Book recommendations 2021

October 4, 2021 10:59 AM

It's (going to be) that time of year again, where I find gifts for people who already have everything. Recommend me some good nonfiction books from this year or last (but not too good, or they'd already own them). _{*or something else I can give them; clever solutions welcome} Also, feel free to weigh in on whether you find these posts useful or not.

In addition to the book requests, I'm hoping to find out if anyone in the community (besides me) is getting any value out of these posts, seeing as I've fallen into a rut. Comments/concerns welcome.

posted by queen anne's remorse to Writing & Language (24 answers total)

2019, but Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

I'm hoping to find out if anyone in the community (besides me) is getting any value out of these posts
Questions here don't have to have value to anybody but you, cf. my entire posting history. Metafilter is a resource, not a commodity.
posted by phunniemee at 11:08 AM on October 4, 2021 [10 favorites]

Underland was an absolute delight.
posted by entropone at 11:09 AM on October 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

Some books I read this year that have been published recently that were good, representing my niche interest areas. Underland (on preview) is also incredibly good.

- How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. by Kiese Laymon - a reprint of a book of essays that came out a few years earlier. About being a Black academic/writer in the American South. Very well done and not on the usual "Top five books about race" lists, though it should be.
- The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts - neat story about a woman who goes trying to track down what happened to all those pianos that were moved into Siberia with the people who were exiled there. Good history and a compelling story.
- Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc - somewhat academic but highly readable book about disability and the stories that fairy tales tell about disability.
- Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl by Jonathan Slaght - this one may be in the "too popular" arena but I am never sure.
posted by jessamyn at 11:12 AM on October 4, 2021 [5 favorites]

Is it okay to plug my own book, Women and Other Monsters? It's essays about mythology and feminism and based on my Bookscan numbers I can all but guarantee they don't own it already (lol).

I really loved Hurts So Good, on the science of masochism (defined very broadly, including but not limited to sexual masochism) but that's probably a gift for a very specific person only.

R. Eric Thomas's memoir-in-essays Here For It, from last year, is both very thoughtful and very, very funny.

This Is Chance! (also from last year) is a really wonderful account of the 1964 earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska, the woman who helped people weather the disaster and rebuilding with her radio reporting, and just generally the power of community and cooperation.

Last Call and The Mastermind are both true crime books that really gripped me as a person who doesn't normally read true crime.

Cursed Objects is a delightful gift book for people who are somewhat spooky.

Rax King's essay collection Tacky will be out by the holidays and is great fun.
posted by babelfish at 11:26 AM on October 4, 2021 [5 favorites]

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions about Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty (her older books are also great). Mary Roach also published a new book just last month: Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.
posted by neushoorn at 11:27 AM on October 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, by Patrick Radden Keefe. Gripping and infuriating. (Equally as good, if not better is his previous book, Say Nothing.)
posted by gaspode at 11:31 AM on October 4, 2021 [4 favorites]

I'll look at my recent-read shelves shortly, but just chiming in re your other question - are posts asking for book recs useful? Yes, 100%, I've definitely found some favorites via recs on the green!

Can you give us a little detail on what subjects you're looking for? Nonfiction is an awfully big category.
posted by fingersandtoes at 11:32 AM on October 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

I just started reading Harvey Cox's The Market as God and am finding it resonates in thundering measure. I am also almost through Carlos Lozada's What Were We Thinking in which he reads ALL the books about Trump and offers trenchant analysis & useful synopsis. (He read them so we don't have to!)
posted by chavenet at 11:42 AM on October 4, 2021

Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells - Harold McGee

A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order - Judith Flanders

Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine - Nicola Twilley and Geoff Manaugh

Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - Rachel S. Mikva

(I love book rec threads and have found books for myself & gifts for others through them!)
posted by carrioncomfort at 11:56 AM on October 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

Not recently published, but some I've enjoyed lately:

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story. Takes the reader through the year 1963 and early 1964 in Detroit, Michigan. Covers the civil rights struggle, Motown, the introduction of the Ford Mustang and lots more.

Any military or naval history fans on your list, Ian Toll's trilogy about WWII in the Pacific was fascinating and had lots of new material even for some like me who has read a bunch about this. The first volume is Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942.

And for your people who like Man vs. Nature stuff, this was excellent: Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest.
posted by marxchivist at 12:23 PM on October 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds. Someone interested in nature or birds would enjoy it very much. It's full of fascinating bird facts.
posted by Lycaste at 12:24 PM on October 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

Katrina: a history 1915 -2015, by Andy Horowitz
The Yellow House: a memoir, by Sarah Broom
Two totally different takes on a similar subject, I enjoyed both a ton.
posted by sepviva at 12:34 PM on October 4, 2021

I liked The Madman's Library by Edward Brooke-Hitching: diverting & well-illustrated but not outstanding. It was published last year.
posted by misteraitch at 1:04 PM on October 4, 2021

Born A Crime by Trevor Noah.
posted by serendipityrules at 1:17 PM on October 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

For the amateur neuroscientist or armchair psychologist: The Psychopath Whisperer by Kent Kiehl; Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker; The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang.
posted by scratch at 1:19 PM on October 4, 2021

Finding the Mother Tree

2nding Underland other really anything by Robert Macfarlane
posted by falsedmitri at 1:40 PM on October 4, 2021

First I want to concur with Underland and Into the Silence. It's hard to go wrong with MacFarlane and Wade Davis.

This year, I've very much enjoyed Matrix by Lauren Groff, Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King, The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine, and Breath by James Nestor.
posted by ikahime at 2:33 PM on October 4, 2021

Newish nonfiction that I've loved:

Clean: The New Science of Skin
Laziness Does Not Exist
What White People Can Do Next
posted by sugarbomb at 2:29 PM on October 5, 2021

I enjoy these book recommendation posts and often add suggestions to my to-read list. My contributions to your request:

Published in 2020:
- Feasting Wild by Gina Rae La Cerva

Published in 2021:
- A Little Devil in America : Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
- How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

Soon to be or recently published & on my to-read list:
- The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh
- Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine by Jim Downs
- The Forager Chef's Book of Flora: Recipes and Techniques for Edible Plants from Garden, Field, and Forest by Alan Bergo
- Bibliophile: Diverse Spines by Jamise Harper and Jane Mount
- The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion by Aminatta Forna
posted by wicked_sassy at 9:30 AM on October 6, 2021

I only have two from these two years: Overloaded: How Every Aspect of Your Life is Influenced by Your Brain Chemicals (2021) and The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth (2020).

I also enjoy book recommendation posts.
posted by paduasoy at 10:57 AM on October 6, 2021

Oh, and seconding Disfigured.
posted by paduasoy at 11:01 AM on October 6, 2021

Especially for newcomers to the US West Coast:
Cadillac Desert, and Beyond The Hundredth Meridian
posted by mmiddle at 1:38 PM on October 6, 2021

I recently finished The Bookseller's Tale and Guarded By Dragons, which are books about books, and diverting and breezy enough.
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:01 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

I forgot Vaxxers.
posted by paduasoy at 4:11 AM on October 10, 2021