What We Are Reading: Nonfiction

Are you a history buff? A science maven? A biography hound? Here is the place to share your nonfiction interests!

Currently reading What Was Asked Of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It, and there's no question it will be lasting a ways into 2013. Parts are repetitive, and parts are horrifying, both aspects leading me to need to leave it behind for a little while and pursue something else. But, there's no question: if this is something you're interested in, it's worth picking up. Also worth noting...while different short sections have the political bias of the author (and no section is longer than 10 pages or so), the overall work doesn't lean either to the right or the left, which makes it all the more worth reading in my view.

I am currently reading Joseph Epstein's collected Essays in Biography. It's a wonderful collection of well-written and often insightful commentaries mostly on other writers. However, he also includes essays on popular culture persons such as Michael Jordan. In all of them his writing is very fluid and easy to read. He has a very fair approach to his subjects, neither overly praising them nor being condescending.

Currently reading The Social Conquest of Earth by E. O. Wilson for the Science, Religion, and History group read (this book is November-January; the next book will sync with standard quarters).

I've started Robert Caro's The Path to Power, the first of a three-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson for the US Presidents Challenge. It's very good, but I'm concerned that I'll be hindered in getting it done by not liking Johnson very much.

Just started Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers as an e-book.

I'm not sure what category of nonfiction it would go under....

I just finished The Signal and the Noise, by Nate Silver. Though I live and die by his projections at fivethirtyeight during election season, I was afraid I'd find the book too mathy. It's nothing of the kind--Silver does a great job explaining statistics to a lay reader without dumbing them down, and it's a fascinating journey through what we can and can't predict about everything from baseball to the stock market to earthquakes to terrorism.

#3, the Epstein essays are on my Kindle, thanks to the good folks at netGalley. I plan to dip into 'em a little at a time.

I'm going to wrap up The Futures by Emily Lambert, about Chicago's trading pits, for a story that is due (ahem) this week.

I am reading Traitor to His Class by H.W. Brands a pretty good biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Going to take me a while to finish it, I know, but I will no matter how long it takes. Resolution for 2013 - no abandoned books. Ever! Unless they are complete and utter crap. Or dull beyond belief. Look at that - already I'm trying to find wiggle room. Bad Charlotte. Bad, bad Charlotte!

I finished How to Read Literature Like a Professor yesterday - 1st book of the new year!

I'm also reading The Social Conquest of Earth with Katherine and the group read. In addition, I'm reading Elaine Pagels' Adam, Eve, and the Serpent.

#6 - DrNeutron: sorry to break it to you but the Caro biography is planned to be 5 volumes. Only the first 4 have been published, and he is writing the 5th as we read, I believe. He was interviewed recently and I heard a snip-it where Caro said he was struggling to find a way to describe the two sides of LBJ - the one who did the War of Poverty and the one who continued the War in Vietnam to its horrific end, well, almost to its end. I'm about 1/3 of the way through volume 4. Must get back to it.

My first finished book of the year, provided I don't lose interest and decide to read something else for awhile, will be Guns, Germs, and Steel. It's great, but I'm starting to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of fantastic information.

Ack! Five?! Dear God will I never be finished with the man? :)

Yup, that is assuming he finishes book 5 before he decides enough with this world!

I'm reading Last Man Out, about the Springhill Mine Disaster in Nova Scotia and its aftermath.

Today I'll resume reading The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell, a so far interesting study of the history of the Crescent City from its European origin to 1812.

My first completed book of 2012 is: ... wait for it ...
Baby Animals by Garth Williams, a very cute children's book.

And, according to LT it is a book about zoology. Well, not just according to LT. It is a book about zoology!

Review here: http://www.librarything.com/work/178992/reviews/92808843

I am just starting God's Hotel, which comes highly recommended.

>20 karspeak: karspeak...I loved God's Hotel!! You are in for a treat!

I'm reading an ARC of The Borgias: The Hidden History by G.J. Meyer. It's too early to say how well I'll like it.

>21 tangledthread: tangledthread--great!! I'm enjoying it so far. My husband is a doc and my mom is an RN, so some of the author's content I have already heard before.

.14 Ape Guns, Germs, and Steel is really worth it. I have referred back to it (in my head) many times since I read it.

