Hey guys, I know reviews on nonfiction books are not what usually pops up on my blog, but I do read them once in a blue moon! I like to read nonfiction books in conjunction with my regular fiction books. I got on a roll and ended up wrapping up my two nonfiction books on the same day, so here's a tandem review! I wish I could be one of the readers who could pick up a nonfiction book and just read it. Unfortunately, that is not my forte (yet). Whenever I do buy nonfiction books it is usually when I am in a cute bookstore and think "Well this would be cool to learn about this". I pick it up and immediately buy it, with no more thought on the subject. Then I have to actually read the book and learn things *sigh*.
The two books in this review could not be more different. On one hand, you have profiles on people who unalived many in the '80s, on the other you have a book about how to communicate through flowers. What can I say? I'm nothing if not all over the board. Now - let's get to the reviews!
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Title - Floriography: An Illustrated Guide to The Victorian Language of Flowers
Author - Jessica Roux
stars ⭐ - 5
Floriography is such a fascinating concept! The great layout paired with the gorgeous illustrations makes this book an easy 5 stars. The index in the back is also very helpful if you ever need to look up information quickly. I am so sad this is the only book Jessica Roux has both written and illustrated. I hope she writes more books, they will be on my auto-buy list if she does!
I picked up this book in San Antonio in a downtown oddities shop. If you're in the San Antonio area I highly recommend it. This shop also does ghost tours (see the same link to reserve your spot) and before the tour, this book caught my eye. Then after the tour I went back to the store and bought it, so happy I did! I started reading it during our downtime at the hotel and the whole concept fascinates me. The pages are not full of words by any means, but I think I learned a lot more in this than in most nonfiction books I have read.
I will now be dreaming of having a flower garden amazing enough to make even half of these bouquets for the rest of my life.
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Title - Serial Killers of the '80s: Stories Behind a Decadent Decade of Death (Volume 5)
Author - Jane Fritsch
stars ⭐ - 3
Rapid Fire Thoughts
- This is a good read for someone who does not have a lot of prior knowledge of well-known serial killers and wants the basics.
- I knew a decent amount about a couple of the serial killers included and was less than impressed by the information given.
- In the past, I have listened to true crime podcasts and watched documentaries. This was my first book about true crime and I do feel like I learned a decent amount about the killers, but there is a lot more information out there that I think is more victim-forward. It is obvious Fritsch is very enthralled with serial killers. She does not give the victims the respect they deserve in my opinion.
- The way some of the profiles are set up makes the storyline confusing. I think Fritsch was trying to "do something different" with a subject that has been covered a million times. Unfortunately, changing up the timeline in the profile was the best she could come up with.
- Calling this book "Stories Behind a Decadent Decade of Death" is the thing that bugs me the most. I bought this in a bookstore, I was paroozing and didn't pay that much attention to the details of the cover I just saw profiles of '80s serial killers. Had I seen that blurb it would have stayed on the shelf. This book tells us the stories of serial killers who together have taken hundreds of lives. THAT IS NOT DECADENT. That is despicable, deplorable, and downright disturbing.
- The epilogue was dumb.
- The appendixes were interesting, but nothing new.
Overall this book meets the bare minimum of 3 stars. I'm sure there are much better books you can find on this subject.
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I am happy to have read a couple nonfiction books this year. Hopefully, I can manage to read more than a couple next year. With my lack of experience in the nonfiction genre, I would love to get recommendations! I am pretty open to just about anything, but I would probably jive more with something about true crime, animals, plants, or flowers. I may be interested in picking up a memoir or two, but I think they would have to be pretty funny for me to get through them.
Now, onto the Christmas read list. First up - Sugar & Sliced, I'm ~30 pages in and already sucked into the story. Review coming soon!
❤ Les
View my review for Floriography on Goodreads here.
View my review for Serial Killers of the '80s on Goodreads here.
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