nonfiction

An Immense World / Ed Young

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
An Immense World
By: Ed Yong
Genre: Nonfiction, Science, Nature
Number of Pages: 464
Published: January 1, 2023 (1st Published June 21, 2022)
Publisher: Random House
Dates Read: May 25, 2024 - June 9, 2024
Format: Hardcover

In An Immense World, author and science journalist Ed Yong challenges us to think beyond our own senses to perceive the world around us through the eyes (and senses) of animals and insects alike.

Shoutout to my first ever nonfiction science book that wasn’t assigned to me for a class (yes, I’ve been out of school for nine years…).

This definitely made me think about animals and not only their place in the world, but mine as well. I still think about the amount of smells my dogs are experiencing every time I let them outside to use the restroom – it gives me a little patience, even if I’m in a time crunch and they’re smelling everything.

There was a lot of information that was given throughout this book. I had to take this in chunks and read another book alongside it – which I don’t usually do and will read one book from front to cover before picking up the next one. I knew I would get “annoyed” with just reading information upon information. I’m glad I broke it up because it did help me enjoy it more. That, and marking fun facts that I enjoyed (another thing I don’t do).

I really enjoyed the footnotes that the author included within the pages, to me, that made the information a little more personal and felt like a friend was giving me fun facts from their field. I may not understand everything, but those footnotes helped a lot.

Everyone should try and read this. It’ll open your eyes to seeing the world in a whole new way! If nonfiction, or science isn’t your thing, trust me, I know, break this up into chunks. Ed Yong breaks up the chapters into sections that are only a few pages at most, and just read those here and there.

Just some of the fun facts I learned or, that I have continuously thought about, since finishing this:

  • Ants are essentially a group of highly specialist wasps that evolved.
    • This explains why I don’t like looking at ants up close – I hate wasps with a passion.
  • How “quiet” is the world now that there aren’t massively big animals roaming around?

Secrets of the Octopus / Sy Montgomery

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Secrets of the Octopus
By: Sy Montgomery
Genre: Nonfiction, Science
Number of Pages: 192
Published: March 19, 2024
Publisher: National Geographic
Dates Read: March 15, 2024 - March 16, 2024
Format: ARC / eBook

Filled with beautiful National Geographic photography, Secrets of the Octopus explores the underwater world of the octopus and brings to light new information that affirms the underwater, alien-like creatures are one of the world’s most intelligent and complex creatures.

Y’all – this is my first nonfiction book that’s not a memoir and/or wasn’t assigned to me in school (which, I’ve been out of school for 9 years, if that tells you anything…). I asked for an advance copy of this off NetGalley because that always gives me a little more pressure on myself to actually read the book and not just say I will. Plus, once I found out this was a companion novel for the newest special coming out, I wanted it even more. Oh man, am I glad I did.

Obviously being my first nonfiction novel, I haven’t read anything by Sy Montgomery before, but I really like her writing. It was informative but I never felt like I was just being thrown the science. It was written in a way that was easy to follow and understand. I was constantly screenshotting and highlighting things all the time. I read this in two days and then proceeded to chat my partner’s ear off about it over lunch the following day.

I learned so many things and am proud to say octopuses are my new favorite marine animal.

Overall, I believe anyone who picks up this book will be walking away a little bit more of a lover of these eight-legged saltwater creatures with this easy to digest novel. This will also get one excited for the miniseries coming out here soon.

*Thank you National Geographic and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir / Denise Dorrance

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir
By: Denise Dorrance
Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir
Number of Pages: 256
Published: March 5, 2024
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
Dates Read: February 5, 2024
Format: ARC / eBook

Denise Dorrance’s memoir about the two months of her life when she suddenly must fly back to America to care for her mom with dementia who desperately needs to find her last home.

The way insurance was in this novel both shocked  and yet didn’t surprise me at all. Made me think about my own grandma who had dementia in her last years who was in a nursing home. My mom never got into details about it with me, but she is 8 of 9 children, and the surviving 7 pitched in to help with her care at the place. Still – dementia is hard. The last time I visited my grandma before she passed, she thought I was my mom but had no idea who my mom actually was (I am my mother’s mini-me). 

Unlike the author though, I’m close with my mom and my sisters, so even though I worry about what it will be like for my mom in her older years, I know the three of us have got it handled.

This isn’t a happy story. You kind of know where it’s going when you go into it, you know?

But, nowadays, everyone at least knows somebody who had dementia – maybe not a close family member, but someone. This book will kick you in the heart, that’s for sure.

