Earl Grey Books

Nonfiction November is hosted by Olive from A Book Olive, and you can find the 2023 announcement video here. The whole purpose of the month is to read more nonfiction than you would in an average month—so if you’d read one, try and read two and so on. Olive also gives us four optional prompts which are pretty broad and can be interpreted however you want. I’ve decided to only cover one of them in these picks but I’m hoping to pick up a few more nonfiction titles than what I have listed here. But let’s get into them.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

I talked in September about a bunch of books I wanted to read before moving, including this one. I’ve not really picked any of those up yet, so it seems like a good time to start. I have the illustrated edition of this which is a heavy hardcover that’s more textbook-shaped than anything. I’m pretty sure I’m going to like this but I want to leave it in storage until we’re settled.

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade & The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

I’m joining these two together as they kind of fit the ‘Capital’ prompt. Both of these are about London—specifically, female authors in the 20s and 30s and then the women who were killed by Jack the Ripper. The prompt mentions reading a “biography” of a capital city and I argue that the literary scene and the Ripper murders are important parts of London’s history. I think this is going to be an either or situation—I don’t think I’ll have time for both.

Sex, Lies and Question Time by Kate Ellis

This is another from that pre-moving list, though I’m planning to listen to it on audio. It’s about women’s experiences working in the Australian government. Kate Ellis was an MP herself, but she also spoke to others including Julia Gillard, our only female prime minister to date. It’s only 280 pages so I’m hoping it’ll be a quick read.

Rebel Folklore by Icy Sedgwick

The last nonfiction I’ve picked out so far is Rebel Folklore, which I got through Libro in October. This is put out by DK so I’m imagining it’ll be a kind of simple but interesting overview of some folklore. This is less than 5 hours long on 1x speed so it should be a quick listen on the 1.5-1.75x speed I usually listen on. I’ve honestly picked this out because it’ll be nice to have something lighter between everything else.

I’m keeping the rest of my month pretty open to mood reading, especially as I’ve got another TBR for a readathon going live in a few days. Here’s hoping for a really good reading month in November!