What’s the Last Non-Romance Novel You Read?

I am almost exclusively romance; it's very rare for me to read outside of my genre. However, in an English class I had to read My Name Is Asher Lev, and I enjoyed it. Once in a while, it's good to have something fresh

I read nonfiction as well as romance and mystery, and I love magazines. I read several of those a month, mostly having to do with design, nature, etc. The last nonfiction books I read this past Spring were a biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, a book on baseball history/stats, and my favorite, a book titled "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money" about behind the scenes of flea markets, antique shows, etc. I like the break from fiction (reading and writing) and enjoy it more when I go back to a romance novel.

Sam

The fact that The Walking Dead graphic novel trade paperbacks are one of my favorite comfort reads says something about me. Something about putting down zombies has a cathartic effect. There is some romance in The Walking Dead, though it doesn't always end well, but it's there, and that keeps me happy.

Most of my fiction reading is romance, but I also read other genres, as well as quite a bit of nonfiction. The last novel I read that wasn't romance was the newest Ridley Pearson, The Risk Agent. I thought it was maybe a touch more convoluted than it needed to be, but I enjoyed it.

I'm fairly new to Romance, but it's been most of what I've been reading for the past year. My husband and I are in a book club with our friends so that forces me to read non-romance. Reading Battle Royale now, and some of the other recent non-romance books I've finished have actually been nonfiction: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, and Sex with the Queen by Eleanor Herman (highly recommend this one, as well as her other book, Sex with Kings!).

I'm currently reading Stolen Prey by John Sandford. He's my favorite non-romance writer.

Someone mentioned on our Facebook page that the last non-romance book they read was the Hunger Games trilogy, and that reminds me that maybe the last non-romance book I read was Veronica Roth's Insurgent, which has some romance, but isn't a straight-up romance. I've also been reading Asa Larsson's Rebecka Martinsson's detective series and I finished up Jo Nesbo's The Leopard, both Scandinavian crime novels (Sweden and Norway respectively).

I read Daniel Silva's The Fallen Angel which is a espionage novel featuring a hero, Gabriel Allon. This is the latest in a series of books featuring Gabriel who is an agent for Israel. There is a bit of romance in all the books, but that is part of the make-up of the bigger story itself. I have read all of the books, as has my husband, and we eagerly await any new books Mr. Silva writes.

I read a variety of stuff, fiction and non-fiction alike, and I read them side-by-side. I always have a pile of 5-10 books that I've started. Which book I read depends on my mood and energy. When I'm stressed I tend to read more entertainment novels such as romances and mysteries, but when I have a quiet Saturday afternoon or a subject really captivates me, I read more taxing items such as classic literature or non-fiction. And yes, I do finish the books I've started - eventually.

reading Midnighters book 1 by Scott Westfeld

Mine is Nicola Upson's An Expert in Murder. Very well done mystery set in England in the 30s, featuring Josephine Tey. The wildest part is that it lives in the same part of my imagination as Foyle's War and Lewis (the mysteries featuring DCI Lewis, shown on PBS), not in the part of my imagination given over to books. I feel as if I'd watched it, not read it...

I love Science Fiction and Fantasy as well as Romance and don't miss the romance in other genres at all.

Romance is my comfort read, but I do read widely in other genres, especially SF/Fantasy. Last non-romance for me was Chris Wooding's excellent Retribution Falls, which I described to my husband as a Firefly episode written by Spider Robinson. I was actually kind of surprised that there was no romance, as it looked like he was setting up for one between two main characters, but that may show up in the sequel. Although there was a brief, nongraphic, nonemotional, nonrelationship sex scene between two other characters.

Last non-romance I read was "Dragon Ship" by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (sci-fi).

Still reading the Outlander series which I think is only borderline romance IMO. However, I recently read Hillenbrand's "Unbroken" which was an amazing story! I also recently read the first two in the Divergent Series by Veronica Roth, which I thought were entertaining reads!

I read a LOT of non-romance. Spin by Catherine McKenzie could be termed chick-lit. Devilish by Maureen Johnson was YA Paranormal. Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald was a travel memoir. These are just books that I've read in the past month outside of the "romance" genre. I don't miss the romance at all, and sometimes it's refreshing to not read a book about relationships.

Just finished Die A Stranger by Steve Hamilton - love his Alex McKnight series. Also read The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman -highly recommend it but keep a box of tissue handy.

The last non-romance I read was In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & The World It Made by Norman F. Cantor. 100% free of romance! It concentrated mostly on medieval life and law, the causes of the plague, and the effects it had on society, including pogroms against the Jewish people. I would have liked much more information about the plague, itself, and its physical effects, but, overall, it was a very good book.

Does People magazine count? :) LOL!

I've been reading a lot of YA fiction while waiting for my favorite romance writers to put out their next books. I'm currently reading This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers. It's got zombies and no romance (so far). I am concurrently reading (I took a break so I could read This is not a test) Justin Cronin's The Passage (that book is huge....and dense...and it has vampires although I haven't gotten that far yet...this book is not YA). Before that, I read Article 5 by Kristen Simmons. I recommend this book because when I was reading it I was like "this could so happen to us in the near future" (hopefully not). It is a YA book.

@GlassSlipper: That black plague book sounds right up my alley. I actually work in a research lab so I'm all into the nasty bugs.

I just read a non-fiction book called Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships and Our Families. It was not an easy read.

I read a lot of mixed genres. My last few books were, "Black List" by Brad Thor, "Kill You Twice" by Chelsea Cain, "Criminal" by Karin Slaughter and a true crime "One Last Kiss" by Michael Cuneo. Now I am reading another true crime "Deadly Little Secrets" by Kathryn Casey and after that I will be starting "Gone Missing" by Linda Castillo. The last real romances I read was "When We Touch" a novella by Brenda Novak and the De Montforte series by Danelle Harmon.

Well... I read Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel in May. Before that, I was working through Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs mysteries (Interesting female detective stories set between the world wars) and I just started John Mullan's What Matters in Jane Austen. But, of course, the TBR pile is mostly romance.

"Too Big To Fail"

My genre of choice is definitely romance, so your question really made me stop and think. Last year I read quite a few non-romance novels (The Hunger Games Trilogy & The Help), but this year, not so much. Then I realized that the only two non-roms I've read are books that were given to me as gifts: 'Confessions of a Praire Bitch' by Alison Arngrim (a gift from my sister), and 'How I Learned English' which was an anthology of stories written by various persons from different countries (a gift from my father). Oh, I also read 'The Complete Companion of Joss Whedon'....does that count?

Storm of Swords.

The Fire and Ice saga will never make me miss romance. In fact, these books pulled me AWAY from my romances, and now I'm trying to catch up again :(

@SassyT: I'm so jealous! That sounds like a fascinating job. If we were in the same room together, I would talk your ear off asking questions about "bugs!"

@CutMyTeethOnKleypas: I'm glad to hear you love the Fire and Ice books, despite being a romance reader. I have the first book in the series waiting to be read, so you're giving me hope that I'll like it too. Romance is just about all I read.

The ARC of "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance", Lois McMaster Bujold's forthcoming novel. Which certainly has strong romantic themes, but is also definitely SF (and not SF romance.) That said I don't mind a complete absense of romance in my novels. The last novel that I read that didn't have any strong romantic elements was The Eagle of the Ninth and I loved it to bits. I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy and the occasional mystery and have always been perfectly happy if there isn't much or any romance in them. In many ways my ideal book is something were the non-romantic plot takes front and center and the romance grows quietly around the edges (e.g. The Curse of Chalion).