Top five favourite non-fiction books

I used to read non-fiction for school and fiction in my leisure time. Not that I didn’t like it. I love to learn new things! But with the exception of drawing books, I would rather read stories in my free time. It felt easier and there were so many fictional books I hadn’t read yet. That hasn’t changed and probably never will. But since the beginning of this year I tend to read more non-fiction by myself. I found some amazing books! Here are my five favourite non-fiction books of this moment:

1. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
I really enjoy listening to the podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin. In this podcast Gretchen and her sister Elizabeth Craft talk about all kinds of subjects related to happiness. While listening I became curious about the book that prompted them to start the podcast. In The Happiness Project Gretchen describes how she tried to become happier in one year. Each month she focused on another area of her life, for example boosting her energy in January and leisure time in May. For each month she chose activities based on scientific research. In this way she found out that that small changes can make a big difference in your life.

Favourite quote:
“Although we presume that we act because of the way we feel, in fact we often feel because of the way we act.“

2. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
This book was recommended to me on tumblr as “the best and most reassuring book that I’ve ever read on mental health.” So I had high expectations, but the book lived up to them. In the first hundred pages Matt Haig tells how he became depressed and how it felt. This was a sad part of the book, but crucial in understanding depression. In the other half of the book Matt describes how he rose out of it and lived again. I loved this part, because it was full of metaphors, included a list of reasons to stay alive and tips on how to be there to someone with a depression. I would recommend Reasons to Stay Alive not only to people who have depression, but also to people (like me) who know someone with depression.

Favourite quote:
“The key is in accepting your thoughts, all of them, even the bad ones. Accept thoughts, but don’t become them.”

3. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
With no experience or training, Cheryl Strayed decides to hike more than thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, all by herself. Her story reads like an exciting fiction book with a funny and strong protagonist. You probably aren’t planning to hike thousand miles, but believe me, you will consider it while reading Wild.

Favourite quote:
“Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.”

4. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb
This is the story of a girl who stood up for education and was shot for it by the Taliban at the age of fifteen. As I wrote earlier, Malala is one of my personal heriones. In this beautiful book Malala tells about her family, her fight for girl’s education and her life in Pakistan before and during the Taliban occupation.

Favourite quote:
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”

5. Shadows of War by Caroline Nordstrom
I read this book a few years ago while studying Cultural Anthropology. War is a quite complicated subject, because it is complex and hard to imagine if you never experienced it. Caroline Nordstrom manages to show what it is like to live in a war and explain the deep politics. In her research she looks at war from different sides: from soldiers and businessman to NGO’s and war orphans.

Favourite quote:
“Peace does not wait for the end of the war to make its debut. It takes its greatest definition on the front lines. As one war orphan living on the streets told me during the years of war in Angola: I carry a little bit of peace in my heart wherever I go, and take it out at night and look at it.”