This week, the National Book Awards revealed its long list of nominees, and the nonfiction category has some interesting contenders.
The National Book Awards are given annually “to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of great writing in America.”
Some of the topics for the ten nonfiction books selected include:
- rain (Rain by Cynthia Barnett)
- Hawaii (Paradise of the Pacific by Susanna Moore)
- personal responses to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (Mourning Lincoln by Martha Hodes)
- a friendship with an octopus (The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery)
- a family story told through letters, documents, and photographs found in boxes left in the attic (Hold Still by Sally Mann)
- a memoir of how a man healed from an ugly divorce by viewing paintings of Johannes Vermeer in six world cities (Travels in Vermeer by Michael White)
- a book of coming-of-age essays (Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith)
Maybe you’ve already read one of these top nonfiction books. If not, which book mentioned might you want to read in the last quarter of 2015? Why? Comment below to tell us all about it.
What would I pick? I loved Sy Montgomery’s book, The Good, Good Pig, because I love pigs. I think octopuses are neat but not as cool as pigs. Vermeer’s paintings are beautiful, and I can see how they might heal a broken heart, but Hold Still by Sally Mann is likely to be the first I ask Amazon to send me.
What are you reading right now? What’s next on your list? Comment below and tell us about your picks, and from your list, we might find our next book.
