It’s been a few days since 2025 officially began. I hope that your new year is off to a good start. If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to read more, I have a few suggestions of some enjoyable nonfiction to get you going.

If you’ve read this blog long, you know that I love books about weather and nature. That includes books about wildfires. I saw this one on the shelf and knew that I was gonna enjoy it and I did. I was halfway into it before I realized that it was older. The book came out in 2017, so a lot of the big fires we’ve seen in the past few years had not happened yet when Kodas wrote this book. That said, we are still dealing with a lot of the problems that he mentions - overgrown forests due to normal fire suppression, higher temps and lower precip. The main focus of the book was on the Granite Mountain Hotshots, but he mentions several other fires. I enjoyed this one a lot and I would love to get the author’s take on our latest round of megafires.

I didn’t watch Parks and Rec when it was on TV, but once I started watching it online I was hooked. I’ve read the books by Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Retta, and Aziz, but when I saw that Jim O’Heir (aka Jerry/Larry/Terry) had a new book coming out, I was in. Jerry wasn’t my favorite character, but I did enjoy when he got a moment to shine. And my husband’s all-time best episode was Jerry’s Halloween Fart Attack. This book was an excellent look back at a great show that I miss. 

I’m not super big into the world of social media. Sometimes I just look at online videos or posts and think, “What?” Maybe it’s because I’m a Gen Xer and I expect things to be rational and fact based, that when they are not, I get a bit lost. Then along came this book. The author talks about lots of different aspects of thinking, from confirmation bias to the IKEA effect to declinism. I’ve heard of some of these things before, but several of them blew my mind a little. I now have a better understanding of how certain events have happened and why there was no one to say, “No, that’s dumb” (mostly because we’ve rationalized our way out of it). If you’ve ever overthought anything in your life, or if you are overthinking about overthinking, this is the book for you. I highly enjoyed it and am appreciative of the explanations.

I suppose that it’s not surprising that I like to read books about books. I think it’s fun to read about what other people are reading about. In this case, Shannon is a Lit Prof at Pitt and she has written several humorous essays on reading. She perhaps reads more “serious literature” than I do, but she also talks about why you don’t have to. If you are any kind of book fan, you should check this one out.
 

We’ve talked about my love for all things Gilmore before and now I think I’ve found more of my people. These essays about Gilmore Girls and how the authors related to one of my favorite shows were great. I didn’t want to them to end. It was also fun to see Michael Ruhlman again. I’ve been a fan of his for a while as well. Who knew he was friends with Digger? Excellent set of essays about a pop culture phenom that refuses to go gently into that starry, hollowed night. (See what I did there?)

So I already mentioned Megafire earlier in this post, and now here is an offering about volcanoes. Do I have a type? Maybe. Either way, this was an enjoyable and highly educational read about volcanoes. Fun fact, on the day I started reading it, Kilauea in Hawaii started erupting. I took that as the universe agreeing with my book choice. Who am I to argue?

I am not the hugest Stanley Tucci fan, although I do have respect for his work and I enjoyed his last book, Taste. So when I saw he had a new book coming out, I was intrigued. Plus it was about a food, which you know I always like. After reading this, I’m not sure that Stanley and I would be food buddies. He seems to like the fancier side of food. There was not a fish stick in sight. He also likes to eat really late - way past my bedtime. But my favorite part of the book was how he wove his eating into his life and talked about whatever project he was working on at the time. This was a good read, and I think most folks would enjoy it.

Alrighty friends, those are just a sampling of the excellent nonfiction offered by NPL. If you didn’t see anything to float your boat, just stop by your local branch and I guarantee we can find something to help you keep your resolution to read more. We really do have something for everyone.

Happy New Year’s Reading…

:) Amanda