Somehow and without my consent, October has ended. It’s officially November—when the holidays feel like they are fast approaching and the end of the year is within sight. Though the mystery of time slipping through my fingers is still unsolved, it’s time for Nonfiction November, whether I’m ready for it or not.
5 Must Read Books for Nonfiction November
The Ghosts of Eden Park
by Karen Abbot
In the early days of Prohibition, long before Al Capone became a household name, a German immigrant named George Remus quits practicing law and starts trafficking whiskey. Within two years he’s a multimillionaire. The press calls him “King of the Bootleggers,” writing breathless stories about the Gatsby-esque events he and his glamorous second wife, Imogene, host at their Cincinnati mansion, with party favors ranging from diamond jewelry for the men to brand new Pontiacs for the women. By the summer of 1921, Remus owns 35 percent of all the liquor in the United States. Pioneering prosecutor Mabel Walker Willebrandt is determined to bring him down. Willebrandt’s bosses at the U.S. Attorney’s office hired her right out of law school, assuming she’d pose no real threat to the cozy relationship they maintain with Remus. Eager to prove them wrong, she dispatches her best investigator, Franklin Dodge, to look into his empire. It’s a decision with deadly consequences: With Remus behind bars, Dodge and Imogene begin an affair and plot to ruin him, sparking a bitter feud that soon reaches the highest levels of government–and that can only end in murder.
The synopsis of this book reads like that of a thriller crime novel that would never, never appeal to me. With drama that seems too coincidental to be anything but the borderline cheesy plot of a novel, I can’t believe this story of the King of Bootleggers is true. And therefore, as a fan of true crime and all things related to the crime and lifestyles of the 1920s, The Ghosts of Eden Park is a book I’m quite intrigued by.
On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing Persons
by Laura Cumming
In the autumn of 1929, a small child was kidnapped from a Lincolnshire beach. Five agonising days went by before she was found in a nearby village. The child remembered nothing of these events and nobody ever spoke of them at home. It was another fifty years before she even learned of the kidnap. The girl became an artist and had a daughter, art writer Laura Cumming. Cumming grew up enthralled by her mother’s strange tales of life in a seaside hamlet of the 1930s, and of the secrets and lies perpetuated by a whole community. So many puzzles remained to be solved. Cumming began with a few criss-crossing lives in this fraction of English coast – the postman, the grocer, the elusive baker – but soon her search spread right out across the globe as she discovered just how many lives were affected by what happened that day on the beach – including her own. On Chapel Sands is a book of mystery and memoir. Two narratives run through it: the mother’s childhood tale; and Cumming’s own pursuit of the truth. Humble objects light up the story: a pie dish, a carved box, an old Vick’s jar. Letters, tickets, recipe books, even the particular slant of a copperplate hand give vital clues. And pictures of all kinds, from paintings to photographs, open up like doors to the truth. Above all, Cumming discovers how to look more closely at the family album – with its curious gaps and missing persons – finding crucial answers, captured in plain sight at the click of a shutter.
What a fascinating synopsis. While memoirs aren’t typically a go-to genre for me, the strange mystery within this story makes it nearly impossible to resist.
The Hidden Writer
by Alexandra Johnson
“Whom do I tell when I tell a blank page?” Virginia Woolf’s question is one that generations of readers and writers searching to map a creative life have asked of their own diaries. No other document quite compares with the intimacies and yearnings, the confessions and desires, revealed in the pages of a diary. Presenting seven portraits of literary and creative lives, Alexandra Johnson illuminates the secret world of writers and their diaries, and shows how over generations these writers have used the diary to solve a common set of creative and life questions. In Sonya Tolstoy’s diary, we witness the conflict between love and vocation; in Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf’s friendship, the nettle of rivalry among writing equals is revealed; and in Alice James’s diary, begun at age forty, the feelings of competition within a creative family are explored. The Hidden Writer shows how the diaries of Marjory Fleming, Sonya Tolstoy, Alice James, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, Anaïs Nin, and May Sarton negotiated the obstacle course of silence, ambition, envy, and fame. Destined to become a classic on writing and the diary as literary form, this is an essential book for anyone interested in the evolution of creative life.
The Hidden Writer is my most anticipated book for Nonfiction November. As a writer, I can’t help but be intrigued by the private lives of some of the greatest names in literature. I love that The Hidden Writer will give a glimpse into their thoughts about creativity specifically, not just their normal private lives. I am very eager to read this.
Seducing and Killing Nazis: Hannie, Truus and Freddie: Dutch Resistance Heroines of WWII
by Sophie Poldermans
This is the astonishing true story of three teenage Dutch girls, Hannie Schaft and sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, that has inspired many throughout the world. When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in World War II, these girls took up arms against the enemy by seducing high-ranking Nazi officers, luring them into the woods and killing them. They provided Jewish children with safe houses and gathered vital intelligence for the resistance. They did what they did “because it had to be done.” Above all, they tried to remain human in inhuman circumstances. Hannie Schaft was executed by the Nazis three weeks before the end of the war and became the icon of female Dutch resistance. Truus and Freddie Oversteegen survived the war, but were forever haunted by the demons of their past.
With a title as bold, frank, and straight-to-the-point as Seducing and Killing Nazis, who wouldn’t be drawn to this book? There is nothing quite like the experience of reading a true story of WWII. It’s heartbreaking and emotional, but so often marked by awe-inspiring acts of bravery and courage that speak to the incredible resilience and strength of the victims of the Nazis. I am already in awe of Hannie, Truus, and Freddie. I cannot wait to learn about them.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
by John Berendt
A sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic. Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt’s sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.
There’s something so alluring about Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I imagine and hope that this true crime story will be atmospheric and written with style befitting the drama of this crime. I am very much looking forward to reading this.
If you’re looking for more nonfiction books to consider, take a look at last year’s Nonfiction November choices.
Will any of these books make your Nonfiction November TBR? Let me know what you think of these books in the comments!
Thanks for reading,
Madison
Seducing and Killing Nazis sound like a book I need to read. Thanks for sharing it.
I have Midnight in the garden of good and evil on my TBR!
Doesn’t it look so interesting?! I hope we both enjoy it!