R&R's Summer Reading Recommendations! (Part 2: Nonfiction)
30 More Fantastic Books to Add to Your End-of-Summer Reading List
Last week we released a list of 30 fiction recommendations to add to your end-of-summer reading list. This week, we’ve got 30 of our favorite nonfiction reading recommendations, both old and new, from the big batch of books we’ve discussed on our Aesthetic Arrest Podcast.
Part 2 is focused on nonfiction, with a mix of inspiring memoirs, powerful essays, delicious food & travel writing, provocative cultural history, and profound wisdom from Epicurus to James Baldwin to Thich Nhat Hanh. Enjoy!
Click here if you missed Part 1. And check back next week for Part 3 with our poetry recommendations!
R&R's Summer Reading Recommendations! (Part 2: Nonfiction)
The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now by Thich Nhat Hanh
“Containing the essence of the Buddha’s teachings and Thich Nhat Hanh’s poignant, timeless, and clarifying prose, The Art of Living provides a spiritual dimension to our lives. This is not an effort to escape life or to dwell in a place of bliss outside of this world. Instead, this path will allow us to discover where we come from and where we are going. And most of all, it will generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply in each moment of our life, right where we are.” [Source]
Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A. J. Liebling
“In his nostalgic review of his Rabelaisian initiation into life’s finer pleasures, Liebling celebrates the richness and variety of French food, fondly recalling great meals and memorable wines. … In A.J. Liebling, a great writer and a great eater became one, for he offers readers a rare and bountiful feast in this delectable book.” [Source]
The Black Box: Writing the Race by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. Here, he returns with an intellectual and at times deeply personal meditation on the hard-fought evolution and the very meaning of African American identity, calling upon our country to transcend its manufactured divisions.” -- Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste [Source]
Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon
“Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation’s backroads. … William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about ‘those little towns that get on the map -- if they get on at all -- only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill’ … His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.” [Source]
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
“In The Book of Delights, one of today’s most original literary voices offers up a genre-defying volume of lyric essays written over one tumultuous year. The first nonfiction book from award-winning poet Ross Gay is a record of the small joys we often overlook in our busy lives. … The Book of Delights is about our shared bonds, and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. These remarkable pieces serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake out a space in our lives for delight.” [Source]
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Desmond Tutu & the Dalai Lama
“Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships--or, as they would say, because of them--they are two of the most joyful people on the planet. … In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives.” [Source]
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
“‘An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.’ -- Dwight Garner, The New York Times … In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched, and beautifully written narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. … Original and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.” [Source]
Culture: The Story of Us, from Cave Art to K-Pop by Martin Puchner
“What good are the arts? Why should we care about the past? For millennia, humanity has sought to understand and transmit to future generations not just the ‘know-how’ of life, but the ‘know-why’--the meaning and purpose of our existence, as expressed in art, architecture, religion, and philosophy. … In Culture, acclaimed author, professor, and public intellectual Martin Puchner takes us on a breakneck tour through pivotal moments in world history, providing a global introduction to the arts and humanities in one engaging volume. … Witty, erudite, and full of wonder, Puchner argues that the humanities are (and always have been) essential to the transmission of knowledge that drives the efforts of human civilization.” [Source]
The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey
“The Darkening Age is the largely unknown story of how a militant religion deliberately attacked and suppressed the teachings of the Classical world, ushering in centuries of unquestioning adherence to ‘one true faith.’ … Despite the long-held notion that the early Christians were meek and mild, going to their martyrs’ deaths singing hymns of love and praise, the truth, as Catherine Nixey reveals, is very different. Far from being meek and mild, they were violent, ruthless, and fundamentally intolerant. Unlike the polytheistic world, in which the addition of one new religion made no fundamental difference to the old ones, this new ideology stated not only that it was the way, the truth, and the light but that, by extension, every single other way was wrong and had to be destroyed. … Authoritative, vividly written, and utterly compelling, this is a remarkable debut from a brilliant young historian.” [Source]
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
“A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution--from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality--and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation. … Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there. … The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action.” [Source]
Eve’s Hollywood by Eve Babitz
“A legendary love letter to Los Angeles by the city’s most charming daughter, complete with portraits of rock stars at Chateau Marmont, surfers in Santa Monica, prostitutes on sunset, and Eve’s own beloved cat, Rosie. … Journalist, party girl, bookworm, artist, muse: by the time she’d hit thirty, Eve Babitz had played all of these roles. … This ‘daughter of the wasteland’ is here to show us that her city is no wasteland at all but a glowing landscape of swaying fruit trees and blooming bougainvillea, buffeted by earthquakes and the Santa Ana winds--and every bit as seductive as she is.” [Source]
Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom
“Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. As an activist, psychotherapist, conflict mediator, and spiritual healer, she’s always pursued the same deeply personal mission: to embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being, no matter how hateful or horrible, is intrinsically sacred. … But then Kai Cheng found herself in a crisis of faith, overwhelmed by the viciousness with which people treated one another, and barely clinging to the values and ideals she’d built her life around: justice, hope, love, and healing. Rather than succumb to despair and cynicism, she gathered all her rage and grief and took one last leap of faith: she wrote. … What emerged was a blueprint for falling back in love with being human.” [Source]
The Fire Next Time; Nobody Knows My Name; No Name in the Street; The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin
“Novelist, essayist, and public intellectual James Baldwin is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. This Everyman’s Library collection includes his bestselling, galvanizing essay The Fire Next Time--which gave voice to the emerging civil rights movement of the 1960s and still lights the way to understanding race in America today--along with three additional brilliant works of nonfiction by this seminal chronicler and analyst of culture. … Baldwin’s stunning prose over and over proves relevant to our contemporary struggle for equality, justice, and social change.” [Source]
The Fran Lebowitz Reader by Fran Lebowitz
“In the vein of Lebowitz’s acclaimed Netflix limited series, Pretend It’s a City--The Fran Lebowitz Reader brings together two of the famed author’s bestsellers, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies. … In ‘elegant, finely honed prose’ (The Washington Post Book World), Lebowitz limns the vicissitudes of contemporary urban life--its fads, trends, crazes, morals, and fashions. By turns ironic, facetious, deadpan, sarcastic, wry, wisecracking, and waggish, Fran Lebowitz is always wickedly entertaining.” [Source]
The Gastronomical Me by M. F. K. Fisher
“In 1929, a newly married M.F.K. Fisher said goodbye to a milquetoast American culinary upbringing and sailed with her husband to Dijon, where she tasted real French cooking for the first time. The Gastronomical Me is a chronicle of her passionate embrace of a whole new way of eating, drinking, and celebrating the senses. As she recounts memorable meals shared with an assortment of eccentric and fascinating characters, set against a backdrop of mounting pre-war tensions, we witness the formation not only of her taste but of her character and her prodigious talent.” [Source]
Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good by Tina Turner
“Tina was a global icon of inspiration. And here, with Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good, Tina shows how anyone can overcome life’s obstacles--even transform the ‘impossible’ to possible--and fulfill our dreams. She shows how we, too, can improve our lives, empowering us with spiritual tools and sage advice to enrich our unique paths. … Here, Tina shares the wisdom of an extraordinary lifetime in Happiness Becomes You making this the perfect gift of inspiration for you or a loved one.” [Source]
I’ll Never Write My Memoirs by Grace Jones
“Iconic music and film legend Grace Jones gives an in-depth account of her stellar career, professional and personal life, and the signature look that catapulted her into the stardom stratosphere. … Grace Jones takes us on a journey from Grace’s religious upbringing in Jamaica to her heyday in Paris and New York in the ‘70s and ‘80s, all the way to present-day London, in what promises to be a no holds barred tell-all for the ages.” [Source]
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
“The masterpiece of travel writing that revolutionized the genre and made its author famous overnight … Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia teems with evocative descriptions, remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes. … An instant classic upon publication in 1977, In Patagonia is a masterpiece that has cast a long shadow upon the literary world.” [Source]
A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel
“A galvanizing look at life on the margins of society by a crowning figure of Latin America’s queer counterculture who celebrated ‘melodrama, kitsch, extravagance, and vulgarity of all kinds’ (Garth Greenwell) in playful, performative, linguistically inventive essays, now available in English for the first time … ‘I speak from my difference,’ wrote Pedro Lemebel, an openly queer writer and artist living through Chile’s AIDS epidemic and the collapse of the Pinochet dictatorship. In brilliantly innovative essays--known as crónicas--that combine memoir, reportage, fiction, history, and poetry, he brought visibility and dignity to sexual minorities, the poor, and the powerless.” [Source]
The Pocket Epicurean by John Sellars
“A short, smart guide to living the good life through the teachings of Epicurus. … As long as there has been human life, we’ve searched for what it means to be happy. More than two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Epicurus came to his own conclusion: all we really want in life is pleasure. Though today we tend to associate the word ‘Epicurean’ with indulgence in the form of food and wine, the philosophy of Epicurus was about a life well lived even in the hardest of times. As John Sellars shows in this concise, approachable guide, the ideal life envisioned by Epicurus and his followers was a life much more concerned with mental pleasures and the avoidance of pain. Their goal, in short, was a life of tranquility or contentment.” [Source]
A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today by Kate Bornstein
“Gender theorist, performance artist, and author Kate Bornstein is set to change lives with her stunningly original memoir. Wickedly funny and disarmingly honest, this is Bornstein’s most intimate book yet, encompassing her early childhood and adolescence, college at Brown, a life in the theater, three marriages and fatherhood, the Scientology hierarchy, transsexual life, LGBTQ politics, and life on the road as a sought-after speaker. … ‘A singular achievement and gift to the generations of queers who consider her our Auntie, and all those who will follow.’ --Lambda Literary” [Source]
Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock
“In her profound and courageous New York Times bestseller, Janet Mock establishes herself as a resounding and inspirational voice for the transgender community--and anyone fighting to define themselves on their own terms. … With unflinching honesty and moving prose, Janet Mock relays her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and trans in America, offering readers accessible language while imparting vital insight about the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of a marginalized and misunderstood population. … Redefining Realness is a powerful vision of possibility and self-realization, pushing us all toward greater acceptance of one another--and of ourselves--showing as never before how to be unapologetic and real.” [Source]
The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel
“How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what is the Baroque anyway? … Guided by Katy Hessel, art historian and founder of @thegreatwomenartists, discover the glittering paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance, the radical work of Harriet Powers in the nineteenth-century United States and the artist who really invented the ‘readymade.’ … From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, this is the history of art as it’s never been told before.” [Source]
The Story of Film by Mark Cousins
“An updated edition - with completely new chapters - of the most accessible and compelling history of the cinema yet published … Avoiding jargon and obscure critical theory, the author constantly places himself in the role of the moviegoer watching a film, and asks: ‘How does a scene or a story affect us, and why?’ … Clearly written, and illustrated with over 400 stills, including numerous sequences explaining how scenes work, The Story of Film is essential reading for both film students and moviegoers alike.” [Source]
The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading about Eating, and Eating While Reading by Dwight Garner
“Garner gathers a literary chorus to capture the joys of reading and eating in this comic, personal classic. … Dwight Garner, the beloved New York Times critic and the author of Garner’s Quotations, serves up the intertwined pleasures of books and food. … Through his lifelong infatuation with these twin joys, we meet the man behind the pages and the plates, and a portrait of Garner, eager and insatiable, emerges. … This is a book to be savored, though it may just whet your appetite for more.” [Source]
Voices of Time: A Life in Stories by Eduardo Galeano
“In this kaleidoscope of reflections, renowned South American author Eduardo Galeano ranges widely, from childhood to love, music, plants, fear, indignity, and indignation. … Out of these meditations emerges neither anger nor bitterness, but a celebration of a blessed life in a harsh world. … Poetic and passionate, scathing and lyrical, delivered with Galeano’s inimitable mix of gentle comedy and fierce moral judgment, Voices of Time is a deeply personal statement from a great and beloved writer.” [Source]
When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
“Jennifer Keishin Armstrong tells the little-known story of four trailblazing women in the early days of television who laid the foundation of the industry we know today. … Irna Phillips turned real-life tragedy into daytime serials featuring female dominated casts. Gertrude Berg turned her radio show into a Jewish family comedy that spawned a play, a musical, an advice column, a line of house dresses, and other products. Hazel Scott, already a renowned musician, was the first African American to host a national evening variety program. Betty White became a daytime talk show fan favorite and one of the first women to produce, write, and star in her own show. … It’s time we reclaimed their forgotten histories and the work they did to pioneer the medium that now rules our lives.” [Source]
Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler
“From a global icon, a bold, essential account of how a fear of gender is fueling reactionary politics around the world. … Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker whose iconic book Gender Trouble redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on ‘gender’ that have become central to right-wing movements today. … Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement has sought to nullify reproductive justice, undermine protections against sexual and gender violence, and strip trans and queer people of their rights to pursue a life without fear of violence. … Imagining new possibilities for both freedom and solidarity, Butler offers us a hopeful work of social and political analysis that is both timely and timeless--a book whose verve and rigor only they could deliver.” [Source]
The World: Life and Travel 1950-2000 by Jan Morris
“The first book to distill Jan Morris’s entire body of work into one volume, The World is a magnum opus by the most-celebrated travel writer in the world. To read it is to take an epic armchair journey through the last half of twentieth-century history. A breathtakingly vivid guide to our greatest cosmopolitan cities and cultures from Manhattan to Venice and from Baghdad to Barbados, this book assembles fifty years of Morris’s finest travel writing. With eyewitness accounts of such seminal moments as the first successful ascent of Everest, the Eichmann trial, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the handover of Hong Kong, The World promises to create an entirely new generation of Jan Morris readers.” [Source]
World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever
“A guide to some of the world’s most fascinating places, as seen and experienced by writer, television host, and relentlessly curious traveler Anthony Bourdain … In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places--in his own words. … For veteran travelers, armchair enthusiasts, and those in between, World Travel offers a chance to experience the world like Anthony Bourdain.” [Source]
Click here to see the full list (all available for purchase) at our Epicurean Vagabonds storefront at Bookshop.org!
Click here if you missed Part 1. Check back next week for Part 3 with our poetry recommendations!
And tell us in the comments — what’s on your summer reading list?