What It’s About: Shoplifting, says Shtier (via reviewer Rachel Syme), is one of the many “activities we all think about but never discuss,” exactly the kind of taboo subject I like to read about in nonfiction. The statistics about shoplifting shared in Syme’s review of The Steal are pretty startling:
- Retail losses due to shoplifting have risen 8.8 percent since the start of the Great Recession.
- American families pay the highest “crime tax” in the world (the money each family “loses to theft-related price inflation”).
- Shoplifting a $5 heirloom tomato from Whole Foods means the store needs to sell $166 to deal with the loss.
One Sentence Summary: Between 1915 and 1970 almost six million African American migrated from the South to escape Jim Crow laws, which changed the entire face of the United States.
One Sentence Review: Wilkerson’s book manages to be both epic and deeply personal at the same time, and is the kind of nonfiction that changed the way I think about the world.
Why I Read It: This book was shortlisted for the Indie Lit Awards in nonfiction, and I am a judge for that panel. Opinions expressed in this review are my own, and don’t reflect the thoughts of the panel or reflect our ratings of the book.
Both Care (Care’s Online Book Club) and Jeanne (Necromancy Never Pays) said The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down was a book they wanted to read because I’ve been so enthusiastic about it. Enthusiastic is probably a nice way of putting it — it’s a narrative nonfiction book that I’m a little bit evangelical about.
See, nonfiction can be very topic focused, which means a particular book could be well-written and interesting and engaging, but not work for someone because the topic is so far off their radar. I’m a reader that loves learning about a huge variety of things, but not everyone is like that.
This is a little bit of a nontraditional Narrative Nonfiction 5 list, since I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call most of these books “narrative nonfiction.” They’re more classic nonfiction, even though the bits I’ve read of each do have a conversational style that I really appreciate.
The books on this list are all responses to the fact that technology is changing us as individuals and a society – some think for the better, and some think for the worse. Ever since I started my new job (working for a engineering trade magazine), it seems I can’t get enough of this discussion, and wanted to share some of the books I’m most excited about reading with you.
Two Sentence Summary: As a grad student, Ventaktesh befriended J.T., a gang leader from the projects in Chicago. Over several years, the two formed a tense friendship that allowed Ventaktesh unprecedented access to the inner-workings of life in the area and the gang’s role in the community.
One Sentence Review: Ventaktesh’s methods and lack of awareness of the implications of his project can be frustrating, but the book provides an intimate look into a world most people would prefer to ignore.
