book so that she has the money to support herself and her two small children. Through a misunderstanding, she is dragged into a murder. I loved the characters and watching Finlay rediscover and reestablish herself after divorce struck me that the trials and tribulations of her experience are not that different from the women who travelled alone to South Dakota to change the course of their future.
GHOST STORIES
I love ghost stories. I find myself much more a believer than a nonbeliever when it comes to ghosts. Will Storr and I would get along famously, I feel this in my bones. I adored his journalistic approach to the issue of ghost and you can really see him wrestling with the question throughout the book.
Victoria Schwab and Lindsay Currie’s stories are ghost stories for middle schoolers and I loved (loved!) them. Each is that unique kind of thrilling – a bit of spine chilling good fun while reading under your covers by flashlight.
Jennifer Crusie is the queen of romance but this book is different than her others as the male and female romantic interests are being thwarted by something that lives in the house. I have read Maybe This Time half a dozen times through the years and I am never disappointed.
CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS
I have already mentioned a few times that the cover of How to Take Over the World by Ryan North nearly put me off reading this but, I am so glad I picked it up. Every evil genius plan is laid out with hard science to let you know where to build your lair, how to find minions – it is the perfect gift for the criminal mastermind in any family.
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer I picked because the cover was so pretty! This story had me obsessed. Book 2 cannot come out quickly enough. It is an odd mix of innocent romance and adventure as Evie needs a job and the Villian needs a good assistant and everything keeps going terribly wrong.
CULTS
My most concentrated learning this year was about Cults. Sparked by She Seeks Nonfiction post in last year’s NFN, I got into it and I am not done – I just cannot find more material available to me right now! I keep Rebekah’s post ready for me to make requests of my library.
For this pairing I have listed the books I read in NonFiction and the documentaries I watched instead of fiction books. I did read one fiction book about cults but I did not enjoy it.
Between the books and documentaries, my friends and family have all either joined me in the obsession or they are sick to death of hearing about it. There is no in-between!
Tell me, please! Do you have a favorite fiction / nonfiction pair?
Silver Button Books 
Thanks for this. I’m hopeless at ghost stories as they always freak me out. Although funnily enough I have tried to write one or two. It’s much harder than it seems. Thanks again for taking part in the challenge and I agree with you about Liz.
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Interesting pairings!
If you want to try another fiction related to cults I’d recommend JP Pomare’s In the Clearing.
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Cults! I’ve read so much about cultish religion! I’ll be checking out those books for sure. Also The Divorce Colony sounds really. Good. Thanks for participating in Nonfiction November!
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Just realized Weigh Down is on this list–I led that for a few sessions just before the scandal broke. Scary to think of that now. She was a trip in retrospect.
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Thank you so much for your kind comments, and Volatilemuse, too. I am trying to comment for a third time …
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I am so sorry you had to try multiple times – Way to persevere!
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