Match This Nonfiction Book with This Fiction Book
Do you ever read a novel and a nonfiction book and think, “These go great together!“?
For this week’s Nonfiction November assignment (hosted by Sarah this week), we pair a nonfiction book with a fiction book. I give you two pairs from books I’ve read this year so far.
I posted last week’s assignment here:
My Favorite Nonfiction Books So Far This Year
Pair 1:
Nonfiction
While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement
by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
[my review here]
While the World Watched is a first-person, true account about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, on September 15, 1963, by the Klan. The author Carolyn Maull McKinstry was a 14-year-girl at the time, a friend to all four girls who were killed by the explosion.
Fiction
The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead
[my review here]
The Nickel Boys is a novel about a reform school for boys in Florida in the Jim Crow South in the early 1960s. The staff is composed of prejudiced and sadistic men who take advantage of all the students, but even more so the black students. It’s based on a real-life reform school.
Why this pairing?
Both these books show us how badly that some white Americans treated black Americans as little as 50 years ago. And they remind us that even though we’ve come far, we still haven’t arrived at full equality and respect for all. We must keep working at it and showing love to everyone.
Pair 2:
Nonfiction
A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown
by Julia Scheeres
This creepy but true story is how Jim Jones convinced hundreds of people in his People’s Temple Full Gospel Church to do his bidding, even to the point of moving to Guyana, living almost like slaves, and voluntarily committing suicide together on November 18, 1978. The book closely follows several parishioners, giving you a vivid picture of what they endured for Jim Jones, including some who dared to doubt as well as others who were blindly loyal at all costs.
Fiction
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
This novel is about an evangelical Baptist pastor who moves his family to the Belgian Congo in 1959 to spread the gospel. As political circumstances and the family unravel, you see what it’s like to live with someone who is so firmly entrenched in his own distorted beliefs that it adversely affects others.
Why this pairing?
Both these books are based on a charismatic pastor who believe their personal version of the truth is THE truth, and insist on others following them in their beliefs. It shows how possible it is to be swayed to dark places that you couldn’t have imagined by putting too much trust in one person, but that it is possible to break free and begin thinking for yourself again.
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Do you have a nonfiction and fiction pairing? Please share in the comments.
Read more #NonficNov book recommendations:
- Spiritual Books on the Enneagram
- My Favorite Nonfiction Books This Year
- 3 Reasons You Don’t Read Nonfiction and Why You Should Anyway (+ LOTS of Recommendations)
What a fun idea! I love this way of marrying nonfiction and fiction. A popular pair right now is “Before We Were Yours” (fiction) with “Before and After” (non) for the true story that the fiction was based on. I only read the fiction, but this is a great pairing!
Ooo I love the idea of reading the Jonestown book with Poisonwood. I love Barbara Kingsolver and The Poisonwood Bible is one of my favorites. I am going to have to read A Thousand Lives. Thanks for sharing!
Wow, this post just serves to reinforce my suspicion that I need more fiction in mhy life to hang on some of my non-fiction hooks!
Lisa, as I read few non-fiction books, I don’t have a suggested pairing. But wow, I really like this idea, and the books you’ve recommended here sound so intriguing!
Blessings!
I love this idea, Lisa! Never thought of paring two books that highlight different shades of the same color, so to speak. I’ll have to try this! Thanks for sharing! I’ll be pinning and tweeting!
I added some of these to my reading list! 🙂 that’s kind of a fun idea to try out in my own reading adventures, I love it!
Dear Lisa, good game! The Weight of Ink (recent storybook – which I recommend highly) would pair nicely with Spinoza’s Ethics. Tristram Shandy would go well with Freud’s book of jokes (“Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious” the first part is all jokes, the second part – the psychology – is mildly interesting but kind of obvious nowadays).
Very nice pairings. Poisonwood Bible is a near lifelong favorite and Nickel Boys was fabulous. I like seeing what you’ve put with them.
Oh my! I love your idea of pairings. I am often reading several books at a time, and often fiction and nonfiction. Sometimes they go together, and other times not. But you have got my wheels chugging. Choose books that are linked in some way. Anxious to try one of your pairings.
Your 2nd pairing reminded my of a non-fiction book I read recently that would probably go well with these two. Leaving the Witness, by Amber Scorah. It was about how Amber had blindly followed the teachings of the Jehovah Witnesses for many years and slowly begins to question the truth she has been taught.
For my own Week 2 post, I paired the brilliant biography Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley with my re-read of Emma by Jane Austen, but it could be any her wonderful novels to be fair. 🙂
I also have to recommend Road to Jonestown…
Lisa, I’ve never thought about doing this kind of pairing for books. While I don’t read a lot of fiction, it makes sense that some books go together and this includes great non-fiction AND fiction. Thank you!
These are great pairings. I was put off by this week’s theme at first then realised I had the perfect pair, so joined NonFiction November. I’m finding so many new blogs to read!
This is such a fun idea and proves to me that I need to read more fiction 🙂
This is a great idea, Lisa! It reminds me of the book “The Cure,” which alternates between fiction and nonfiction throughout the chapters of the book! It was a very refreshing read for me! I’m saving this post for future refreshment!
This is such a great idea. A dear friend of mine has always wanted to be able to gift her friends with a classic book and a biography about that same author. It really does open our eyes to a different perspective to be able to pair such books together. Thank you for all of the creativity that you share with us here!
I love this! And I love to read. Thanks for sharing!
What a cool idea, Lisa! I don’t think I’ve read any of these.
Pinned to two different boards.
Thanks for linking up at InstaEncouragements!
Lisa,
What a great idea. I seem to tend toward historical fiction, so why not take it a step further and dabble in non-fiction and fiction on the same topic or era? Great suggestions.
Blessings,
Bev xx
This is such a cool idea, Lisa. I would love to read more fiction. I think I had a copy of Poisonwood Bible; this post makes me want to go pull it out again.
I love your pairings! The children’s book The Watson’s Go to Birmingham, 1963 is also an excellent book about the bombing. I loved the Poisonwood Bible, but would never have thought of pairing it with a book on Jonestown–but now that you point it out, I can see how they’d pair well as well.
Both of these pairings are great choices. Thanks for sharing them.
Please stop by to see my NonFicNov Book Pairings
Some thoughtful pairings you’ve put together here, Lisa.
I’ve never thought to even try pairing the two! Leave it to the greatest reader east and west of the Mississippi to come up with that!