December 2008: What non-fiction are you reading?

I finished, despite my November doubts, Anne Applebaum's Gulag last night and resumed Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris. I can recommend Applebaum's book.

Robert

I finished The Physics of Star Trek and and moved right into Life Signs: The Biology of Star Trek. Queuing up all those old episodes of DS9 on Netflix must be affecting my reading choices.

Speak, Memory, the Vladimir Nabokov autobiography. It's so beautifully written it is hard to believe it isn't fiction.

A Piece of My Heart, the Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam, which I should finish this weekend, and 11 Days in December:Christmas at the Bulge, 1944, which is short and hopefully won't take me long because it's not exactly sparking my interest.

Lsat week I finished The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinniss and now I'm halfway through All Too Human by George Stephanopoulos, which I'm really enjoying.

I'm reading Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: the deception behind indigenous cultural preservation by Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard.

#3 jfetting: I just read The Real Life of Sebastian Knight by Nabokov last week and it will make my list of top books of the year. Speak, Memory is the next of his books that I will be reading. Glad to see that it is worth the time.

I'm on Plain Tales of the Raj which is brilliant - it's a collection of first-hand accounts of growing up British in pre-Independence India. Proper social history and it's fascinating!

I have Britain From Above and Andrew Marr's A History of Britain coming up but I think they will be Christmas holiday reads!

Currently reading Patriotic Gore by Edmund Wilson. I can see why it made the Modern Library's top 100 nonfiction books.

Hi everyone - just joined and happy to be here.

I'm reading A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman. I've been on a 14th - 15th century tear lately and am enjoying it so far.

welcome, soubrette. I like just about anything Barbara Tuchman writes. Enjoy.

#8 LyzzyBee, I have Andrew Marr's My Trade and must finish it. I really enjoyed what I started but it was a couple of years ago and I can't remember why I put it down! (probably something to do with real life getting in the way of books). You'll have to post what you think of A History of Britain when you get to it.

#10 hi soubrette! This group is great but has been shocking for increasing my bookbuying...

I'm currently reading British Baseball and the West Ham Club, an account of the history of the several attempts to get professional baseball leagues started in England. I'm about a quarter through and so far I'm finding it quite interesting.

I am closing in on the end of The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang and starting Mad Minutes and Vietnam Months by Mark Clodfelter.

Now reading Unintended Consequences How war in Iraq strengthened America's enemies by Peter W. Galbraith Enjoy it so far and is very informative.

Just finished War Journal My five years in Iraq by Richard Engel. {2008}, I thought it was great! Very insightful perspective it seem to me. Anyone recommend other books by him?

I am reading books on Iraqi from the library that were difficult to get when they first came out- & yep reading mainly as a liberal bias I guess. Any other books on recent events in Iraqi that are informative/interesting?

Last night I read Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as part of my Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values project. I have the book itself to read now and Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to pull it together, but I'm in no rush.

Robert

I'm reading The Second World by Parag Khanna which is a very ambitious book for one his age. A snapshot of the current geopolitical world and the three empires that are simultaneously shaping the planet into zones of- Americanized, Europeanized, and Sinicized. Interesting as hell.

I just finished and highly recommend Gideon's Trumpet. The book follows Charles Gideon's 1962 Supreme Court appeal of his Florida criminal conviction. Gideon, too poor to afford a lawyer, asked the court to appoint one for him. His request was denied. At that time state criminal courts were not required to appoint lawyers for indigent defendants. The book is a fascinating case study of how the court operates.

Just starting This is your brain on music. Like it so far.

My last book finished was The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale which I liked very much -- officially my current reading is now fiction but I've got two on my desk that keep calling: The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel and The Unredeemed Captive, which is particularly interesting since I grew up right where the story takes place.

I'm reading a history of the old Ottawa Senators hockey team called Win, Tie or Wrangle by Paul Kitchen.

The Baltics by Alan Palmer is number one on the list, but I am still working on Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour.

Recently finished Technoromanticism by Richard Coyne and now getting into Hand's End by David Rothenberg.

#18
Burgett7 I read This is Your Brain on Music a couple of months ago and learned a slew of things. It was fascinating. Makes me think of my brain and music in new ways.

The Argumentative Indian, since I finished and adored Heat: An Amateur's Adventures.

Last night I dipped into Making Sense of Japanese by Jay Rubin and The Nonlinear Universe: Chaos, Emergence, Life by Alwyn C. Scott. I will almost certainly keep picking away at them, but I think I have to find something that I can settle into for a few hours at a time.

Robert

Still on a US politics binge. Am about to start The best year of their lives: Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon 1948 by Lance Morrow. First page looks good!

#21 dlweeks: I love Education of a Wandering Man. It is one of my annual re-reads.

Next up for me is How Starbucks Changed My Life.

I'm about half-way through Dr. Johnson's Dictionary by Henry Hitchings. It is really quite fascinating!

I am reading THE POWER OF PLACE by Harm De Blij. It explores the fact that our lives and even our fate is, to a large extent, determined not just by Who we are or What we are but by WHERE we are in the world. He addresses major factors such as language, religion, health, risk, international barriers, opportunity, core & periphery and combating corruption and tyranny. I'm still on the first chapter, but this appears that it will be quite enlightening relative to the new 'Flat Earth' concept. "Geography continues to hold billions of people in an unrelenting grip" H. De B.

Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators

Why We Eat What We Eat - food anthropology

Since my last post, I have got a way into Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a way into Fundamentals of American Law both of which merit my attention. But I have a new bag of books and have no idea what I'll read later on tonight.

Robert

I'm listening to Eat, Pray, Love on CD audio. It's cute, but so far it does not seem as special as I thought it would be.

