What Non-Fiction Are We Reading Now (April thru June 2025)?

The Q2 months are upon us.
Enjoy them and your book selections.

Started this insightful eBook via hoopla ~

People Can't Drive You Crazy If You Don't Give Them the Keys
by Dr. Mike Bechtle

I just finished The Ghost Map about the discovery that cholera is a waterborne illness. Pretty gross in places, and the ending wasn't very good, but interesting overall.

I've read My Life in France by Julia Child and Mean Justice by Edward Humes

I'm currently reading Eagle Against the Sun By Ronald Spector. It focuses on the Pacific Theater during WW2. It's an interesting read so far, and seems to be very informative and engaging.

>4 LynnB: I'm listening to My Life in France right now!

>6 cmbohn: I enjoyed that book!

Just finished The New Inequality: Creating Solutions for Poor America
by Richard B. Freeman

Very interesting. Written 25 years ago and talking about same issues as today (and worse than ever)
Predicted some things happening now.

I'm reading Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

>9 LynnB: That was a book that I saw in the bookstore and restrained myself from acquiring, correctly suspecting that I could easily borrow it from my public library system, that it would be a fast read, and that I wouldn't need to keep it around afterwards. Also, there's a nice PBS Storied video that glosses the book.

I'm reading Cleve Jones' memoir, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement. Cleve's a co-founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and the guy who had the idea for the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Great interview of him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GptHt2notq4&t=4s

I also recently finished Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers, by Jean Strouse, because I'm a huge Sargent fan. Some years ago, I saw the exhibit that inspired Strouse to write this book: https://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/john-singer-sargent-portraits-of-the-wer...

>10 paradoxosalpha: Great review! I'm only 60 pages in and you've raised some issues I will watch for.

I'm reading Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk by Rebecca Godfrey

>10 paradoxosalpha: I've finished Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism.

I loved Amanda Montell's earlier book, Wordslut, and am interested in language but was disappointed in this book. I wanted to better understand how language can be used to influence people go to to extremes -- such as following Jim Jones to Guyana or giving their life savings to the Scientologists.

What I got was some insight on language, such as "terminating clichés", which will allow me to watch out for and to challenge them. I got some insight on the importance of jargon to create a sense of exclusivity and/us vs them. And how even people of high intelligence can be vulnerable to cultish language.

I also got, I think, nearly as many anecdotes as solid examples of research.

What was missing for me is maybe something a linguist alone can't provide; that is, more of how, exactly, linguistic techniques play upon our brains. Do the decline of organized religion and bowling leagues create such a void in our screen-based world that people are more vulnerable to cults -- ranging from Jonestown to CrossFit? Maybe Ms. Montell needed the collaboration of a psychologist to go deep enough into the subject for my taste.

>14 LynnB:

I have seen recommendations for The Guru Papers as a book more along the lines of what you were looking for. I've got a copy, but haven't yet read it.

Read Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

Wold, An Introduction to Music and Art, chapters about the Greek and Romans.

How Did I Get Here?: A Memoir
by Bruce McCall
3/5 stars
This is the interesting memoir of Bruce McCall who became a writer/artist. He wrote for National Lampoon and also for Saturday Night Live. Memoir/Biography

Took these books back to the library yesterday:
Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron and Lost Treasure of the Incas by Peter Lourie

Still slogging my way through Henry VIII, but I should finish it this week or next!

Working my way, tentatively, through The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear by Ralph Keyes

I'm trying to read The Quark and the Jaguar by Murray Gell-Mann. It is going verrrrry slowwwwly. I gotta be honest, I picked it up partly because I'd heard of it, partly because of the title, and mostly because of the gorgeous jaguar on the cover. Apparently one of his colleagues said it was a brilliant book that 4 other people on the planet could understand. I'm not one of them.

>22 cmbohn: Well good for you for trying!

>23 LynnB: Thanks! On to something easier on my brain!

