BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS! | Fiction & Nonfiction Match-ups

But I think even after you've read the algae information that will tie it to Pink Slime, you'll want to keep reading because this book is dynamite. So much fabulous information in such a small package. I'm still astonished how much he managed to fit in here, given how short of a non-fiction book this is.

But if you give this book a read, I think you will start to understand. It starts to clear away some of the fog. Talks about how easy it is to get addicted, but how hard it is to get off of drugs.

We will start with a classic pairing and one that includes what was my favorite novel of last year, Eleanor of Aquitaine by Elizabeth Chadwick. I said before that this is a classic pairing because not only do I think you should read this book immediately, even, it is that good, but I think you should read it alongside a work that this author consulted as part of her research as she was writing this novel.

It stars a cop who is desperately on the hunt for any trace of her drug-addicted sister because she's gone missing as a serial killer is on the loose. And I think if you read these closely together in time, you will find yourself with heaps more compassion for the main character sister.

I think if you don't know much about algae, even just the idea that this villainous algal bloom could strangle an entire region and change the way they all live their lives might sound to you a bit far-fetched, but I assure you will understand if you read The Devil's Element by Dan Egan, which is a history of the element phosphorus.

Not long before I read it though, I had read this really interesting, very unique nonfiction book called The Age of Deer by Erica Hauser, which is both a natural and cultural history of the deer in North America.

If I could go back and do it all over, I would read these two together because the misery of those years howls off the page of the history book. I think it makes it all the more clear what young Eleanor would have been up against.

Of course, the sense of stillness that The Hunting Party evokes is a lot more eerie, it being a thriller and all, when The Age of Deer makes you feel this sense of peace and reverence almost. But they do have that deer element in common and I think they both make stellar winter reads.

The mystery surrounding this elusive bird seems to symbolize the confusion that adult Adrian still has about what exactly happened during his childhood. So if you read more about this bird that serves as a symbol in his life through reading the nonfiction book, I think, in my personal opinion, it has the potential to really beef up the story in the contemporary novel.

A few years back, I read a fantastic nonfiction book called A Wing and a Prayer by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal. And this book tells a handful of stories all about different birds who are facing at the very least hardships, at the very worst potential extinction, all largely because of human actions, but also how some do-gooders are stepping in to try to help them survive.