I’m welcoming the new month by taking part of Nonfiction November. This reading annual event is hosted by:

Katie at Doing Dewey
Lory at Emerald City Book Review
Sarah at Sarah’s Book Shelves
Julz at Julz Reads
Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

It’s all about getting us to pick up those nonfiction titles and get talking about them.

I don’t know about you but I don’t read a lot of nonfiction so this serves as a reminder to move out of my reading comfort zone.

Every week there is a question or suggestion for discussion and this week to kick off the event it’s all about introductions and My Year in Nonfiction. Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What is one topic or type of nonfiction you haven’t read enough of yet? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

So as I said, I don’t read a lot of nonfiction but I have read two books this year which were excellent and I would highly recommend.

The first was Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Whether you consider yourself a creative or not, this is a book anyone can pick up and feel like they can create magic in their life. I enjoyed this one because it speaks a lot about what to do when you aren’t feeling creative. It serves as a reminder that if you want to be creative you actually also have to do a lot of work. Not just imagine that greatness will happen if you sit back. I liked this because I enjoy reading about the creative process and the author shared about the highs and lows and what happens when everything goes just right.

My other nonfiction read was When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. This beautiful memoir is about a neurosurgeon who  has just received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Often he has had to give not good news to patients and deal with death but now he has to deal with his illness and how it will turn his world upside down. There were some lovely passages about his love affair with literature and his family.

I didn’t plan on a certain topic to read about for Nonfiction November but I grabbed these books from the library and I hope I find some good reads among these titles. I know some of these books have been readers favorites.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits
Death In the City of Light by David King
Blood In the Water by Heather Ann Thompson

I’ll keep you posted on what I read and I’ll have to do another library post soon because I actually got some other books too. You know, I couldn’t pass up some fiction. Ha. I’m drowning in library books so I better go read now.

In the meantime, please visit JulzReads for links to more My Year in Nonfiction posts. Oh and if you have a great nonfiction book you think I should add to my list please let me know!

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you’ve had your fill of chocolate and other treats. We kept the lights off at Casa Bookgirl as it was a bit of a rainy night and I didn’t think that many kiddos would stop by. So it’s time for a Month In Review and October was a great month. So let’s get into it.

I finished five books and completed the R.I.P. Reading challenge! Books read were Murder In The Bowery by Victoria Thompson, The Laptev Virus by Christy Esmahan, The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths and the two that counted towards the R.I.P. challenge were Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon.

With the exception of The Laptev Virus, all books were great and I would say two may even make it on my favorites of the year. Frankenstein and The Winter People were fantastic. They were atmospheric and thought-provoking and the perfect choices for R.I.P. Reading. Before I forget, thank you to Andi & Heather for hosting this year’s challenge.

Being that I’m not working right now I thought I would have read a lot more but my job search, mom and other projects are taking up a lot of my time but I’m still very happy with the number of books read. But, can you believe we are getting closer to the end of the year? I saw a Goodreads Poll to vote for your favorites of the year – I’m not ready!

Anyway, the end of the year is always a busy time but I’m looking forward to Nonfiction November, making progress in reading challenges, putting together reading lists to end the year and just so much more. What about you, how was your month and what are you looking forward to in the next couple of months?