BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS | 5 Fiction & Nonfiction Book Pairings

And I was admittedly hanging on for dear life at certain points, but what I loved most about this non-fiction book was that it was essentially one giant thought experiment because let's say we actually managed despite all the obstacles to create a mammoth embryo using the DNA we have.

I think had I read The Last Animal completely on its own without previously having read the non-fiction book, it would have been a forgettable throwaway kind of experience. But because I still had all of Shapiro's fascinating questions rattling around in my brain, that thought experiment just kept going.

Unlike a lot of other sports novels, which very frequently gloss over the actual sports in favor of the interpersonal drama, there's a lot of roller derby in this book. As a relatively new sports fan, I really appreciated that, but it make me wonder whether people who are unfamiliar with the sport might struggle to follow some of the action, but that's why I think it's a fantastic idea to read it alongside a history of the sport.

So, while this is technically a grief memoir, it really doesn't feel like one because he's looking back on all of those years of his life with a lot of fondness.

I do have to say I walked away from this book knowing a whole lot more about Ritz than Escoffier. Escoffier was getting famous in his own right around the same time, but this book feels like it focuses a lot more on Ritz. We do, however, get a great snapshot of the other people who were a part of this world, including Oscar Wilde and the actress Sarah Bernhardt.

This book is equally as much about how exactly the very unique progressive culture around roller derby was built up in the first place because it has been progressive even from the very start and continues to this day to give people who don't necessarily feel like they fit in elsewhere a place to find community and belonging.

The streets of the city feel lived in and all of a sudden ancient Pompeii, something we understand in concept, stops being just a historical backdrop. It starts feeling like a real place full of real people.

What made this pairing so satisfying for me was that I felt like Mary Beard's history gave me the tools I needed to really see the world Amara was living in.

This novel also has this very dreamy languid quality that makes it so easy to sink into.

They're very different in tone, though, because the novel really made me feel that perhaps these two people shouldn't be together, whereas the memoir made me feel like that was a relationship that really worked, which just makes that loss all the more devastating.