3 Non-Fiction!

 Non-fiction used to be rare in my reading sphere.  I am noticing a trend of reading more and more of it, however! I recently finished up on three non-fiction books, one that I have been reading for a while, picking it up off and on.

1) Wintering by Katherine May: This was the perfect book to read over the winter.  And I took my time with it. The subtitle is "The power of rest and retreat in difficult times".  Winter itself is a difficult time for me (yes, even here at the beach-I'm getting quite spoiled wanting warm summer-type days!).

I found this to be a beautifully written book  It starts in September and ends in late March.  It is the journey of the author's time dealing with hard issues: her husband's illness, her son's beginning homeschooling, and the author having to leave her job for her own medical issues. The book tells of how the author weathered these "setbacks" (my words),  in part by learning to use them for the opportunities they offered.  In other words, finding the positives in the situations and accepting and utilizing the positives. She focuses on the importance of finding the power of resting and retreating.  A lovely book!

2) A Grief Observed by CS Lewis: This is an older book (1961) that the author wrote after his wife had died. It is the journey of losing faith and coming back.  Easy for many to relate to after the death of a loved one. While I didn't find the book to be especially profound, it was interesting to observe his journey of faith.

3) Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: You may recall that I have read other books by Malcolm Gladwell.  I love Malcolm Gladwell.  I love his books and I love his podcast Revisionist History (check it out-season 5 has just been released).  Outliers is probably the best of his books that I have read to date. The subtitle is "The story of success". I read it in two days...I couldn't put it down!

In this book, Malcolm looks at the surrounding world of successful people, in all sorts of categories (sports, business, etc.).  He argues that it's not just a matter of intelligence, ambition, or personality traits.  Success is more about the opportunities that arise, and the culture one is from (possibly, and usually, going back for generations). The stories he presents are fascinating and quite thought-provoking. I found the book to have excellent insights into factors that make one an outlier!