Friday, February 9, 2007

Non-Fiction Five Challenge


I don't normally read a lot of non-fiction, so I when I saw that Joy from "Thoughts of Joy" was hosting the Non-Fiction Five challenge, I thought it would be great for me. A chance to "broaden my horizons" so to speak. But I also thought it would be difficult for me to actually choose five books that I would find interesting! Not so!! I'm now whittled down to 11 choices!! Are you kidding me?? I'll go ahead and list the 11 and closer to May, I guess I will have to actually pick 5 from them! Maybe I'll just put the names in a hat and draw out 5!


  • Dreams From my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritence by Barack Obama

  • The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama

  • The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr

  • The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

  • The City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt

  • Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

  • A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

  • Marley & Me - Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan

  • 1776 by David McCullough

  • The Tender Bar: A Memoir by J. R. Moehringer

  • Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, & Power by Virginia Rounding

Check back later to see what I decide!!

9 comments:

1morechapter said...

I'm thinking of doing the Non-Fiction Five Challenge as well. One of the books on my "longlist" is Devil in the White City. I haven't posted what I'm doing yet, though.

Thanks for commenting on Silas Marner!

Joy said...

Great list Stephanie! I'm so glad you are joining in on the fun. Don't be surprised if your list continues to grow up until the challenge actually begins. :)

Happy Reading!

Literary Feline said...

It's so hard to choose, isn't it? They all sound so good! Good luck with the challenge, Stephanie. I look forward to seeing what you end up reading!

moonbeam said...

I remember seeing David McCullough on Jon Stewart's Daily Show talking about his book 1776 and it sounded very interesting. I would pick that one, myself. I think he delved deeply into the interesting details our history books never covered.

Stephanie said...

That's just it...I think I want to read them ALL!! I've heard such good things about Bill Bryson, I'm dying to read Obama's books, I've heard great things about McCullough, I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and LOVED it...that's why I threw Berendt's book in. Devil in the White City is about Chicago....and I have such an affinity for that city. Yikes...maybe I'll just START in May, and read 1 a month till I'm done!

Kailana said...

You HAVE to read Marley and Me. I loved (and yet not) that book!

Amat Libris said...

You have a longlist? I'm so jealous! I get most of my non-fiction from the library for four weeks at a time, so it was an effort to dig up five for the challenge. I've got Notes from a Small Island in my TBR pile as well; The City of Falling Angels too until last month. If I could have resisted the temptation of the latter I could have used it in the challenge, but it was too good to leave unread for long.

Anonymous said...

Some interesting books there Stephanie. I might give the Caravaggio and Obama books a try myself. I have read "Notes from a small island" and it was very funny. I think it might be Bryson's best.

If it's ok I am going to stick a link to your blog on mine so that I can check out what you are reading.

maggie moran said...

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Marley and Me and Devil in a White City! I hope you enjoy them just as much. ;)