October 2010

I'm a couple of chapters into The Disappearing Spoon, which is proving a mild disappointment; I'm mostly skimming, rather than becoming engaged.

I'm reading Relativity: the Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein. It is probably sacrilege to say this, but other people can explain Einstein's theories better than Einstein could.

Just finished the excellent Bookmakers (no touchstone and I haven't added it to my library yet) which was a history of publishing in the UK in the 20th century. Well researched and very readable.

Not sure what NF I will read this month, I seem to be on a bittersweet animal stories - kick.

I'm about halfway through The Stories of English by linguist David Crystal.

Currently reading The Reason Driven Life . Its very interesting coming from a former minister .

I ended up reading Dewey by Vicki Myron yesterday. Liked the parts about the cat, don't think much of the people.

Finished All the News Is Fit to Print. A pretty dry read. Just started The Compact History of the American Newspaper

I read "Dewey" myself not long ago - okay, but not great, now I can say I've read it.

In preparation for a flight (and the attendant fears and stomach-butterflies that accompany me on such flights), I'm starting on David Ropeik's How Risky Is It, Really? : Why Our Fears Don't Always Match the Facts.

I just read The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant. #7 FicusFan , You might like this one. Reminds me of Man eaters of India I read as a kid, except Vaillant did a lot of historical research and interviews for his book. A Siberian tiger hunts down someone who shot him story is told while all the environment and history is put in perspective.

Very interesting and educational.

I am reading Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay, a book about the history of how dyes and paints are/where made.

That one's on my TBR pile, Zozette - looks promising!

#12 I read that one last year and found it quite interesting. Hope you enjoy it, too.

> 11 DugsBooks,

Thanks for the recommendation.

I actually have the book on my wishlist (imaginaryFicus account). I am waiting for it to go into paper.

Glad it was good and you enjoyed it.

Last night I finished Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage by Joseph Persico. There was a lot to like about the book, and I learned quite a bit. The long passages about the competition and distrust between the different American intelligence agencies, while essential to the work, dragged at times, and there was some sloppy editing that distracted me (quotes and anecdotes repeated, each time presented as if it were the first time). Overall, though, worth reading if the topic is of interest to you.

India: A History is very impressive for its readable history giving equal time across the ages and regions of India. While it seemed a little heavy on battles and rulers, it still gave a good sense of India's culture, religions, and art. I found the book an excellent even-handed history, a topic of which I was ignorant.

The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder and The Birth of the American Mafia by Mike Dash
This book is, on one hand, a biography of Giuseppe Morello, the first boss of bosses, and on the other, the first book to trace the origins of the 'Mafia' in America. Casting aside long-established myths, Dash's extensive endnotes detailing the exhaustive research he's conducted into primary resources should make this the definitive history on the subject for some time to come. Highly recommended.

Mike Dash is also the author of the superlative Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny. Having grown up on the coast off which the Batavia was sunk, I've read many of the books on the topic, and alongside Islands of Angry Ghosts: Murder, Mayhem and Mutiny: The Story of the Batavia by Hugh Edwards, this stands as one of my favourites.

I just finished Hamburger Hill a very good book about a ten day battle in the Vietnam war. The author fought in Vietnam and told the story of the battle in the words of the Americans who fought there based upon his extensive interviews of the survivors.

Now I am listening to an audiobook edition of Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. It is a volume in the Oxford History of the United States.

I'm reading Bottled and Sold which is basically about how bottled water is sold to consumers, and the effects thereof.

I finished The Disappearing Spoon earlier today -- a bit too scientific for me, although the author does his best to make it as general-interest as possible.

Reading John Lanchester's Whoops! Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay. It's a financial education for the rest of us. I highly recommend it.

I'm also reading Patrick Lane's There is a Season --that's his lyrical memoir about his garden...and about his recovery from serious drug and alchohol addiction. Lane is a very good Canadian poet, and so the writing is beautiful even as it tears at your heart.

I just started Generals in Bronze:Interviewing the Commanders of the Civil War by William Styple. No interviews yet, only Kelly's memoirs. Interesting, but not what I was expecting.

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

I just finished The Planets and have now started The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.

Thanks, everyone, for excellent suggestions. I'm currently reading One Square Inch Of Silence: One Man's Search For Natural Silence In A Noisy World by Gordon Hempton.

I'm about halfway through The Promise: President Obama, Year One by Jonathan Alter - it's not bad, but the first part (about 25%) ends with the Inauguration, which is where I thought the book would start; Alter's audio narration takes some getting used to. Lots of detail on policy and players, so hard to say it's "general interest" (a bit political junkie-ish).