>22 cmbohn: FWIW, I couldn't make much sense of it either. I see I have a copy, which I bought in a charity shop. Hmm. Thinks: If only 4 other people could understand it., what point was there in writing it?

If you're looking for good reading by Nobel-Prize-winning physicists, try anything by Frank Wilczek or Steven Weinberg (although Weinberg's books are getting a bit dated by now).

>23 LynnB: >25 haydninvienna: the four people comment reminds me of a lecture I went to where the speaker had trouble deciphering his notes. He explained that only four people could read his handwriting; unfortunately, he wasn't one of them!

>25 haydninvienna: I'll look for something by them!

I'm reading More Than We Bargained For: An Untold Story of Exploitation, Redemption, and the Men Who Built a Worker's Empire by John Stefanini

I'm working my way through Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

I need to pick a new one to start. I've had several duds lately. I need something fun or exciting.

I'm reading 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

I've just started in on The Occult in Nineteenth-century America. The initial overview paper by Arthur Versluis is solid, so I'm looking forward to the other contents.

>32 LynnB: I thought that was a great story. Have you seen the movie?

I finally settled on two: The Flight of the Iguana by David Quammen and Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez on audio.

>34 cmbohn: No, I didn't.

I'm reading The Many Lives of Mama Love. At first it seemed to be simply derivative of Orange is the New Black, but I'm about 80 pages in now, and it has gotten interesting.

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
Deborah Heiligman
4/5 stars
This is the true story of Charles and Emma Darwin. Darwin, who believed in evolution, which was a very big controversial issue in 1859. This is a young adult novel but I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Biography

I've finished Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt. The book is an astonishingly comprehensive and extremely well-written history of 60 years of European history, from 1945 through 2005, when the book was published. I was turned on to this book by a friend who is a history professor at Colgate University. Judt was a very well known historian and essayist (well known to everyone interested in history but me, evidently) who died a very difficult death in 2010 from ALS. The book opens with a comprehensive and fascinating exploration of the ways in which Europe had become a total shambles by World War Two's close. He looks into both the Western Europeans' decisions that led to the relatively quick rebuilding of what became West Germany's economy and also the rearming of the country, over the strong objections of some of the allies. Rather than just treating the countries that would become the Soviet Bloc as, well, a block, Judt examines the conditions and events of each of them separately, and frequently returns to the area to report on the various countries' attempts to loosen the restrictive nature of their Communist governments. He also describes in detail the complicated political economic considerations of the Western countries--looking at them one country at a time--that eventually coalesced into NATO, the European Common Market, the European Court of Human Rights and finally, the European Union. At any rate, Judt shined his light on what seems like more or less every historical moment in every country in Europe across those 60 years. Since he left off in 2005, we can see the ways in which his examinations turned out to be right and sometimes missed the mark. For example, in 2005 he didn't expect Putin to be able to gather the economic or political strength to allow him to pose a threat to the peace of Europe. Of course I touched only on a slim minimum of the events and individuals Judt describes here. This is an extremely readable history that I recommend highly. If its length is daunting, it is easily broken up, as Judt organized the book into four separate sections, and I read these one at a time with another book in between each.

My somewhat longer review is up on my Club Read thread.

I'm reading my Mothers' Day present: Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson by Rebecca Boggs Roberts

Every Day Is a Gift: A Memoir
by Tammy Duckworth
5/5 stars
Great autobiography of Tammy Duckworth in which she includes her family life, her life in the military, her role in government and her devastating loss of her legs. Biography

Having spent nearly a year slogging through Henry VIII, I have turned to something much, much shorter, although certainly not fluffier: Beautiful Eucharist.

just started the world in books;52 works of great short nonfiction thought this would be a later version ofbound to please which tried the same with fiction. Im familiar with some of these works* but most of them have escaped my notice. looking forward to learning more!

