Welcome back to Book Break. This video is going to be all about non-fiction books - but don't panic,
I also find non-fiction can feel very scary and inaccessible sometimes. So this video is going to
be all about super easy accessible non-fiction books that anyone can enjoy. And they are all
fascinating. If you're not a complete non-fiction beginner, then keep listening till the end,
because I've got a slight level up selection at the end of the next stage: books for people who
have got their head around non-fiction and are ready for a slight challenge. But starting
from the beginning, I have got here A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee.
This book covers 4.6 billion years in just 12 chapters, and it's written in a really fun
way that makes it accessible for anyone, even people like me who know almost nothing about
science. The chapters have great names like A Song of Fire and Ice or Animals Assemble so that
gives you an idea that this is going to be fun to read. And it literally starts with the words
“once upon a time” so that is perfect for someone like me who is usually more comfortable with
fiction. Henry Gee is really really enthusiastic about the topic so that is always infectious,
it gets you really excited about it, and it's absolutely full of fascinating information. There
is no shortage of intellectual rigour in this book just because it's accessible. This is the
perfect way to learn about the history of all life on Earth. Not a small topic - but not a huge book!
A book that I absolutely tore through is The Clapback by Elijah Lawal. So this is your guide
to calling out racist stereotypes. So this is a social justice book that covers a lot of the
history of racism. It's full of really interesting and really heartbreaking statistics in here,
but it's so engaging. So it sort of goes through the evolution of negative stereotypes against
specifically Black people, so that you're kind of armed with the tools to fight back an
argument with anyone who uses those stereotypes. Not only can you tell them they're a stereotype,
you can explain why they're a stereotype, why they're untrue. This one's a gorgeous book,
Notes from Your Therapist by Allyson Dineen. So this is a book about feelings. So this
is based on Allyson Dineen's Instagram account @notesfromyourtherapist. So it's really visual and
it's literally full of little notes with amazing advice. Pretty much open it at any page and find
the perfect little note that you need for that day. And there are also pages here to explain in a
little bit more detail some things that you might need to better cope with your feelings. Just as an
example I really like this explanation: “Feelings are signals sent from your body's nervous system
about your physical and emotional state to tell you how you're doing and what you need.
You're meant to notice them.” So that's really important because so many of us
think that we're not supposed to feel scared, not supposed to feel sad, and actually your feelings
are there for a reason - listen to them, feel them. And another really great visual one. This
is a graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. So this is the story of her childhood in Iran. As
a teenager she actually left the country and lived in Europe and later on she returned back to Iran
and so this book really covers that whole journey - the literal journey and also the emotional
journey. For her the contradictions in her life between the various places that she's lived,
between public life and private life in Iran. It's really honest, it's really raw, it's really
funny at parts, it's very sad at parts, I really cannot recommend this one enough. Next up I've got
Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho. So this was his follow-up to
Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho. I really recommend both of them.
Both super accessible, both are all about diving into those questions that we need to be asking,
some of them that we are too afraid to ask, some of them that we haven't even thought
of asking but should be asking. So this one, Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Boy
specifically revolves around questions most relevant to younger people, and in communities
where younger people spend a lot of their time, so for example in schools. So it tackles questions
like “what terms are acceptable now to refer to Black people and why has that changed over time?”,
“if the n-word is such a bad word, why do my Black friends use it all the time?” And so it's
a very empathetic guide through those questions, to say it's okay for young people to be asking
these questions, in fact it's great to be asking these questions! It's an essential guide to being
a better ally. This one's a really fun one. How Stella Learnt to Talk by Christina Hunger. This is
another one that I tore through in one day. This is the story of the world's first talking dog. So
Christina Hunger is a speech therapist and she has been working for a long time with children who are
non-verbal and rely on external AAC machines to speak. So that side of the story alone is really
really interesting. I loved hearing more about her work but then Christina got a dog, a puppy called
Stella, and she started to think “can I help my dog communicate?” And that's exactly what she did.
She created this board of buttons that her dog could press to ask for specific things the dog
needed. And I have now bought all of the kit. I am teaching my dog to do it, she hasn't learned it
yet but we've only just started, it's only been a week, so I'm giving her time. This was just
fascinating and really interesting, could totally change the way that we interact with our animals.
