Diving into Nonfiction

I'm a fiction reader. 

I don't like nonfiction.

It's boring.

Why then have I begun 2014 reading nonfiction books? And, why am I enjoying them? Your guess is probably as good as mine, though, I think my preliminary exams could be partially to blame. In graduate school, as a student reaches the end of course work, the student must take exams. Every department, college, and university has different names for these; my department chooses to call them "Preliminary Exams" despite their coming at the end of the degree. I guess, they are preliminary to writing a dissertation. If the student does not pass these exams, the student doesn't get to write a dissertation, and bad things happen. I'm not worried about these exams as I feel confident and know that they are helping me organize my thoughts about my dissertation, but they are tedious, long, and require a great deal of reading and writing.

Back to my original premise - I think my prelims are to blame for my sudden interest in nonfiction. Maybe my brain is stuck in research mode and can't take fantasy and adventure right now. In the past few days, I have read three nonfiction books and have set aside several others to begin as soon as I can. Hmmm...I doubt this will last so I will take advantage of it now!

What I've been reading in nonfiction??...

99 Problems But a Baby Ain't One

This book is written by a twenty-something blogger, and the book follows blog-format, which really actually annoyed me. However, I found the content of the book fascinating. This twenty-something learns she has ovarian cancer and must undergo surgery. The surgery takes away her ability to have children naturally. As a twenty-something who hopes to have children one day, I cannot imagine something that terrible happening. The book follows her journey through discovering she has cancer and having surgery, rediscovering she has cancer and having more surgery, and adopting her daughter. 

I was most interested in the adoption part of the story. While I am fairly certain I will be able to have my own children in the future (I'm going to try, anyway), adoption has always been something I have considered. Even as a young child, I thought about how I would adopt children as an adult. The author discusses the intricacies and hassle of going through the adoption process, the heartbreak at coming close but getting turned down in the eleventh hour, and finally, getting to meet her daughter. For a genuine, real perspective on such tough issues by someone who is close to my age, I definitely enjoyed this book.

Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower

Alright, I could swear there is not a common thread here, but then I would be lying. This book also has to do with babies...but in academia. My life passion and dream has been to become a professor. I want to teach future teachers so that generations of children will get high quality instruction. I want to conduct research so that I can help dissect and improve upon issues in the contemporary education system. I want to make the future better. Unfortunately, my other passion in life is having my own family and raising children. While I have always known I would be older when this happens, as I get closer and closer to my thirties, this dream becomes more real. More unfortunately, having children and a family, plus being a woman, is hard in academia.

This book reports the findings of a large-scale research study focusing on family formation (both marriage and child-bearing) in academia. The book is broken down into the major parts of a professor's life: graduate school, early career, making tenure, and promoting to full professor. I fully intend to pursue each of these aspects of my career. The data in this book, though, is frightening. The numbers don't look good and do not paint a welcoming picture for women wanting a family. In the majority of the results, women who pursue family often do so at the sacrifice of their career. Many do not make tenure and go on to teach at smaller institutions. While there is nothing wrong with this if it is your goal, if you want to teach at a research-university, this is a problem. Despite the negative findings and doomed conclusion for women in academia, I am still hopeful that I will be able to do both. After all, I don't plan to accept a position that won't allow me a chance to have my own family. 

Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion

This book is about how to communicate. My dad gave it to me a little over a year ago when I was complaining about how difficult it is to work with people. I believe I was really complaining about all the miscommunication issues that occur in my work. He thought I would find this book useful. The author lays out a process for how to communicate with people effectively. He gives some really good strategies and uses a little bit of research, but mostly anecdotes, to hone his points. While there were some nice take-aways from this book, most of them were things I have already learned how to do through experience and great mentors. Overall, I didn't learn a great deal that was new. However, I do think it is an interesting read that can be knocked out in just a few hours. 

Maybe 2014 will also be my year to give nonfiction a chance.

:)