*
the book of genisus
utopia
the prince
civil disobedience
the world I live in
a room of ones own
homage to catalonia
night
a moveable feast
the gnostic godspells
nickeled and dimed
the year of magical thinking
we should all be feminists

>42 cindydavid4: I read A Room of One's Own this year. I was not impressed, but to each her own. 😉

Damn Glad to Meet You: My Seven Decades in the Hollywood Trenches
Tim Matheson
4/5 stars
I have always admired Tim Matheson and have enjoyed his work in the movie industry. In this book he talks about his life as an actor, director and his family! Biographies and Memoirs

This book was a surprisingly speedy read.

I'm 40% through Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution by Simon Schama about slavery and the American Revolution. It's the first time I've rooted for the Loyalists! It's really interesting stuff but a little slow.

I'm reading Fast Into the Night.

Currently listening to Happy Brain by Dean Burnett which is funny, interesting and clearly written as Idiot Brain. Listening to them back to back reveals repetitions that wouldn't have been obvious if I hadn't.

Other recent audio books -
Pronoun Trouble by John McWhorter
Food for Thought by Alton Brown

Both of which I can thoroughly recommend. I'm a bit of a McWhorter fan girl so any of his books is a special treat and I was surprised how fun Brown's book was and how much of our nerdliness intersects. Both read by the authors which with those two, is fantastic.

I'm reading And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence by Pamela Cross, a Canadian lawyer.

I finished reading Aurelian and Probus by Dr. Ilkka Syvanne. It was interesting to read through, since my knowledge of these two emperors was more limited compared to more well-known ones like Augustus and Constantine the Great. It's written in a more academic style. There's several instances where the author is upfront about the lack of evidence for certain events and providing his speculation about what likely happened.
I'm currently reading through Mercator by Nicholas Crane. I'm still early in the book, but it seems like an interesting read so far.

I'm reading Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang

>51 LynnB: That does look interesting. We rarely see anything about life in modern China.

I highly recommend The Serviceberry which is a long essay published last year in book form.

My review of How to Make and Use Talismans turned out to be mostly an incomplete stab at an edition history.

I've finished Old Truths and New Cliches: Essays by Isaac Bashevis Singer, edited by David Stromberg. I picked up this collection of Isaac B. Singer's essays, published in 2022, as an adjunct to my current project of reading through all of Singer's novels in order of their publication in English at a rate of two novels per year, and also because I was very interested in seeing what Singer had to say about writing, literature and religion, the topics these essays generally cover. What we learn in the collection's first section is that Singer, when it came to literature, was mostly a traditionalist. Published in English in the 1960s & 70s, Singer calls on writers of fiction to focus on plot and character, scorning avant garde, self-referential writing of the "new school" of authors. He's quite erudite in these opinions, of course, but a modern reader may begin to feel Singer overly prescriptive in his opinions and demands. It is when the subject matter of the essays opens up into Singer's writings about the role that religious faith--his ideas of Judaism, the Yiddish tradition, God and mysticism in particular--plays in his writing, and in writing and the creative process in general, that the essays became, for me, quite beautiful and fascinating. This is where the real power of the collection lies.

My longer review, heavily burdened with quotes, I'm afraid, can be found on my Club Read thread.

I just finished the audio of The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution by John Oller.

Very informative. I admit I really didn't know much about the Southern campaign of the American Revolution. Most books focus on George Washington and end the war at the battle of Yorktown. But there was a lot going on in North and South Carolina. I also didn't have a lot of respect for the militia, but reading about what Francis Marion was able to do with his men is changing my mind.

>56 cmbohn: Growing up, I watched Walt Disney's tv series about Francis Marion. Apparently, that was based on an earlier book that was published in 1959. Thanks for posting about this relatively newer book.

>57 vwinsloe: You're welcome! They talk about that show some, but I never saw it. This one was good, but I think the paper copy would be just as good. I don't feel like the audio version added a lot to the experience.