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands / Kate Beaton

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
By: Kate Beaton
Genre: Graphic Novels, Memoir
Number of Pages: 430
Published: September 13, 2022
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
Dates Read: November 14, 2023 - November 17, 2023
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

Trigger Warnings: misogyny, sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape

To help pay off her student loans quicker, Kate Beaton takes advantage of Canada’s oil rush and gets a job in the oil sands. Being one of only a handful of women amongst thousands of men is both a culture shock and a smack of harsh reality; trauma is an everyday occurrence but is never discussed. In this graphic memoir, Kate Beaton describes her experience working the oil sands between 2005 – 2008.

This graphic novel broadened my knowledge on the Canadian oil sands (which, okay, went from 0 to what I was given by Beaton). I never even knew this type of work was in Canada. Having no knowledge of that going into this book, I believe this captured the experience, during that particular time, of one female worker wonderfully.

The subjects aren’t preachy and Beaton doesn’t really input her current thoughts on her experiences until the very end, but you see her experience come out organically and her realization of just how toxic the environment is. That being said, Beaton is also very clear that she had nicer relationships with some men – including ones who would be fatherly towards her.

Overall, I know this book won’t be for everyone, but I do think people should read it. For not only the information on the oil sands of Canada, but also what it’s like for women in a male dominated work environment.

The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics

/ Alisha Helms / 1 Comment 
The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics
By: The Kao (Compiler), David Daneman (Compiler), Min Christensen (Compiler)
Genre: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 176
Published: September 26, 2023
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Dates Read: November 1, 2023 - November 3, 2023
Format: Paperback

The Out Side is filled with comics from 29 trans & nonbinary artists as they share their personal journeys of self-discovery and acceptance. 

This graphic novel doesn’t just focus on coming out, but some talk about the later processes of their life and what it means for them now.

There’s 29 different artists, so there’s 29 different styles of art and stories. Some I liked more than others, but I still enjoyed and loved this as a whole.

Highly recommend, especially for those who are trans and nonbinary as they will most definitely see themselves within these pages.

*Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review

Guardian of Fukushima / Fabien Grolleau, Ewen Blain (Illustrator)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Guardian of Fukushima
By: Fabien Grolleau, Ewen Blain (Illustrator)
Genre: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 144
Published: February 23, 2023
Publisher: TOKYOPOP
Dates Read: October 28, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

On March 11, 2011 a massive earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami, which in turn, destroyed the core three reactors of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Farmer Naoto Matsumura is unwilling to abandon his beloved animals and the animals left behind by those who evacuated. 

I love the weaving of Japanese folklore into this story to not only give you a history of the very tragic event of the 2011 tsunami, but to also give you the history of Japanese culture as well.

I was aware of a farmer staying behind in a village after a nuclear issue, but I wasn’t aware of Naoto Matsumura’s full story and I’m so glad I picked this novel up to read it. 

Stunning and amazing artwork from Ewen Blain. So colorful and captivating, even the not-so-great- photos of the aftermath, it never looked muddy or overloaded.

Mala’s Cat / Mala Kacenberg, Kristin Atherton (Narrator)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment

My first full audiobook!! 😀

Mala’s Cat
By: Mala Kacenberg, Kristin Atherton (Narrator)
Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 288
Published: January 4, 2022
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Dates Read: September 19, 2023 - September 21, 2023
Format: Audiobook, Library Book, Hardcover

Trigger Warnings: Holocaust, war, genocide 

Growing up in the Polish village of Tarnogród, Mala Szorer’s and her large family was poor – but they had each other and that was enough. But, at the age of twelve, the German invasion began and her village became a ghetto and her family and their neighbors were reduced to starvation. Mala wouldn’t let her family go hungry, so she would take her yellow star off and sneak into the surrounding villages to barter for food.

On her way back home one day, she sees her family rounded up for deportation and receives a smuggled letter from her sister, warning her to stay away. Even though she wants nothing more than to be with her family, Mala retreats back into the forest, not only hiding from the Nazi, but also hostile villagers. A stray cat joins her side, who ends up saving her time and time again – Mala names her Malach, Hebrew for ‘angel’.

Malach becomes Mala’s family and closest friend as she fights against the loneliness of being completely on her own as she fights to survive through the Hitler Regime. 

This is my first audio book I listened to mostly all the way through (except the last 50 pages, I read in my library book because I wanted to finish it but it was bedtime and I would fall asleep if I only listened). I would listen to it while doing some work and there were a few times I couldn’t help but comment out loud – especially when Malach would warn Mala of danger (again) and she would be surprised.