Found a copy of FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW (0-449-22536-4) at www.bookthing.org for free, added it to Bookmooch and found that someone had it on their Wishlist. Now I'll have to read it first. It's about an American veterinarian much like 'James Herriot'.

Just picked up Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens from the library. Looking forward to this one.

I just started Presimetrics: What the Facts Tell us About How the Presidents Measure Up On the Issues We Care About by Mike Kimel It's new, and compares (mostly) from Ike to GW. My eyes glaze over at discussions of economics but after only one chapter I am now comfortable with the concept of real GDP, among other things. Some of the book is available at Amazon for those interested in checking it out. Regardless of how my party came out, I really wanted to know the best ways to judge, and Kimel provides the information in format after format, taking into account various arguments for why individual Presidents might or might not have performed (the last guy left me a mess, I had no luck, the other party was in control, the war made - or broke - the economy, etc.). It's pretty interesting. One particular comparison I've found to be striking so far: while Democratic presidents have a MUCH better track record than Republicans in pretty much every permutation, Congressional control had almost none - except in those years when control was shared, during which the economy deteriorated.

I'm also reading The Island at the Center of the World (a history of Dutch Manhattan) by Russell Shorto.

I have three nonfiction books going right now - Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould, The Brontës: A life in letters edited by Juliet Barker, and Stefan Zweig's biography of Marie Antoinette. He's quite the Freudian, so far - did you know that one of the major causes of the French Revolution was Louis XVI's inability to get it up for 7 years? Neither did I.

^^^I vaguely remember reading that he had to have an operation to cure his impotence. Am I correct?

Yes, apparently he waffled about it for a couple years, and then one of the Hapsburgs came and told him to get it, now. And then everything was fine.

Finished reading both Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life and Robert Price's "rebuttal" Reason Driven Life . Both books start off making some valid points in their efforts . But about halfway or the last third is where both authors started losing me . Both became slightly extreme and kept contradicting themselves . If you're a "middle of the road" average-thinking person , then neither book will win you over to their "side" . I found myself equally annoyed by the end of both books .

Finished reading Crossing the Yard today. It is the heart wrenching story of one man's experience teaching creative writing in the Arizona prisons over the course of 30+ years. The stories of various individuals and situations all serve to support the book's inditement of the American prison system as completely untenable and counter-productive. Excellent.

I'm about a quarter of the way through Passing for Normal, story of the author's life with Tourette's Syndrome - so interesting I don't want to go back to reading it as that's all the less left.

I'm reading and enjoying Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.

>38 rocketjk:, Packing for Mars was great fun and so gross in places! I love Mary Roach.

I just finished A World Without Islam for Early Reviewers. Perhaps I am not the target audience for this book, but I found it dry, obvious, and utterly lacking in new or interesting insights. Fuller advances the not-so-shocking premise that people throughout history would have found opportunities to demonize each other and war against each other even without the existence of Islam. He sweeps through the history of events that are traditionally thought of as clashes between Islam and Christianity and points out non-theological motives for these events; in essence the book amounts to a continued repetition of the idea that most conflicts are rooted in squabbles over temporal power and resource issues rather than in debates over religious doctrine. This is an important idea, but not one with which I was unfamiliar, so Fuller's book was not that enjoyable for me.

Struggling with The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson. There are some interesting bits of social and political history in here, and some larger than-life-historical figures, but I'm wondering if this is just a series of sketches or if there is a larger narrative that the author is building toward.

Thanks, Fanny, Fuller's book is no longer on my TBR pile.

I am almost finished with The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation, by Mark Kurlansky. I have been quite disappointed in it. I was hoping for better writing and more info on what makes the culture unique, not just a political history.

#41> I mostly felt the same way about the Basque history, especially the later stages of the book.

Yeah, me too. Kurlansky became something of an apologist for Eta, IMHO, and I had a hard time with his approach.

Yep, I agree with both of you completely.

#41,42,43: I was hoping for better in Kurlansky, don't think I'll be reading it now.

Not sure yet how I feel about my NF pick for this month Killing for Coal by Thomas G. Andrews, although the topic itself is very interesting.

#45> Well, to be fair, I thought the Kurlansky Basque book was worth reading, particularly the first half including the earlier history. The downfall was the more modern reporting, wherein Kurlansky seemed to consider the ETA to be, basically, the only part of the Basque experience worth relating. He does give a decent description of the ETA, I thought, but I wanted much more balance.

I generally agree with you, rocketj, but I am still bummed he didn't put in more about the Basque culture--recipes and poetry excerpts aside. I particularly enjoyed his short blurb on the Basque language.

