Library Blog

It’s November and what a great time to extol the virtues of reading nonfiction. Adding nonfiction to your reading diet can teach you a new skill, impart new knowledge, inspire action, and even entertain. Our new nonfiction section is a great place to browse to keep up with fascinating new books that are being published. Here are some staff picks featuring newer nonfiction. We hope you find something to enjoy. 

  James recommends . . . 

Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America: Essays  
by R. Eric Thomas 

A hilarious and relatable memoir-in-essays, frequently recommended for fans of David Sedaris. The author explores growing up different from those around him and engages with a world where he is often an outsider with wit, humor, and heart. This is one those books where I can just say: read it; you'll probably enjoy it. 

Find Here for It in the library catalog Here
Also available in digital format:
Montana Library2Go eBook and eAudiobook
Axis 360 eBook 

Jessica suggests . . .  Erosion: Essays of Undoing  
 by Terry Tempest Williams 

 “To dwell is to see things as they are,” Evangeline Gray said. “And then, you stay and fight for those things you see for your community.” -Dwelling 

In Erosion: Essays of Undoing, Williams ponders the repercussions of dismantling our national parks, the division and dissolution of our country’s democracy, and the fragmentation we feel within ourselves by bearing witness to it all.  As is true with much of her other books, she has a way of transforming heartbreak into hope. We can’t stop the world from warming, but we can ignite a fire within ourselves to change. 

Find Erosion in the library catalog Here
Also available in digital format:
Hoopla eAudiobook 

Shane suggests . . . 

Gory Details 
by Erika Engelhaupt 

An entertaining and enlightening read.  The author uses humor and scientific understanding to bring some dark topics into the light.  I've found some comforts reading this and I've also found some new fears, but at least I have a better understanding of these things.  Makes for some interesting conversation material, too.   

Find Gory Details in the library catalog Here
Also available in digital format:
Hoopla eBook and eAudiobook 

Terri recommends . . . 

I Contain Multitudes: the microbes within us and a grander view of life 
by Ed Yong 

I loved I contain multitudes: the microbes within us and a grander view of life.  It is an interesting topic and written in a way that kept me reading.

Find I Contain Multitudes in the library catalog Here
Also available in digital format:
Montana Library2Go eAudiobook
Hoopla eBook and eAudiobook 

Sherry recommends . . .

Hidden Valley Road 
by Robert Kolker 

The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. 

Find Hidden Valley Road in the library catalog Here 
Also available in digital format:
Montana Library2Go eBook and eAudiobook

Rachel recommends . . . 

In the Shadow of the Empress  
by Nancy Goldstone 

This book is about Empress Maria Therese of Austria who was the mother of Marie Antoinette as well as two of Marie Antoinette's sisters. Nancy Goldstone is a narrative historian so she presents the information as a story rather than just facts which I think really helps history where everyone's names are pretty much the same! I have read Nancy Goldstone’s other books and enjoyed them as well! 

 Find In the Shadow of the Empress in the library catalog Here 

Have you read any great nonfiction lately? Log in and tell us about it in the comment section below.