Non-Fiction November

This month, I'm participating in Non-Fiction November. The goal of this challenge is to read more non-fiction than you would usually read in a month. I estimate I read 2-3 nonfiction books a month, so for this challenge. I'll be reading 4 books. At least I hope. In addition, there are 4 category challenges: new, fascinating, important, and controversial. Here's what I'll be reading this month:

For the category fascinating, I'll be reading Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah. This book won't be published for another couple of weeks, but I was lucky enough to win it in a giveaway. I don't know a lot about apartheid. The system was abandoned before I got old enough to be aware of socio-political issues in far away countries. But when I read the book blurb for this, I was fascinated. Because Noah is the child of a white man and a black woman, his existence was literally considered criminal by the state. Can you even imagine? He had to hide for the first five years of his life. I can't wait to read more.

In the new category, I'll be reading Sing for Your Life: A Story of Race, Music and Family by Daniel Bergner. This book was published back in September, and I have an ARC copy of it, but haven't gotten around to it yet. This is about a boy who grows up in poverty in a trailer park only to become a singer with the NY Metropolitan Opera.

For important, I'll be reading Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, by Timothy Snyder. I'll admit: I'm a little intimidated by this book. It's nearly 500 pages of small type and there's just so much material packed into these pages. I also know this won't be an easy read, as histories of genocide never are. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what this book adds to the others I've read on the Holocaust (if you're my Goodreads friend, you might have already noticed I read a lot of books on WW2).

I wanted to read one book from every category, but, after racking my brain, I couldn't find a nonfiction book I owned that could be considered controversial. I really don't want to rely on library books for this challenge, because I just know someone will check out what I want first and keep it for the whole month. So I'm reading The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson by Jeffery Toobin. Honestly, I've had this book on my shelf for months, waiting for the perfect opportunity to read it. So thank you Non-Fiction November!

Would you like to join Non-Fiction November? Stop by the Goodreads group: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/174090-nonfiction-november-2016. If you blog about what you're reading for the challenge, please feel free to link your post in the comments section below.