Though doing these lists is a lot of work, I value the opportunity to look back and reflect on my year’s reading. Everything has a role to play, not just my favorites, and it’s interesting to see the patterns that evolve as I read my way along.
This year I made a conscious effort to read spiritual memoirs in several categories. I’m glad that some other readers (notably Lisa and Deb) joined in and found the Spiritual Memoir challenge valuable as well, but I’ve decided not to run it next year. I find that I’ve begun to see every memoir as a spiritual memoir, even if not deliberately presented as such, for every personal story is a story of the human spirit. In the future I’d like to do some kind of project focused on spirituality, especially reading sacred texts from various traditions, but I’m not sure yet what form that will take.
In the meantime, as you can see, I have read a lot of books on spirituality as well as a ton of memoirs! Some of these were assignments for my Spiritual Direction training, but even without that I’m sure I’d always continue to explore this field. Psychology is a related topic in my view, for soul and spirit are intimately connected (though not the same).
Moving in a more outward direction, I also enjoyed some excellent books of history and biography, and a few more medically-oriented ones. However, I feel as though my nonfiction reading is rather one-sided, so I’d like to make an effort to change that. In 2024 I’m going to join the Nonfiction Reader Challenge hosted by Shelleyrae of Book’d Out. I hope this will help me to branch out into some new categories, such as Transportation, The Future, and Architecture.
I am not complaining; it’s been another amazing year of nonfiction reading! You can see my Nonfiction November posts for more details, too:
I hope you’ll let me know what your outstanding nonfiction reads have been this year. I’ve highlighted one standout in each category, although there were many others that I enjoyed. See the links to my StoryGraph reviews or blog posts for more on each book.
Spiritual Memoir Challenge
- Autobiography of a Yogi
- Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior
- Pilgrimage to Eternity
- In the Land of Invisible Women
- My Broken Language
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- The Salt Path, plus The Wild Silence and Landlines
- Spare
- Faitheist
- I’ve Seen the End of You
- Devotion
Other Memoirs
- Welcome To My Country
- The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me
- My Side of the River
- Nervous
- Run Towards the Danger
- The Crosswicks Journals
- Drinking: A Love Story
- Slow Motion
- Hourglass
- Inheritance
- How to Catch a Mole
- Everything Is Fine
Spirituality
- The Gift of Being Yourself
- Life of the Beloved
- The Road Back to You
- The Return of the Prodigal Son
- Human Being and Becoming
- Daring Greatly
- Bio-Spirituality
- Discernment
- Sacred Conversation
Psychology and Brain Science
- Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You
- Emotional Inheritance
- Grandchildren of Alcoholics
- Dopamine Nation
- Healing Your Family History
Medicine
History and Biography
- The Woman They Could Not Silence
- A Century of Wisdom
- Forget the Alamo
- The Black Count
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes
- One Hundred Saturdays
Reading the Theatre
Even though you put my modest reading of nonfiction this year to shame, this is such an impressive list in terms of quality as well as quantity, and the areas they cover clearly indicate what really interests you. And helpful to have all those links too – I’ve already followed up a couple.
In the days when I read a lot of nonfiction it was mostly about history, archaeology and popular science, so I have shared that enthusiasm for learning about things that weren’t essentially ‘made up’!
I’ve been reading way more nonfiction since I started blogging. The links from other bloggers invariably tempt me. Glad if I can point you in some interesting directions as well.
I enjoyed The Salt Path and would like to read the author’s other books too.
I loved all three of them.
I do hope I can get to the Sat Path this year. I do like your idea of reading through spiritual/sacred texts and have begun with the Bhagwad Gita. I also want to restart my reading of the mystic/saint Kabir’s couplets and those from a few others from the middle ages. But I do need to get my daily routine in order first to get work and these other projects in balance 🙂 Looking forward to your non fic reads and posts this year!
I would love to read the Bhagavad Gita – I read it in a philosophy class in high school but I have not retained anything! Really interested in doing something in that vein, if not quite yet, so it’s good to know you like the idea.
I am hoping to combine the texts and some general lectures/commentators. The Gita I think I may have to read a couple of different versions (the commentary on each verse I mean) as in the current one I’m reading (ISKCON) I’m not entirely sure of the broader implications they draw from each verse. The translation is of course fine though reading along with a hindi one, I am finding some terms not similarly translated in both.
That was a lovely lot of non-fiction, very interesting stuff. I love it when other people read as much non-fiction as me; I do split my best-of list but don’t post about it per se. Hope you’re having a good year of reading; I am soooo behind on reading blog posts and my own reading!
It’s gotten off to a good start! My nonfiction reading has gone way up since I started blogging 10 years ago–other bloggers have inspired me immensely with their enthusiasm, and I feel spoiled for choice with all the amazing books coming out each year.