Various categories of nonfiction - the latest reviews.
By Mark Flanagan, About.com Guide to Contemporary Literature
Explore reviews of various forms of nonfiction here - biography, memoir, creative nonfiction, history, and more!
Biography & Memoir
Life experience distilled through writing - explore recent biographies and memoirs here.
- 'A Wolf at the Table' by Augusten Burroughs
- 'Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life' by Steve Martin
- 'Hurry Down Sunshine' by Michael Greenberg
- 'The Last Lecture' by Randy Pausch
- 'The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama' by Pico Iyer
- 'Trail of Crumbs' by Kim Sunee
- 'The Whale Warriors' by Peter Heller
- More Biography and Memoir Reviews
Creative Nonfiction
The creative essay remains the cornerstone of longtime periodicals like The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, while finding new and edgier voice in journals like McSweeney's. Sample some recent work here.
- 'A Man Without A Country' by Kurt Vonnegut
- 'I Am America (And So Can You!)' by Stephen Colbert
- 'Maps and Legends' by Michael Chabon
- 'State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America'
- 'Ultimate Blogs' edited by Sarah Boxer
- More Creative Nonfiction Reviews
History
A broad swath through History, informing where we're going by staying interested in where we've been.
- 'A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World' by Tony Horwitz
- 'Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations' edited by The Library of Congress
- 'Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA' by Tim Weiner
- The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth'
- 'Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu' by Laurence Bergreen
- 'Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World' by David Maraniss
- 'Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs' by Barbara Mertz
- More History Reviews
Philosophy and Religion
Fill up on philosophical or spiritual reading from this variety of selections.
- 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle
- 'The Mandala of Being' by Richard Moss
- 'Nothing to Be Frightened Of' by Julian Barnes
- 'The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama' by Pico Iyer
- More Philosophy and Religion Reviews
Science Writing
From nature writing to science journalism and various points along and off that path.
- 'Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex' by Mary Roach
- 'Brain Rules' by John Medina
- 'Natural Acts' by David Quammen
- 'The World Without Us' by Alan Weisman
- More Science Writing Reviews
Social Science
"Social Science" encompasses psychology, social issues, and pop sociology - from the brains of such luminaries as Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Levitt, and others.
