This week's Nonfiction November prompt is hosted by
Sarah's Book Shelves.
I love fiction/non-fiction pairings, so much so I've been researching them to fit a AtY challenge multi-week prompt. So this list is a mix of books I've read and those I intend to read.
Aza's life might be easier if she didn't know about the multitudes living inside her. John Green's novel is about a girl suffering from OCD, with her obsession being bacteria, and she talks about some of the things that are covered (I assume) in Ed Yong's book. "I contain multitudes" is a Walt Whitman quote that also pops up in
Turtles All the Way Down.
Knowing the history of the Radium Girls makes Brooke Bolander's novella all the more sad. In
The Only Harmless Great Thing, the girls are replaced by elephants after they discover the damage radium does. It interweaves an alternate history with Topsy the elephant, radioactivity, and the language of elephants.
This is one of my researched pairings so I can't say if either are any good but I recently stumbled upon this YA novel about a girl living in the shadow of a nuclear facility, and Full Body Burden is about the real life version (minus the film crew).
I sort of chose this pairing because the covers look so good together, but they are also both about life after slavery. My review of
Washington Black should be on my blog this week.
You can find links to more book pairings over on
Sarah's Book Shelves.
Great pairings! I was looking into Barracoon earlier this year after the publishing news. From your review, it doesn't sound like a riveting listen (at least the first part). Did it get better?
ReplyDeleteCudjo's part is worth it from a historical perspective but I'd say skip the intro, at least until you've heard it from his point of view.
DeleteCuriously your one brief comment about Washington Black is the one that has made me reconsider reading it. I haven't read many books about life after slavery, so now I'm interested.
ReplyDeleteThanks
These all look so interesting. I've been meaning to read I Contain Multitudes for a long time. Becoming obsessed with bacteria would be awful though - maybe we can't see everything for a reason.
ReplyDeleteVaried selection of pairings... You've intrigued me with the pairing that focuses on life after slavery. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletewow, great topics! my post is here: https://wordsandpeace.com/2018/11/07/nonfiction-november-2018-book-pairings/
ReplyDeleteInteresting pairings. Full Body Burden is on my list to read for sure. That one also made me think of Chris Bohjalian's Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands.
ReplyDeleteThe Radium Girls is one of my favorite books of the year! I didn't know about The Only Harmless Great Thing, it sounds interesting!
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