I just finished Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and am almost done with Seabiscuit. Both very good.

And, now I'm reading Fondling Your Muse....partly because I adore the title, and partly because I just need a laugh after all of the seriousness in my other reading of late! If you write, or have friends who write, and like a dry humor, it might be right up your alley. I picked it up partly because I felt required to as a friend of the author, and partly because I just loved the look of the book and the title, but now that I've finally peeked in and explored a bit, I'm rather glad I did, however long it's been sitting on a bookshelf in the meantime!

And, if you like McSweeney's, you'll likely enjoy this--John is one of McSweeney's editors, so that tells you quite a bit about the writing style all by itself!

I'm reading a travel memoir, The most beautiful walk in the world: a pedestrian in Paris. So far I'm enjoying it, he throws in lots of literary references and has a humorous writing style. I'm not too far in yet but he becomes a professional "literary walking tour" guide so should continue to hold my interest.

>18 kidzdoc: kidzdoc - I'm so glad you brought that book up. I'm currently working on a novel that opens in New Orleans in 1815, so I've been digging for sources on the early history of the city to understand my protagonist's backstory better.

I just finished The Fiddler on Pantico Run, a memoir/family history by a white reporter, Joe Mozingo, who discovers that his last name is actually African, rather than Italian as the family had thought, and that his first American paternal-line ancestor was a slave brought to Jamestown in the 17th century.

#6 and #13 -- there is a fairly interesting interview in today's (Saturday) Financial Times Weekend section. To tell the truth I have the first two volumes of the biography that I purchased when they first came out, but I never read them. LBJ is one of the presidents that I don't think very highly of.

I am listening to Life, Keith Richards autobiography

#26, Kerry, you might want to keep an eye open for The Flaneur by Edmund White, which is a lovely little book about being a dilettante-ish ambler through Paris (sadly, there's no English equivalent for the verb, flaner...)

I'm reading Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places by Bill Streever and loving it while also finding it fascinating. The paperback is less than half price at Amazon and the Kindle version is one of the US titles on sales this month, for only $2.99.

Next up, I'll be venturing into history, I think. Three candidates: Blood Sisters by Sarah Gristwood, Former People by Douglas Smith or The Opium War by Julia Lovell.

I am currently reading the first volume of Emily Eden's Up the Country: Letters from India, which I may actually finish by the end of the year.

Thanks Suzanne, I've come across that before, no doubt somewhere on LT. I'll see if my library has it.

I just gleaned 3 new titles from this thread, thanks, everyone:).

#33: Oh, the consequences of reading threads on LT :)

I'm reading The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby, which sounds like it should be good but is in fact REALLY TERRIBLE.

Reading Travels in Charley, the next selection in my library book club.

I just finished Lost World of the Golden King: In Search of Ancient Afghanistan, an excellent book about how most of what we know about Bactria (Hellenistic Afghanistan) comes from coins.

I'm also reading Godly Seed: American Evangelicals Confront Birth Control, 1873-1973, which describes how American Evangelical Christians (as defined in the introduction) went from opposing contraception to accepting and even embracing it.

Read and reviewed No Impact Man by Colin Beavan. Finished reading The Social Conquest of Earth by E. O. Wilson, but a review will be awhile. Started Tulipomania by Mike Dash, which has been hanging around the house for a couple years.

Just finished and reviewed The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, a compulsively readable, impeccably researched account of a fascinating and little known man and his tumultous times.

I started Testament of Friendship by Vera Brittain. I hope it is as good as her Testament of Youth.

Just started Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness by Rita Charon; so far, it's a very readable overview of the movement, what it means for medical professionals and medicine, and what the benefits do (and might in the future) include for patients, doctors, and all others who come in contact with individuals dealing with illness. It looks like it will also include many anecdotes and direct ideas on how it might be enacted within various set-ups and medical and educational facilities, and so far, I'm impressed with its careful grounding in physical realities (rather than those authors who get lost in theory and/or abstraction in an effort to present ideas that might not be so practical).

One day, I'd like to make another attempt at some of the classics of Russian literature. The reason I abandoned them in the past, I believe, was because my grasp on 19th-century Russian history is ... weak, at best. Can anyone recommend good non-fiction to give me a handle on what on earth was going on over there so I understand more of the undercurrents of politics and society?

