Tag: Nonfiction

Reviews for nonfiction books.

Review: When We Spoke to the Dead: How Ghosts Gave American Women Their Voice by Ilise S. Carter

January 5, 2026

This was a fascinating look at the history of Spiritualism and its role in the history of faith, fraud, feminism, and financial opportunities. This covers things like women’s suffrage, the changing of people’s faith and rituals, the rise in popularity of these spiritualists in media, the racism of the movement, and scientific testing done to … More Review: When We Spoke to the Dead: How Ghosts Gave American Women Their Voice by Ilise S. Carter

Review: Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar

December 27, 2025

Before picking up this book, I had never heard of this incident and had no idea about all the controversy around what might have happened to these nine hikers. Eichar weaves together his journey to uncover the mystery of this incident with the hikers’ accounts to create a very interesting and captivating look at what … More Review: Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar

Review: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

December 20, 2025

The Radium Girls discusses the lives, careers, trials, and death of the women who worked in factories painting watches, clocks, and other military dials with radium so they will illuminate. They were repeatedly told that radium wasn’t harmful, and taught to make their paint brushes into a point using their mouths. So when the women … More Review: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

Review: Nine Pints; A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George

December 15, 2025

Blood is not something that I ever thought I would be interested in learning more about but Rose George really made this a fascinating topic. This book takes us through history by talking about the use of blood in medicine, like leeches and transfusions; to blood donation, menstruation, HIV/AIDs, hemophilia, vampirism, and quite a few … More Review: Nine Pints; A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George

Review: War is a Racket by General Smedley Butler

December 14, 2025

This book was written in 1935, and is still so relevant today. War is a Racket is a scathing 43 minutes (or 50 pages) book about the lies politicians tell American taxpayers to justify going to war. Butler explains the corruption of war in very easy to follow language and finishes up by presenting three … More Review: War is a Racket by General Smedley Butler

Review: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

December 13, 2025

“For good or ill, there is now a cult for everyone.” When you hear the word ‘cult’ your brain instantly imagines a specific type of group (an extreme religious one most likely), but that doesn’t cover the broadness of what a cult can be. Cultish takes a look at the language surrounding cults and what … More Review: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

Review: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

December 7, 2025

This book is about the history of the dangers of the space program and how it led to disasters like the Challenger explosion in 1986, the Columbia disaster in 2003, and a few other disasters. While I knew of the Challenger disaster, it was before I was born and I never really looked into what … More Review: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

Review: The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey

December 6, 2025

Like in Ghostland, Colin Dickey challenges our views on conspiracies, UFOs, and cryptids by asking not if they exist, but why do people believe or don’t believe they do. He goes over the histories of conspiracies, UFOs, and cryptids and dives deep into why some people believe.  This was an interesting book and really challenged … More Review: The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey

Review: The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans

December 5, 2025

“The idea that we are truly dead when we no longer exist in anyone’s memory has its roots in many cultures and time periods….Forgetting is inevitable, as descendants pass and physical markers fade. Over centuries, some notable lives remain etched in our memories, though their ranks dwindle as time passes. Many others are recalled for … More Review: The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans

Review: Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away by Coltan Scrivner

November 29, 2025

This was a fascinating look at why people are morbidly curious. It covers all different kinds of reasons why humans are drawn to horror, ghosts, murder, violent games, etc., and how it all stems from our evolutionary history.  From the beginning, this book had me hooked on how it explains our fascination with morbidly curious … More Review: Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away by Coltan Scrivner

Review: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

November 28, 2025

This was a very interesting look at the US space program and how it is dealing or trying to deal with the everyday issues we take for granted, such as eating, washing, and urinating. While I did find this a bit dense at times, I still learned a bunch about the space program, current and … More Review: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach