The month of February was the ultimate Non-Fiction theme for me, I chose that genre because I don’t like most the non-fiction genre, I wanted to challenge myself and find something that would make me change my perception about it.
Before starting, I want to thank Hachette Canada for the receiving these advance copies for review!
THE GREAT PRETENDER – FOR RESEARCH CURIOUS
David Rohensan has published a quite controversial article called “On Being Sane in Insane Places”, the results of a study who seemed to be saying that you can easily be admitted into psychiatric ward but convincing the officials to let you go is another thing. The so-called “patients” would be admitting by saying that they hear voices and once they’re inside the ward, their tasks were to behave normally and see if they will be able to convince people that they’re sane mentally.
The book does a great job at exploring the study, from re-interviewing the patients and to doing a thorough comparison of the environmental factors from that epoch. If you like psychology analysis and studies, this book is definitely for you.
It is research heavy writing style but unlike THICK, this author succeeded in blending her own thoughts and opinions of the study into the mix.
3,4/5
IN DEFENSE OF ELITISM – A LIGHT AND FUNNY READ
This book was HILARIOUS. I don’t think this would suit a lot of people but I actually liked it. The author defines elitism in his own way, with a lot of factors, different politics, socioeconomic subgroups, and other variables. Using humour and sarcasm, the author takes down on the real elites and saying that it’s not just education or income that make you become one.
He also gives light to some different opinions and perspective. Joe Stein visits a few regions of US who are pro-Trump voters to understand what they see in Trump, and to his surprise, the realities of small town Americas are actually totally different from the urban ones. Some towns don’t have any minorities and mostly white so the citizens could not relate to anything about Black Lives Matter, to them it is only considerered a disobedience to the police.
4/5
THIS IS GOING TO HURT – MEDICAL RESIDENT DIARY
Being a medical student myself, I had to give this book a try. It’s a personal diary of the medical residency pathway. It is funny, very touching at times. However, each entry is only a few lines, very easy but my complain is it’s maybe too easy to read. The book can be a great a novel but it does feel like a teenager draft more than a refined novel. The author treats the reader like a child, as if we wouldn’t know the basic biology.
2,5/5
What’s the latest non-fiction you read? 🙂
Bookidote 
I recently read Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell and it was okay–some pretty interesting examples of recent crimes, but the overall conclusion was somewhat of a let down. Still, an interesting read!
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The first two books sound so interesting! I will be keeping my eye out for them 😀
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My last non-fiction read was The Great Pretender. I really enjoyed it despite it being so research heavy. I majored in Psychology so it was right up my alley even though I studied most of what was talked about.
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Great to know such diverse books are available! They’ll be in my TBR now
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I love mixing non-fiction in with the fiction I read, sometimes to learn about specific topics, but sometimes as simple entertainment. I recently finished Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom by Ken Iglunas, which I didn’t enjoy nearly as much as I’d hoped. Now I’m reading A Nose for Trouble: Sotheby’s, Lehman Brothers, and My Life of Redefining Adversity by Michael Ainslie, and this one I am enjoying.
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