>43 ursula:, I've never read it myself, but as an overview, Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes is supposed to be quite good. The movie Russian Ark has also been recommended to me by a Russian history-obsessed colleague.

For a view of how the Russian mindset differs from the average Westerner's, particularly in terms of government and civil society (although the history is 20th century), It was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway by David Satter was amazing.

>44 inge87: Thank you for the recommendations! It at least gives me a place to start.

I am in 1854 during a cholera epidemic reading the Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic -- and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson. Excellent so far and especially timely since Havana, Cuba, of all places, has confirmed cholera there.

I really liked Ghost Map and am glad you are enjoying it Marell,

I am working on Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century by Mark Mazower. I think that it's very good, but so dense in facts that I am only able to read 3-4 pages at a time. So I am not sure I will every finish it.

46. I just listened to a podcast that talked about the ghost map. It was really interesting so I'm going to look that book up! Thanks for the tip.

I just got Ghost Map too. Saving it for next month.

The Ghost Map has resided on my bookshelf for years, but I still haven't read it. I'll plan to read it soon.

There's a group read of The Ghost Map starting in February. The link will be on this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/146538

I've got my copy from the library sitting here, but need to finish a few others before starting it.

Thanks to all who commented on The Ghost Map, and thank you, streamsong for the info on the group read. I'm looking forward to the discussion.

>51 streamsong: Thanks for letting us know about the upcoming group discussion for The Ghost Map, streamsong. I'll plan to read it then.

Now reading Knots in my YoYo String by Jerry Spinelli, his autobiography of his childhood years. I'm not sure whether it's meant as a YA or Adult read, but it's wonderful already. I think I may have to reread it once I've read more (all???) of his fiction, though--just from the few works of his I've read, I'm already seeing connections and seemingly sideways winks to what might have been inspiration for his fiction, so I know there must be many more I'll miss until I read his other work!

Going Clear by Lawrence Wright

It tells the story of one (famous) man's experience with Scientology and looks at religion itself. Wright approaches the subject dispassionately and with techniques familiar to anyone who has read studies of New Religious Movements. I'm only 25% of the way in (yes, on Kindle) thus far most of the narrative has been focused on L. Ron Hubbard himself. So far, so fascinating.

Maybe should've pared down my review / summary of The Social Conquest of Earth by E. O. Wilson, but I want to move on.

Hello all! For my reading this year it will predominately be non-fiction. I am currently reading Transhumanism: A Grimoire of Alchemical Agendas by: Joseph P. Farrell.

I too have the Social Conquest of Earth on my Kindle, maybe I will get to that this year.

Happy reading everyone!

I just finished and reviewed My Century by Aleksander Wat, a fascinating memoir by a Polish poet who was imprisoned in Stalinist Russia.

Hello all! I recently finished reading The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski, and I highly recommend it! Polish journalist Kapuscinski traveled to Ethiopia in the mid 1970s and interviewed members of Haile Selassie’s imperial court. You would have to read it to believe it. It is a truly original and excellent book.

>59 ominogue:--Looks great, thanks for mentioning it!

I have started an Early Reviewer's copy of Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs, The United States of America and I'm liking it. I lived through some of this history so I feel like I am revisiting newspaper (remember them?) headlines.

I'm reading Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth right now and I'm absolutely loving it. It's a scientific history book about scientists who have experimented on themselves in the pursuit of knowledge, and it's been quite entertaining so far.

#62 - That's quite the attention grabbing title, Stephen!

I have started A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah which tells of his youth in war-torn Sierra Leone. Not always easy to read, but it certainly holds the attention.

Starting Co-dependant No More by Melody Beattie

Started The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson on Friday. So far it is about all you could possibly want to know about bacteria and excrement.

ccookie, Beattie has written several classics. I hope your enjoy her work, and/or benefit from it, whichever suits.

I am reading Don't Let's Go To The Dogs and finding her description of growing up in Africa to be fascinating.

Oh, I loved Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight, Karen. Enjoy!

> 66
I have read Melody Beattie's works before and this is a re-read. I need Co-dependant No More ... I am definitely co-dependant! ;-)

I recently finished A Year of Biblical Womanhood, by Rachel Held Evans, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys the type of memoir where someone tries an unusual-to-them lifestyle for a year.