Since this was told through the eyes of the author as a teenager, it reads a little simpler than some memoirs. It also allowed the reader to watch as Mala ages and grows and begins to understand more and more about the war around her. Malach isn’t always mentioned, as sometimes she’s not always there – but this story is about the author’s survival, with the help of her guardian angel cat.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone that wants to read about the survival of a young girl in the forest during the Holocaust.

Everything/Nothing/Someone / Alice Carrière

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Everything/Nothing/Someone
By: Alice Carrière
Genre: Memoir
Number of Pages: 288
Published: August 29, 2023
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Dates Read: August 15, 2023 - August 19, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

Trigger Warnings: sexual abuse, false memory, inherited trauma, mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction

In this memoir of Alice Carrière, she tells the story of her unconventional upbringing in Greenwich Village as the daughter of renowned artist Jennifer Bartlett and European actor Mathieu Carrière. Growing up in the bohemian 90’s, Alice must navigate her mother’s recovered memories of ritualized sexual abuse that she turns into art, and her father’s odd and confusing attentions. For the most part, Alice is left alone with little-to-no enforcement of boundaries or supervision.

When she enters adolescence, Alice begins to lose herself as a dissociative disorder begins to take over. She bounces in and out of mental hospitals and takes up various roles around town while bouncing from one experience to another in a medicated state. Eventually, she finds purpose in caring for her Alzheimer’-afflicted mother. With the help of a recovering addict who loves her, Alice also finds the courage to confront her father, whose words and actions splintered her. 

I haven’t read a lot of written memoirs (I’ve read a few graphic novel memoirs/biographies). But, this year I’m trying to make sure I branch out and read a different variety of genres. This one caught my eye because of the mental health aspect and growing up in the 90’s. Mental health and the stigma around it has drastically changed within the last few years. I grew up in the 90’s/00’s and I remember you didn’t talk about mental health – now I make jokes with my coworkers about our crippling depression/anxiety almost daily.

This memoir won’t be for everybody. Everything/Nothing/Someone deals with a lot of heavy subjects, but it is very thought-provoking and a look at how mental health was tackled and the stigma with it in the 90’s, early 2000’s. 

*Thank you Spiegel & Grau, Publishers Weekly, and NetGalley for a digital advance copy of this memoir in exchange for an honest review

Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day / Kaitlin B. Curtice

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day
By: Kaitlin B. Curtice
Genre: Nonfiction, Self Help
Number of Pages: 208
Published: March 7, 2023
Publisher: Brazos Press
Dates Read: August 2, 2023 - August 5, 2023
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

Living Resistance is about resistance and how you can use it in everyday life and not just at protests or boycotting things. Kaitlin B. Curtice looks at resistance in different realms: the personal, the communal, the ancestral, and the integral. She explains each realm at the beginning of each section to help the reader understand it more thoroughly. 

I was kind of excited about this book. I’ve been trying to get into reading more nonfiction and I thought this would be one I would enjoy. Maybe it just wasn’t really for me.

I felt like it was a bit repetitive, which makes sense because it’s about life and life is messy and isn’t always straight forward, but when I’m reading a different story with the same message at the end, it gets a bit boring.

It was also a bit more religious than what I was looking for, not so much spiritual.

I feel like a lot of people will be able to take from this, but it just didn’t speak to me as I would hope it would.

I will say, it did make me think about how I want to look to my descendants as their ancestor and what I would want to leave behind for them.

*Thank you Brazos Press and NetGalley for a digital advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary / Don Brown

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary
By: Don Brown
Genre: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction, YA
Number of Pages: 128
Published: May 16, 2023
Publisher: Clarion Books
Dates Read: July 16, 2023
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary is a young adult graphic novel about the war in Ukraine, especially focusing on the siege of Mariupol between February 2022 – May 2022. 

I’ve been trying to make sure to read books I find about the war in Ukraine. It’s not something that I keep up on within the news daily (truth be told, I try to stay away from the daily news in general), but I don’t want it to be something where I find out years and years later what happened or what it was like.

At first I was a little put off by the art style. I like my graphic novel reads to be full of color and usually bright palettes. But, the pen and ink art in this novel goes amazing with the setting of urgency, the brutalities and horrors of war, and the human spirit during such cases.

This is an important read, especially to the Young Adult audience it is aimed at as it gives a lot of information that, alongside the illustrations and art, can be used as a valuable resource to tell those about the war in Ukraine in a way that is more visual and memorable.