Inspirational Skai: Day 3 | Five Fall Favorites 2025: Non-Fiction

Happy Wednesday! It's day three of Five Fall Favorites, and yesterday I added so many new indie titles to my TBR list. We are halfway through this challenge. I remember it flying by last year because all I did was write and go to work that week. This year has been the same. It feels like if I'm not writing, I am working, and if I'm not working, I am writing. I think the first break I've taken since Sunday, was yesterday evening, after work when I taught a piano lesson. How does that tangent relate? One of today's books inspired me to start teaching piano.

Today's theme should be self-explanatory. If you are familiar with book genres you probably know what it means, but with the number of times every week, that I am asked to explain what "Non-Fiction" is, I thought it could be good to begin with a definition. According to Dictionary.com, Nonfiction is a noun that refers to, "the branch of literature comprising works of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality, including biography, history, and essay (fiction and poetry and drama)." So, non-fiction is a broad term, for narrative prose books. I typically explain nonfiction as books about facts and juxtapose it to fiction books as being made-up stories. Although, that doesn't really account for books that are theories and opinion. It helps most people follow along. Today, I use that broad definition to my advantage when picking the books for today's list. These books are on wildly different topics. Before I give everything away, let's get started.

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Outside of the Bible, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is the definitive book on how to have relations with people. It's an older book, published in 1936 but it's principles and advice still ring true today. Written in a conversational style and filled with lots of interesting stories, it's a book that I go back to when I need a reminder that how you treat people matters. Additionally, the tips are so practical that they apply not only business relationships, but every relationship including family, friends and romantic relationships.

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2. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz

I highly, highly recommend, this book. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz is just as entertaining as insightful. Voss is a former FBI negotiator, and this book is filled with the stories of how he became an FBI negotiator and his time negotiating for the FBI oversees and on American soil. He once even served as a negotiator during a bank robbery hostage situation in New York. That's just one of the exciting stories. Voss and Raz connect negotiation principles to applications beyond law enforcement and business to everyday interactions. This book is practical and informative for everyone.

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3. The Coffee Break Screenwriter: Writing Your Script Ten Minutes at a Time by Pilar Alessandra

While I love to write stories, I struggle to create outlines. This book is my go-to help for outlining stories. It is a screenwriting book with busy writers in mind. Covering the difference types of screenplays, it breaks down how to outline each one. I have also found that the movie outline works well for short stories and novels. Conveniently breaking outlining down into ten-minutes a day steps, this book cleverly gamifies the process making it fun. A favorite pass-time of mine is to pull out this book and set a timer spend 10-minutes outlining my next story. Originally, I discovered The Coffee Break Screenwriter: Writing Your Script Ten Minutes at a time by Pilar Alessandra at my local library, but I loved it so much, that I had to buy it.

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4. The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner's Guide to Getting Good with Money by Chelsea Fegan

I read The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner's Guide to Getting Good with Money by Chelsea Fegan back in 2019, shortly after I had graduated from college when the job market wasn't hiring. I had a part-time job so, I wanted to learn about finances to see if I could make a budget that would allow me to move out of parents' house. I was in the middle of that process, when the 2020 pandemic stuck and I didn't end up following through on that plan, but that's doesn't make this book any less valuble. This book is filled with colorful illustrations and written to be both informative and accessible. Fegan breaks down finance and budgets plainly, and she supplements with tips from other financial advisors, offering budget options for every income. The one thing I took away and applied was that the easiest way to supplement limited income is with side hustle jobs. Out of that I started making friendship bracelets again and teaching piano.

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5. Empowering ADHD Organization and Cleaning: Stop Drowning in Overwhelm: The 28-Day Workbook for a Clutter-Free Home, Clear Mind and Productive Life by Estelle Rose

For the final book of Non-Fiction titles, Empowering ADHD Organization and Cleaning: Stop Drowning in Overwhelm: The 28-Day Workbook for a Clutter-Free Home, Clear Mind and Productive Life by Estelle Rose is an organizing book with neurodivergence at its center. While I'm not diagnosed as such, I've been using some of the tips and found them to be helpful, when I can remember to use them. Rose advocates for working with your mind and motivation to keep cleaning and organizing manageable. She makes a good case for organizing and cleaning as a form of self-care and gives a prescription for even the messiest people to get clean. Expertly explaining why traditional organizing methods often fails for people with ADHD, she encourages progress and persistence over perfection. If organizing is a struggle, this one is well worth reading.

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Conclusion

These are five of my favorite non-fiction titles. Each of these books covers a different topic, but they are all entertaining and insightful. I have found the advice very helpful and use much of it regularly. I don't read much nonfiction. Usually, it takes a good recommendation on a subject that I would like to know more about for me to finish one. My mom suggested two of the titles on this list. However, I am always keeping my eyes open for good books on writing, editing or publishing. Please send me good recommendations. I am trying to read and re-write a 300+ page first draft, and I am drowning in that overwhelm.

Tomorrow's theme was probably the hardest one to choose books for, I have a hard time reading anything Unusual or out of my normal genres, but I have been pushing myself lately and have discovered some new favorite reads. Happy reading!