I’m not a huge reader, though I do enjoy a good book. There are so many books that I’ve bought and never read. All of this to say I don’t read very much but there has been an anomaly in my recent reading habits that I am quite surprised with. I’ve started to read…
Nonfiction.
My usual genre is fantasy or dystopian society young adult fiction. Sometimes I would pick up an autobiography in high school, but I’d usually just let it sit in my backpack untouched for weeks until I’d renewed it too many times, and finally surrendered it to the return books slot.
This time, after not reading a book for nearly a year, I took the recommendation from a friend to read “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover. Any good book will change your perspective on the world some way, and this book most certainly did that. Now, I can’t stop gazing in the nonfiction section in Audible.
*Spoiler Alert* Skip to next paragraph if you don’t want to see the synopsis below.
“Educated: A Memoir” follows the story of Tara Westover as she grew up in a secluded home in Utah with a rather extremist family living off the grid. She eventually gives herself enough of an education to attend university and works her way to being a PhD student at Trinity College of Cambridge University. She shares her experience navigating family dynamics and relationships, while also assimilating into the secular world. While her story is much more eventful than mine, there are small bits and pieces that I relate to. This tends to be true in any good writing that I run into: it evokes a connection inside of you whether it’s a feeling or experience.
Non-fiction steps out of the cliché, because there are things that you can’t or don’t understand unless you’ve been through it. While reading these stories there are pieces that no one else, maybe not even the writer, would see as significant that I relate to. In fiction, when making up a story, it’s hard to recreate that and you know it is good fiction when it does. Good writing reveals the truth. People do a lot of unexpected things, but at the same time, there are very few people “reinventing the wheel” with their actions, feelings and experiences. Having someone’s story in your hand is an intimate experience and makes you feel a little less alone and a little more understood.
Other recent books that I have delved into are “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottlieb, following the life of a therapist as she experiences both sides of the therapy room as a professional and a patient. Another book is “Becoming” by Michelle Obama, which is an amazing glimpse of recent American history through the intimate details of her life and perspective. Lastly, “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson narrating the story of a death row lawyer and the unjustly accused and abused clients he works with. All of these are amazing and touching stories that I would 100% recommend!
So, grab a book or an Audible subscription and read something that will change the way you see the world around you.