There are two categories of good books: telescopes and microscopes. Telescope books show us the new and exciting, introducing us to fantastic faraway worlds that we could never imagine. Microscope books, on the other hand, invite us to examine the familiar, showing us aspects of our own lives we often take for granted from a different and more intimate angle.
No matter what type of book you pick up, though, telescope or microscope, there’s no denying that the best books let us view life from fresh new perspectives. And that certainly seems to be the case with the nonfiction nominees in this year’s Popular-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards (RCA).