Our favorite non-fiction selections ~ 2018

Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People by Meik Wiking

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García

Beginner's Guide to Buddhism by Jack Kornfield

Higher Loyalty by James Comey

Fire and Fury by Wolff / Unhinged by Omarosa / Fear by Woodward

Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe by Cullen Murphy

Chasing the Last Laugh-How Mark Twain Escaped Debt and Disgrace with a Round-the-World Comedy Tour by Richard Zacks

The Zoo-The Wild and Wonderful Tale of the Founding of London Zoo:1826-1851 by Isobel Charman

The Card Catalog: Books, Cards and Literary Treasures by Library of Congress

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig

Paperbacks From Hell: The Twisted History of the 70’s and 80’s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix

Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl's Most Famous Creation by Lucy Mangan

The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica by Laurie Gwen Shapiro

Turn Right at Machu Picchu-Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams

The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant

Upon review of 2018, nothing really jumps out, but here are my choices:

Fear: Trump in the White House

Grant by Chernow

The Magic of reality

Hillbilly Elegy

The ground Truth

My standout read of the year was Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne. Genuine surprise to me, fabulous

so far, two really stand out for me:

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam by Lesley Hazleton; and
Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire by Leslie Peirce

>4 Helenliz: Fair play to you for taking it on (and good review as well). Very much doubt I'll ever read it but it's awfully nice to know that a 21st-century reader was so drawn to a 17th-century work.

>5 LynnB: After the Prophet looks intriguing! Onto the mountainous TBR pile, it goes.

>6 bluepiano: Thankyou. I read it in February and I still think about it and want to read it again. It's my best book of the year, not just my best non-fiction book of the year. I wasn't at all sure what I was letting myself in for when I started it. I only read it as it is referenced in Gaudy Night, it's the book that Peter Wimsey has in his pocket that Harriet reads when they go out punting and he falls asleep. Which just goes to show that you never know where the next book that will change your mind is waiting.

Here are my top 5 for the year:

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
Speak to Me, Dance with Me by Agnes de Mille
Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty by John M. Barry
Hank Greenberg: the Story of My Life by Hank Greenberg with Ira Berkow
Groucho: the Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx by Stefan Kanfer

Three written about the 1940s

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare details the nurturing, growth, successes and failures of unconventional warfare of WW2.

Last Hope Island describes the governments in exile that headquartered in England during WW2. Great stories.

Hot Dogs and Cocktails: When FDR met King George VI at Hyde Park on Hudson

One from my favorite hayseed philosopher:
Montaigne in Barn Boots

And a heartwarming story of progress in a time that really needs to know it's possible:
Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist. Eli Saslow is a skilled storyteller.

From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
I Will Find You by Joe Kenda
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
Educated by Tara Westover

Those were my favorites in the order I read them. My favorites of the favorites were Becoming, Born a Crime, and Educated. The Joe Kenda book was especially interesting to me because I lived in that area at the time of the crimes.

Here are ten more nonfictional favorites enjoyed in 2018:
An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt by Jack Olsen
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas
Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of Indian Existence, compiled by Teri C. McLuhan
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich
The Wolverine Way by Douglas H. Chadwick

I gave the highest star ratings to the Wilson and Thomas volumes but the one I’m most glad I read is Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt. Stunning story of a formidable man.

Those wolverines though—wow! They enthralled the author and it’s easy to believe that anyone who likes wild animals will find at least some of Chadwick’s book enthralling too.