Not Fiction Book Discussion Titles for 2017

2017 is fast approaching, and along with it, a new list of recent nonfiction books for us to discuss.

The titles, posted on the right, have a loose connecting theme of place and time--how we know where and when--and who--we are. They investigate our sometimes contradictory desires to belong and to leave, to prevent change and to find out what-if. They capture the large view--our planet as a vast web of connections--and the small--a single blade of grass or a precise moment of time and light rendered in paint. They take us home and to work, through history and deep into culture. They explore family ties and friendship, places beloved and haunted. And our last book even considers our fascination with time travel.

Choose one and settle in for some cozy holiday reading. We hope to see you at the discussions next year.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed December's selection . . .

If you enjoyed M Train by Patti Smith, then you might also like these books suggested by our discussion group members: My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, and City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. And of course, you should read all of the books and authors Patti Smith alludes to in M Train, as well as her first autobiography, Just Kids.