The 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge Completed

 

This year, for the 4th time, I took on the Nonfiction Reader Challenge, hosted by Shelleyrae at Book’d Out (https://bookdout.wordpress.com/).

I’ve finished the Challenge as a “Nonfiction Nibbler,” for which I had to “read and review any 6 books, from any 6 listed categories”. I also read a book in a 7^th category, and nonfiction books that didn’t fit into a category, or were in a category I had already reviewed (a lot of history and science). In addition to the 13 nonfiction books, I read a number of fiction books, but I don’t include fiction on this blog.

My Challenge wrap-up is:

• History: Lady Sapiens
• Science: The Smart Neanderthal
• Health: Vagina Obscura
• Culture: Image on the Edge
• True Crime: The Trial of Lizzie Borden
• Food: Ancestral Appetites
• Published in 2024: The Brothers Grimm

It’s difficult to say which book I liked best – they were all good choices for me. Perhaps The Smart Neanderthal stands out because it was my favorite book about Neanderthals out of the 3 that I read this year. There were two that were more of a challenge for me. Image on the Edge included a lot of detail about Medieval manuscripts that was very specific to art history, so it required a lot of concentration. And The Brothers Grimm was an interesting topic, but the writing was so dense and academic that I had to read it in stages – and I just skimmed over a lot of the material.

However, one of the reasons I enjoy this challenge is that it gives me ideas of nonfiction books to read that I otherwise wouldn’t have chosen. Now I'm looking forward to the books to read in 2025!