Are you taking part in Nonfiction November? This is an annual event on the internet where you just
aim to challenge yourself to read slightly more non-fiction than you usually would. For you that
might mean that you just read one non-fiction book; it might mean that you try and read nothing
but non-fiction for the whole month. It is totally up to you. Here on Book Break we made a bunch of
Nonfiction November themed videos last year, so I will link to those below, but I wanted to
bring you something new. If you are taking part in Nonfiction November this year and you want
to see which books have come out in the last year that you might not have already got your hands on,
this is the video for you. Starting with this chunky book here, this is God: an Anatomy by
Francesca Stavrakopoulou. This is a history of God and the way that God has been presented
through centuries of religious beliefs. But what sets this book apart a little bit
is this book focuses on God's physical body, which he has at various times through religious history
been believed to have. And this book goes through God's anatomy piece by piece, rude bits and all,
to piece together a religious and cultural history. So it's absolutely fascinating
stuff. Francesca Stavrakopoulou is really funny, she's really engaging, you may have seen some of
her videos going viral on TikTok. I will link to some of those below if you want to check her out,
she's just fantastic, and also incredibly intelligent, and this book is so well researched.
So you will learn so much if you make this your Nonfiction November challenge. Crying in H Mart
by Michelle Zauner has been getting a ton of hype across BookTube, so this one would be a
great one to read in Nonfiction November so you can join in with some of those conversations.
This book actually started life as an essay that went viral, called Crying in H Mart,
and she then expanded this into a full memoir about grief. It's about her grieving her mother,
it's about her getting in touch with her cultural heritage through making food, Korean food, that
she remembers her mother making. It's about her exploring her own identity as a Korean American
woman. It's also about music. Michelle Zauner is herself an indie artist, you may know her
as the artist Japanese Breakfast. So this is a really moving memoir that so many people are
loving. Sista Sister by Candice Braithwaite is an essay collection full of essays about
all the things that Candice Braithwaite wished someone had talked to her about when she was a
young Black girl growing up in London. So Candice Braithwaite is very straight talking, but also
really warm and funny, and in this way she manages to navigate some really difficult conversations
in this book. Broken Heartlands would be a really good one to pick up for anyone who's interested in
politics. So you may have heard of the red wall, an area in the north of England and the midlands
which historically has always voted Labour, but in the 2019 election dramatically turned conservative
for the first time. So this is a road trip through 10 constituencies, interviewing people and finding
out what happened, what changed. Swan Dive by Georgina Pazcoguin, and that's one I've been
particularly excited about. So this is a dark behind the scenes look at the world of ballet.
The subtitle here is “the making of a rogue ballerina”. Georgina Pazcoguin was the first
Asian-American soloist with the New York City Ballet, an incredible achievement, and this book
takes us through her story. It's a love letter to ballet, but it also exposes the darker side,
it exposes the cutthroat mentality that exists in the world of ballet, and it also dives into the
aftershocks of the MeToo movement. Georgina Pazcoguin remains one of the few ballerinas
to be openly speaking up about sexual harassment. She also speaks openly about mental abuse and
racism that in the past had been just ignored or dismissed, so this book means that you will never
look at ballet quite the same way again. Then there's Manifesto by Bernardine Evaristo.
She is the author of Girl Woman Other and she is the first Black woman to have won the Booker
prize, so this is her manifesto about never giving up, written by someone who has actually
made history. I'm such a huge fan of Bernadine Evaristo's writing. Girl, Woman, Other,
the Booker prize winning book, is so so worth picking up, I really recommend that. We're not
talking about fiction today! We're talking about Manifesto, a really inspiring read. A book that is
painfully relevant to all of us right now is Until Proven Safe. This is the history of quarantine,
so this book looks back on quarantines that humans have imposed on themselves before, what the after
effects of those have been, and then looks into our future: what the world will look like for us
post-quarantine. I've got another memoir here, if that's your favourite type of non-fiction,
this is Maybe I Don't Belong Here by David Harewood, which is a really powerful memoir about
racism, mental health, breakdown, and ultimately recovery. In this book David Harewood looks back
30 years into his past, when he went through what he now understands to be a psychotic breakdown,
and he looks at the intersection of racism and mental health treatment. But of course we know
now that David Harewood went on to become the successful actor that he is today, so we also know
that we're going to follow his path of recovery. While we're on the topic of moving memoirs,
I've got here Lily's Promise which was written by a holocaust survivor along with her grandson.
Lily's story went viral earlier this year when she set out on a social media mission assisted
by her grandson to track down the American soldier who had liberated her from Auschwitz and given her
a banknote, on which he had wished her good luck and happiness. This search made headlines around
the world and finally gave Lily the chance to fulfill the promise that she had made herself
back when she was still in Auschwitz. She had promised herself that if ever she was freed,
she would tell the world her story. If you want to scare yourself and then reassure yourself,
I recommend Scary Smart by Mo Gawdat, which is all about the future of artificial intelligence.
This book looks at the very very real threat that artificial intelligence poses to humanity,
but it also looks at the solutions. And the best part is it puts those solutions in the hands of
ordinary everyday readers, like you and me. By 2049 there will be AI that is a billion
times more intelligent than humans. But as scary as that sounds, machines are not
the problem. This book gives us a blueprint for how we can save the future of humanity,
protect those we love, and protect our planet. And finally if you want to spend your Nonfiction
November reading something that makes you laugh, I actually have two recommendations for you of
comedians’ memoirs. So first up here I've got A Funny Life by Michael McIntyre. This is Michael
McIntyre's second autobiography. The first one took readers up to the moment where he got his
first big break. This book tells the story of Michael McIntyre navigating fame and success,
the amazing achievements that he had along the way, and also some of the slightly embarrassing
disasters. Of course it's written with Michael McIntyre's trademark hilarity,
so this one will keep you laughing the whole way through. Or another suggestion for a funny
Nonfiction November title would be Theroux the Keyhole. So this is the latest book from
Louis Theroux and it is all about his life in lockdown - and it is surprisingly relatable!
Louis Theroux is famous for interviewing some of the most unusual and eccentric characters
that our world has to offer, but during lockdown there was no one to investigate
but himself. So let me know in the comments below if any of those have sparked your attention, which
non-fiction titles you are gonna attempt to read this Nonfiction November. I will also link here to
a playlist of all of our other non-fiction videos for even more recommendations. See you next time!