Nonfiction Challenge - Matters of Faith and Philosophy

Autumn is upon us and the busy upcoming holiday seasons for so many of us. This month (November) the topic is Matters of Faith and Philosophy. Basically, these are books about any ideas that shape the way we live and how we interact in society. This topic is far reaching and how you interpret the topic will probably determine what book you choose for this month. This can include books about religion, but can also include books about Yoga because for many yoga is a way of living your life. It could also be books about how we react to events that life throws at us and how these are resolved. Books about grief fall into this topic. Some works about the history of faith or philosophy would work because they can be very helpful answering the question of how we got to where we are. Just stay clear of political topics or topics that are being answered in political ways as that is a different topic.

There is only one remaining topic for 2023. If you like to plan ahead go ahead and start finding a book title that will fit the coming topics, here it is.

December As You Like It. Yes, it's the other perennial bookend! A go-anywhere/read-anything challenge.

The group needs to decide if it wants to continue reading and posting in 2024. I would be happy to start the posts each month and act as a moderator, but I would like to know if those of you who are using this thread as a guide want to continue or not. If you find this thread helpful, useful, or just plain entertaining now is the time to let me know. Just post your thoughts and comments here on this thread.

If you want to go ahead with this group we can then start talking about topics of interest.

I look forward to the Nonfiction challenges every month, Benita, and would love the group to continue. I try and read at least 100 nonfiction books a year and the topics that come up here are often off the beaten path for me and challenge me to read outside of my comfort zone.

For November, I am going to read What's So Amazing about Grace? by Philip Yancey. As a Christian, I believe mightily in the concept of grace, but am not sure that I completely understand it.

I have always been fascinated by the idea of pilgrimage. Why it is significant in my life and what do I get out of it? What do others get when they go on a pilgrimage? Many of my trips are a pilgrimage in one way or another and I love to read books about pilgrimages of others. For this month I am going to read Saint Everywhere: Travels in Search of the Lady Saints by Mary Lea Carroll.

I have requested Praying with Jane Eyre: Reflections on Reading as a Sacred Practice by Vanessa Zoltan from my library, but there are a couple of people ahead of me. Seemed like an interesting combo of spirituality and books.
Hopefully it will come in before the year is out.

Also, although I don't read something every month, I'd still like to participate when I can. It takes me out of my comfort zone, since I read mostly fiction.

I agree with >4 alcottacre: . Since I've become active on LT again this year, and since I have a lot of nonfiction on my shelves, I found the monthly nonfiction challenges helpful in deciding what I wanted to read. I have not had something that fit every challenge this year, but I really have enjoyed the challenges where I did. And I have a lot more nonfiction still to go, so I would love to have another year of challenges. As Stasia said, the topics are often something off the beaten path, something I might not have thought of, and I really like that.

Hmmm, I'll have to think more about which books to pull for this challenge. The ones I was thinking about do have a political slant, so if that is out of bounds for this challenge, I'll have to look at some of the others on my shelves.

I like the nonfiction challenge which gets me to pull books off the shelf in my personal library. My non-fiction tends to sit there unread. It would like to continue doing the challenge.

Because this month's topic is nice and broad, I've been able to pull a book off the shelf that I'm curious to read, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.

>3 benitastrnad: I enjoy following along, although I am rarely able to participate.

The November book challenge theme centers on "Matters of Faith and Philosophy," encompassing religious, philosophical, and societal-interaction ideas. Avoiding politics, explore books on spiritual beliefs, philosophies, history of faith, or personal growth. The expertly crafted paper I received not only met but exceeded my expectations. Impressed by do my paper their professionalism, prompt delivery, and top-notch quality, I can't help but recommend https://domypaper.com/ website link who always do my papers. If you're navigating the complexities of college assignments, trust me, this service is a game-changer.

Looks like we have a nice variety of titles on tap for this month. It will be interesting to read what everyone thinks of these books at the end of the month.

It looks like we have about 5 people who are interested in keeping this thread alive for 2024. That works for me. I have learned that it takes a core group to keep a thread alive, so I will plan on putting together the thread for 2024. I won't put that up until probably the last week in December. I get a bit irritated at folks who like to rush the old year out. On the upside, now that I am retired I have time to monitor a thread and can keep it moving along each month.

Let me know what topics you might want to pursue next year. Post the ideas here and I will start compiling and putting together a list for next year.

>11 benitastrnad: I have some topics that I am very interested in that I might suggest: Forensics, Black Studies, and Jewish Studies. I am not sure if these topics are too narrow or not?

>12 alcottacre:
They are very broad. Forensics as in any kind of forensics? Or a specific kind? Could these be incorporated into some other topics? For instance, books of essays that cover Black Studies?