I've just finished and reviewed the fascinating Young Stalin; the first in Montefiore's two-volume biography making use of recently opened Soviet and Georgian/Caucasian archives, it reveals how "Soso" Djugashvili became Stalin.

I just finished Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, and it was excellent, definitely recommended. Now I am reading The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, which comes very highly recommended.

Currently reading Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron. I have to say I didn't expect as much contemporary information about western China as I've read so far, but there is an equal measure of history. Both aspects are interesting.

Currently reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings...I'm going slowly because my copy has such small print, but I swear reading this book is like listening to a soft melody through the window--it's just wonderful. I put it off for ages since I rarely read memoirs and autobiography, and since I'm not a Huge fan of her poetry, but now I'm realizing that she really became known for her memoirs. I'd recommend this book to anyone at all. I'm not sure if the story goes beyond her childhood growing up in very different cities/towns as a young and poor African American girl, but I'll be satisfied wherever it leads to--just a wonderful read so far.

I have that book on my stack of TBR and I need to move it up, a bit. Thanks for posting about it.

> 75
Another addition to the Ever Growing Wishlist!!

I finished the amazing The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic America and have now started Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World.

I just got in the mail the new biography of President Coolidge by Amity Shlaes that I am looking forward to start this weekend. Wait! the weekend already started what am I thinking of? I better get to it now.

>78 inge87: I look forward to hearing how Thirst is, it seems like a very timely read.

Today I started Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I totally have a man-crush on him after watching No Reservations, but I think that may be due in part to great editting. I'm not as much a fan of this sleazy sex and drug-obsessed side of him, unfortunately. Still as clever and witty as ever, and the book itself is really very good, but...

I recently finished an Early Reviewer copy of Toms River, set to be released next month. Fascinating read about toxic waste and a suspected cancer cluster. It's very well done -- even the scientific explanations made sense to me, and I do not have a brain that is good at science.

My latest non-fiction read is Fire From Heaven: Life in an English Town in the Seventeenth Century which is very interesting. It doesn't move quickly, but I'm enjoying the evolution of the town of Dorchester (UK) over time.

Now wandering through: Hemingway and Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers. I'm honestly not sure whether this book should be kept on a shelf, a bar, or a coffee-table (maybe all three), but it really is delightful. There's a two page spread on each featured author, and the spread includes: an oh-so-brief biography focused on their writing, an anecdote about one of their drinking escapades (or legends thereof), an excerpt from one of their poems or short stories (somehow related to the subjects at hand, of only in a word), and a recipe for a drink--that drink being either a favorite of the authors, or inspired by the author in one of their haunts (or a bar near their hometown in a few cases). The recipes also include a quick anecdote about how the drink came to be, and why it's the drink for that featured author.

In short, I'm just a short way in, but any lover of author-related trivia is sure to adore this, and if they like an occasional drink as well, the book will be all the more suited and practical!

I am going to start reading Coolidge by Amity Shlaes. It's one that I want to read slowly.

An LT buddy sent me a copy of Butch Cassidy: Beyond the Grave. A few years ago, I read Butch Cassidy: a Biography, and while at the library, I came across The Last Outlaws, about Butch and the Sundance Kid. So I decided to read 'me back-to-back and do a comparison review. I've finished the first, am halfway through the second, and the third's on deck for later this weekend.

Other side of Israel by Susan Nathan written from the perspective of a British Jew who moves to Israel in her 50s and then within a few years moves to live with an indigenous Palestinian family in Tamra in northern Israel.

Jim, I will be very interested in your conclusions about Butch and Sundance! Fascinating characters, they were.

I finished Kitchen Confidential and am relieved to say that it was ultimately a very enjoyable read. My review can be found on the book's page, where I creepily profess my love for bourdain, and compare him to lesbian sex.

I just finished Spillover. One of the best nonfiction pop science epidemiology books I have read! My review is on the book's page and also on my thread. It got a bit long, so I won't post it here. ;-)

I'm reading Popular Crime by Bill James, which is interesting if in kind of a train-wreck way, and African History: A Very Short Introduction, which is great if you're reading it with the awareness that's it's historiography and not actual historical overview. I'm also slowly reading, and savoring, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

I've read two very good true crime books so far this year, People Who Eat Darkness and Fatal Vision.

I finished Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World, an interesting take on ancient water management strategies and their effect on the civilizations that used them, as well as My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes), a memoir about food and learning to find your place in the world (and being the child of a transatlantic divorce).

Tomorrow I'll be startng a recently acquired Early Reviewers book, The Drunken Botanist. I'm really looking forward to it as I really liked Wicked Bugs and Wicked Plants!

I finished Popular Crime by Bill James, which turned out to be a very bloated, disappointing mess of a book.

I got hold of a copy of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley and plan to start reading it after church tomorrow.

I just received my copy of National Geographic 125 Years yesterday. A beautiful big book, found at a very reasonble price at a used book store. I can't wait to find a good long afternoon to sit and sift through it.

I just finished Teasing Secrets From the Dead by Emily Craig, which was excellent, and African History: A Very Short Introduction, which was okay. I'm currently reading The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6, which is good so far.

I am slowly getting into Codependent No More which I have read before. My Lord, I am co-dependent!

I am continuing to listen to Life and, I don't know, I'm getting a little tired of what seems to be an attitude of entitlement and no remorse whatsoever for the drinking and drugging in his lifetime. Also he seems like quite an arrogant ass! He is sssoooo much luckier than evvverrryybooddy else! Arrgh! Annoying me greatly. But I will persevere a bit longer anyway.

I read Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story, which is a very good adaptation of Black Elk Speaks for children.

I'm just starting Wild, and I'm also reading The Universe Within.

I am just starting Under An Afghan Sky which details Canadian journalist, Melissa Fung's experience of being taken by armed men and held captive in Afghanistan in 2008.

I've finished and reviewed the first fascinating biography by Tom Reiss, The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life.

>102 rebeccanyc:, Oh, I've wanted to read The Orientalist ever since I read and loved Ali and Nino a few years ago.

I've started reading Augustine Thompson's Francis of Assisi: A New Biography, which attempts to uncover the historical man behind the legends. So far, it's quite good.

I am reading Cairns: Messengers in Stone for my RL book group. Surprisingly interesting. Evidently, many peoples and cultures made piles of rocks signifying this and that; some large, some small. Very old, too, some of them are - Vikings wrote graffiti on some in Scotland!

(#104) - Jennifer, your comment about reading the biography of Francis of Assissi reminded me of a beautiful poem by the Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario titled Los Motivos del Lobo (The Motives of the Wolf?). This is a translation of the first stanza that I found on the web:

“The man who has a heart of lily,
cherub soul, heavenly language,
the minimum and sweet Francis of Assisi
is with a rude and sullen animal
fearful beast, with blood and robbery,
the jaws of anger, the evil eye:
the wolf of Gubbio, the terrible wolf
rabid, has plagued the neighborhood;
cruel has undone all the flocks;
lambs devoured, devoured pastors,
and their countless deaths and damage.”

Then it goes on to narrate how Francis is able to pacify the wolf and turns him by his words into a domesticated animal. Humble, devoted, friendly. But one day Francis leaves and the wolf is left alone in the monastery; he starts seeing how cruel people are, they are envious, hateful, wrathful, and one day they all beat the wolf. That awakened the furious beast in him and returned to his natural habits.

And, of course, like most poetry translations, this stanza does not carry well the rythm, rhyme, and vivid imagery of the original; as well as the representation of the spirit of Francis of Assisi.

If you are interested in poetry it may be worthwhile for you to look for a translation through your local library.

I'm currently reading Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

I'm halfway through Malcolm X: a Life of Reinvention. Good so far, but I want to read some of the criticisms before making a judgement.

I just finished The Universe Within. This book begins with the Big Bang, talks about how different elements developed, and explains primordial soup through the rise of primates. Shubin also interspersed stories about important scientific discoveries and how they resulted in jumps in our knowledge in evolution, astronomy, astrophysics, the geologic record, etc. It is incredibly readable, approachable and interesting for any layperson. I have read several books on evolutionary biology, but this book took a much grander view by beginning with the birth of the universe, instead of just single celled organisms, etc. It also filled in gaps in my knowledge about why different mass extinction events occurred, why the earth cooled or warmed at various points, etc. Highly recommended if you enjoy reading about science.

