Recent Reads: Non-Fiction

One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter - Scaachi Koul


A unique voice, Koul is the first generation Canadian daughter of Kashmiri immigrants whose stories will resonate with everyone. Even this extremely pale Northern European could relate to her piece on body hair. The essay “Mute,” about the online harassment she experienced after encouraging non-white, non-males to submit pieces to her workplace, is reason enough to get this book. It is horrifying and a must-read for all.  The rest of this book is just as fantastic. This is the first of Koul’s work I have read but I’m definitely following her everywhere now (you know, in a non-creepy, admirer of her writing way.)

All The Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers - Alana Massey

I picked up this book after reading a very short blurb which pretty much included the title and said it was one to read this year. Based on the title I was expecting a lighter commentary on pop culture, which it turns out this book is not. I often find it hard to read a book when it is nothing like what I expected. Despite that, I appreciated the subject matter of the essays and the way that Massey relates famous women and their lives to the issues that all women face simply because they are women. I had a difficult time when Massey related them to her own life as she just drops her personal information into the essays so anyone who is not familiar with her already may also have trouble fully understanding the connections.

The Rules Do Not Apply - Ariel Levy

When I first read the blurb for this book I was heartbroken and I knew I had to read it - “When thirty-eight-year-old New Yorker writer Ariel Levy left for a reporting trip to Mongolia in 2012, she was pregnant, married, financially secure, and successful on her own terms. A month later, none of that was true.” This is a poignant memoir about grief, adventure, and wanting it all. I was absolutely blown away by her honesty and as I read her story I felt thankful that she was allowing me into this part of her life. I think that is very a difficult thing for writers to make their readers feel but she did it expertly.

Comments

  1. MysticaApril 6, 2017 at 8:37 PM

    The first one particularly caught my interest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ShanApril 9, 2017 at 2:11 PM

      Yep, that one is so good! Definitely my favourite of the three.

      Delete

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