book blog Archives

Mind Openers: Nonfiction November 2024, Week 4

November 18, 2024November 17, 2024Rebekah Kohlhepp

I can’t believe I am already hosting my third Nonfiction November! This week, I want to know what books really opened your mind this year. Here’s the prompt!

Nonfiction November 2024 Mind Openers prompt

One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is the way it can open your eyes to the world around you—no plane ticket required. What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Is there a book that, if everyone read it, you think the world would be a better place?

Inventing Reality or Manufacturing Consent: Nonfiction November 2024, Week 3

November 16, 2024November 17, 2024Rebekah Kohlhepp

This week in Nonfiction November, we are pairing books together! Here’s the prompt from Liz:

This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title (or whatever you want to pair up). Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or (because I’m doing this myself) two books on two different areas have chimed and have a link. You can be as creative as you like! (Liz)

Designing Nonfiction: Nonfiction November 2024, Week 2

November 8, 2024November 8, 2024Rebekah Kohlhepp

Week 2’s prompt for Nonfiction November, Choosing Nonfiction, is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. Our host, Frances of Volatile Rune, asks us:

What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking.

What I read in 2024: Nonfiction November 2024, Week 1

October 29, 2024October 29, 2024Rebekah Kohlhepp

I truly cannot believe that it is (almost) November once again! It doesn’t feel real that Nonfiction November 2024 has already come around, but I’ll never pass up an opportunity to tell you about my favorite books.

"Announcing Nonfiction November 2024" Nonfiction November is in a handwritten script font. Announcing and 2024 are in a serif font. The text is eggshell white on a muted teal background with a border of illustrated fall leaves.

Are you ready for Nonfiction November 2024?

September 30, 2024September 29, 2024Rebekah Kohlhepp

A chill wind blows. For most, fall is about soft sweaters, delectable candles, and pumpkin treats. Here in the book blogging community, it certainly is about all of those things, but there is one most special event in the forecast every autumn. For us, the fall breeze brings Nonfiction November!

CASTE BOOK REVIEW | The book Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson sits in the snow.

America is the Bad Place: A Review of Caste

January 7, 2024January 7, 2024Rebekah Kohlhepp

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson took readers by storm in late 2020, so I was fashionably late reading it at the end of 2023. While something about its ubiquity made me hesitate to read it, it’s intrigued me for years.

Cave Of Bones Is Irresponsible For So Many Reasons

November 14, 2023November 14, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

Author’s Note: It feels odd to be putting out a post right now that, while important, feels relatively trivial compared to what is going on in Palestine right now. There is a US-sponsored genocide occurring as I write this. Both the United States and Israel want you to think the “situation” is “too complicated” for you to condemn genocide and apartheid. It is not. Please take the time to learn about the history of Israel and its violent colonization of Palestine. I hope to have blog posts sharing what I learn in these books—some of which are free right now—up in the near future and as a continual part of my blog.

Free Palestine. 🇵🇸

Nonfiction November 2023 is Coming Soon

October 24, 2023October 24, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

Fall is here, which means it’s almost time for Nonfiction November 2023!

Reading and blogging challenges are a huge part of book blog culture, but since I am an exclusively nonfiction book blogger, Nonfiction November is the one I wait for all year. And next week, it’s finally back!

On Writing White: A Review of On Writing Well

September 3, 2023September 3, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

“This is the book that changed my life. If you only read one, make it this one.”

These words from a trusted fellow reader (and writer) were all it took for me to crack open William Zinsser’s On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction.

The Repackaged Atheist Book No One Asked For

August 21, 2023August 21, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

To be an atheist means to not believe in God. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I just saved you $15.

David G. McAfee’s Hi, I’m an Atheist!: What That Means and How to Talk About It with Others caught my eye as I was wandering my favorite bookstore a couple of weeks ago. I had never heard of the book or of McAfee, so for only $15, I gave it a try. I hoped that this pocket-sized guide might fill a gap in atheist literature on how to come out to others.

It didn’t.