Booksology Much to the surprise of the book-loving world, Barnes & Noble announced that The Eye of Mona, by Thomas Schlesser and translated by Hildegard Serle, is its book of the year. But I couldn’t agree more with Samin Nosarat’s new cookbook Good Things winning the “Best Gift Book of the Year” award. This is definitely one of the standout books of the year. Of course, I already bought Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat as a gift for my favorite barista, and there’s a good chance she needs one too.
Amazon’s editors read it as if it were someone else’s problem. They devour anything with pages before choosing the “best” book of the year. This year, they gave us the top 20 books to peruse and named Buckeye by Patrick Ryan as their top pick of the year. We non-fiction fans never fear. There are some titles that we also enjoy.
Looking at the titles, you can’t help but notice that while fiction works feature authors from a wide range of backgrounds, nonfiction works are less diverse. These may be great true stories, but they all have certain things in common. Admittedly, with all this reading material, I could have offered a wider selection of nonfiction.
Every year, like clockwork, voting begins for the Goodreads Choice Awards. discourse begins. There are many legitimate issues being raised about the awards process and I would like to add my grievances to it. What do you mean there are only three non-fiction categories?! I love a good “dad” book, but for what ridiculous reason are biography and history always lumped together in the same category? You literally make the rules, Goodreads.
If fiction has different categories such as romance, fantasy, and romanticism, then history and biography must also have their own categories. Previously, it also intermittently included categories for humor, cookbooks, science and technology, business, and travel and outdoor books, but these have all disappeared over the years.
Admittedly, I’m waving the flag for my personal opinion a bit here, but nonfiction can captivate and engage people just as much as any other genre of fiction. More categories means more nonfiction books will be featured, potentially reaching new readers. So why not focus on the broader non-fiction genre?
You can find me on my Substack Winchester Ave, Instagram @kdwinchester, or on my podcast Read Appalachia. As always, feel free to contact me at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For more book content, check out my article on Book Riot.
