Adding Another Keeper

Before stopping full-time work in 2010, I found it much easier discovering novelists I wanted to continue reading vs. non-fiction authors. At present, which group - novelists or non-fiction writers - has more of your favorites?

Soon after finishing The Wager (2023) - David Grann's astonishing tale of "shipwreck, mutiny, and murder" - I did a quick review of my book journals and realized my ratio of go-to novelists vs. non-fiction authors is fast approaching parity. Grann first dazzled me with Killers of the Flower Moon, a book that blew away every person in my book club. Now, along with Erik Larson, Jill Lepore, Jon Krakauer, Susan Orlean - to name a few - Grann has joined my growing list of non-fiction authors whom I'm sure I'll continue reading for the rest of my life. 

Foremost of the elements that captivated me reading The Wager were the first person quotes Grann uses throughout, lifted directly from the still-intact journals from 1740-42 kept by some of the shipwreck survivors. But it takes a writer with Grann's gift to turn those dry journal entries into a compelling narrative. In addition, Grann also shines a light on the frequently mindless arrogance of the era with powerful passages like this: "European explorers, baffled how anyone could survive in the region - and seeking to justify assaults on indigenous groups - often labeled the Kawsegar and other canoe people as cannibals, but there is no credible evidence of this."  

"We all impose some coherence - some meaning - on the chaotic events of our existence."  When a sentence like that appears early in a book, I'm reasonably certain I'm in capable hands. David Grann is clearly a keeper.

Reflections From The Bell Curve: Such A Life