June is the official start of the summer season, which, for many, means it’s time to create a summer nonfiction reading list. June also serves as Pride Month, Indigenous History Month, Alzheimer’s Awareness Month and Caribbean Heritage Month. And, Juneteenth is honored in the U.S. on June 19. What better month to pick up a book to read?
Here are ten summer nonfiction book suggestions to consider adding to your TBR list.
If you’re searching for books that will help you better understand Alzheimer’s disease, read:
The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol, National Book Award-winning author, shares his experience with his father’s Alzheimer’s journey.
Somebody I Used to Know: A Memoir by Wendy Mitchell
In this memoir, Wendy Mitchell chronicles her own decline into dementia and early-onset Alzheimer’s while educating others about the disease.
If you want to brush up on the history and experience of Indigenous peoples with your summer nonfiction, read:
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
This debut memoir by Canada’s First Nations Rhodes Scholar includes memories of his early life in Joussard, Alberta, as part of the Driftpile First Nation. It’s a “profound meditation on memory, gender, anger, shame, and ecstasy, but also the outline of a way forward.” (Amazon)
The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir by Ernestine Hayes
Hayes, a Tlingit author and professor from Juneau, shares her experiences as an Alaska Native and older college graduate. Hers is a story of resilience and transformation.
If you want to honor Pride Month by learning about LGBTQ experiences and history, read:
The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World — A History of LGBTQ Pride and the Struggle for Equality by Mason Funk
Learn about several LGBTQ leaders and activists whose courage led to change in this book of interviews compiled by documentarian and author Mason Funk.
The Stonewall Reader edited by the New York Public Library
The Stonewall Uprising took place in New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood on June 28, 1969, and served as the foundational event for the LGBTQ liberation movement in the United States. This volume includes first-person accounts, articles and literature from the New York Public Library’s archives.
If you want to learn more about Caribbean history and culture, read:
High Mas: Carnival and the Poetics of Caribbean Culture by Kevin Adonis Browne
Caribbean identity often includes Carnival celebrations such as “Mas,” a key feature of Trinidad performance. The author, Kevin Adonis Browne, explores these celebrations and gives fresh perspectives on Carnival performance and tradition in the Caribbean as a symbol of freedom.
Freedom Roots: Histories from the Caribbean by Laurent Dubois and Richard Lee Turits
The Caribbean was at the center of colonialism for centuries, and it emerged as a place where empires were overthrown, slavery was defeated and revolutions changed the course of history. Dubois and Turits say, “To tell the history of the Caribbean is to tell the history of the world.”
If you want to learn about Juneteenth, read...
Island of Color: Where Juneteenth Started by Izola Ethel Fedford Collins
On June 19, 1865 — now known as Juneteenth — word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Galveston, Texas, an island off the Texas coast that was home to freed people. The author combines her grandfather’s accounts of Galveston history with local interviews in compelling book.
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
This bestseller, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon-Reed, offers an opportunity to discover the origins of Juneteenth and the role African-Americans played in Texas’s history. Gordon-Reed is from Texas, and she is a descendent of enslaved people who were brought to the state in the early 19th century.
What will you add to your summer nonfiction TBR pile?
- Check out eight more books that foster empathy and broaden perspectives.
- Did you miss mental health awareness month and Latino books month in May? Consider these titles.
