Reading List for 2019 (Nonfiction)

2019 has been a reaping year, writing-wise. I’ve upped my ante, reading-wise. I want to read more (don’t we all?), but I have several conflicting needs, between work, family and such.

This year, I’m breaking up reading between what’s been traditionally and indie published. One of my goals this year is to read more indie books and what a better way to enforce that by showing how much or how little I’m reading that’s indie! I also want to further break it down into digestible chunks into nonfiction and fiction.

So where am I this year? In January, based on my previous year’s reading, I set a goal to read 70 books this year, including finishing up one of two series I’ve been working on—The Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert, and The Culture series by Iain M. Banks. I want to read more Indie books, moving farther out of the traditional publishing zone (which, for me is a push… I still have many traditionally published books that I want to read).1

I’m past my goal and should hit a milestone I had attempted a few years ago before I went all in on my writing journey.

I could discuss the variety/diversity of authors I read, but I desire to enjoy a writer’s style through their work. To each their own, but I desire a good story, a good experience. And I have enough gaps in my reading that I’m often recommended older works, though I try to keep up with some new authors I enjoy.

So, what’s been interesting this year on the nonfiction side? I read 13 non-fiction books ranging from history (ancient and world war) to self-help and writing. Which ones stuck out to me?

I found Just and Unjust Wars by Michael Walzer an interesting read, even it if was slow, as is always the case with a lot of ideas to wade through. If you have the time and need something that makes you delve deeply into the subject of making war, this punches that ticket.

I read Robert McKee’s Dialogue, which I enjoyed immensely, gave me more thought to how we read (and thus how I write) dialogue. I’ll give it a second read as I revise my current work and may become a pivotal and referential work for me.

I also read Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About The People We Don’t Know. I enjoy Gladwell’s delivery and style ever since picking up his debut breakout The Tipping Point. However, this book, in my humble opinion, is his weakest. Taken in turn, each essay pulls something into a spotlight, forcing you to examine it. Unfortunately, the narrative thread used to tie it all together feels thin, and the book leaves more questions than answers and that’s uncomfortable or unsatisfying. If you enjoy his delivery and essay style, I’d still recommend it. If you’re on the fence, you may wish to give it a pass.

One more stuck out to me. I grew up in the Midwest and while my family didn’t have a lot of the deep and strong ties, there were several parallels to my life in J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. It’s been two months since I’ve read the book and I still think about it—how coming from lower income class roots has a profound impact on your life in not-so-subtle ways. The Information Age continues to connect us in thousands of ways, but the ways that matter are stretched thin.

There are quite a few more that I’ve read that were engrossing reads, but haven’t stuck deeply in my mind as thought-provoking or moving. Still, I’d recommend them. I read some to get a deeper understanding of various subjects (history, military history, writing, etc.) Here’s the rest of the list:

Historical:

U.S.S. Seawolf: Submarine Raider of the Pacific

By Gerold Frank, James D. Horan, J. M. Eckberg

Sink 'Em All: Submarine Warfare in the Pacific

By Charles A. Lockwood

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

By Yuval Noah Harari

Caesar: Life of a Colossus

By Adrian Goldsworthy

The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome

By Susan Wise Bauer

Midnight Son