My Pick of Top 5 Non-Fiction

Hello everyone and Happy Holidays!

I've been reading at any chance I get, which unfortunately hasn't been many, but now I'm on Christmas break so I'll try to catch up with some reading.

I thought that some fun posts to create would be my top 5 picks for categories of books, so today's post will be my top 5 non-fiction books (in no particular order).

Generally when I read non-fiction, it is about WWI or WWII, and specifically about a person who played a significant role in battle or from behind the lines. Three of my five revolve around this theme, but I've also included two novels that I just found incredibly captivating. Some are older and some are newer titles, but each has found a place in my heart as a beautiful piece of writing and a wonderful story of incredible people, tragic journeys, and heroic battles (both mental and physical).

1. Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga 

I read this book within the last two months for school and was blown away by the thoughtful, genuine writing, and the tragic stories of the seven Indigenous youth who have lost their lives in Thunder Bay. Written by a former Métis reporter from Toronto, Talaga found herself in Thunder Bay uncovering the truth behind a damaged system that is critically failing our Indigenous youth, especially those from rural communities in the north. It's no surprise that small Indigenous communities north of Thunder Bay have limited resources, thus their schools are often insufficient, understaffed, and don't have the ability to continue past grade eight. Children and youth then find themselves forced to relocate to bigger, unfamiliar cities with no families nearby to look out for them. Most live with "foster parents" who volunteer to take these youth in to their homes but are many times uncommitted to their safety and well-being. Seven Fallen Feathers examines the lives of the seven youth who died from 2000 to 2011 - six of which attended the same high school (Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School), and five of which were found in the river - and the unusual circumstances that led up to their deaths. We've all heard of the esteemed artist Norval Morrisseau, right? His grandson Kyle was one of those people pulled from the river. Talaga poses the difficult questions. Why were these suspicious deaths not considered homicides? Why were the investigations so short? Why were the parents of the children not notified immediately or kept in the loop when the investigation was going on?


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It's no surprise to learn that this book has won numerous awards, including 2018 RBC Taylor Prize, the First Nations Communities Read Indigenous Literature Award (that's a mouth full), and the 2017 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, to name a few. Goodreads has rated it a 4.5/5 and Audible a 4.9/5! For me, I would say this is closer to five stars.

2. Fatal Decision: Edith Cavell WWI Nurse by Terri Arthur 

This book was peculiar and fascinating to me, which may seem like an odd thing to say but I'll tell you why. First, I'll start with the negative:

One of my biggest pet-peeves as a reader (and wannabe writer) is editing errors in novels. Missing periods, spelling errors, inconsistencies, grammatical errors, you name it, this book had it. One character, Elizabeth, had her name spelled differently at almost every mention of her, as did another minor character, and some of the spelling and grammar were simply horrible. I was so rattled by the mistakes that I went to Ms. Arthur's website and sent an email telling her that while I loved her book tremendously, I think it was time that she invested in a new editor. To my surprise, she actually replied! And rather quickly at that. Ms. Arthur is a retired nurse who was fascinated by Edith Cavell's life and story, with Fatal Decision being her first and only novel. She informed me that I must have a copy of the old version, from the older, smaller publisher that she used to work with. I looked at my copy of the book, which I had purchased new from Amazon, and replied that no, that wasn't the case. She then suggested that perhaps it was due to a rush they had to produce a British version of the novel from the American version, so some things were messed up in the translation. Made sense to me, however, it still impacted my overall read of the novel, as I'm sure it did to many readers.

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So why is this book on my top 5 list? Well, quite simply, it was amazing. Even with the errors that my copy had, I could see that Terri Arthur is a natural when it comes to writing. This beautiful biography was written in the form of a novel, which gives the reader insights into Edith's thoughts and feelings, along with the facts of what took place historically. For those of you who don't know, Edith Cavell was a WWI nurse who trained at the time of Florence Nightingale, when nurses were now required to undergo intensive training and education, to sterilize and clean everything, and to remain professional at all times while working long, hard hours. Only a few years before nurses were untrained, drunk, and careless. Edith, born in Norfolk, England in 1865, worked hard to become a nurse before moving to Belgium to run a school that would train new nurses. This was no easy feat, since nursing was not yet recognized as an admirable career, and many women simply planned to be nurses until they married. Edith's school eventually caught wind, but soon after Belgium was invaded by Germany in WWI. Heroically, Edith and her fellow nursing teachers and students concealed Allied soldiers in their school until they could sneak them out to meet a scout who would lead them across the border to neutral territory. Eventually, Edith was caught for her actions, which she did not deny, and charged with assisting 200 enemy soldiers. She was killed by a firing squad at the age of forty-nine.


