Stranger than Fiction

I started the 2022 Non-Fiction Reader Challenge at the beginning of the year, joining again after enjoying the concept in 2021. As in that year, I chose to read a book in each of the twelve categories, some of which I wouldn’t have chosen otherwise (like economics, weather, or linked to a podcast). The categories, with my choices: 1.  Social History - Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes 2.  Popular Science - The Big Necessity: Adventures in the World of Human Waste by Rose George 3.  Language - Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper 4.  Medical Memoir - My Lobotomy: A Memoir by Howard Dully 5.  Climate/Weather - The Secret World of Weather by Tristan Gooley 6.  Celebrity - The Hottentot Venus by Rachel Holmes 7.  Reference - The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht 8.  Geography - A Phenomenology of Landscape by Christopher Tilley 9.  Linked to ...

The full title of this book is The Secret World of Weather: How to read signs in every cloud breeze, hill, street, plant, animal, and dewdrop. I read this for the category Climate/weather of the 2022 NONFICTION READER CHALLENGE . It was written by Tristan Gooley, 2021. Gooley has written several books about awareness in nature (eg, How to Read Water, The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs, The Nature Instinct), but this is the first one I became aware of. I was particularly interested in the topic because I love hiking, birdwatching, gardening, and generally being in nature. And yet I don’t know much about reading signs of weather other than rain clouds on the horizon. The book is divided into 22 chapters, each one focusing on different aspects of nature that affect and reveal the weather. For example: How to Feel the Wind; Dew and Frost; Rain, Hail and Snow; The Trees; Plants, Fungi and Lichens; The Animals; and so on. Although I read through the book, for me it is the kind of ...

For the category Reference of the 2022 NONFICTION READER CHALLENGE , I chose The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, 1999. The disclaimer at the beginning of the book starts: “When a life is imperiled or a dire situation is at hand, safe alternatives may not exist. To deal with the worst-case scenarios presented in this book, we highly recommend – insist, actually – that the best course of action is to consult a professionally trained expert. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNDERTAKE ANY OF THE ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK YOURSELF.” (upper-case in book) Presumably the idea is to undertake the activities described in this book only when you are in the respective worst-case scenario. Fortunately, I have never been in any of these scenarios (at least not yet), but I was interested to see what some of the scenarios were and what is recommended. I started skimming through this book in a bookstore, and ending up buying it to continue reading. The book...

For the category Linked to a Podcast of the 2022 NONFICTION READER CHALLENGE , I chose Dirty John and Other True Stories of Outlaws and Outsiders, by Christopher Goffard, 2018. This was a difficult category for me because I don’t listen to podcasts much, and the two I’ve listened to aren’t linked to books. I chose this one because I saw the Netflix film, about a charismatic con man who over time terrorizes the woman he marries, and thought I’d get more insight into the motives and style of sociopaths who persuade other people into believing them. But this book didn’t do that. There are 15 chapters, each focused on a different person or person’s story. But many of them didn’t seem to be either an outlaw or an outsider (other than the fact that everyone is an outsider somewhere). In fact, throughout the book, I kept wondering what the stories had in common so that they were chosen for the same book. The blurb on the back includes: “… these pieces show people at their most brave,...