So my consumption of non-fiction has really dropped since finishing grad school and I find it harder and harder to get into non-fiction books! It is a big shock for me.
But my most recent non-fiction read was a memoir called
My Lobotomy by
Howard Dully. It was very interesting - the story of a man's journey to find out why he was given a transorbital frontal lobotomy as a 12-year-old boy. In this book, he mentions two other books -
The Lobotomist, which is the biography of the man who popularized the frontal lobotomy in America, and a second book, whose title escapes me (will look it up and post later) about the treatment of mental illness in America. Both of these seem really interesting to me, so maybe I will go on a themed reading adventure.
http://www.librarything.com/work/3124933...Imperial Grunts - about halfway through. It's pretty good so far, except Kaplan seems to be hung up on the ability of mid-level officers and NCOs to make better tactical decisions than high-level officers. I think he's neglecting strategic considerations that must trump tactical ones.
I just finished
Myths of Light by Joseph Campbell. If you don't know who Campbell is, he was a mythologist in the 60's or 70's if I remember correctly. This particular book was a collection of some of his writings and lectures on Eastern religion/mythology, but he is most well known for his work on western mythology. As far as what I'm going to read next, I'm not sure. I might read
2012, or the other book I have by
Campbell,
the Masks of God, vol. 2: Oriental Mythology.
I've not been able to read much lately, so I only now just finished
Team of Rivals today. What a fascinating tale! Some of the sidebar personalities are just as interesting as Lincoln, in some regards. Am still somewhere in the middle of
Omnivore's Dilemma and am now reading about the controversial Whole Foods dinner. Am also in the middle of
Signs of the Inka Khipu, which is really interesting but the writing is kinda clunky because he writing to defend his ideas, rather than just presenting the fascinating idea that the khipu where used to communicate in a binary fashion. Once I finish with that, I've got
Indians and English: facing off in early America lined up and ready to go. Now that I'm done with Goodwin's book, I'll be picking up
Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers. It's been waiting for me to get to it for a few weeks now... And I also want to get to
The know-it-all this month as well.
Having finished
Will's Boy: A Memoir by Wright Morris, I have now picked up Solo: An American Dreamer in Europe: 1933-1934 also by Wright Morris.
I'm reading
Dateless Diary by R.K.Narayan, one of my favourite authors; it's a charming account of his time in America. It's a lovely, small copy printed in Delhi, which I bought from the outside shelves at Any Amount of Books on the Charing Cross road, an old haunt of mine revisited when we went down to London in August for a family wedding.
Oh and I found 3 more books today in the charity shops, as all I needed was more books (!). One was fiction but today's non fiction finds were:
The World is Not for SaleWhat Can Be Done? Making the media and politics better
#9
Cadillac Desert by
Marc Reisner is one of my favorite books of all time that expounds on the water problem in the US.
Just finished Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots is Boldly Privatizing Spaceby
Michael Belfiore . It follows several private rocket builders through their triumphs and failures and gives an overview of some of the plans out there for privatizing space travel. Very optimistic book.
I started reading
The Tribes Triumphant, superficially a travel book, but a lot about the history and politics of the Middle East. After a chapter or two I decided that I needed to know more about the political context so started reading
Sowing The Wind. But even that I am finding jumps around too much and assumes you already have a certain amount of knowledge about the Middle East... so I am contemplating finally taking my copy of
A History of the Arab Peoples off the shelf. It's getting very confusing!
Last night I read
Teach Yourself Visually HTML by
Sherry Kinkoph, then finished
Our Final Hour by
Martin Rees, and finished up with a chapter from
The Shape of Ancient Thought by
Thomas McEvilley from which I got little.
I kinda wanted to know a little bit more about how links work and how to color my fonts on my profile page. I had been working from one of those three hole binder things. Now I know enough to play for awhile.
Our Final Hour gives us a guess work chance of 50-50 to survive the century. Devastation may be at any of several levels from a significant reduction in population to the destruction of space-time.
The Shape of Ancient Thought has proved useful. I think it was my fault that I got little out of last night's chapter.
Robert
Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2007, 6:00pm.
Working on Joseph J. Ellis's
Founding Brothers. I'm moving along at a pretty good clip now that I'm not on vacation, despite what the thingey on my profile page says. The internet was down at work yesterday, but I think I'll update it now.
I'm also starting to work seriously on my Early Review book,
Nearly Human (now that I've recovered from this weekend's air travel). Unfortunately, the book's touchstone
still doesn't work.
I just finished Marley & Me by
John Grogan. Now that was a book that made me laugh and cry. It's a wonderful book if you favor animal stories. Grogan's book is about life with a Labrador retriever. It'll warm your heart.