I just started The Wounded Storyteller by Arthur Frank--so far, it's very good :)

Finished Keith Richards' Life. Strange man. Rude. Brilliant. So damn successful!!
Dislike the man intensely!
Review will follow

I really enjoyed reading Life but I agree he is not very admirable; and his neglect of his children was very upsetting.

I finished reading My Beloved World by Justice Sonia Sotomayor and she is an excellent contrast to Keith Richards. Grew up poor, alcoholic father dies young, uneducated mother struggles keeping family together and Sonia rises above an inferior education as a child and is able to succeed at Princeton and Yale. And her career is stellar. A very inspiring book.

Next up: The Searchers: The Making of An American Legend - looking forward to reading about John Wayne, and Ford, and the whole making movie deal as well as the true story behind the cinematic story.

I've just started Prague Winter by Madeleine Albright. It's a history of Czechoslovakia from 1937-1948, and so far it's really good.

oh! I think I might have to put that one on my WL

I finished Francis of Assisi: A New Biography. It's really good for separating fact from legend about St. Francis. In fact, the entire second half of the book is the author going chapter by chapter through the narrative biography in the first half and explaining why he made the decisions to put episodes in or leave them out of the book (with references). I really enjoyed it.

>106 xieouyang:, That's a lovely poem. The Wolf of Grubbio is actually one of the Francis stories that the author decided not to include in the book, because it is clearly only a legend.

I've just finished and reviewed It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway, an examination of the Russian response to its Stalinist past that I found interesting, chilling, and annoying.

Ha! I am taking a community college class in Child Development so I am reading: Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective

Can't say "going back to school" on-line is a seamless experience. As a matter of truth, I am hating it.

> 116, I read It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway over Christmas break and had much the same reaction as you: I was completely repulsed by what I was reading, but I couldn't put it down. It is an excellent book for anyone who has wondered why Russia works the way it does.

Started Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman yesterday. Am about a third of the way through; very good so far.

I'm 100 pages into 33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners by Jonathan Franklin. It contains a lot of information I never knew, for example Chile exports 4 bBILLION dollars of copper per month, yet the areas where the miners live are the poorest in the nation.

here is my review of Life by Keith Richards
http://www.librarything.com/work/9950264/reviews

I have a bunch of non-fiction on the go right now:

Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet Woititz - so far so good.

In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero which I am thoroughly enjoying. I have read almost everything that Parker has written and all of his Spenser novels so reading about other mystery writers respect for him and his work is really interesting.

Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander - not really far enough into it yet to venture an opinion.

and still working on Co-dependant No More by Melody Beattie

About halfway through Robert Caro's The Means of Ascent, covering Lyndon Johnson's life from his loss int he Senate race of 1941 through his win in 1948 - the "lost years" in some sense, since this period was a serious loss of power and influence for him. Yet he was able to become wealthy through some pretty underhanded dealings with the FCC...

I've just started Yankee Stargazer, prompted by my recent reread of Newbery Award winner Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, to read an adult nonfiction biography of Nathaniel Bowditch. So far, it's very readable though barely read (my 1941 library copy has an awfully tight spine, and it doesn't appear to be rebound).

Currently engrossed in The Destiny of the Republic. Very good narrative non-fiction.

#122...I read this book awhile ago. I am an adult child of an alcoholic father. The book provided some insights and left me with the ah, ha, ah, ha...yep, kind of feeling.

>126 Whisper1: I am a food addict and am in Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. I am not a child of an alcoholic but many people that I know in the program are, including some of my sponsees.

I found the adult children of alcoholics literature to be hugely helpful about 30 years ago when I first sobered up and encountered the work on children of alcoholics. It explained huge parts of myself to myself and oh, wow, I certainly benefitted. Especially helpful was the meditation books for daily meditations suited to those in recovery.

I've just finished and reviewed Pieces of Light: How the New Science of Memory Illuminates the Stories We Tell about Our Pasts by Charles Fernyhough, a book full of some fascinating information that isburied in too many personal stories for my taste.

I finished/reviewed The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest by John Gerard, SJ, a fascinating memoir of life as an illegal Catholic priest in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, as well as The Education of a British-Protected Child by Chinua Achebe, a collection of essays on diverse subjects such as racism, colonialism, Biafra, and literature.

