I’ve actually read some non-fiction titles lately! Gasp! While it’s true that most of my reading is fiction, about 20% of my reading (on average year over year) is non-fiction or memoirs. Here’s what I’ve checked out lately…
–Marissa
Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello (whom I have followed forEVER for his television reporting!) is just heartbreaking and gutting and funny and sweet and sad. Michael finally found his soulmate in Kit, and they had settled into life together when Kit was diagnosed with terminal cancer. This is just… I couldn’t stop reading it, and still find myself looking tenderly at Ausiello whenever his name is in my inbox. SUCH a good memoir!
The Year of Less by Cait Flanders was not actually what I thought it was. I was intrigued by the premise – feeling overwhelmed, Flanders vows not to shop for a year and to pare down her life. I was hoping for a Marie Kondo-type transformation read with fun tips and tricks, but instead, this is really just a memoir of her job hunting, failed relationships and impending parental divorced. I sympathized, it just wasn’t what I wanted or what I thought it would be about. 
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein was another “not what I expected” memoir… Sandra, the star of this memoir, is a trauma cleaner in Australia. Crime scenes, hoarders, suicides… Sandra cleans them all. But this novel focuses much more heavily on Sandra’s past – she was born a male but identifies as female, and details all the trauma from her own past she endured to get to where she is today. Interested, but unexpected.
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson is a total one-sitting read, all about the Swedish practicality of paring down belongings and downsizing long before your families have to do it after you’ve passed. Practical but sweet, this is a unique view on a dreaded task.
You Need A Budget by Jesse Mecham made such an impact on me, I read it, began the program, then read it AGAIN. Yes, it’s yet another budgeting book but in all my years of reading various financial guides, it’s the first one that CLICKED – and that really is about budgeting, not *forecasting*. I dig YNAB, I’m a paid subscriber now because of this book, and it’s helped me a TON. I’m a full fan!
I also reread The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman (because really… who hasn’t?!) as well as We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union (a really interesting celebrity memoir) and finally The Little Book of Lykke by Meik Wiking, the author of The Little Book of Hygge. I preferred the Hygge book, but enjoyed this as well!
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