Message edited by its author, Nov 9, 2007, 8:08pm.
>25, I adored that book SqueakyChu. Really wonderful story. He's also published an edition for kids that just omits some of the "couples" stuff and keeps in all the great dog stories. My daughter loved it.
--> 26
Marley & Me came recommended by my son's girl-friend who warned me that I'd cry. I did.
Also laugh. I think the funniest scene was of the table "walking" away in the al fresco scene! I was hysterical laughing over that.
Recently I had read the book by
Jon Katz called A Good Dog:the story of Orson who cahnged My Life about that author's experience with a border collie.
Those two dog stories remind me of the love I had as a kid for all books by
Albert Payson Terhune - especially
Lad: A Dog. He wrote about collies.
Other great animal stories are any of the books by James Herriot. I believe I read them all.
I've recently bought the book 'It is just you, everything's not shit' by Steve Stack. It's in response to that other book by Steve Lowe, 'Is it just me or is everything shit?'
It's the kind of book that you don't have to read in any particular order and come back to at a later date if you wanted to.
Funny, silly and makes you smile.
Another one I've read recently is 'Are you Dave Gorman' by Danny Wallace and Mr Gorman himself! Bloody Hilarious. Wallace has also written 2 other books, 'Join me' and 'Yes man'. They're a good laugh too.
Message edited by its author, Nov 10, 2007, 6:17am.
This message has been deleted by its author.
Pandemonium: Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease, and Other Biological Plagues of the 21st Century by
Andrew Nikiforuk is my current non-fiction book. I'm reading it for my book club on public policy issues.
Finished
Behind the Mountains yesterday, so started
Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper this morning. From the intro, he's a man who is driven to seriously live on the edge. Well written and reads fast. Should be interesting, too.
I just started
My Invented Country by
Isabel Allende. I've never read any of her novels, but from reading this biography, I feel as if this is an author of whose work I'd like to read more. With which of her novels should I begin?
Probably
The House of the Spirits it's her 1st novel & some characters appear in her later works. Also, it's a good introduction to her style. (She's one of those writers that I have to read everything she's written -- so far ny favorite is
Eva Luna.
Paula is another powerful book by Allende.
Yesterday i finished The blood of gentlemen by barbara Holland. It's a history of duelling. She has a light, breezy style which goes well with the subject. Now It's Jane Austen
Persuasion which is also moving right along.
#46 AnnaClaire: Thank you. I did not know that there was another way to get to the correct Touchstone.
You're welcome!
I'm reading
Face To Face by
Ved Mehta which is a bit odd, as it overlaps with Sound Shadows of the Something World, an autobiography of his I already have. Must have been released at a different time. It's good, though.
Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs by Barbara Mertz, who writes mysteries under the name Elizabeth Peters. I've never read any of her fiction books (and probably won't), but I might check out her other non-fiction book. This one is a nice, casual read.
A few pages into
The Red Queen by Matt Ridley. I'm finding it really fascinating thus far-
Currently reading two early tracts on the Cahokia mounds near St. Louis. One by Warren K. Moorehead and the other by A.R. Crook.
And for me holiday reading if Fate and the ILL grace me, its onto "Daughters of joy, sisters of misery : prostitutes in the American West, 1865-90".
Ought to give the relatives something to chat about :---------}
Message edited by its author, Nov 19, 2007, 8:11pm.
I am finishing Journals--Arthur Schslinger edited by his two sons. A very interesting and variety of writings on his many years working for many of our Presidents, his many notable friends and acquaintances. For anyone who loves non-fiction and history this is a good one.
Started reading
1491 on the way home from work.
ETA: The touchstone ain't working.
Message edited by its author, Nov 19, 2007, 9:02pm.
AnnaClaire, how did you like
Founding Brothers? I've been looking at that for a bit, but have been trying to figure out what his angle is before committing to reading it. I enjoyed
1491 immensely, and found that it really fit well within the context of
Guns, Germs, and Steel and
Changes in the Land which, along with a few other books will really change the way popular history views early history of the western hemisphere.
whymaggiemay, how did you like
A short history of tractors in ukrainian? that title alone makes it appetizing!
For myself, I've finished
Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers and found myself still thinking about different parts of it - particularly organ donation and use of cadavers for training medical students. I'm still not sure I've completely answered the question of what I would do myself... hopefully I 've got plenty of time.
I'm still chewing over parts of
Omnivore's Dilemma - I find myself debating in my head with the author and many of the people he's interviewed.
I've also started
Unbowed, which is a memoir. I'm learning much more about Kenyan history and culture than I knew -- which really isn't saying much.
bfertig -- I liked
Founding Brothers. It's interesting how much our Recieved Notions are on the money and wide of the mark -- often at the same time. It moves quickly, though, and doesn't cover anyone in particular depth (mostly this is because there are already plenty of biographies about these people already).
Oh, and I'm reading
1491 now, so I'm glad you liked it.
Message edited by its author, Nov 20, 2007, 11:44am.
Am I the only one who has problems with Ellis and the problems he got into regarding his deceptions about his service in Vietnam? I can't seem to read any of his books without some hesitation about his integrity. Should I give him a chance?
Now I'm reading The 6th Extinction by Terry Glavin. Each chapter is the story of an extinction from a species - a bird, a fish, a lion ect. Before I started he 6th Extinction I finished
The Road which I read in a day - Tuesday. I try to alternate fiction w/non-fiction but I'm thinking maybe following The Road with a book on extinctions wasn't such a great idea. It is a good, well-written book, however.
I wasn't aware of Ellis' controversy about Vietman -- what was that all about?
In addition to reading
Unbowed and
The Omnivore's Dilemma in paperback, I just finished listening to
The Map that Changed the world and have started listening to
The know-it-all, which is amusing in parts and at other parts I find him to going out of his way to be irritating... That being said, I was excited to recognize the obscure story about Burke and Hare, the smotherers/cadaver stealers, which was told in greater depth in
Stiff.
In June of 2001 the Boston Globe wrote a piece about Dr. Ellis regarding his decade long deception to his students at Mt. Holyoke College about his military experience in Vietnam. He was teaching classes about the Vietnam War and injected the lectures with his story of being in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. He also claimed that he was on General Westmoreland's staff. Additionally, he claimed he was active in the civil rights movement after his Vietnam experience. The Globe investigated the claims and found that Ellis was lying about Vietnam and his civil rights exploits. He was put on leave for one year but kept his office and library privileges. He continues to teach at Mt. Holyoke.
I've started Catherine e Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by
Leoni Frieda for a book club. I love the opening....she is described as 'the maggot from Italy's tomb", the "black queen" and "Madame La Serpente". Sounds good.........
Reading
Ice Bound by Jerri Nielsen for the LT Go Review That Book! group. I'm just getting to the South Pole part which is good because she is not so likable thus far.
I am deep into
The English Civil War - a really fascinating look at how the war affected ordinary people's lives.
The Lobotomist was a great read, one of the unexpected pleasures of non-fiction earlier this year. Fascinating guy.
I'm pounding through
Religions Of Rome right now. Slow going, but well worth it.
Team of Rivals was a lot of fun, and if you want a really good book on an overlooked period, catch
Crucible Of War, by
Fred Anderson. It's about the 7 Years War (French and Indian War to us Amurricans), and how it set up for the Revolution. And, it's a great look at Washington's early years.
I've started
The Inner Citadel for the Marcus Aurelius part of a stoicism class we are doing at church.
Coincidentally, I am up to the stoicism chapter in
The Shape of Ancient Thought.
Robert
Message edited by its author, Nov 29, 2007, 10:16pm.
I am reading
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson and quite enjoying it. Larson tells two stories-the disapperance of Dr. Crippen's wife in London and the development of wireless transmission by Marconi. I am still waiting to see how the two stories intersect. I previously read
The Devil in the White City by the same author and really liked it.
I am re-reading
Nickel and Dimed. I read it years ago, but figure it's worth a re-read.
#73, torontoc, you might want to Google Crippen. There was a recent story regarding forensics which may change the Larson's story. BTW, I read the book, too, and enjoyed it. I learned so much about the invention of the telegraph, about which I'd been woefully ignorant until Larson's book came along.
I've been rolling in the fields of nostalgia with Christmas at Long Lake, a memoir by Rick Skwiot set in the mid-1900's. It's about a little boy's last Christmas living in the midwestern countryside as his father has just lost his blue-collar job and the future is uncertain.
A friend gave me
The Rules, thinking I needed it. I am half-heartedly perusing it & mocking it the whole time.
#6, hope you enjoyed My Dateless Dairy. I grew up in India and moved to the US in mid-1990s, when I was in my mid-20s. Till that point, for all practical purposes, the only frame of reference I had about life in US was through this book! It gives a nice view of how things were here, in the US, in the last 1950s. I have read and re-read this book several times and enjoyed it during each re-reading.
Message edited by its author, Feb 5, 2009, 12:51am.
Gosh - yes, I did enjoy it and what an interesting story you share! I reviewed it so the review should be viewable.
I am currently reading "Mitchell". It is the story of William Mitchell. A most remarkable person.
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