More books are being published than ever before — how can you possibly decide what to read? Here are a few nonfiction titles that we loved in 2013.
The titles below are the works of nonfiction and memoir that BuzzFeed staff members and contributors couldn’t put down this year (in no particular order). What are yours?
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped is finely chronicled memoir of a grief that is unending and wide reaching. As Ward recounts the story of her family and her childhood in the rural South, she also remembers five young men in her life, including her brother, who died far too young and without cause. These young men, and those who survived them are shown, understandably, as victims of place, poverty, race, and circumstance. Men We Reaped is both heartbreaking and thought provoking and the power of the prose overwhelms in the best possible way.
Recommended for: Anyone who wants to understand the complexities of race and poverty in contemporary America as inextricably linked to matters of the heart.
—Roxane Gay, BuzzFeed contributor
Via media.npr.org
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe
Marvel Comics stable of superheroes — Spider-Man, The X-Men, The Avengers, and so on — have come to dominate pop culture through hugely successful film franchises, but there was a time when the publisher was just a scrappy underdog staffed by wildly imaginative oddballs, stoners, and obsessive craftsmen. This meticulously researched book reveals the office politics and economic pressures that shaped the history of Marvel's fictional universe, and offers valuable insight into the minds of the writers and artists who have created some of the most iconic fictional characters of all time.
Recommended for: The superhero fan who wants to know the secret origin of everything.
—Matthew Perpetua, BuzzFeed Music editor
Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere by Poe Ballantine
One of the best road writers of his generation, Poe Ballantine lays stakes in a quiet Midwest town after years of restless wandering. With a new family, new neighbors, but the same talent and heart his fans have come to expect from his writing, Ballantine investigates a murder that rocks his new hometown of Chadron, Neb. Part true crime, part family drama, and part hilarious yet heartwarming send-up of small-town life, Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere is all Poe Ballantine, and Poe Ballantine at his best.
Recommended for: Anyone who has ever sworn they would never settle down, whether they have yet or not.
—Isaac Fitzgerald, BuzzFeed Books editor
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