The case for nonfiction
Non-fiction often gets a bad rap. They’re the books you have you read, the ones you were assigned for class or work. Non-fiction titles don’t commonly have a reputation for being the sort of reading you can get lost in. According to Mary Wilkes Towner and Carol Inskeep of the Urbana Free Library, the idea that non-fiction is non-readable is a myth. This hour on Focus, they join Scott Cameron. We’re making the case for non-fiction. During this hour, we’ll talk about different kinds of non-fiction and the idea that what we read says something about us as a person.
Since we know that lots of you are voracious readers, we wonder – do you prefer nonfiction? We’re working to compile a list of Focus fans’ favorite non-fiction titles, so please send us your favorites! We've compiled a list of good reads below. If you see somethihg missing, send it our way, and we'll add it!
Contine reading for our non-fiction reading list.
Good Non-fiction Reads recommended by Focus fans and the Urbana Free Library:
Memoir:
Wild by Cheryl Strayed (recommended by @LisaBralts)
A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Lee Dugard
My Story by Elizabeth Smart
Life Itself by Roger Ebert (recommended by @urbanalibrary)
A Family Farm: Life on an Illinois Dairy Farm by Robert Switzer
Life After Death by Damien Echols
Non-Fiction Graphic Novels:
Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir about Being a John by Chester Brown
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Allison Bechdel
Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie – A Talk of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
Food Books:
Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson – (recommended by @katester117)
Social Matters:
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman – (recommended by @lindseysmoon)
Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples by Rodger Streitmatter
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
Philomena by Martin Sixsmith
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard – (recommended by @stephdavidson)
Tom’s River by Tom Fagin (emailed suggestion from Vaneeta)
Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill
Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen (recommended by a caller)
Historical Reads:
The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit by Michael Cannell (recommended by WILL’s General Manager Chet Tomczyk)
The Lincoln Douglas Debates (recommended by @alvalewis)
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (recommended by @taylorjudd)
Lincoln by David Herbert Donald (emailed suggestion from Kay)
Light Non-fiction Reads:
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris