My New Year’s resolution is to read a nonfiction book each month. I’d like to pair nonfiction with a topical fiction book to make it more fun. For example, I’m currently reading The Terror by Dan Simmons and then plan to read a nonfiction book about the search for the actual Franklin expedition. Another combination I had planned is You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue- paired with 1491 by Mann or Fifth Sun by Townsend.
I’m looking for more recommendations of great fiction books and nonfiction counterparts. Thanks!
by notcajuncoed
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The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn
Aloha Betrayed by Noenoe K. Silva
Both about Hawai’i in the 19th century. When the overthrow happened.
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keeffe and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Both fantastic and heartbreaking books.
Empire of Pain is about the people behind the opioid crisis and Demon Copperhead is about the human cost. Although they both have heavy subject matter they are still incredibly compelling and readable.
*Earth Abides*, a realistic post-apocalyptic novel by George R Stewart published in 1949 (King’s primary inspiration for *The Stand*, which could also work for this exercise), and Alan Weisman’s *The World Without Us,* a 2007 examination of what would happen to everything humans have built if we were to suddenly disappear.
The Hunger by Alma Katsu (fiction) and the Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown (nonfiction). These two are about the Donner party and both are terrifying.
Emma Perez’s *Forgetting the Alamo* x Catriona Rueda Esquibel’s *With Her Machete In Her Hand*, about Chicana lesbians in the borderlands
Peter Bacho’s *Dark Blue Suit* x Dorothy Fujita-Rony’s *American Workers, Colonial Power*, about the Filipino history of Seattle
A gentleman in Moscow
The girl from the Metropol hotel
Rocket Men by Robert Kurson (nonfiction)
The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield (fiction)
The Patriarchs by Angela Saini
The Power by Naomi Alderman
The first is a history of how patriarchy came to be so common. The second is science fiction about how that could change