Another great accessible book about mental health is A Beginner's Guide to Being Mental
by Natasha Devon. So this is literally an A to Z of mental health, from anxiety to zero
f's given. You get a real range in here. So a is for anxiety, b is for brain, f is for food,
talking about eating disorders and nutrition, l is for low, whether that's just feeling low, whether
that's depression, postnatal depression, t is for therapy, and z is for zero f's given: the art of
having high self-esteem. So there is something in here for everyone. We have all experienced
different problems with our mental health, different struggles with our mental health,
and no matter what those have been for you you can find some great advice in this book. And then
the last of my super super accessible nonfiction books is Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink. This
one is perfect for people who usually read fiction because it is all about reading fiction, it is all
about books and the joy they bring to our life. I absolutely loved this. Firstly I mean it's just
completely stunning, it's all about the comfort and joy of books. So it's Cathy Rentzenbrink’s own
memoir of her life told through the books that she read. Anyone who is a huge reader themselves will
see themselves mirrored in this book. You also hear so many nostalgic books that you definitely
would have read growing up and you get book recommendations at the end of each chapter.
Cathy suggests various books that you might want to read, so it's just these kind of curated book
recommendations from a book lover to other book lovers. You will not be able to put it down.
So those are all super super accessible nonfiction books that anyone can enjoy,
but I did just want to add on four more books that I'm calling my level up books,
because once you've got your head around reading nonfiction these are the next books that you
need to read once you've got the hang of reading nonfiction. These are four new non-fiction books,
they're really interesting and really engaging, you might initially find them a little bit scary
so I'm including them in here to say don't be put off, you can do it! This first one is God:
an anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou. So I know what you're thinking. This is a big book, this
is exactly the type of nonfiction book that might put off people who are a little hesitant about it,
but I urge you to go and watch some videos of Francesca Stavrakopoulou talking about
this book, talking about her research. I will link some below, you will absolutely fall in
love with her, she's fantastic. And once you've watched those you will not be able to resist
picking this up. Tt is a scholarly book, Francesca Stavrakopoulou is a very very intelligent person,
but it's also really engaging and she's got such an amazing voice. So this is her story of tracing
back the origins of God, the different forms that God has taken, and looking at his physical body
which he was once believed to have. And because religion has been so important throughout history,
this becomes more than a book about religion, it actually becomes a book about the origins of
western culture. Maybe I Don't Belong Here by David Harewood is a memoir of race, identity,
breakdown and recovery. So this is the actor David Harewood's story of having what he now understands
to be a psychotic breakdown, and looking back on that 30 years later and reflecting on it.
It's a really really engaging story. He is such a fantastic narrator, and it's a very personal
exploration of a bigger issue of the experience of being Black and British. He asks the question here
at the top “is it possible to be Black and British and feel welcome and whole?” That's a really
important question that we need to be looking at. Next I've got here Scary Smart by Mo Gawdat. This
is about the future of artificial intelligence and how you can save our world. So AI - a very
very scary topic that I know a lot of people might be put off reading about, but don't be because
this book is going to make you feel better about it. So the book acknowledges that yes,
technology is putting humanity as we know it at risk, but there is a way to fix it - and in fact
we, you and I, are the only ones who can. And then finally I've got here Seven and a Half Lessons
About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett, another absolutely stunning book. So this one might
scare people because it is a book written by a neuroscientist, and neuroscience is just the most
alien concept to me, but this book is a really accessible guide to our brains. If you're still
in doubt that you could ever read a book about the brain it is described here as a book that will
demystify “that big gray blob that lies between your ears” so that's fantastic news, because I've
got no idea what's going on in there. So it's told in seven and a half short chapters, you'll
have to read the book to see what that means, what the half is, so it is a really accessible, really
interesting, really engaging book about what's going on inside our heads. So I'd love to know
if you have any more recommendations like this, I am just kind of getting started on my non-fiction
journey so any more suggestions you have do put them in the comments below. I will also link
here to a playlist of all of our other non-fiction videos here on Book Break, and see you next time!