Episode 414: Narrative Nonfiction

Hello! Thank you for joining us on Reading With Libraries! We’re so glad you could be here to enjoy our book group podcast.

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we support libraries of all types: schools, publics, academics, and special libraries and archives. We started this podcast to provide useful information for library people doing Reader’s Advisory work. There are so many books out there that it’s tough to be an expert on all of them. So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!

This week we’re discussing narrative nonfiction. We are so glad to welcome back Leah from State Library Services!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages, and we each came prepared with our own drink to enjoy while we talk about our books. Each of our beverages will have a recipe or a link on our episode page, so you can try them yourself. This week, our recipes are from the Taste of Home site, where they show us how to make copycat beverages of popular drinks.

Inspired by Starbucks Hazelnut Frapuccino

  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup Nutella
  • 4 teaspoons instant espresso powder
  • 6 ice cubes
  • 2 cups vanilla ice cream
  • Chocolate curls, optional
  • In a blender, combine the milk, Nutella and espresso powder; cover and process until blended. Add ice cubes; cover and process until smooth. Add ice cream; cover and process until smooth. Pour into chilled glasses; serve immediately. Garnish with chocolate curls if desired.

Inspired by McDonald’s Shamrock Shake

  • 3 tablespoons creme de menthe or 3 tablespoons 2% milk plus a dash of peppermint extract
  • 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups vanilla ice cream
  • 7 Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies
  • Green food coloring, optional
  • Place all ingredients in a blender in order listed; cover and process until blended. Serve immediately.

Inspired by Sonic’s Strawberry Shake

  • 1/3 cup 2% milk
  • 1-1/2 cups vanilla ice cream
  • 1/2 cup frozen unsweetened strawberries
  • 1 tablespoon strawberry preserves
  • In a blender, combine all ingredients; cover and process until smooth. Pour into chilled glasses; serve immediately.

Genre Discussion:

From Wikipedia: Narrative nonfiction is also often known as creative nonfiction. It is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as academic or technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact but is not written to entertain based on prose style.

“Ultimately, the primary goal of the creative nonfiction writer is to communicate information, just like a reporter, but to shape it in a way that reads like fiction.”[2]

Forms within this genre include biography, autobiography, memoir, diary, travel writing, food writing, literary journalism, chronicle, personal essays, and other hybridized essays.

Suggested Reading Resources:

Our Book Discussion

Now we have some good background information on narrative nonfiction, let’s get to our book discussion!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot @RebeccaSkloot

The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, by Timothy C. Winegard

Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer, by Lynne Cox

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, by Jill Bolte Taylor @DrJBT

Uncommon Carriers, by John McPhee

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick @BarbaraDemick

The Wrong End of the Table: A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit in, by Ayser Salman @aysersalman

Murder by the Book: The Crime That Shocked Dickens’s London, by Claire Harman @claire_harman

People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up, by Richard Lloyd Parry @dicklp

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir, by T Kira Madden @tkiramadden

And Then We Danced: A Voyage into the Groove, by Henry Alford @henryalford

Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us for this discussion about narrative nonfiction! Special thanks to Guest Host Leah for being here to share all your wonderful suggestions!

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries – which is always interesting! – subscribe to our podcast Linking Our Libraries.

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!