13 Nonfiction Books I Have Read This Year

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂  

Because this is a book topic, I will also be posting it to the Book Blog Discussion Challenge, at Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. 

Since November is Nonfiction month, I decided to include a list of some of the nonfiction I have read this year so far (not just in November!) and how/why I chose them. Just choosing 13 was difficult, since I'm sure I've read more than that number of nonfiction books! These are not listed in any particular order.

1. My Name is Mary--Mary Fisher: My most recent read on this list. I was looking for a book by an author who's HIV positive (for this challenge) and came across this one is my library's database. What I did not know was that this author spoke at the Republican Convention in 1992, making me think I probably shouldn't read it! But at least it was before Trump!
2. Favorite Dog Stories--James Herriot: I went looking for All Creatures Great and Small at the library, but did not see it! The database says they have it! I was in a hurry, and was looking for an animal-related memoir and saw this one. It was a short, easy read. Also during November.
3. Killers of the Flower Moon--David Grann: I just had to read this one after hearing about the movie (I have not watched it). There was a wait at the library for this one, so I guess others had the same thing in mind.
4. Sourdough Sagas--Herbert L. Heller: I mentioned this one in another post I made to both challenges in June, on new-to-me authors I've read this year. As I said then, an older friend gave me some books he'd had, including this one, one of the first books I read this year. The subject of this story collection was a new one to me: pioneering and gold in Alaska from 1883 to 1923. 
5. Paris: The Memoir--Paris Hilton: I honestly don't know why I chose this, but I may have been curious. All I want to say about this 😉
6. Into the Wild--Jon Krakauer: One I had known about for sometime, but did not get around to reading until this past year. I may have heard about the film first, but have not attempted to watch it, even after reading the book.
7. Broad Band--Claire E. Evans: One of the challenges I'm doing this year includes reading books from each of the Dewey Decimal System numbers (thus adding to how much nonfiction I've read so far this year). I was having a hard time choosing something for the 000s. I had tried to get this one earlier in the year, but It was checked out, and I put it on hold, but it never came back when it was supposed to! I decided against it for the time being, but checked it out later when it was in.
8. World of Wonders--Aimee Nezhukumatathil: I needed a book on climate change. I chose this one since it was the one I could find at the library that I had not read already, per my Goodreads account.
9. Savage Beauty--Nancy Milford: I knew very little about Edna St. Vincent Millay before reading this. I was looking for a book on a poet or writer. I was also looking for a book mentioned in a TV show or streamed series, and found out after I was finished reading this book that it is one of the books from the Rory Gilmore Reading List, so I went back to add it to the challenges that called for the TV show/streaming series category.
10. Rolling Warrior--Judith Heumann: I saw this one while looking for a book by a disabled author. It's a very thought-provoking memoir about how one girl paralyzed by polio who fought for her rights after she was denied a chance to go to school and to get a teacher's license because of her disability.
11. Rebel Chef--Dominique Crenn: Chose this one when looking for a food memoir. So many of the ones I found when I looked for such books I had already read. I wanted to read a new, one so this what I picked.
12. Lilibet: An Intimate Portrait of Elizabeth II--Carolly Erickson: I was looking for a book on a woman who ruled. This one looked good. Unfortunately it's a little outdated, as it was published a year before the wedding of Charles and Camilla.
13. The Mountain is You--Brianna Wiest: Every year I seem to have the self-help prompt, and it's become a dreaded genre of mine. I basically read the book, with no self-help intended. This book was no exception. Do any of you read self-help and do you intend to follow what the book says? This wasn't the only self-help I read this year, BTW.

These are just some of the nonfiction books I have read this year so far. I know I'll  get at least one in December. I've read many true crime books, as I have had that prompt many times.