This is a woman that everyone should know about, and sadly, in Canada and the United States, schools don't teach about Nurse Cavell, although there are many schools, parks, and libraries named for her. Her statue stands tall in St. Martin's Place, London, with her words chiseled into the stone: "Patriotism is not enough; I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone." Goodreads gives this book a 4.1/5, but I'm leaning towards something like a 4.6/5 myself.

3. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber 

Sybil, Sybil, Sybil. What a book. What a story.

Again, this was written in an eloquent, thoughtful, genuine way by a woman whose writing skills make you feel what Sybil felt and see things that Sybil saw. It's disturbing, it's engaging, it's thought-provoking, and it's everything you can ask for in a book. This biography revolves around a young woman, who the author calls Sybil Dorsett to help hide her identity (but we now know her name was Shirley Mason), and her dedicated therapist, as they try to give Sybil some control back in her life. You see, Sybil has sixteen personalities, each of which has their own memories, awareness, character, attitude, and trauma.


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When Sybil's alter personalities come out, Sybil "goes to sleep", much like sleepwalking, where she doesn't remember doing things, isn't aware or conscious, and isn't even aware of the other personality. When she first goes to meet with her psychoanalyst, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, she says that she has periods of blackouts, where she cannot remember things. She reveals that her longest one lasted for almost a year and a half, when she woke up in her classroom, two grades ahead, and her friends were all larger and she found herself in clothes she didn't recognize. Dr. Wilbur later figures out that Sybil has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, and that this was caused by intense trauma from her childhood. Sybil doesn't remember much of her trauma because her brain's way of dealing with it was to dissociate, meaning another of her personalities would become conscious and keep that memory for themselves. It's later learned that her father was away working often and that he was careless in many ways, trusting Sybil's mother to be the sole parent most days even though it was obvious that something wasn't right. Sybil's mother didn't let her daughter out of her sight. But when they were home, her mother would assault her in various ways, from the time she was a six-month-old infant, such as giving her enemas with scalding hot water, hanging her upside-down from the kitchen light-fixture, and inserting various items into her vagina, damaging the vaginal tissue in such a way that Sybil was never able to have children. Through further investigating, Dr. Wilbur ascertains that Sybil's mother suffered from schizophrenia, and that she actually believed she was "cleansing" her daughter, as she so often repeated. At one point in time, she even tried to murder her daughter, who was saved by her father just in time. It was a relief for young Sybil when her mother passed away.

This novel captures glimpses into the fragile mind of young Sybil, and makes readers question how the mind truly works when it is damaged by trauma. This book was made into a movie starring Sally Fields, which was great, but doesn't quite compare to the feeling and emotion involved in reading the text. It has been the topic of debate for many years whether the story is accurate. Some believe that Dr. Wilbur saw things in Sybil that weren't there in order to make a name for herself, since DID was nearly unheard of at the time. Others say that Sybil herself lied about her personalities, but the truth will likely never been known to us. Either way, this book is a must-read! Goodreads gives this novel a 4/5, but it's a 5/5 for me!

4. McIndoe's Army by Edward Bishop

This book was a must-read for me because of the elementary school I went to as a child. From grades one through eight, I attended Dr. Ross Tilley Public School in Bowmanville, Ontario, about forty-five minutes east of Toronto. You're probably wondering what that has to do with this book. Dr. Tilley and Dr. Archibald McIndoe worked together as army surgeons during WWII. And while McIndoe is the most famous and played the larger role, Tilley is mentioned in the book a few times and it is through this elementary school that I was able to meet some of the survivors and their patients (known as the Guinea Pigs) when I was a child. Recently, I decided that I wanted to learn more about the amazing things that Tilley and McIndoe did, so I began by reading the autobiography of a survivor, The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary. This young man was a pilot in WWII who suffered extensive burns when his plane went down. He was treated by McIndoe and wrote his book while recovering in the hospital. Although he was advised against it (and missing most of his fingers) Hillary returned to flying and was fatally shot down shortly after. He was a member of the famous Guinea Pig Club.


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 So what is the Guinea Pig Club? Well it's synonymous with McIndoe's Army. Dr. McIndoe, originally from New Zealand, adopted new tactics for treating and repairing burn victims, most of which were injured in planes. These young pilots would be trapped in burning cockpits as their planes plummeted to the ground, for minutes and minutes, literally melting the eyelids, lips, and noses from their faces, and the fingers from their hands. In earlier times, these men would be maimed for life and sent to live the rest of their days at seaside Convalescent Home where they would be hidden from the public eye and unable to discourage further men from signing up to fight. However, McIndoe had other ideas. His ways of treating the patients not only mended their bodies, but mended their minds. Much of his techniques revolved around emotional support, placing the patients in groups so that they could support one another, and even encouraging them to go to the nearby bars to drink if they were well enough. It wasn't uncommon for the men to have a nice cold beer in bed while cracking jokes at the Matron nurse.

