Nonfiction Books I Read in 2021

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert promises to inspire and empower. Maybe it does for some people. It is well written and easy to understand. Written as part self-help, part memoir, Big Magic explores Gilbert's struggles to challenge her fears and embrace her creativity in a way that aims to help the reader do the same. I found some parts of it interesting, but overall I didn't find it changed anything about my relationship with creativity. To be fair, that might be because I'm pretty happy with my creativity and was before I started reading it.

Rising Strong by Brené Brown continues exploring Brown's research into vulnerability and, really, into human interaction and behavior as a whole. Brown's research often pushes her to examine her own life, and she shares those experiences in her books. Sometimes it's easy to get lost in the stories and lose track of her research while reading even though she cites the research often. I always get something from Brown's books even if it's just a reminder of what I already know and have forgotten to live. Rising Strong offers the reader the opportunity to dig deep into their reactions, the stories they tell themselves, and how they interact in their relationships and in society as a whole. It also provides the opportunity to look at those reactions, stories, and interactions shallowly if one chooses to do so. Rising Strong was interesting, informative, and inspiring.

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor was a book I didn't think I needed to read. I mean I'm relatively happy with my body, so I didn't think I could really learn much from it. I decided to read it because I enjoyed an interview I heard with Taylor. I'm glad I did. More for how it helped me see other people and society than for how it influenced my own self-image. I was surprised at how Taylor pushed me to think about the messaging all around us and how that affects everyone. Her words pushed me to think about my own choice of words regarding people's bodies and how those words were shaped by societal pressures I didn't even notice. The preconceptions I held about others because of messages I didn't even realize I'd internalized. At that point, I did start to look back at how those messages had affected my self-image over the course of my life even though I thought I'd learned to not let them affect me. The Body Is Not An Apology, and no one should apologize for having one or for the space that body occupies.

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown pulled me into a life I haven't lead through her experiences, her feelings about those experiences, and her honesty about the effects of her experiences. Brown writes with a blunt eloquence that makes it impossible to look away from the reality of inequality and its effects on society. Brown personalizes the political by exposing how deeply imbedded our beliefs about one another are and how they affect us even when we don't want them to.

Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition by Colin T. Campbell (also in nonfiction) breaks down how the nutrition industry has broken down nutrition to its barest elements at the sacrifice of the health of the people. Campbell once again explores the industrial influence on health and medicine in a book that explores why breaking nutrients out of food robs people of the full effects of eating a whole food. While published in 2013/2014, Whole isn't as outdated as it feels at times. Campbell provides a foundation that explains how we've come to where we are. His explanations of the way the nutrition manipulates science for their own purposes is a reminder to always check the funding of the research when considering the results. Whole allows one to understand why eating whole food is better than taking vitamins and supplements in order to reach one's optimum health.

Untamed by Glennon Doyle (also in Memoir) continues Glennon Doyle's journey of self-discovery in a series of essay like stories from her life that are inspiring and empowering. While her story doesn't parallel mine, I could relate to her feelings of wanting to break from free from expectations. I could relate to the idea of wanting to live an unconventional but genuine life. Untamed is well written and engaging while also being an easy read.

Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics by Heather Busch & Burton Silver was a gift from a friend who wanted to offer support as I grieved the deaths of my daddy and one of my cats. She gave it to me with a ribbon wrapped around it and told me that perhaps it could serve as a distraction during my grief. It was a cute book and an easy read. She was right, it did offer a distraction. The book is hard to take seriously, but I don't think it's meant to be.

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist is one of those books that makes the reader question everything they think they knew, particularly the history they've been taught. Or at least that's how it affected me. The Half Has Never Been Told isn't always an easy read because it portrays the history of slavery and the cruelty of the practice in graphic detail. Baptist doesn't romanticize the institution of slavery or the idea of Southern plantations. He demonstrates in great detail how the economy and the country itself was built on the back of the slave trade and therefore the slaves. Baptist engages the reader early and keeps them engaged throughout a well-researched and well-written treatise on history, slavery, and the economy that focuses on the United States but also reminds the reader the world economy has always been linked.

Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundaries of Gender by Gloria Steinem set on my shelf for a very long time, years in fact, before I finally decided to read it. I found it intriguing and far more interesting than I expected. There were parts that felt outdated until I reminded myself when the book was written. As someone with a keen interest in psychology, I was especially intrigued by the section exploring Sigmund Freud's work and the misogyny involved in it though the section did begin to feel a bit tedious because it was necessary to read all the footnotes to fully understand what was being said. The rest of the book was also intriguing and well worth the read.

The U. S. Constitution and Other Writings by Editors of Canterbury Classics contains many important historical documents. The introduction feels a bit forced, but otherwise it's an interesting compilation of documents, speeches, and even newspaper articles. Some documents are easier to read than others. Some are more interesting than others. Some are even more important to others.

The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina - Separating the Myth from the Medicine by Jennifer Gunter felt like the education I wish I'd received when I was in my teens and early twenties. Gunter discusses the vulva and the vagina as well as reproduction in ways that break down barriers and creates room for understanding and acceptance. She addresses myths and the silence surrounding female anatomy as a whole but particularly the vulva and vagina. There were a few times when I felt like her medical training interfered with her ability to view the body as a whole. Overall, I would recommend that anyone interested in understanding female anatomy, hormones, and sexuality read this book. It was quite interesting and engaging.

The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Jennifer Gunter was recommended to me by my gynocologist's Physician's Assistant. I found her discussion of menopause refreshing. I, like many women, had heard horror stories about menopause. To discover how different it is for every woman was interesting. I enjoyed that Gunter uses facts to bust mythologies. The one thing that bothered me was what I felt was a bit of an overly zealous support of hormone therapy. I understand they work for many women, including the author, but there seemed to, at times, be an implication that women who choose not to use hormones are making the wrong choice. Other times she made it clear it was the woman's choice and there is no wrong choice. I found that a bit disconcerting. Overall, I found the book very interesting and I learned a lot about the history of menopause and the treatment of menopause as well as the misogyny that has affected how the entire world views menopause.

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown continues to build on but feels like a slight detour from Brown's other work. This work felt more like a book about interacting with society than about personal development than her other work. Still Brown always brings the work back to the individual and how the individual handles these moments. She uses her research and her life to remind us that the work we do on ourselves must translate to our interactions with society and will sometimes leave us standing alone. As someone who has never really felt quite like I "belonged", I admit there were times when Braving the Wilderness made me cringe in recognition as well as in resistance. Overall, Braving the Wilderness is another step on the path for those wishing to embrace themselves while navigating the challenges and joys of living in a society.

Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray & What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan disappointed me. I started it with high expectations, and maybe that was part of the problem. I started reading it expecting it to really investigate monogamy and nonmonogamy. Instead what I found was a series of hypothesis that were vaguely supported by twisted narratives and assumptions based on parts of scientific research as well as some digs at people the author seemed to hold a grudge against. I didn't enjoy the writing or presentation, particularly the juvenile humor. I found the whole book lacking in depth and understanding and thoroughly unconvincing. Interestingly, many of the stories the author chose to illustrate his primary hypothesis pushed me toward disbelieving his hypothesis, which I believed before I started reading the book. I included a link to Sex at Dawn, but I have to admit, I actually wouldn't recommend reading it. 

Winners Take All by Anand Giriharadas examines how rich people use philanthropy to make themselves feel better for the harm they create to make their money. Giriharadas documents and argues his point well. Still, and I think this is because I've heard him speak so many times, I couldn't help but feel like the book needed a bit more punch. There are many long quotes from his sources. There were a few areas of the book where I struggled to find the outrage I thought I would feel. I was glad that he acknowledged the role he has played in the system even if he did save that for the acknowledgements section of the book. Giriharadas made many good points and gave me much to ponder; however, I didn't feel like the book really offered any more solutions than the people he's calling to task. I was left wondering "what now?" which I think just might have been the point...

That Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means by Ross Petras and Kathryn Petras is an interesting little book that examines word usage and misusage. The authors inject a little humor into the examinations of the words. I decided to read one entry a day and found I could do so in just a few minutes each day. That gave me time to think about the word or word pairing for a while. I will keep this book on my shelf as a reference book in case I want to revisit an entry whether to see the usage or to understand the history of the usage.

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