Yesterday’s post brought you my favorite fiction books of the year …and today, I bring you my favorite nonfiction books of the year.
In no particular order, we have…
Stranger Care by Sarah Sentilles
This memoir broke me. Sarah Sentilles is a gorgeous writer, no doubt, and through her family’s own story of adoption in the foster care system, she tells a bigger story of a brokenness that begs fixing. You can find it here.
Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework
What can I say? I’m a sucker for nature memoirs, especially when they take place so close to home. Think: the Eastern Sierras meets California’s sordid history meets a family with a story worth telling. The writing is equally breathtaking. You can find it here.
The First Advent in Palestine by Kelley Nikondeha
This one was bound to end up at the top, seeing how much I’ve referenced it in the last month alone. The First Advent in Palestine is a necessary must-read, both in the season of Advent and throughout the year. An evergreen story of justice, I can’t recommend it more highly. You can find it here.
City of God by Sara Miles
Sara Miles does it again! Here, the spiritual memoirist expands on a single day (Ash Wednesday) and writes two hundred pages about it. Published in 2015, her experience is woven with history, theology and culture, in a rich and beautiful telling like nothing else. You can find it here.
Heartland by Sarah Smarsh
Another one of those books I’ve had on my to-read list for awhile, I held off from reading it because I thought it’d be cheesy. I was wrong. It’s a mix of narrative memoir and journalism, and of “working hard and being broke in the richest country on earth.” You can find it here.
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
Yes, Clint Smith is brilliant, so to walk through some of America’s most famous plantations with him was utterly fascinating, insightful, and disheartening. As the subtitle suggests, this reckoning of slavery in our country is a necessary, poetic read. You can find it here.
Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg
Originally published in 1990, if you call yourself a writer, you’d best grab a copy of this book. For me, writer’s block accompanied …and with Wild Mind came a resurgence and rebirth around the thing I can’t not do, which is to write. You can find it here.
Epic Tomatoes by Craig LeHoullier
If it seems like we’re starting to venture into random, unchartered, “What kind of book is this?” territory, you might be right. Epic Tomatoes is exactly what it sounds like: a gardener’s guide to growing the most epic tomatoes possible. And as someone who attempted to grow 29 tomatoes in her backyard last summer, LeHoullier’s book was my bible. You can find it here.
Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
I know, I know, it took me long enough. If you find yourself in that weird little world called evangelical-adjacent, then reading about how “white evangelicals corrupted a faith and fractured a nation” might just be the next history book for you. It’s utterly fascinating, well-researched, and brilliant, in general. You can find it here.
Breath by James Nestor
Who reads books about breathing? I do, I do! Medical memoirs are not usually my cup of tea, but Nestor’s book prompted more conversations and lifestyle changes than I know what to do with. Far from a self-help manual, it’s a fascinating scientific, spiritual, cultural and evolutional history of the way humans breathe (or so Elizabeth Gilbert said of it). You can find it here.
Well, there we have it! Which of these nonfiction books have you read? Did any of my favorite books of the year make you shudder in horror? Otherwise, what should I add to 2023’s list of things to read?
Daughter Dearest....thanks for your recommendations. I will share with my bookclub. I was delighted you included Heartland in your list....I thought you would like it when I sent it to you!