Started New England:Indian Summer 1865-1915 by Van Wyck Brooks yesterday. Have had it for years and years and it finally rose to the top of the pile.

Not bad so far.

Now i am going through the books of Physics by Stephen Hawking "The Grand Design", "Black Holes And Baby Universes"

I've just read and reviewed the moving and perceptive An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman, one of my all-time favorite writers.

I just started American Bee by James Maguire.

It was published in 2006 and chronicles the 2004 National Spelling Bee and its participants. The book is over 300 pages and it's been bit repetitive so far but I am hoping it picks up. It seems like such a good read I'd hate to have to put it aside.

It seems like it's been a while since I've read any nonfiction, probably because it HAS been a while. Anyway, I'm remedying that with Sciencia, a broad overview of everything sciene.

I've just finished the the thrilling and horrifying story of Varian Fry's attempts to rescue people from Nazi Europe, Surrender on Demand.

Yesterday I started to read Debbie: My Life. So far so good!

I'm halfway through the audio of Six days of war and finding it quite riveting. I have looked up a map or two just to follow the fighting around Jerusalem.

Started The Invisible Line by Daniel J. Sharfstein yesterday. Very interesting.

I finished two very different non-fiction books recently: Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint by André Vauchez, about Francis of Assisi and how his image evolved after his death into something that had little to do with his actual teachings, as well as The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms by Connie Barlow about how plants that evolved to spread via magafauna (think mastodons, ground sloths, American camels, et al.) and still retain these anachronistic traits today. Both were quite good in their own ways.

I started reading The Men Who Stare at Goats yesterday, which is a non-fiction investigation of the US government's psychic spying program.

Isn't a nonfiction book about psychics a contradiction in terms? (-"

I just finished The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code, a fascinating look at how the meaning of Linear B, the written language of Bronze Age Crete, was deciphered.

And now I've finished Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, the second (but written first) volume of Simon Sebag Montefiore history of Stalin, a compelling but for me overly detailed look at the "magnates" who clustered around Stalin and formed his "court."

Having finished The Men Who Stare at Goats my next non-fiction read will be something a little more serious, The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe, which I have been challenged to read for the Go Review That Book! community.

Recently finished On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz. Very interesting discussion about what we attend to and what we filter out as we go about our daily lives.

I'm reading Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter. While at times pedantic, I'm 3/4 way through and liking it.

By the way, the mother was a B...h...with a capital b

I am re-reading The Cat Who Went to Paris by Peter Gethers, one of my all time favourite books. As good as I remember it! Memoir, autobiography, biography. I love cats and have wanted a Scottish Fold since I first read about Norton. Maybe some day. Shush, don't let Jean Luc hear!

142: I think a book about psychic abilities would be fiction but a book about people who think they have psychic abilities can still count as nonfiction. It's kind of like the spirituality section. :D

I just finished On Desire and it was incredibly insightful. Psychology and philosophy can both be hit-or-miss topics for me, but this one was wonderful.

Isn't a nonfiction book about psychics a contradiction in terms? (-"

Ah, a skeptic, I see. ;)

Believe me, the US government -- or at least certain elements of it -- took this stuff very seriously at one time, and the book is supposedly a factual account of the experiments that were done in that area by the government. (I have no idea as to the content or accuracy of what was written, however, and I haven't personally read it.)

Started To Gettysburg and Beyond - a dual biography of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Edward Porter Alexander. I've read it once before and thought I would like to re-visit it.

I just finished Debbie: My Life by Debbie Reynolds .

This was a lot of fun to read for someone who loves movie stars and entertainers. What a tough life she lead, with Eddie Fisher leaving her for Elizabeth Taylor and disappearing from her and her children's life almost completely and then her second husband Harry Karl gambling away all of his millions and hers too.

At the end of this book she has married for the third time and seems happy.

I will now read her second book Unsinkable: A Memoir.

I also have the DVD of Wishful Drinking which is daughter Carrie Fisher's one woman show based on her book of the same name, which I was able to see last year, here in Toronto, and was hysterically funny. I will have to watch the show again soon!

