Week Eight - Nonfiction

Why do people read narrative nonfiction? Reasons are many and varied, not unlike reasons for reading fiction. Both have various appeal characteristics and genres and can work well together in readers’ advisory.
Week 8: Assignment 1Read the following two articles for an introduction to nonfiction readers’ advisory.

• Borderlands: Crossing between Nonfiction in Readers’ Advisory
• Reading Nonfiction for Pleasure: What Motivates Readers?

Week 8: Assignment 2View this E-Learning video produced by the Maryland State Library Resource Center.
Week 8: Assignment 3Choose any four of the 16 nonfiction genres presented in the video. In what Dewey area(s) did you find narrative nonfiction in these genres? List each of the four genres and their Dewey areas on your blog. Choose one book from each of these four genres that you could recommend to someone who normally reads only fiction. List these titles and their authors.

Overcoming Adversity -- when performing a subject search I found 9 titles in non-fiction in the BCPL catalog:
   

• Autobiography of a face by Grealy, Lucy  362.1969 G
•  Finding my voice by Rehm, Diane  Bio REHM
• Finding fish : a memoir by Fisher, Antwone Quenton.  Bio FISHER
• Lucky man a memoir by Fox, Michael J.  Bio FOX
• A song flung up to heaven by Angelou, Maya  Bio ANGELOU
• Blind faith : the miraculous journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder's mother : an authorized biography of Lula Hardaway by Love, Dennis  Bio HARDAWAY
• Devil at my heels by Zamperini, Louis.  Bio ZAMPERINI
• Truth & beauty : a friendship by Patchett, Ann.  Bio PATCHETT

I am pretty sure we have more titles that would fit this category that aren't cataloged under this subject heading.  Positive, in fact.

Ok, something is amiss in the BCPL catalog.  I've done a search for the subject heading "Adventure" and then narrowed the findings to Non-fiction.  And I get six titles.  A few of which are fiction.  Huh.

 

Then I browsed the Adventure subject headings and picked Adventure Stories, American and narrowed to nonfiction.  I got four titles, all are in the 910 area and all seem to be cross-over travel/adventure writing:

• A wolverine is eating my leg by Cahill, Tim.
• Jaguars ripped my flesh by Cahill, Tim.
• Pass the butterworms : remote journeys oddly rendered by Cahill, Tim.
• Pecked to death by ducks by Cahill, Tim.

Oh, yeah.  And they are all by Tim Cahill, who has a penchant titling his works with animals combined with awesome descriptive verbs. 

 

I had a little better luck with Travel, under the Voyages and Travel subject heading.  78 nonfiction titles including:

• Sand in my bra and other misadventures : funny women write from the road, 910.4 S
•  Three weeks with my brother by Sparks, Nicholas, Bio SPARKS
• Smile when you're lying : confessions of a rogue travel writer by Thompson, Chuck., 910.4 T
• NPR road trips: postcards from around the globe, CD 791.44 N

And now for food, which often crosses over to travel:

 

• A cook's tour : in search of the perfect meal by Bourdain, Anthony. 641.013 B
• The year of eating dangerously : a global adventure in search of culinary extremes / Tom Parker Bowles., 641 P
• Fair shares for all : a memoir of family and food by Haney, John, Bio HANEY
• I loved, I lost, I made spaghetti by Melucci, Giulia.  646.77 M

 

Week 8: Assignment 4Using appeal factors, write a 1-2 paragraph book talk for two of the four titles you would recommend, noting who you would recommend them to and why. Post these on your blog.

Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures
If you like funny stories, in the vein of Bridget Jone's Diary (Helen Fielding), or Sophie Kinsella or Candace Bushnell, you may enjoy the short essays and writings from Sand in My Bra.  The featured writers and comedians such as Sarah Vowell, Ellen DeGeneres, and Anne Lamott, provide humorous insight to what was going on in their minds on what should have been traditional travel romps.  While these are travel tales, the focus is on the mishaps of our heroines, and the unexpected antics that occurred with their fabulous luck.  Stories that very well could have been featured in episodes of Sex and the City, Friends, or Seinfeld.


A Cook's Tour, or pretty much any cuisine/travel book by Anthony Bourdain
Want the adventure, but don't want to reinvent the wheel?  Want the adventure, but may a lil' preview before you dive head-first?  Foodies and travelers with insatiable wanderlust will enjoy reading Bourdain's descriptive, humorous, and insightful works covering exotic meals, locations, and also the people and places behind the cuisine.  He is as much a character as one might find in traditional fiction, with his rants and frank opinions.  Readers who enjoy the accounts of an eating adventurer will appreciate Bourdain's reality.