Nonfiction November, 2025 - week 4

Week 4 is hosted by Rebekah at She Seeks Nonfiction. This week is about Mind Openers.

Week 4 (11/17-11/23) Mind Openers: Nonfiction books are one of the best tools for seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. They allow us to get an idea of the experiences of people of all different ages, races, genders, abilities, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, or even just people with different opinions than ours. Is there a book you read this year from a diverse author, or a book that opened your eyes to a perspective that you hadn’t considered? How did it challenge you to think differently?

I haven’t read many nonfiction books this year, which is unusual for me. Still, I came across three titles that—if not completely eye-opening—made me reflect on how fragile our world is, how quickly circumstances can change, and how easily everything you take for granted can be lost.

Jag såg kärleken och döden (I Saw Love and Death) by Erik Eriksson is a memoir by the Swedish journalist reflecting on his career, especially his years as a foreign correspondent covering the Vietnam War. I stumbled upon the book in a second-hand shop and picked it up as I was preparing for a trip to Vietnam earlier this year.

Reading Eriksson’s account of the conflict—its brutality, chaos, and human cost—stood in stark contrast to the peace and natural beauty I encountered in Vietnam today. That contrast made the book even more powerful. It’s clear that what he witnessed left deep and lasting marks, and his reflections offer a sobering reminder of how dramatically a place can change, while the memories of those who lived through its darkest moments remain.

The Lost Café Schindler by Meriel Schindler is a deeply personal account of her family’s history. They once owned the renowned Café Schindler in Innsbruck, Austria, a social and cultural hub in its time. Meriel Schindler, the granddaughter of the last owner, grew up in England, far from the world her family left behind. It was only after her father’s death—while sorting through his old photos and papers—that she felt compelled to uncover the full story of her family’s past.

The book traces what the café meant to the family, both as a livelihood and as a symbol of identity and belonging. It also lays bare the tragic way they lost it: as Jews in Austria during WWII, they were stripped of the business, their rights, and ultimately their safety.

What makes the story a true mind-opener is how it exposes the slow and bureaucratic dealing in destroying a family’s life. It shows how ordinary people—neighbors, officials, even acquaintances—can become complicit in injustice not through dramatic acts, but through silence, convenience, or personal gain. The book reminds readers that war shapes everyday tasks and choices. The small people have nothing to put up against an efficient, and corrupt bureaucracy.

Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman tells the gripping true story of the desperate and daring attempts to flee East Germany after the Berlin Wall went up. At the center of the narrative is Joachim Rudolph, a young engineering student who escaped East Germany in 1961 and soon made the extraordinary decision to return—not for himself, but to help others gain their freedom.

In 1962, Rudolph and a group of fellow students came up with a plan as bold as it was dangerous: to dig a tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall. With escape routes above ground increasingly sealed off and heavily surveilled, the underground became the only remaining path to freedom. Over several months, the group endured exhausting physical labor, constant fear of discovery, and the looming threat of Stasi informants infiltrating their ranks. Their 135-meter tunnel stands as a testament to determination, courage, and human solidarity under an oppressive regime.

The mind-opener in this story is not just the tunnel itself, but what it reveals about life under totalitarian control: how fear becomes an everyday tool of the state, how ordinary people can be turned into informants, and how the simplest freedoms—movement, speech, trust—can vanish almost overnight. The book forces readers to consider how fragile freedom can be, and how extraordinary the bravery of those who risk everything to reclaim it.