The best-written recent nonfiction
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Shell shock
10 min read
The article discusses 'The Remembered Soldier' whose protagonist Amand suffers from PTSD, 'then called shell shock' from WWI. Understanding the historical diagnosis, treatment, and evolution of understanding combat trauma provides essential context for the novel's themes.
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Stream of consciousness
13 min read
Anjet Daanje describes her distinctive style of long sentences without punctuation, no paragraphs, using 'and' to connect clauses—a technique directly related to stream of consciousness writing that mirrors her protagonist's fragmented mental state.
The best-written recent nonfiction»
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, NPR, THE NEW YORKER * ‘Quietly sacred, utterly beautiful’—SERVICE 95 * ‘Her greatest creation ... Will live on for decades yet’—THE TIMES
The pen scratches across the page rebel hump rebel hump rebel hump. What do these words mean, asks the pen. I don’t know, replies the wrist. These are the words forming and the writer, stationed at Dolina Charlotty, in a valley in northern Poland will decide later. Charlotty, a name evoking the porcelain face of a doll, left in the grass by a child so that she might go off to pick wild berries. Not for very long, yet long enough to be forgotten, and through the passing of time the abandoned doll becomes Charlotty in the rain, Charlotty in the snow, Charlotty pulled apart by a playful dog. Her porcelain head swathed in the shadows of beech trees growing higher through seasons of snow, of red then dead leaves. Seasons of sun fade the pink of her cheeks yet fail to subdue the impassive intensity of her marble eyes.
Our first pick is here> (US)»
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Nonfiction titles considered this month
Bread of Angels: A Memoir
by Patti Smith
Slow Poison
by Mahmood Mamdani
Things That Disappear
by Jenny Erpenbeck
In Love With Love
by Ella Risbridger
Attention
by Anne Enright
The Philosopher in the Valley
by Michael Steinberger
The Insider: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature
by Gerald Howard
The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
by Richard Bell
Indignity: A Life Reimagined
by Lea Ypi
Book of Lives
by Margaret Atwood
The Strength of Water: An Asian American Coming of Age Memoir
by Karin Jensen
The History of Money
by David McWilliams
Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-first Century
by W. David Marx
Mexico: A 500-year History
by Paul Gillingham
The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind
by Simon Winchester
Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult
by Ellen Huet
Capitalism
by Sven Beckert
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