My 2018 in Non-Fiction

I really enjoyed the opportunity to share my 2017 in Non-Fiction, enough that I decided it worth repeating for 2018! So, my 2018 in reading… where to begin?! I had some pipe dream about getting this non-fiction post up right before New Years, or, at the latest, on the first Friday of 2019… But we got kittens. So, here we are! 

One of my big goals for 2018 was to read more nonfiction, and though 11 out of 65 total books isn’t really that many, it’s still an improvement over 6 out of 88 in 2017. So there’s that. Plus, I’m part way through two non-fiction books at the moment, so hopefully 2019 is a step up again! (Especially as one should probably not write a biography without reading a lot of biographies. We’ll see how that goes.) 

Regardless, I’d love to share my 2018 nonfiction adventure with you! As I only read 11 total nonfiction books, covering my top 10 seemed a bit silly… So what follows is my top 5 nonfiction books for 2018. 

Harpo Speaks—Harpo Marx with Rowland Barber

I received this book through a Christmas book exchange being run by a friend I met over the winding tunnels of the internet. That is, in fact, how I’ve met most of my writing friends… and incredibly still not been murdered by anyone! I knew very little about the Marx Brothers, so the whole reading experience was one of joyous discovery… and a lot of laughter. This is a wonderfully funny biography & that engrossed me from start to finish. It uses a lively, interesting voice to relay hilarious tidbits from and insights into the life of the ‘silent’ Marx brother. I’ve also decided that being funny in writing is a real skill… one I’m not likely to ever possess!

Between the World and Me — Ta-Nehisi Coates

A major goal for my 2018 reading endeavours was to read more authors of colour (both fiction and non-fiction). Ta-Nehisis Coates had been on my ‘to read’ list for quite some time… So reading both Between the World and Me and We Were Eight Years in Power was a bit of a triumph! Coates’s letter to his teenage son is an incredible, revelatory read. Coates opens by exploring his experiences of growing up black in the USA, chronicling how systemic racism shaped his life.

While doing so, Coates contemplates the sociocultural construct of an America that marginalises and brutalises its black citizens… And what it means for him, his son and other people of colour. Trying to sum up such a book requires me attempting to encapsulate Coates’s experiences of white supremacy in America. As such, it’s a little beyond me; but suffice to say I found this book eye-opening. And I don’t think, as a white person, you can read this book and not come away with a slightly different view.

Backlash: the Undeclared War Against American Women – Susan Faludi

Sometimes I can clearly remember where I found a book that has been on my to read list for years… Other times, like for Backlash, it’s a mystery. But when we stumbled upon it in a second-hand bookstore in Chicago, I couldn’t leave without it. Or three other huge books I then had to battle to fit into my suitcase.

Faludi’s hefty tome is an enraging retelling of the 1980s social, political and economic backlash to women’s rights progressions in the 70s. It lays bare the ways in which various aspects of society—from marketing, to religious institution throughout the country and the American government—interacted and compounded to degrade women’s rights throughout the USA. It’s an engrossing and incredibly informative read: but be prepared to feel pretty pissed off along the way. 

White Rage: the Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide – Carol Anderson

If I was to pick one book about racism that really blew my mind in 2018, Dr Anderson’s incredible, thorough and incisive White Rage would take the cake, no doubt about it. In fact, it’s the best non-fiction book I read in 2018.

Anderson examines the development of contemporary American society from its beginnings in the subjugation of black slaves as a method of empire-building. From the 1860 economy in which 80% of America’s GDP was deeply connected to slavery, Anderson charts how wounds of the past remain as indelible scars upon the present. Anderson’s discussion of the repeated marginalisation of POC through the use of carefully-coded language was incredibly educational to me. 

It was shocking to learn of the deliberate, targeted disenfranchisement of POC throughout the US in the 21st century, where seemingly-logical voting restrictions serve to actively prevent POC from voting. I took so many notes during this read that James thought I was just rewriting the book, and if I had the chance again I’d take more. Following some of Faludi’s revelations in Backlash, White Rage also cemented my deep disgust for Ronald Reagan, the man responsible for the fomentation of America’s drug crisis in the late 70s as a method for financing his obsessive and illicit war on the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.  I will, however, leave the rest of the discoveries to you, reader… And if anyone takes the plunge and reads this, I’d love to hear their thoughts!

Loaded: a Disarming History of the Second Amendment – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

I couldn’t not read this after James read it and kept regaling me with fascinating tidbits. For those of you who don’t know, the USA’s Second Amendment is: ‘A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’ Dunbar-Ortiz interrogates the individual focus of common contemporary interpretations of this amendment throughout her book.

Taking the reader back to the founding of the USA and the persecution of Native Americans that underpinned the formation of initial civilian militias, Dunbar-Ortize examines how these organisations have developed over time. In doing so, she highlights how racial prejudice and the policing of non-white bodies underpins the second amendment. Another incredibly educational read for 2018 that I strongly recommend. 

Well, I think that about covers my non-fiction efforts for 2018. If you’re keen to see my complete reading list, keep your eyes peeled for the ‘My 2018 in Fiction’ blog post I’ll be publishing next week! (Hopefully).

A.