A to Z April - N: Nonfiction

For today's post I'm kind of lumping a bunch of different types of books together.  There are so many different types of nonfiction, or "true" books.  I'm going to choose a few of my favorites that I actually read and share them with you.


1.  I already shared probably my favorite with you, and that was biographies/memoirs.  You can go back and read my post on that HERE.

2.  My second favorite group would probably be science.  As a former science teacher, with my undergraduate degree in biology and earth science.  Some of my favorite science books you can see below, and you can tell I guess, that I'm a huge dinosaur freak.  And the last one I actually included with my biography post back on #1, but it is a lot of science, and I loved that.



3.  My 3rd favorite type of nonfiction is humor.  This can be memoirs again, I love a funny life story.  Or else lately there have been some books based on technology type things that I read and it just cracks me up!!  Here are a few of my favorites.
 

4.  History is another area that I sometimes find interesting.  I don't know that I've actually read that many history books, and a lot of them though, are often true crime types of books.  Here are the ones I remember reading.  The last one I'm still reading.  I have it on my iphone and whenever I go somewhere and don't happen to have anything to read, I can pull it up and read. 



5.  The final type of nonfiction I like to "read" are cookbooks.  I technically don't read them, just look for recipes I like and then make them.  If I have time.  And I also picked this because I got to listen to the author of the Hungry Girl cookbooks, and now diet last night, so I wanted to share that picture.  But first I'll share 3 cookbooks I have actually used.

-->
And here is a picture of Lisa Lillien, the "Hungry Girl" herself, speaking last night at the Barnes and Noble where I work part time.

So, how about you? Do you read much nonfiction?  If so, what type do you like to read?

Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg

Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I know this isn't my usual YA fiction that I review most of the time, as it is a memoir of an adult comic. However, it does fit in with my love of YA in some ways. The fact that I am such a big fan that I have to read about things I love, and I love Simon Pegg movies! He is also quite the "fanboy" as he discusses over and over in this book. This memoir goes clear back to his boyhood, telling about when he first discovered a love of acting, to his love of movies of the zombie genre, as well as the Star Wars series. I loved reading about how these things developed in his life. I love how he can now go back and see how it seems as if things happened for a reason. Makes me wish something would happen in my life soon so that I can start seeing reasons for things that have happened in my life.



A couple things I didn't enjoy were his fictional story he added in to the book every few chapters. It really wasn't that funny, a few points made me laugh, like the referrals to Shawshank Redemption, but really, I would scan through those bits so fast to get on with the real stuff. The other part I didn't like he even discusses about how it is kind of annoying. People who go to film school and then must discuss all the symbolism in movies and what the filmmaker was trying to say in relation to the politics or world happenings of the day. It's the same way I felt whenever sitting in a literature class having to discuss the same things about books. I know, maybe the symbolism really is there, meant or not, but can't I just read a story and enjoy it for the story? Maybe that's why I have so much trouble finishing any stories I start, because I'm just writing a story, not trying to get a bunch of symbolism across. I don't know, just my opinion.



Reading the book made me eager to get out Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and watch them again. Also made me eager for Paul to be released on DVD so I can buy it and watch it, even though it wasn't quite as funny as the first two moves I've listed. It's also made me realize I must get a hold of the show Spaced and watch it.



View all my reviews

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 1.9 Part 2

Got done with a lot of grading tonight so that I can finish this blog. I've got 5 more books to share. So here we go.

First is Hater by David Moody. This is a grown-up novel. This is one of those covers that grabbed me. It is the title Hater as if in red paint, or blood maybe, splattered on a white background. So, I picked it up to read the back and see what it was about. All of a sudden people become violent, they turn into murderers, even to the point of killing their own loved ones. They call the people doing this haters, hence the title. Basically it is a type of zombie story, in that this is some kind of disorder. In fact, Guillermo Del Toro has bought the rights to this book for a movie, so I am looking forward to seeing that movie come out. In looking up the info on the book, I saw that it was self published first. Glad to see it got a wide release.

Second is I Totally Meant to Do That by Jane Borden. I believe this is a memoir by the author about growing up in a proper southern home as a debutante, then going away to a boarding school in Virginia, then joining a sorority in college. THEN, she moved to New York, where she found no one cared about all of this stuff. So she had to actually reconcile her past with the new "cool" she was living with. This sounds like it could be very funny! It's on my list to read!

Third is The Family That Couldn't Sleep by D.T. Max. This is actually in the medical section at the bookstore I work at. It is about a family that keeps having members die because they don't get enough sleep and they die of exhaustion. And the reason for these issues is traced to prions. Prions are very scary things. I recently lost an uncle to something like this. And so it is a personal interest to me to read and learn more about this, as well as a curiosity to the science teacher in me.

Fourth is Zombie Autopsies by Steven C. Schlozman. This is another grown-up book, probably even considered Science fiction. Anyway, you can probably see a trend of zombie books on my list to read, but a lot of them are so good, and many even have the little science details that I like so much. It is written as if it is the journal of a neuroscientist, who is actually already infected with the disease, called ataxic neurodegenerative satiety deficiency syndrome (ANSD). So he decides to go to an island to dissect zombies in order to try to find the cure in time to save himself as well as the world. I guess it is printed as if it is actually a handwritten journal.

And finally, a teen book called Entwined by Heather Dixon. This is more detailed/teen friendly version of a Grimm's fairy tale called the Worn-Out Dancing Shoes or the Twelve Dancing Princesses. There are 12 daughters in the royal family, and Azalea is the oldest. Their mother dies, and while they are supposed to be in mourning, they find a secret passageway that leads to another world where they can dance all night. But the Keeper of this world has other plans for the girls, evil plans. This sounds so good I can't wait to read it!