I just finished Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President. I am now reading The Sense of Reality a book of essays by Isaiah Berlin, one of my favorite authors. The narrator on the audiobook edition of Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 was not very good and I am taking a break from the book.

Baghdad Without a Map which I just finished reading offers a picture of the Mid-East in the late 1980's. While describing his travels he provides insight on the contradictions and dilemmas of the ordinary people he runs across. He writes with humor, respect, and compassion. Thank goodness he did so since I nor few others could travel fearlessly enough to have the experiences he did.

I just started Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester. I just finished Nella Last's Peace which I highly recommend to anyone interested in life at home in Britain following WWII.

I just started Eaarth. Pretty bleak.

Finished "We Two: Victoria & Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals" by Gillian Gill...Facinating 'behind the curtain' look at Royalty/Nobility in Victorian England/Europe.

Started/currently reading: "The Case For God" by Karen Armstrong.

Just started: "The Professor and the Madman: A Tail of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary" by Simon Winchester

Currently reading Murder One by Dorothy Kilgallen. It's her last book, published shortly after her death, covering 6 murder cases that she worked as a reporter. As a Hearst "Sob Sister", you can imagine, she was very opinionated.

I've finished and reviewed Mood Matters: From Rising Skirt Lengths to the Collapse of World Powers, an Early Reviewers book, in my thread...post #150.

Not for a general audience. Fascinating thesis, that mood creates events not events creating moods, but just dry enough to put off the Cod: Biography of a Fish crowd. More the Longitude reader's speed.

I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love if autobiography is counting as non-fic, but I'm not that impressed and I'm near the end!

I just finished The Footnote: A Curious History, which was reasonably interesting if a bit dry. I'm a bit miffed I returned a bookmark with it.

I'm about to start reading The First American

Lyzzy (55):

I consider memoir like that an autonomous subset of "nonfiction" myself.

I have begun Letters from Joseph Conrad 1895-1924 edited by Edward Garnett. I'm a huge Conrad fan and looking forward to digging into these letters to Garnett, who was the publisher's reader who first recommended Almayer's Folly be published.

I'm reading Marie Antoinette, been meaning to pick it up for awhile now - coincidentally I've rediscovered it just as university exams are around the corner! Hoping to read The Three Emperors or The Idea of Justice next.

Last night I started Coddington's The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command. I have a week between classes, so I'm going to try and finish it by Sunday, wish me luck.

I have started to read Bad Ground: Inside the Beaconsfield Mine Rescue by Tony Wright.

I decided to buy this book after reading some very negative comments made on the website of my local newspaper during the Chilean Mine Rescue. The two Beaconsfield Miners were part of the commentary team during the last few hours of the Chilean rescue. People's comments went along these lines

"What the Beaconsfield Miners went through can't be compared to what the Chilean Miners went though as the Beaconsfield miners were only trapped for 2 weeks and the Chilean miners were trapped for 2 months" - these comments overlooked the fact the the BMers were trapped in a small cage (and both were injured) whereas the CMers had 3 kilometers of tunnels.

Three books to round out October...

God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer by Bart D. Ehrman
- A very personal book for Ehrman as it was the question of why we suffer that eventually forced him, kicking and screaming, from Christianity to agnosticism. In this book Ehrman reviews how the question of suffering was tackled within the bible - punishment for sin, suffering as a redemptive process, test of God, etc... - and rejects each in turn. The book suffers from Ehrman's usual repetitiveness, but is an excellent overview on the topic.

Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky
- I am not Jewish, I can not speak or read Yiddish, and nor can I recall ever having knowingly talked with a Jewish person, yet this has been one of my favourite reads this year. With modesty, humour, and passion, Aaron Lansky movingly recalls his (and his team's) efforts and "adventures" in rescuing over one million Yiddish books sinch 1980, and the creation of the National Yiddish Book Center. To get a real feel for the language and the characters, find the superbly narrated audiobook version by George Guidall.

Whose Bible Is It? A Short History of the Scriptures by Jaroslav Pelikan
- Forgive me, but the product description is so good, I'm just going to cut and paste... "Jaroslav Pelikan, widely regarded as one of the most distinguished historians of our day, now provides a clear and engaging account of the Bible's journey from oral narrative to Hebrew and Greek text to today's countless editions. Pelikan explores the evolution of the Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic versions and the development of the printing press and its effect on the Reformation, the translation into modern languages, and varying schools of critical scholarship. Whose Bible Is It? is a triumph of scholarship that is also a pleasure to read."

I read You Better Not Cry by Augusten Burroughs. A memoir about his Christmas experiences as a child and an adult. Group of short stories.

Now reading Life by Keith Richards. I got the Kindle version.