I’m delighted to be taking part in this year’s Nonfiction November, an annual celebration by and for nonfiction book bloggers.

Week 1 is hosted by Heather @ Based on a True Story. The writing prompt is:

Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

In the past twelve months I’ve read 25 books. Here’s the breakdown by category:

Environment, climate & nature	10
Personal development, health & wellness	5
Science & mathematics	3
History	2
Philosophy	2
Psychology	1
Humor	1
Fiction	1

Pretty obvious where I’ve been focusing for the past year.

I’ll just highlight a few books that I particularly enjoyed. The links point to my reviews.

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
By Oliver Burkeman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2021

If you live to the age of eighty, you’ll be alive for just over four thousand weeks. It’s an “absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly” short time, says Oliver Burkeman, the author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. This is not your typical time management book. It’s not trying to sell you a system or help you become more efficient. Instead, Four Thousand Weeks tries to give you a more fundamental perspective about how to live your life the way you want to live it. 

Burkeman encourages us to accept the impossibility of doing everything that’s demanded of us, even the things we demand of ourselves. We have to accept our finitude and make hard choices about the things we spend our time on.

Ultimately that will lead more authentic and more satisfying lives.

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
By Elizabeth Kolbert
Crown, New York, 2022

Scientists say we’re now living in a new geologic epoch called the Anthropocene in which human activity has significantly altered Earth’s systems, climate and even its geology. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert is a report card from some of the hot spots of the Anthropocene.

Under a White Sky is a short, fabulously written book, probably the best writing I’ve read all year. It’s part science journalism and part travelogue. Kolbert visits Chicago, New Orleans, the Greenland ice sheet, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and other locations to investigate some of the thorniest environmental problems we’ve created in the Anthropocene. She looks at some potential solutions too.

Some of them might even work.

Introduction to Modern Climate Change, 3^rd Edition
By Andrew E. Dessler
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2022

My favorite this year, without a doubt, is Introduction to Modern Climate Change by Andrew E. Dessler, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. It’s a college level textbook aimed at both science and non-science majors. Don’t let that put you off. It’s only 260 pages. Anyone with basic high school algebra and chemistry will have no trouble understanding the material.

I learned so much from Introduction to Modern Climate Change, especially the first half of the book explaining how Earth’s climate works. This is the most technical book on climate change I’ve read so far and it gave me a much better grounding in the science of climate and climate change.

Finally, honorable mentions go to:

• The Climate Book: Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has gathered the expertise of over 100 climate scientists, oceanographers, engineers, economists, philosophers and Indigenous leaders to present a wide-ranging picture of the causes, impacts and approaches to the climate crisis.

• Hidden Figures: The book that inspired the movie, by Margot Lee Shetterly, tells the stories of the lives and careers of hundreds of black women mathematicians who worked as human “computers” for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

• Mozart’s Starling: Starting from the charming story of how Mozart adopted a pet starling, Lyanda Lynn Haupt explores the physiology, behavior and mimicry of these clever birds. From there she takes us on a journey from music and linguistics and their relationship to birdsong and astronomy, to humanity’s profound relationship with animals and nature.

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I’m looking forward to learning what everyone else has been reading this past year.

And a special welcome to all our new hosts!

Thanks for reading.