>13 benitastrnad: Forensics for me is something like Forensic Anthropology or Forensic Archaeology. However forensics has broadened out into many disciplines including things like forensic odontology, forensic psychology, forensic pathology, etc

My Black Studies and my Jewish Studies reading have no set reading materials. I just dip in and out of what I think might be relevant, so I am not sure how to narrow these down.

>14 alcottacre:
I looked up Forensics and here is the Wikipedia definition of that subject. Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws.

However, when I read the Wikipedia article of the subject it is very broad. There was a long list of subdivisions of the topic that surprised me with its length. I think that makes it a good subject for a monthly challenge because the topic ranges from criminal forensics to forensic meteorology. We can work with this topic so I wrote it down on the list I have started for next years topics. We can decide later if we want to narrow it down. There would be advantages to leaving it wide open as well as narrowing it down.

I put together a sort of list of topics for 2024. Take a look and let me know what you think.

January - Prize Winners - prize winning books that won prizes off the beaten tracks. Not the National Book Award, Pulitzer, or other prizes of that ilk.
February - Women's Work - what women do or did. This could be books about WWII pilots, civil war nurses, the women who sued Newsweek over pay and promotion issues, or the history of home economics.
March - Forensic Sciences - see discussion above for more info.
April - Globalization - all things global, exports, international banking, terrorism, pandemics. Anything global.
May - Wild Wild West - books about the western U.S. Historical or modern. Indian wars, water wars, conservation, etc.
June - Middle Europe - anything about Europe from the Elbe to the Ural's, from Finland to Turkey. History, language, travel, etc.
July - Insect World - insects are important. Butterflies, honey bees, mosquitoes, ants, roaches, etc.
August - Being Jewish - this topic is wide open as long as it is nonfiction. Zionism, modern Israel, history, religion, Kabbalah, Judaism.
September - Essays - any book of essays. Scientific, religious, political, racial, social commentary, etc.
October - Music, more music - lots of books being published now about composers, the music industry, history of music, and even memoirs and biography's from the Boss to Bach.
November - To Small to See - books about Bacteria, Viruses, Atoms, Dust. maybe even microaggressions?
December - Political Biography - ancient or modern, any person who had a role in politics of their day. Even women who might not have had a job or title, like Madam Chiang Kai-Shek or Nancy Regan, but still had influence.

>15 benitastrnad: Sounds good, Benita. Thank you for all of your hard work!

>16 benitastrnad: My only question about January is how do I find a list of "off the beaten" track prizes? I am lucky that I even know about the Book and Pulitzer prizes, lol.

The rest of the list looks terrific to me. Some categories in my comfort zone and others out, so a nice mix :)

>17 alcottacre:
I am putting together a list of some of them. Suzanne had a good list at the beginning of the year for 2023. Of course, you can read the Pulitzer or National Book Award winners, but the idea is to get to some of the more obscure winners and therefore get to some really good books that didn't get as much attention.

>16 benitastrnad: Wow, that's an impressive list! I was planning to take a look at what I have on my shelves unread to make some suggestions for possible topics, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. I don't know if I've got anything that would fit an Essays category--I'll have to check. But this is a fine list on the whole!

>18 benitastrnad: Oh, that is great news! Thank you, Benita. I really have no idea which are major awards or which are minor. Does it depend on the genre? I know that there are awards for Sci Fi, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mysteries, etc. Are those minor?

>19 atozgrl: Irene, if you can find a copy of Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman for the Essays category, I would highly recommend that one to you.

>20 alcottacre:
There are awards for each of the genres you mentioned, but remember this in Nonfiction. That means that books in the SciFi/Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller categories would not work.

Awards for SciFi/Fantasy, like the Nebula and Hugo Awards are considered to be major awards because they are the premier awards for that genre. Likewise, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is a major prize. It also comes with a cash award much like the Nobel Prize for Literature.

For this category it would be awards like the Silver Gavel Award for the best book about , Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award for the history of architecture, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for historical biography, the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize for scholarly works in English on Lincoln, the American Civil War, or the soldier in the American Civil War. (this last one comes with a $50,000 cash award - I know because one of my friends won it!) There are the National Jewish Book Awards that are given every year, just go to their web site and they have a list of the winners and the shortlisted books. This would be a way for you to combine your Jewish Studies and Black Studies books and use that to meet this category.

If you want to check to see what awards a book as won, just click on the tag "Common Knowledge" over on the left hand side of the computer screen on your book page. The awards that the book got are listed there.

