Time to look over my year in non-fiction! It's hosted by Based on a True Story. My non-fiction reading was about 20% of what I've read, which is a fairly normal number for me, maybe a little on the high side.
Themes and Highlights
Mostly books about books, which is pretty common for me. Some standouts:
Brian Dillon. Dillon is a contempoary Irish writer. I read two by him this year: Objects in This Mirror and Affinities. Affinities is his most recent (2023); Objects in This Mirror is from ten years ago. Dillon, in addition to writing about books, was the editor at an art magazine, and both these books have a lot of art criticism.
Guy Davenport. Davenport was a poet and classicist who died in 2005. His book The Geography of the Imagination, which first came out in 1981, was reissued earlier this year with an introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan. It was pretty great.
Carlo Levi. An Italian writer and painter. Christ Stopped at Eboli is his memoir of internal exile during the Fascist era. After protesting against Mussolini, he was sent to live among the peasants in Basilicata. I read it just before going to Italy in the spring. (Yay!)
Konstantin Stanislavski. My Life in Art is the autobiography of the great Russian theatre director from 1924. It was my spin book for the first Classics Club spin of the year.
Mary Wisniewski. Algren: A Life is a biography of the great (but depressing!) Chicago writer best known for The Man With a Golden Arm, made into a movie with Frank Sinatra in the title role. A well-done biography.
A link to all the non-fiction that made it on to the blog this year.
Upcoming
Which look fun to you?
