The Book Lady’s Best of 2011: Nonfiction

2011 at 5am     Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky

I didn’t realize it until I looked back over my list, but an interesting thing happened to my nonfiction reading this year; it became heavier on feminism and women’s studies titles and simultaneously even more eclectic than in past years.  I enjoyed the experience, but it hasn’t left me feeling like I read a good cross-section of the year’s big nonfiction releases. So, in the grand scheme of Best Of lists, this is the best of what I read, rather than a “best of all the nonfiction that came out this year” list. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

  What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes (Grove/Atlantic) I very seriously considered making this the only book on the list. Marlantes, whose novel Matterhorn led my 2010 favorites,  reveals the intimate details of the real-life moments he fictionalized for Matterhorn and skillfully deploys them to support his call for a paradigm shift in how we prepare soldiers for combat. A former Rhodes Scholar, Marlantes draws from his readings in philosophy, psychology, history and mythology to support this work that is both a letter to young warriors and as a catalyzing call for change. Truly unforgettable, this one should be required reading for all.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein (Harper Collins) Beginning with the question, “Since when did every little girl become a princess?” Orenstein examines the products, culture, and messages about femininity marketed to young girls and analyzes their potential impact on the women of tomorrow. She investigates Disney, American Girl, the advertisers who specialize in the KGOY (“kids getting older younger”) phenomenon, and digital culture, and rather than attacking parents who make decisions she doesn’t agree with, she argues for the importance of empowering children—especially girls—with media literacy and encouraging them to be skeptical about the messages targeted at them. An important read for anyone who interacts with girls regularly and an interesting addition to high school and early college level women’s studies courses.

The Chairs Are Where the People Go by Misha Glouberman (Faber & Faber) What a delightfully weird little book! Glouberman dictated these mini-essays to his friend Sheila Heti—really, it sounds like he sat around spouting wisdom while she took notes and decided what was book-worthy—and the result is an engaging, conversational collection of vignettes about, well, all kinds of things. There’s stuff about performance art and improv, philosophy, and the philosophy of improv. There’s how-to-form-a-neighborhood-association-and-get-things-done-without-being-an-ass. There’s meditation on city living. But mostly, there are clever insights about what it takes to be happy and how to decide what’s worth fighting for and what you should let slide. This one is damn near impossible to sum up, but I swear, it will have you wearing out your highlighter.

True Confessions: Feminist Professors Tell Stories Out of School edited by Susan Gubar (W.W. Norton) In this not-to-be-missed collection, groundbreaking academic feminist Susan Gubar presents essays in which more than two dozen pioneers in the field of women’s studies, all of whom represent important “firsts,” discuss the personal experiences that ground their theories and the professional repercussions of their feminist identities. Women we recognize as intellectual giants who changed history appear in these pages simply as women, with remarkable stories of the personal liberations, sexual awakenings and professional challenges that changed them. True Confessions is a revelation. A must-read for feminists budding and seasoned alike, it is a master class in the origins and evolution of women’s studies and feminist activism.

 

Related posts:

1. The Book Lady’s Best of 2011: Literary Fiction
2. The Book Lady’s Best of 2011: Best of the Rest
3. The Book Lady’s Best of 2011: Memoir & Biography
4. The Book Lady’s Best of 2010: Nonfiction
5. The Book Lady’s Best of 2011: Genre Busters