Nonfiction November 2020 – Week 1

 

This week begins Nonfiction November, an event that celebrates reading nonfiction. The event is hosted by Katie of Doing Dewey, Julz of Julz Reads, Rennie of What’s Nonfiction, and Leann of Shelf Aware. The main post for this week (with links to other blogs) is at Shelf Aware.

My year in nonfiction:

I decided to join in on this event for the first time because I thought I had read more nonfiction than in previous years. That is true but only by a couple of books, although there are two more months in 2020 and I am currently reading two nonfiction books. So maybe it is that I am getting more out of the nonfiction I am reading.

To this point in the year I have read three historical nonfiction books: two books about the influenza pandemic of 1918 and one about the life of servants in Victorian and Edwardian times.  I read four books of mystery reference. Plus, one travel journal, one biography, and one book about books. For a total of 10 nonfiction books. In previous years I have read eight or less nonfiction books.

Favorite nonfiction read of the year:

This is easy. Ross Macdonald: A Biography (1999) by Tom Nolan is not only my favorite nonfiction read, it is one of my favorite books of the year.

Ross Macdonald, pseudonym of Ken Millar, was the author of the highly regarded Lew Archer detective series. Ken Millar was born in northern California, spent his childhood in Ontario, Canada, and met his wife Margaret Millar while going to college in Canada. The couple moved to Santa Barbara in 1946 and were living there when Ken died in 1983. He was a very interesting man, and this biography was very well done. The emphasis is on his personal life although that naturally includes his development as an author of crime fiction.

I admire Ross Macdonald as a writer, but for years I have been interested in his life in Santa Barbara, where I have lived for four decades. 

A particular topic that I’ve been attracted to more this year:

Like most people, my reading has been a bit different this year. I always read a lot of mystery fiction of all types, but this year I read more comfort reads. I think I have read a bit less than before, and my concentration has definitely suffered, but all in all I had a good reading year, and that was true of my nonfiction reads also.

My husband has read three books about the influenza pandemic of 1918 but I have never had an interest in that topic. Until now. This year I wanted to know what people experienced in that pandemic and what we could learn from it. 

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It (1999) by Gina Kolata

It is clear from all the books I read on this subject that doctors and scientists had no idea what the disease was that was killing so many people or what was causing it. This book focuses on research efforts to identify the virus after the 1918 pandemic ended.

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (2004)

by John M. Barry

This book did go more into the events of the spread of the flu from 1918 through 1920 than Gina Kolata's book. It is also much longer with about 460 pages of text and another 100 of notes and references. There is an emphasis on the state of medicine, science, and research in the US in the 19th century, leading up to the outbreak of the flu, at the same time that the US was getting involved in World War I.

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And I am now reading Pandemic 1918 by Catharine Arnold. That book is more focused on first person accounts of the pandemic.

What do I hope to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? 

Two things. I hope that reading posts by people who are enthused about nonfiction will inspire me to read more in that area myself, and I hope to see suggestions for types of nonfiction that I have not considered. 

#NonficNov