McIndoe relied heavily on skin grafting to shape new eyelids and noses and lips, and used saline baths to ease the pain of fresh burns. This type of treatment was revolutionary. Tilley was a surgeon as well who did his part to repair these broken men. Some had no arms or legs, while others were unrecognizable without their facial features. One man lost all ten of his fingers to frostbite when he heroically pulled in his fellow RAF officers after their plane door had been blown off. He was the last to lose consciousness, unfortunately with his hands hanging out of the door. The freezing air at such great heights meant that his fingers quickly turned black, but with no cabin pressure in the plane it was a miracle he survived the crash. All of these men and more became members of a very exclusive club: The Guinea Pig Club. To get in you needed to be an RAF pilot, and you had to be severely burned and then treated by McIndoe's team. (Below are members of the Guinea Pig Club).

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This book and the men between it's pages are breathtakingly inspiring. What these people have lived through is tremendous and makes our problems seem minuscule by comparison. Goodreads gives this book a 4.2/5, but it's an easy 5/5 for me. An absolute must-read!

5. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain 

If you read my first post or my About Me page, then you already know that Testament of Youth is my favorite book, but what you don't know yet is why. Where do I even start?

I will start by saying that this isn't exactly an "easy" read. It was written in the thirties and was from a time where people used very different language. But more than that, Vera Brittain was an intellectual with a good education. She attended Oxford University before they even certified women with degrees for their studies! It was a different time back then, as you would soon understand, because she had to beg and beg for her father to allow her to go to university since there didn't seem to be much purpose for it. But Vera was desperate to learn. She was smart, loved reading, and dreamed of becoming a writer (which she did!), something that was uncommon for women back in the early part of the twentieth century.

This autobiography takes place during the First World War, beginning with her girlhood years and ending with her growing success as a fiction writer. But the main story is of her time spent as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) during WWI.

Vera was very close with her brother Edward, and their friends Victor, Roland, and Geoffrey. Vera quickly fell in love with Roland's romantic personality, for he too was a writer and poet, and they got on well together. But this time of enjoyment was overshadowed by the war and Vera was soon waving her dear friends, lover, and brother goodbye as they headed to the front. This is when she decides she cannot sit around and do nothing while her men are fighting, so she becomes a VAD. This is similar to a nurse, but while nurses tend to the medical needs of patients, VADs are charged with changing dressings and linens, washing patients, sterilizing instruments, etc. But that doesn't mean it wasn't demanding, tiring, gruesome work. She worked behind the lines in England before moving to the front in France where she tended to dying soldiers.

Roland, now her fiance, was the first to be killed in action.


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With a broken heart, she threw herself into her work, as exhausting and demanding as it may be. It wasn't before long that she received more news: her dear friend Victor was shot through the head. Miraculously, he was alive, but he was blinded. She vowed that she would marry him, to care for him and tend to him, even if she wasn't in love with him. But he died a few days later in the hospital.

While working in the field hospital, her brother Edward was saved from the brink of death and she tried desperately to soothe him after their friend Geoffrey was killed. It seemed that everyone was dying. Vera clung on to Roland's letters and poems, writing her own poetry when she could, but her heart was breaking every day that the war went on. Her brother, a hero on the battlefield on more than one occasion, returned to the front only to be killed weeks before the war ended. He is buried on a mountain in Italy.

This novel is deep and sad, beautiful and emotional. Vera takes a journey that many of us cannot imagine surviving, with more grief and loss than any young woman should ever endure. And yet, she prospered. She continued on, day by day, chasing her dreams and writing books. She was declined time and time again until one day she found success. Testament of Youth is considered one of the most vivid accounts of WWI and is rated a 4.2/5 by Goodreads. I, of course, rate it higher, and believe that people like this should be studied in schools throughout North America. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name, starring Kit Harrington (Jon Snow!) and the underrated, beautiful and amazingly talented Alicia Vikander. This is a very touching movie with incredible acting, and I promise you, you WILL cry.

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Give the movie a watch and/or give the book a read, because they're both incredible. Vera Brittain also published a beautiful book of poetry called Verses of a VAD, which is now published in a similar edition as Because You Died, in which she writes about her experiences as a VAD and her numerous losses. Below I've attached a poem that Roland Leighton wrote to Vera before he passed:


Violets from Plug Street Wood,
Sweet, I send you oversea.
(It is strange they should be blue,
Blue, when his soaked blood was red,
For they grew around his head:
It is strange they should be blue.)

Think what they have meant to me -
Life and hope and Love and You
(and you did not see them grow
Where his mangled body lay
Hiding horrors from the day;
Sweetest, it was better so.)


Violets from oversea,
To your dear, far, forgetting land
These I send in memory
Knowing you will understand


R.A.L




So I hope you enjoyed this post! I know it's a little long but I hope it was insightful and informative. Up next, I'll be writing a review of Kate Morton's newest novel, "The Clockmaker's Daughter" so stay tuned!

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