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For someone who claimed to have a strong fiction preference, I am realizing that I’m now a non-fiction kind of gal. Have I become more grounded in reality (always debatable), or has non-fiction undergone a makeover in the past several years?

I looked over my informal list of what I have been reading and enjoying in the last year, and the scales are definitely tipped toward non-fiction.

There is something heartwarming about a human writing about their favorite animal. Lynn Schurr does this in Tall Blondes, her treatise on giraffes.  Sy Montgomery writes what amounts to a love letter to her porcine companion in The Good, Good Pig (SF 395.6 .M66 2006) . Montgomery and her husband raise their pet pig (Christopher Hogwood) from piglet to senior pig citizen in this charming book. John Grogan alternately praises and groans about his dog in Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog (SF 429 .L3 G76 2005) . If you have ever owned an even slightly naughty dog, this book will make you laugh and possibly cry.

Complex topics like globalization and outsourcing become clear and fascinating in Thomas L. Friedman’s latest The World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Ole's Oasis HM 846 .F76 2006 or Audiobook HM 846 .F76 2006). I’ve particularly enjoyed this as a recorded book available at Mikkelsen Library. I am currently reading The Children’s Blizzard (F 595 .L28 2004) by David Larkin about the meteorologically perfect snowstorm in the 1880s and Three Cups of Tea (Ole's Oasis LC 2330 .M67 2006) by Greg Mortenson.  Mortenson, a former mountain climber has dedicated his life to building schools for boys and girls in Pakistan. This is the true story of how one person can change the world.

Anne Lamott is a perennial favorite of mine and her latest Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith doesn’t disappoint. I found further reflections on the life of faith in Eat. Pray. Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and in Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor.

Calvin Trillin writes a tribute to his wife in About Alice that is brief, funny, and truly moving.

What’s next on my list? The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Ole's Oasis HM 1033 .G53 2000) by Malcolm Gladwell because I so enjoyed his Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (BF 448 .G53 2005 or Audiobook BF 448 .G53 2005b). And then for fun, Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck: and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman.

Do you believe non-fiction has undergone a revival? Are non-fiction topics a little more interesting these days? Let me know what you have been reading lately, in any category, and happy summer!

Jan Brue Enright, MLS
Summer 2007