One of my goals for 2023 is to read more non-fiction, and I’ve been really fortunate to have picked up some incredibly captivating nonfiction reads lately! When it comes to picking nonfiction reads, I’ve been trying to branch out too — not just memoirs, or books on a specific topic! I thought it’d be fun to share some of my favorite nonfiction reads of this year so far.
Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn
I really wish I’d read this when I was younger, but I think that books have a habit of finding you when you need it most! There are so many quotes from Conversations on Love that I’ve tabbed, highlighted, or even written over into my commonplace journal, and I just think everyone should read this.
A celebration of love in all its forms, featuring conversations with: Philippa Perry on falling in love slowly * Candice Carty-Williams on friendship * Alain de Botton on the psychology of being alone * Dolly Alderton on vulnerability * Emily Nagoski on the science of sex * Diana Evans on parenthood * Lisa Taddeo on the loneliness of loss * Esther Perel on unrealistic expectations * Stephen Grosz on accepting change * Roxane Gay on redefining romance * and many more
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Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
In a way, Everything I Know about Love reminds me of being in middle school and going to a friend’s place for a sleepover and hearing about her much cooler older sister’s antics. And in a way, that’s exactly what it is — entertaining, nothing like my own life and experiences, but charmingly delightful and filled with lots of love.
The wildly funny, occasionally heartbreaking internationally bestselling memoir about growing up, growing older, and learning to navigate friendships, jobs, loss, and love along the ride. When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop might just be the only reliable man in her life, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else— realizing that you are enough.
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How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur
I really enjoyed The Good Place when it was on, and when I heard this audiobook was narrated by Michael Schur, as well as some of the cast, I jumped to it! I found it really interesting, and it made me want to go back and rewatch The Good Place.
Most people think of themselves as “good,” but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good” or “bad”—especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, ubuntu, and more so we can sound cool at parties and become better people. Schur starts off with easy ethical questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?” (No.) and works his way up to the most complex moral issues we all face. Such as: Can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people? How much money should I give to charity? Why bother being good at all when there are no consequences for being bad? And much more. By the time the book is done, we’ll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. OK, not quite. Instead, we’ll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day.
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How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo
If you decide to pick up any of these nonfictions, this is the one I’d like you to pick up most. I think it should be mandatory reading for everyone, honestly, but particularly for anyone who wants to be more conscious of what they’re reading.
How to Read Now explores the politics and ethics of reading, and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories. Smart, funny, galvanizing, and sometimes profane, Castillo attacks the stale questions and less-than-critical proclamations that masquerade as vital discussion: reimagining the cartography of the classics, building a moral case against the settler colonialism of lauded writers like Joan Didion, taking aim at Nobel Prize winners and toppling indie filmmakers, and celebrating glorious moments in everything from popular TV like The Watchmen to the films of Wong Kar-wai and the work of contemporary poets like Tommy Pico.
At once a deeply personal and searching history of one woman’s reading life, and a wide-ranging and urgent intervention into our globalized conversations about why reading matters today, How to Read Now empowers us to embrace a more complicated, embodied form of reading, inviting us to acknowledge complicated truths, ignite surprising connections, imagine a more daring solidarity, and create space for a riskier intimacy–within ourselves, and with each other.
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So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
I’d picked up parts of So You Want to Talk About Race while I was in graduate school but never got around to finishing it, so I made sure to make it one of my 2023 nonfiction reads! I listened to it on audiobook, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “N” word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don’t dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.
Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystalize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, and Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor’s seminal essay “The Meaning of a Word.”
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When Broadway Was Black: The Triumphant Story of the All-Black Musical that Changed the World by Caseen Gaines
I’ve had When Broadway Was Black on my TBR list ever since I heard about it, and bumped it up when I read Caitlyn’s interview with the author. I learned so much from When Broadway was Black, and I think it should be a must read for anyone who likes theatre.
The triumphant story of how an all-Black Broadway cast and crew changed musical theatre―and the world―forever. “This musical introduced Black excellence to the Great White Way. Broadway was forever changed and we, who stand on the shoulders of our brilliant ancestors, are charged with the very often elusive task of carrying that torch into our present.”― Billy Porter, Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning actor “The 1920s were the years of Manhattan’s Black Renaissance. It began with Shuffle Along .” ― Langston Hughes If Hamilton , Rent , or West Side Story captured your heart, you’ll love this in-depth look into the rise of the 1921 Broadway hit, Shuffle Along , the first all-Black musical to succeed on Broadway. No one was sure if America was ready for a show featuring nuanced, thoughtful portrayals of Black characters―and the potential fallout was terrifying. But from the first jazzy, syncopated beats of composers Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, New York audiences fell head over heels. When Broadway Was Black is the story of how Sissle and Blake, along with comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, overcame poverty, racism, and violence to harness the energy of the Harlem Renaissance and produce a runaway Broadway hit that launched the careers of many of the twentieth century’s most beloved Black performers. Born in the shadow of slavery and establishing their careers at a time of increasing demands for racial justice and representation for people of color, they broke down innumerable barriers between Black and white communities at a crucial point in our history. Author and pop culture expert Caseen Gaines leads readers through the glitz and glamour of New York City during the Roaring Twenties to reveal the revolutionary impact one show had on generations of Americans, and how its legacy continues to resonate today.
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