Way back in February, I was part of a booktube collab where we read the last 10 years of Goodreads Choice Award winners in different categories. I read non-fiction and you can see my video here, as well as find the links to other people’s versions.
I’ve been sitting on this post of the reviews ever since and just never finished them so today instead, I’m sharing a couple of sentences about each of them so that I can just move this post on. It’s the middle of the year, you’re going to see a lot of me cleaning out my half-finished posts.
But without further ado, let’s get into it. This is in order from the 2012 winner to the 2021, and I did write full reviews of the first two.
The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin
I was honestly very nervous about reading this one. I’d watched the movie about Temple Grandin (which is helpfully just called Temple Grandin) back in 2018 and then tried to pick this up a few months later and didn’t get far. I had a much easier time reading it this time around, though there were a couple of things I didn’t enjoy. We’ll start with the pros though. For one, it’s a really interesting book—there’s quite a lot of scientific/neurological research, but it’s tied in with both Grandin’s and others’ personal experiences. I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly accessible book, because of that scientific/neurological side there was a lot I didn’t completely understand but it was still really fascinating. It’s obvious how passionate Grandin is about learning more about her own autism but also educating others, and I think that stops it from ever becoming overly dry. The only issue I had with this was the fact that some of the medical terms used are close to things like the ‘r-word’ and other ableist terms. It’s a bit of a difficult situation because on one hand, yes that is technically a term used, but on the other, I hate those words. It’s a fine line, but I think most of the time, Grandin didn’t use anything outside of its particular context. All in all, I was really glad I ended up having to pick this one up.
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
This was the only book on this list I’d read before this project began, and I remember not enjoying it at all. Well, jokes on me because after rereading it and really enjoying it, I looked back on my original review to see that I really enjoyed it the first time too. Just like in my first review, I found the short fiction to be much stronger and more enjoyable than the non-fiction though I’d expected the opposite. One piece of fiction, I think it’s one of the first few pieces, has really stuck with me this time—it’s been more than two months since I read this, and I still think about it every few days. I don’t know what it was, but the fiction just really worked for me. In comparison, I found the non-fiction pretty uninteresting, and there wasn’t a single piece that really grabbed me. This was the first one I ended up reading for the project, and I’m so glad I ended up starting with something so enjoyable.
As you can see, this is the point of the post where I gave up so welcome to the proper mini-review section of this post.
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
This was TERRIBLE. I do not say that lightly. Ansari gives off major creepy vibes throughout this whole book and tries way too hard to be funny. With a different person at the head of this book, this might’ve been interesting.
Hamilton: The Revolution by Jeremy McCarter and Lin-Manuel Miranda
This was a really, really interesting read as a huge Hamilton fan. I don’t often read this sort of thing but I really enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look and learning some of the inspiration between particular lines or actions or whatever. A worthy read.
How To Be A Bawse by Lilly Singh
A reasonably standard and boring self-help that doesn’t actually offer any new tips or techniques from anything else you could read. Singh spends a lot of time name-dropping celebrities who have given her advice but never actually sharing what that advice was.
Fear by Bob Woodward
I DNFed this one, I don’t even remember at what point. This is probably okay if you’re either American or know a lot about American politics, but less fun when you’re just reading it for a video. It’s absolutely filled with anagrams for different bodies and agencies to the point where some of them just had to be made up, I swear.
Girl, Stop Apologising by Rachel Hollis
Rachel Hollis is an absolute trashfire and that should tell you basically everything you need to know about this book. She’s not reinventing the wheel here either.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
This is the sort of teenage/YA version of Kendi’s original book—it has a lighter feel to it with jokes and different slang and all that. As someone who isn’t a teenager, I struggled a little with that and wished that I was reading the original instead, but this was still a good read.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
This book gave me all kinds of hell because I got mixed up and read the wrong thing. When I did get around to this one, I was actually pleasantly surprised. This is quick, fun and made me remember why I enjoyed watching John as a teenager.
Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown
Surprisingly, my favourite from the whole video. This came to me at a time where I needed something like this and there were a couple of things that I learnt about myself from it. Have I actually really thought of it since finishing the video? No, but I appreciated reading it at the time.
Earl Grey Books 