4 Nonfiction Titles to Look for In December

Fiction is grand, but sometimes you want a good factual book you can chew on. Here are four new nonfiction titles being released in December.

We'll start this month's post with a double dose of the Smiths and two books being released on December 3rd.

The first you've likely heard of already if you follow music or book media at all Autobiography (M) by Morrissey. Released in October in the UK this book was sort of kept under wraps until very close to its release and then promptly broke sales records and jumped to the top of bestseller lists. The initial UK release was a Penguin Classic Paperback, putting Morrissey on the shelves next to Jane Austen, The Brontes, Dickens and all those other classic British authors!It's not hard to find people talking about the book, reviewers in the UK and North America have been talking about this one everywhere, if you didn't already mail order this one from Britain, it's time to start reading and join the conversation.

A Light That Never Goes Out: the enduring saga of the Smiths (M) by Tony Fletcher. I wonder if Fletcher is pleased with the simultaneous paperback release of his book about the Smiths with the Morrissey autobiography: you can't help but feel his book will be overshadowed ... but then again maybe the attention on one will rub off on the other. At over 700 pages, it's not a wonder that it's being called the definitive bio of the Smiths. You might as well just queue up your favourite Smiths tracks -- you can even borrow an album from the library -- and commit to December being all about them.

Poirot and Me (M) by David Suchet. (December 10) "Hercule Poirot, with his distinctive moustache and fastidious ways, is one of Agatha Christie's finest creations and one of the world's best-loved detectives. Through his television performance in ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot, David Suchet has become inextricably linked with the 'little Belgian', a man whom he has grown to love dearly through an intimate relationship lasting more than twenty years. In Poirot and Me, he shares his many memories of creating this iconic television series and reflects on what the detective has meant to him over the years."

Penelope Fitzgerald: a life (M) by Hermione Lee (December 9). A new biography of the Booker Prize winning author who books The Blue Flower, Offshore and others leave her considered to be among the best in the 20th Century. Biographer Hermione Lee is no stranger to praise either: she has written a number of well received books on the lives of (primarily British, women) writers. This book has two reasons for fans of great British writing to take note.