Episode 2274: Bethanne Patrick's Favorite Non-Fiction Books of 2024
Yesterday, we ran Bethanne Patrick’s five best novels of 2024. Today, we feature her top non-fiction of the year including new books about reality television, Robert Louis Stevenson’s wife and Handel's Messiah. ‘Tis the season. Enjoy!
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Bethanne Patrick maintains a storied place in the publishing industry as a critic and as @TheBookMaven on Twitter, where she created the popular #FridayReads and regularly comments on books and literary ideas to over 200,000 followers. Her work appears frequently in the Los Angeles Times as well as in The Washington Post, NPR Books, and Literary Hub. She sits on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the host of the Missing Pages podcast.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Maurice Saatchi: Finally Revealed… Why Some of Us Go to Heaven and Why Some of Us End Up in Hell
Stephen Bezruchka: Why America Needs a "Sputnik Moment" To Reform Its Radically Inegalitarian Healthcare System
Keith Teare: Are We on the Brink of a Magical AI Age in Which Talking With a Smart Machine Will Be Considered Both Normal and Essential?
Countress of Carnarvon on the Earl and the Pharaoh: From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun
Ahmed White: What the Early 20th Century War on Radical Workers Tells Us About the Struggle Between Labor and Capital in America Today
Allegra Goodman : What Happens When a Novelist "Overparents" Their Characters? How a Fictional Creation Can Fight Back Against Their Helicopter Author`
Aaron De Smet: Why, In Our Age of Permanent Volatility, We Need to Foster a Zen-Like "Deliberate Calm"
Daniel Akst: Why World War II's Greatest Generation Should Be Celebrated As Much For Its Heroic Pacifism As For Its Selfless Sacrifice in Battle
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: Why All Writers, Especially Novelists, Are Political: Which Is Why Novels Can Change the World
Esther Woolfson: The Most Disturbing of All Human Sins? How We Live With Other Creatures
Chloe Sorvino: How the Multi-Trillion Dollar Industrial Meat Complex is Bad For Our Species and Our Planet
Michael Kimmelman: Why New York Should Be Savored on Foot Rather Than From an Automobile
David Marchick: What Do FDR, Trump, and Lincoln Have in Common? The Worst Transitions of Presidential Power in American History