I suggest a Book Rotation: Biography/Memoir (BM)-- Narrative Non-fiction (NR)-- History/Essay(s)/New-Yorker-worthy Journalism (HEJ), i.e., we read a BM (or MB if potty-training pun is too much); two months later, we read narrative; two months later is HEJ; and then the cycle begins again.
For HEJ month, people should be open to reading about strange things, like, for example, Cod. Yes, like the fish. I'm referring to Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky. "Well worth your time--about a fish that probably has mattered more in human history than any other. The cod helped inspire the discovery and exploration of North America. It had a profound impact upon the economic development of New England and eastern Canada from the earliest times....Kurlansky sprinkles his well-written and occasionally humorous history with interesting asides on the possible origin of the word codpiece and dozens of fish recipes. Sometimes a book on an offbeat or neglected subject really makes the grade. This is one of them." (Amazon Review)
Cod is just an example. But it's the kind of book we should read. That is, please suspend judgment about content while we aim to read the most well-written, most interesting books we can find.
Coincidently, I'm getting a Masters in Fine Arts for Non-Fiction Writing at Sarah Lawrence. My thesis is a combination of the forms I've talked about, i.e., it's part narrative (story with dialogue, set in scenes); part international history; part investigative journalism; and part philosophical essay about truth and beauty. So I'm totally enthused about non-fiction!
Some suggested titles for each genre:
Biography/Memoir
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
Penguin Lives Series (short, about 150 pages!) Joan of Arc by Mary Gordon; Julia Child by Laura Shapiro; Robert E. Lee by Roy Blount; Charles Dickens by Jane Smiley; Abraham Lincoln by Thomas Keneally, etc.)
Journalism/History/Essays
Food and Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast
Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup; State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, by Matt Weiland/Sean Wilsey
Random Family by Adrian Nicole Leblanc
Cadillac Desert: American West & Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Narrative Nonfiction
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
Executioner's Song; Miami & Seige of Chicago: informal history of Republican & Democratic conventions of 1968, by Norman Mailer
Another Day of Life; Soccer War; or Imperium, by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Joe Gould's Secret; McSorley's Wonderful Saloon by Joseph Mitchell
So is anybody game?
