This weeks topic for Nonfiction November I didn't think I'd actually be able to take part in. Leslie of Regular Rumination is asking us to pair up books which go together. It can be fiction and nonfiction, nonfiction and nonfiction, stuff you've read or stuff you haven't. Whatever, really, and the more I thought about it the more I kept coming up with things so here we are!
First up I'll cheat a little and post a pairing I've previously posted, just to get things going!A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway is his own account of his first marriage and life in Paris. Directly comparable to this is The Paris Wife by Paula McLain; a fictionalised version of the same story. I haven't read A Moveable Feast but I do own it and it is small and there is a strong possibility that I may read it this month despite it not being on any of my TBR piles. I have read The Paris Wife and very much enjoyed it.
My second pairing is a much more tenuous link, but why not? I'm linking Wild by Cheryl Strayed, one of my all time favourite nonfiction books, with Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson, purely by value of them both being focused on cross country trips where people learn lots about themselves. Both of these I have read and both I can strongly recommend.
For my final pairing I've gone for two nonfiction titles, neither of which I've read. They are both on my wishlist and they both indulge my love for all things fairytale. This pairing is Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales by Kate Bernheimer, in which 28 women writers explore the way in which fairytales shaped their imaginations, craft and our culture, and Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked by Catherine Orenstein, which talks about the many versions of Red Riding Hood and is all about the tale's sexual politics and moral ambiguities. Sounds intriguing!I'm hoping to get to read everyone else's pairings for the week, but I'm on a reading roll at the moment so I'm off to get a bit of How to Be a Heroine (Or What I've learned from reading too much) by Samantha Ellis read. There will also be a review of This New Noise: The Extraordinary Birth and Troubled Life of the BBC by Charlotte Higgins coming this week at some point!
Check out the other week two posts, the week one wrap up, or my other posts on my favourite nonfiction and my year in nonfiction by clicking the links!
I read A Moveable Feast a couple of years ago and followed up with The Paris Wife... an excellent pairing!
ReplyDeleteI loved The Paris Wife and haven't read A Moveable Feast yet...need to give that a try!
ReplyDeleteThe last nonfiction pairing is definitely intriguing! I especially like the idea of an examination and analysis of Red Riding Hood and all its different versions.
ReplyDeleteHey, you and I both had the exact same books as our first pair. I read The Paris Wife first and then went a bit Hemingway crazy and read a bunch of other stuff about them and by him.
ReplyDeleteMy Nonfiction Pairs
Curiously I read A Moveable Feast after reading and thoroughly enjoying Paris Wife. Except I really really disliked AMF and Hemingway by the tome I ploughed my way through it. It is a great pairing though, as it highlights the problems in their marriage very clearly!
ReplyDeleteThe Paris Wife inspired me to read A Moveable Feast, too. I liked the first one much better than the second one. :) But they made a great pair.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read A Paris Wife but I definitely think that they'd make a great pairing. I was rather annoyed with Hemingway after reading A Moveable Feast...but it's certainly a readable book!
ReplyDeleteYour last pairing sounds so good! I love fairy tale retellings, especially dark and/or more feminist retellings, and I'm sure I'd enjoy both of the books you suggest :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your Wild pairing, Bex; what a great idea! Wild is definitely one of my favorites, too; I'm thinking of listening to it via audiobook (I read it the first time) because I'd love to enjoy it again.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that A Moveable Feast was Hemingway's account of his first marriage! I loved The Paris Wife, and now I want to check out his version!
ReplyDeleteLove your pairings. Pairings is one of the ways I love to read, though I call it reading in themes.
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