Reading Recommendations from 2022 – Nonfiction
If you’re a regular visitor to My Favorite Things, you’ll know I read a lot of nonfiction. Partly because a good fictional story won’t let me go to sleep at night and I’m a girl who needs a lot of sleep!
Today, I want to talk about three memoirs that I enjoyed over recent months and that I think you might enjoy too.
I’ll start with an incredibly moving memoir from a neurosurgeon who finds himself suddenly a patient rather than a doctor when he’s diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. That makes When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi sound like it’s depressing, but it really isn’t. Because Dr. Kalanithi’s journey through denial to acceptance to wisdom is inspiring and touching and so very, very human.
A death sentence when you’re only 36 and about to achieve your dream of becoming a fully qualified neurosurgeon seems so incredibly cruel, but it turns into an opportunity for the author to reconsider what makes life worth living. Including fatherhood.
This one made me cry. It’s a profound and heartfelt journey through life and death and meaning that has stayed with me for a long time since I finished it.
My second choice is a memoir from one of the people I most admire, singer and social activist and all-round good egg, Dolly Parton. This volume weighs a ton so perhaps it’s not ideal for commuting but it’s a wonderful read all the same and the many photographs are just gorgeous!
Dolly Parton: Songteller tells the fascinating story of Dolly’s life as she rises from a loving but very poor family to becoming a well-known country singer to turning into the international icon that she is today. The lyrics of a section of favorite songs from her oeuvre provide the framework for this incredible story. She talks about each particular song, including the inspiration behind it and where her life was at the time.
This one’s an emotional read too as Dolly comes to terms with struggle and failure and success beyond her wildest dreams. And it’s just wonderful to see how her image has changed over the years. As I said, the pictures in this one are worth the price of admission!
My last choice is a very Aussie-centric book that talks about our prolific and amazing birdlife, particularly in South-East Queensland where I grew up and currently live. In fact, when I was a student, I only lived a short walk away from the Vulture Street of the title!
Curlews on Vulture Street: Cities, Birds, People & Me by Darryl Jones tells the story of a young boy from Brisbane who fell in love with the avian creatures that surrounded him as he grew up in this lush, subtropical part of the world. Since then, Darryl has studied and researched and become a pre-eminent expert in the habits and life cycles of Australian birds and luckily for us, he’s decided to share that journey with the world.
One of the lovely things about living where both Darryl and I do is that there are native birds everywhere, including in the city. They’re beautiful and fascinating and an essential part of the pleasures of being a Queensland resident. When I read this one, I was constantly going, “Oh, yes!” or “I know just what you’re talking about!” or “I’ve seen just that myself.” That’s always nice in a book, isn’t it?
Even if you don’t live in South-East Queensland, this one’s really entertaining. It’s funny and clever and moving and insightful, and if you don’t already have enormous respect and love for flying feathered critters, it will instill that respect and love into you! I promise! I finished this book with a big smile on my face and it’s enriched my own observations of the many and varied birds around my home on the Sunshine Coast.