Best New Nonfiction of 2008
December 17, 2008
While Mary M. is accumulating the Best New Fiction that we’ve all read this year, how about thinking about some Best New Nonfiction?
So, out with it! What were your favorite nonfiction books of 2008?
Here are my two favorites so far:
Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 by Daniel James Brown. Clearly written, well-reseached and beautifully personal story of the Hinckley fires. It’s unbelievably absorbing.
The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival by Stanley Alpert. From the cover: “On January 21, 1998, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan. This is the story of what happened next . . .” Amazing memoir, unbelievably riveting and wonderfully written. Impossible to put down.
Now you! (Carol J.)
Entry Filed under: book chat, readers advisory. Tags: biographies, memoirs, narrative nonfiction, nonfiction.
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1.
Carol | December 17, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Some I read in 2008 – not sure on pub date though
Adoption Parenting Creating a Toolbox…
Secret of Parenting…
Happiest Toddler on the Block…
2.
Anna | December 19, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I read “Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir” by Kao Kalia Yang. It’s such and important piece of work especially because of the demographics of the Twin Cities.
3.
Anna | December 19, 2008 at 12:23 pm
P.S. I was buying a calendar at Barnes & Noble the other day and a guy stopped me and asked if I read any true crime because he wanted to buy a Christmas gift for his wife (apparently she’s interested in the psychology of criminals). He said that the employees are no help, so I recommended “The Birthday Party” and he was thrilled. I told him to stop in at the library for more recommendations
4.
Carol | December 30, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Anna, if you see that guy again, Joe McGinniss’s Never Enough, about a couple living in Hong Kong where the wife murdered the husband and rolled him up in a rug, is also an excellent true crime read.
5.
Anna | January 2, 2009 at 11:35 am
LOVE true crime.
6.
Nicole | January 9, 2009 at 3:22 pm
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. Definite better than her last book. Very obscure stuff, but she makes it interesting and fun and manages to relate it to current politics.