I just finished The Lost Art of Finding Our Way by John Edward Huth, a book that turned out to be more comprehensive and less practical than I anticipated, but that had some fascinating information, especially about ancient feats of navigation, nonetheless.

I am finding Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune to be a revisit to American history, and the era of building of railroads to stitch the country together, and of the expansion into the great west, which created large fortunes. The Clark money, unlike the Morgan money, or the Carnegie money, does not ring bells in my mind probably because of the choices Huguette made. Fascinating story.

I just finished The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz, tales of patients (disguised) by a London psychoanalyst that I found deeply moving but not completely illuminating.

They Fought Like Demons is about women who fought in the US Civil War. It's amazing how many women managed to disguise themselves as men and go into battle.

I've recently finished and reviewed two books: Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier, about our economic and technological future in the era of the "fake free" and "Siren Servers," and Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker, about five young women who were lost even before they turned to prostitution and were murdered and dumped along a lonely Long Island road by a serial killer.

And now, the wonderful Dersu the Trapper by V. K. Arseniev, a tale of exploration, adventure, and a remarkable man.

The Best Care Possible: A Physician's Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life. HIGHLY recommended. 1/2 off because I found the first few chapters were not what I personally needed to start with right now. Well written by a physician who has been involved in palliative and hospice care for over thirty years. A caring, compassionate man who kindly explains the realities of the care of seriously ill patients in the US. It is getting better and he explains how it can be made better still.

I'm reading the Maus books about the Holocaust for the GD group read. I'm very new to the whole graphic books thing, but am finding these very well done and quite gripping. I have Maus I, Maus II, and MetaMaus (the story behind the Maus books) all checked out from the library.

I'm also a chapter and a half into Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality for the group read here on the 75. I'm definitely wishing I remembered a bit more physics!

Just finished Charlie Chan : the untold story of the honorable detective and his rendezvous with American history by Yunte Huang, an interesting, but not in-depth, look at the real-life detective that inspired Earl Biggers to invent Charlie Chan and the cultural impact of Bigger's novels and the movies they inspired.

I'm currently hunkered down on the Huesca front with George Orwell in his memoir Homage to Catalonia about the Spanish Civil War.

I recently finished K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs, which recounts several major ascents of the world's second highest peak. Gripping isn't even the word!

To Kill A Mockingbird is my all-time favorite book. I finished a YA book titled Up Close: Harper Lee by Kerry Madden. It is excellent!

Just started the 4th and latest volume in Robert Caro's multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, The Passage of Power. It's been a very good set of books so far and now we get to cover LBJ's Vice Presidency and transition to Presidency after Kennedy's assassination.

sigh, I have a book mark stuck in the middle of his last volume. I so love his work, but other books have seduced me.

I'm about halfway through The Lizard King by Bryan Christy, which is about various reptile smugglers and how profitable that industry was/is. It's fascinating so far!

I just finished Abdellatif Laâbi's harrowing, moving, and poetic memoir about his return from prison and his prison experiences, Rue du Retour.

Am about 40 pages into Michael Pollan's Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation So far it's interesting and entertaining.

I finished Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, which was definitely a let down. The writer can't write and her editor/ghost-writer wasn't enough to save it. The cat was cute though.

>170 inge87:
I scanned the reviews and, I guess, people either loved it or hated it. I am one who loved it, read it from the library and then bought 3 copies, one for me, one for each of my daughters-in-law. LOL

I'm reading The Unknown Mayhew, which is a collection of Henry Mayhew's letters to the Morning Chronicle, concentrating on those that he didn't later use in London Labour and the London Poor. I'm reading the second of 2 introductory essays and it seems that Mayhew wasn't as likeable man, as not many of his contemporaries had a good word to say about him.

I recently finished and reviewed the utterly fascinating Breaking the Maya Code, by Michael D. Coe.

I'm currently reading To Sleep With the Angels, about the terrible Our Lady of the Angels school fire in Chicago, 1958.

Before that, I finished The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.

I just finished Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China, which I found well written and moderately interesting, but definitely annoying.

A Cavalry Officer in the Corunna Campaign, 1808-1809 by Alexander Gordon
Having read a lot about fictional Riflemen for Sharpe's September, meeting a non-fiction cavalryman was great. Very interesting how his perception and notations change...

I've started 1968: The Year that Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky.