At Armchair BEA today’s topic is Ethics. We were given prompts to the discussions that asked us to give recommendations to new bloggers to ensure credit is give where it tis due. This is a topic that interests me a great deal, as I have only been blogging 3 months, and wonder this myself. So rather than write about a topic I do not have much knowledge on, I am instead going over to Armchair BEA at http://www.armchairbea.com and read what more seasoned bloggers had to say.
Our genre today is NON FICTION.
Uh oh, I thought, I’m not going to have much to say on this since I read mostly fiction. Then I rethought it, and am going to give it a shot!
Is there any specific type your prefer or dislike?
Well, I thought, I don’t like memoirs, but then I remembered I read The Glass Castle I really enjoyed it. Then I thought-one of my favorite books was The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. If you have ever lost anyone close to you-you have to read this. Ms. Didion is an amazing writer and really describes what I thought was indescribable. I also enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (though I did like the eat and love part more than the pray-just saying).
Do I like true crime– goodness no! But wait, I did read
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and really liked it. Oh yeah- and recently I read
In the Garden of Beast, by Erik Larson, about the American ambassador and his family living in Nazi Berlin right before WWII, which was AWESOME!!
I also read The Lost Dogs- Michael’s Vicks Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant. It was a well written book of a horrible story.
As for historical non fiction, well, I do enjoy it, but can’t for the life of me think of one book right now, which is a little embarrassing since I was a History major, and taught U.S. History in high school.
Finally, biographies? NO, I do not read them. Wait- that’s right- I loved 
Tuesdays with Morrie– but wasn’t that more a memoir?
Well, I guess I do read non fiction, and enjoy it quite a bit!
What non fiction would you recommned for me?
Turn the Page Reviews 
LOL, once you started digging for those nonfiction titles you couldn’t stop 😉 I’ve read all of those, except for The Lost Dogs. Erik Larson is magnificent!
If you are an animal lover, I would suggest The Lost Dogs, though in spots it was very hard to get through, because I had an overwhelming desire to drive to Philly and strangle the bastard.
I quite enjoyed Larson’s book, and was rather surprised at how blaise the American government and Heads of State were towards the plight of Jews. Very shocking and well written!!
Ha! I think that many people can relate to this post without even realizing it. Non-fiction sounds so scary and boring but many people enjoy it more than they think they do! If you liked In the Garden of Beasts I’d also recommend The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. Different time period but it intertwines the murder mystery with other facts of the time. Love those types of books!
Thanks for the recommendation!
You name a lot of really great books here! I’ve heard such good things about The Glass Castle and I also felt the same way you did about Eat Pray Love =)
Thanks! The Glass Castle was good- but very sad. I wish I could go to Italy and eat pasta and pizza like she did in Eat, Pray Love!!!
One of my favorite nonfiction books ever is Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. She’s a journalist who gets into the interesting and kind of strange aspects of a topic. Packing for Mars is about the strange and interesting about space, and each chapter is independent of each other (with some chapters overlapping at times) but it’s a good one if you want something where you can read a chapter a day, like to pick up and put down and pick up again. It’s really a great book.
Sound really interesting-thanks! I will look for it.
Kerri
Fabulous choices! I agree with all of them, amazing books
It is surprising when you actually list out the books you’ve read to realize how much non-fiction you actually do read! I love ALL of Mitch Albom’s books ~ he’s amazing and Tuesday’s with Morrie was such a tear-jerker! And Erik Larsen’s novels read like fiction! And Eat Pray Love had me wanting to eat all the time! What a great selection you’ve shared! happy abea!
My favorite by Albom is The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I love that book- but it is fiction, so can’t include it on that list.
The Lost Dogs looks like it might make me cry…normal books don’t make me do that but animal books turn me into a soft hearted baby. I think we might own The Glass Castle, I’m not sure since it’s not my personal book. I’ll have to go check and I think I might check out Erik’s book.
I’ve seen a couple people mention In Cold Blood. I would really like to read that one!