This week, the host for Nonfiction November is Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home, and the prompt is book pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or maybe it’s just two books you feel have a link, whatever they might be. You can be as creative as you like!
This year, I thought of several pairings, some of which aren’t that original, but maybe some of them show a little more thought. My first pairing is really obvious. I’m pairing the nonfiction Mad Madge by Katie Whitaker with its fictional counterpoint, Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton. Both are about Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. I read Margaret the First last year during Novellas in November!
Next, I’m bringing up the Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky again, and I’m pairing it with Island, a book of short stories by Alastair MacLeod. One is about the geography of islands, and the other is about living on one. (I also might have paired the Pocket Atlas with The Islandman by Tomás O’Crohan, a memoir by one of the last inhabitants of the Blasket Islands in Ireland, but then both would be nonfiction.)
Next, we have the memoir Girl Interrupted by Susan Kaysen, about a young woman who is incarcerated in a mental hospital for very little reason, and A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride, about a girl being subjected to other kinds of violence.
Finally, I thought of two books by Barbara Kingsolver that kind of complement each other. One is the nonfiction memoir/food book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life, and the other is Demon Copperhead, her acclaimed novel about the difficulties of a life of poverty in Appalachia, the same setting for her farm in the nonfiction book (but a lot more prosperous).
What? Me Read? 
Love your pairing of Girl Interrupted and A Girl is a Half Formed Thing! I have had Margaret the First on my TBR for ages!
It’s good! And very short!
Interesting pairings, thanks for sharing.
Happy Nonfiction November
Some nice pairings there! Please feel free to link directly to my Week 3 post as it will go down my blog as I review millions of short nonfiction books!
I think I did that. I couldn’t see a Linky, but I put it in your comments.
I meant link directly to my post from here as anyone looking for it by clicking your link on here will find my latest post, which will soon not be my Week 3 one. As my post explains, I can’t do a linky, so I have manually added links to everyone’s posts (including this one) to the bottom of my post.
Oh, I see what you mean. That’s because I set up the links weeks ago. I’ll fix it.
They are all great pairings. The Margaret Cavendish books both sound interesting, but I think I would probably start with the fictional one.
That’s what I did. Reading that one made me go find the biography.
Great pairings. I find this challenge rather difficult, but you found excellent choices.
I found it harder last year. Maybe it was easier this year because I had read more nonfiction.
“Mad Madge” is sooooo good! I read it earlier this year and loved it!
Demon Copperhead was part of my pairing post, too. But I like your choice! Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was terrific.
Excellent pairings! Yours are much more tied together than mine.
Thanks!
I like it that you included Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands again. It says to me that this is a book I should look for.
You should!
Oh, I am so tempted by the Barbara Kingsolver books. A friend sent me The Poisonwood Bible last year, and rarely have I ever read such an excellent story!
Well, this is nonfiction, but she does write a good story. I like most of her books.
Margaret the First is on my TBR list. I’ve heard good things about it.
Hope you like it!