I need to geek out about my favorite books for a hot second (nonfiction edition)

Time for a part 2 on my nerdy reading-obsessed series on my favorite books. Last week, I recommended plenty of fiction to fill your year (depending how fast you read…how fast do normal readers read in a year? I am not a normal reader). This week, we dive into nonfiction.

While I still don’t understand how a person can read only nonfiction, I used to read no nonfiction. Or at least, no nonfiction that wasn’t writing related. Now, I read tonssss of nonfiction so I’ve got a great selection to offer up as suggestions for your reading list!

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

I’m not entirely sure what I expected when I picked up this book but when I started reading it, it absolutely turned my world upside down. The topic of this book is to assess the various areas throughout our society in which we collect data but the data collection process we follow results in inaccuracy. Specifically, we don’t consider sex and gender in the data collection. And that affects the world we live in.

The one topic that I constantly call back to my mind is from chapter 9. Criado Perez examines tech startups, sports technology, and more. But the one point that stopped me short was the fact that cars are not designed with women in mind. The rules around crash test dummies, of all things, actually show gender bias through assumption of gender norms. Male crash test dummies are frequently in the drivers seat, while female crash test dummies are in the passenger seat. Which means we miss out on collecting data on female drivers, which results in cars that are less safe for drivers with that anatomy.

This book is phenomenal. There is so much research into this topic within this book. Literally just doing this write up makes me want to read the book again.

You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney

Okay, with a title like that, I was intrigued. And if that wasn’t enough, the subtitle is: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself.

I mean, how do you not read this book?

This book explores bias and fallacies about how people think wrong. From Hindsight Bias to The Straw Man Fallacy, this book explains the topic and provides examples on how someone (or even you) might implement the fallacy. It’s equal parts frustrating and comforting. Because upon reading this book, I better understood the world around me. It saddened me. But now, I can see the inaccurate ways people use logic. Which gives me the tools to combat it and not let inaccurate arguments sway me.

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo

Oh that title. WOW that title. If I didn’t already love Oluo’s writing (I read So You Want to Talk About Race first), that title would be enough to get me to pick up the book. And if that title bothers you, then definitely read this book.

Have you ever read a nonfiction book you couldn’t put down? I tried to put down this one and that lasted all of twenty minutes. I had to keep going. Which is even wilder when you realize I had to read the whole thing on my computer because my e-reader refused to download it. But I couldn’t let the book pass me by.

Oluo discusses so much more than I expected. It’s more than just the “legacy of white male America.” Oluo walks through how the history of America led us to where we are today, how race and gender interact and how policies were created with those biases in mind. It changed my understanding of America. I’m not being dramatic. It explained how current policies in place were founded on policies that are racist and sexist. And that was so incredibly powerful to understand.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil

I work in IT so big data has been a buzz word everyday of my career. To the point where you start to get annoyed at the buzz word and start to avoid it, just out of spite. Is that a good reason to make a decision? Regardless, in 2021, I was seeking out books that would specifically relate to my career without sacrificing my own interests.

This book is fascinating. I think it has a lot of crossover with the topics in Invisible Women and Mediocre as well. Again, it returns to the subject that if your data collection method is flawed, so is your data. And if your data is flawed, so is your information. Big data has a lot of power. And this book is a reminder that this power might be ill-placed.

Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving by Celeste Headlee

Do Nothing is one of those books where the title set my expectations for the book that were entirely different from what the book actually was. Instead, it digs into the origins of the current 40-hour, 5-day workweek and how that is flawed, because that’s not the world we live in anymore. And while that wasn’t what I expected from this book, I was so glad to have read it. As soon as I finished it, I just wanted to hand it to everyone who worked at my job. And scream it from the rooftops. Because our values in the working world are at odds with reality.

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And because I don’t know when to stop, I wanted to share a few honorable mention books.

Honorable Mentions:

• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (I read this by Oluo first and it’s fantastic. It made me read Mediocre.)

• Troubleshooting Your Novel: Essential Techniques for Identifying and Solving Manuscript Problems by Steven James (this book is more for writers but I have read it multiple times, often when I’m starting a new big edit, and it’s always helpful)

I hope the last two weeks have given you plenty of new books to check out. And if you are ever looking for another recommendation, hit me up! My Goodreads account says I’ve read 645 books soooo…I’ve got a list.