My guess is that you have read more award winners than you think you have. Don't worry - I will post a sample list of these awards for literature when I do the thread for January 2024. There are lots of these prizes out there and are full of books that are just marvelous and waiting for us to read ranging from those given by the Los Angeles Times to the National Outdoor Book Award.

>21 benitastrnad: remember this in Nonfiction I did remember it - after I had already typed up my message, lol

Would the National Jewish Book Awards or the Natan Notable Books qualify as minor or major awards? (https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards)

>19 atozgrl:
There are lots of books that are essays. Rebecca Solnit is one author who specializes in writing them. Some people say that essays are really just magazine articles. If so, that means that they are magazine articles compiled into book form. For instance, the books written by John McPhee. There is even an award given for the best book of essays! It is called the Pen-Diamondstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.

The 2023 nominees for this award are:
Translating Myself and Others, Jhumpa Lahiri (Princeton University Press)
Still No Word From You, Peter Orner (Catapult)
Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris (Little, Brown and Company)
A Left-Handed Woman, Judith Thurman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Green Hour: A Natural History of Home, Alison Townsend (The University of Wisconsin Press)

My guess is that you have read books of essays before and didn't know that was what you were reading. I will give a bit of guidance at the beginning of each month that will steer you in the right direction and still give you the freedom to select what you already have on your shelves.

By-the-way, the winner of the Pen-Diamondstein award for 2023 was Left-Handed Woman by Judith Thurman. :-)

>22 alcottacre:
yep!

I finished reading my first book for this months category of "Matter of Faith and Philosophy." Saint Everywhere by Mary Lea Carroll. I will write more about this wonderful short book later. I am going to move on to reading A Long Retreat: In Search of a Religious Life by Andrew Krivak next. I am just waiting on it to come from Inter-Library Loan.

>23 benitastrnad: You're right, with that explanation I probably have read books of essays without realizing it. And just off the top of my head, I think I do have at least one that fits the category that I haven't read. I'll have to go look to see what else I've got.

I've got so behind on challenges that I'm going to have to sit out this month too (I had hoped to get to Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion). But I did want to say that I'd like to continue with the challenge next year.

Do we need a separate thread every month though? I know that with a monthly thread you can put the title of the theme in the thread title, but the last couple of years there have been relatively small numbers of posts each month. I'm thinking that with a quarterly (say) or half-yearly thread then we could get more posts on the thread which would mean that we (well, I) would be less likely to lose sight of the next month's thread. It also means that it would be easier for discussions to carry on beyond the month end if we're a bit late finishing our book. I'm not particularly invested in this suggestion, just thought I'd throw it into the mix :)

>27 Jackie_K:
I agree with the thread thing. I monitor another thread that is also a monthly read and we use one thread for the entire year. I thought we could do the same thing with this one. When we hit 250 posts then we can add a new one. The LT system allows each thread to be attached to the next one. Makes it easier for everybody.

In fact that is what I had planned to do for 2024.

My first book for this month was a short book. It was Saint Everywhere: Travels in Search of the Lady Saints by Mary Lea Carroll.

I have been interested in the idea of pilgrimage for many years. I think it is the idea of combining the concept of travel with religious experiences or religious revelations that appeals to me. This short book did all of that and a bit more. The author is a housewife and mother living in Southern California. She is a devote Catholic and began to delve into the lives of the Saints: asking herself who are the Saints and why are they Saints. She began to concentrate on the women Saints. Over the years she traveled to the shrines or homes of some of the women Saints, or as she calls them "Lady Saints." This book is a series of short vignettes on some of the shrines or holy sights of the Lady Saints and concludes with two places where there are recognized apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

The vignettes deal with a different theme underlying each visit. With the author pondering on different things in each vignettes. For instance, the chapter on Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton the author asks the question "how did she do so much with so little?" and then explores that question in her own life.

The book asks tougher questions and contains deeper analysis of the lady saints as it goes along. This parallels the authors own spiritual growth and perhaps ours?

>24 benitastrnad: I am confused. Yep to which? Major or minor regarding the Jewish Book Awards/Natan Notable books?

>30 alcottacre:
both. They are two distinct awards. They are given by two different organizations. Natan is a division of the National Jewish Book Council. So is Natan. Two different divisions two different awards given for different reasons.

The National Jewish Book Awards, is the longest-run­ning North Amer­i­can awards pro­gram of its kind and is rec­og­nized as the most pres­ti­gious. The Awards are intend­ed to rec­og­nize authors, and encour­age read­ing, of out­stand­ing Eng­lish-lan­guage books of Jew­ish interest. One of the awards given is for nonfiction.

