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Y'all are sleeping on nonfiction in book club debates
Every book club I've been in since moving to Austin fights over literary fiction or thrillers, but nobody ever pushes for a good nonfiction pick. I brought up The Feather Thief at my last meetup and people looked at me like I suggested reading a cereal box. But that book has actual stakes with a real crime, a weird subculture of fly tying, and a museum heist. It sparked way more heated discussion than the predictable domestic drama we read the month before. Why do people assume nonfiction can't have plot twists or strong characters when real life is full of both? Has anyone else gotten side eyes for suggesting something like The Devil in the White City or say, a true crime book in general?
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brookekelly19d agoMost Upvoted
Oh man, I've been there. My group in Portland gave me the exact same look when I brought up The Feather Thief. Here's what worked for me - I started by pitching nonfiction as "a bonus pick" when we vote on the next book. Like hey, let's do one fiction and one nonfiction every other month. That way it feels less like I'm making them read a textbook. I also learned to pick ones that lean really hard into story, like Killers of the Flower Moon or The Radium Girls. Those have that page turner feel without being dry. For your next meeting maybe just bring The Devil in the White City as a backup option and casually mention how the World's Fair stuff connects to their favorite architecture or something. They'll bite if you frame it right.
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mary_wells19d ago
Oh totally, I feel your pain on this one. @brookekelly made a good point about framing it as a bonus pick, I might have to try that. The thing is, nonfiction has this weird stigma where people think it's just dry facts or memoirs about sad childhoods, but stuff like The Feather Thief is straight up more gripping than half the fiction I read. I had a group in Denver that was all about those dark literary novels where nothing really happens, and when I brought up The Lost City of Z they acted like I was suggesting homework. But real life has way crazier twists than most authors can dream up. Have you tried pitching nonfiction as "a real story that reads like fiction" instead of just saying it's nonfiction?
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