Natan Notable Books is a twice-year­ly award for non­fic­tion books on Jew­ish themes. Natan Notable Books high­lights vital books and authors, and brings inno­v­a­tive and impor­tant ideas to the atten­tion of diverse audiences.
Around Passover and the Jew­ish High Hol­i­days, Natan selects a ​“Natan Notable Book,” a recen­t­­ly-pub­­lished or about-to-be pub­lished non-fic­­tion title that will cat­alyze con­ver­sa­tions aligned with the themes of Natan’s grant­mak­ing: rein­vent­ing Jew­ish life and com­mu­ni­ty for the twen­­ty-first cen­tu­ry, shift­ing notions of indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive Jew­ish iden­ti­ty, the his­to­ry and future of Israel, and the evolv­ing rela­tion­ship between Israel and world Jewry. Natan Notable Book win­ners receive a Natan Notable Book seal and $5,000 for the author, marketing/​distribution coach­ing and pro­mo­tion from Jew­ish Book Coun­cil and Natan, and cus­tomized sup­port designed to bring the book and/​or the author to new audiences.

Both of these are awards but often the books that win them are not mainstream best sellers and probably won't make the Oprah list. As I said before, we can read a Pulitzer Prize winning biography but sometimes there are hidden gems out there that are also noteworthy reads and it pays to take a look at those titles as well as the ones we hear about.

>31 benitastrnad: I have already read several books from both lists and will continue to read them for my Jewish Studies reading, so I will likely read one for the minor awards reading coming up.

I got my copy of Long Retreat: In Search of a Religious Life by Andrew Krivak through our Inter-Library Loan program and started reading it this morning. I have only read a few pages, but will take it with me on my Thanksgiving trip and should have it completed by the end of the month. Incidentally, it came from the Burke Library of the Union Theological Seminary.

The author of this book has written a novel that was nominated for a National Book Award. That one is The Sojourn. It is a novel. This book - Long Retreat - is a memoir about his time as a Jesuit Seminarian.

I finished Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing about Grace? tonight. I very much enjoyed this book and as Yancey's childhood reflects so much of my own, I found that it spoke to me on multiple levels.

>16 benitastrnad: Your anticipated list for 2024 reminded me that I'd ordered a book that would fit the February Women's Work category. I remember being excited to receive it but then I shelved it and forgot it. The Broadcast 41: Women and the Anti-communist Blacklist sounds like an interesting history.

I am about 70 pages into Long Retreat. It is my second book for this month, but I didn't bring it with me on my Thanksgiving trip, so won't finish it this month. Since next months topic is "As You Like It" I am going to hang this one over to next month. I will be posting the thread for December later today and will post the link to it here.

I do have to say that I didn't think that I would find this month's topic of "Matters of Faith and Philosophy" to be of much interest to me, and didn't think I had much in my reading list to use for this topic. However, that turned out to not be the case, and I found plenty of potential titles to pick from. I also have enjoyed, am enjoying, the titles that I did pick for this month. They are two very different kinds of reading about Faith. The first was a spiritual journey over several years and was also a travelogue. It was lighter in tone than is Long Retreat. This book is a memoir, but is about the author's spiritual journey and decisions he made regarding life while he was a Jesuit. Both books are journeys, but I am not far enough into Long Retreat to make any sort of judgement about it. I will let you know what I think of it, when I finish it.

Here is the link to the December 2023 thread.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/355486

You can post your thoughts about the November books that you read here or on the December thread. Just let us know what you read.

>34 alcottacre: I haven't read that for years, but remember thinking it was brilliant when I read it. I must dig it out again.

Last night I finished The language of science and faith : straight answers to genuine questions by Karl W. Giberson and Francis S. Collins. I found the book very helpful. I have struggled over the years with how evolution fits with my faith, as some have implied that you can't be a Christian and believe in evolution. However, the evidence for the great age of the earth and for evolution is overwhelming, and I don't want to surrender my brain for the sake of my faith. This book is reassuring, as it gives many arguments that support science and evolution without requiring anyone to give up their faith. They show how it is possible to believe the scientific evidence and still maintain faith. I found their arguments to be much more sensible than extremist arguments I have heard on either side.

>6 kac522: My intended book Praying with Jane Eyre still hasn't shown up at the library. Apparently some of the copies have disappeared. If the one lone copy comes in before the end of the year, I'll read it in December.

>26 atozgrl: A really great book of essays I read this year is The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down).

It covered lots of different topics that are important to Green, and all in an engaging way. He makes Dr. Pepper sound absolutely fascinating.

I went ahead and started the December thread. We will start stringing each month onto one thread next year. Here is the link to the December - As You Like It thread.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/355486