I am currently trying to finish The Fate of the Romanovs which I have been reading off and on for a while now. It is very good, but lengthy.

I just recently started The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace. Not too far into it yet, but from what I recall reading about the story back in the 80s, it doesn't have much of a happy ending. At least not for the individual that bought the wine bottle.

I started Why We Eat What We Eat on Sunday, but my ER book, The Pluto Files, just arrived, so the food book moves to the back burner.

I'm currently reading We Hold the Rock, a short history of the Indian occupation of Alcatraz from 1969 to 1971. It's a short primer on a very interesting topic. I knew of this event, but I didn't really know much about it.

Started Survival in Auschwitz this morning.

Started Dizzy and Jimmy this morning. It's written by the actress who went on to play Seinfeld's mom on the sitcom.

I began How to Read Literature Like a Professor yesterday morning. So far it is pretty entertaining and enlightening.

fleela, an anthropology of food and food habits sounds interesting, although the touchstone links to a Peter Singer book that doesn't quite seem to match up. (?) Are you referring to the Singer book, or to Why We Eat What We Eat: How Columbus Changed the Way the World Eats by Raymond Sokolov?

I'm finishing up Against Us: the New Face of America's Enemies in the Muslim World, by ABC News foreign correspondent Jim Sciutto. Fascinating so far. DugsBooks, there is material, including an entire chapter, on the Iraq issue, which may be of interest to you given the books you mentioned in #15.

Have just taken down from my "To Read" mound (it has only been there for a day) and am about to open.... Renaissance Music by Allan W. Atlas.

I started The Summer of 1787 yesterday.

I am currently reading The Flowering of New England by Van Wyck Brooks.

About half-way through Haunted U.S. Battlefields, which is having touchstone issues.

#45, must be the ghosts!

It's December 19, so I've decided it was time to take Santa Claus: A Biography by Gerry Bowler off the TBR shelves.

I'm reading Outliers. I'm burning through it; very entertaining.

I am reading 'A BRIEF HISTORY OF HISTORY: Great Historians and the Epic Quest to Explain the Past' by Colin Wells. 'History is the turf on which we fight our culture wars. Given its humble origins as a minor literary genre in ancient Greece, the study of history stands today as perhaps the most successful monument to the global spread of Western civilization, rivaling even science in its ubiquity.' This is not a dry review and analysis of the history of historians, but rather a intriguing story of how the study of history reveals a direct relationship to the paradigms of each succeeding age, along with the depths to which the need for a comforting Certainty, and Inspiration, hampers our ability to see what we are really doing, and WHY. Recommended.

A Long Way Gone
Reading Lolita In Tehran

I've just started Waiter Rant by The Waiter which is eye opening and pretty good so far!

I just finished Reading Lolita in Tehran which I thought was excellent. Before that, I also read I'm Looking Through You which is an excellent book about finding one's identity that is set against the back drop of a haunted house. If anyone wants to discuss either, I would love to hear what other people are thinking

Reading Lolita in Tehran is next on my list -- glad to see another positive comment on it. Plan to start it after I finish Banana: Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.

I just finished A Handful of Honey which made me want to go to Tunisia right NOW! (even though it's not about Tunisia!

I am switching between Shtetl and Bound for the Promised Land at the moment.

I finished Dr. Johnson's Dictionary and staying with the lexicography theme have moved onto Crystal's linguistic travelogue, By Hook or by crook.

Read Reading Lolita in Teheran two years ago. Was utterly unconvinced by all those Iranian girls under the spell of Humbert Humbert. Thought it trite propaganda.

57 thank you! I was so looking forward to reading it then found it so turgid I didn't get past about p. 40!

#57 & 58

Why were you unconvinced? I'm just curious; was the the text of Lolita itself that you had problems with, the way the author wrote about it, or the Iranian girls themselves and their reactions? As I said before, I'm currently reading the book, and I'd be interested to hear your issues with it.

Because I don't think Iranian girls are that stupid.
1. I think the author wrote about Iranian girls as she thought American neocons would like to have them.
2. I also think that with this book the author made herself a stakeholder in a certain radical solution of her problem with the present Iranian regime, a solution I am very afraid of. Look what happens to the people of Iraq.

Sorry for the brisk voice in 60, I was very tired last night and should not write posts at such moments.
Fact is that I read the book some time ago and remember my disappointment with it better and fresher than the book itself.
After I finished it I looked for the author on the internet, found out that she was a voice for the “strike Iran movement” in America and got very angry with myself that I hadn’t looked her up before I started reading. Could have saved the time.
The lesson I learned: never buy a bestseller before a little browsing around.
Saved some time and money since.
So after all: positive.

Just started In Plato's Cave, an academic's journay through the hallowed halls after WWII. Very good thus far.

I'm reading Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain and by golly if I get it finished by Dec 31 it will be my Best Book of 2008!

Last night I read a big part of The Earth After Us. So far it has disappointed, but I will give it to the end to live up to its promise.

Robert

I'm reading Flat, Hot and Crowded. We humans have some real challenges ahead of us.

Started The Island at the Center of the World yesterday. (My first Kindle book) So far it promises to be a very interesting book about Dutch Manhattan with the premise that many of the American attitudes of tolerance and freedom came from there.

# 29

I have just started reading Harm de Blij's Why Geography Matters and read pretty well. I just got Malcom Gladwell's Outliers: the story of success. An older book I checked out of the library is Cultural Regions of the United States (1975) by Raymond D. Gastil. This latter book does not appear to be in LT: so I will probably add into my catalog as a library book.

I read Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt during my holiday traveling. It was okay overall, but I did learn about some connections between ancient Egyptian religion and the Abrahamic religions which I didn't know about before.

I have taken a glance at my December reading and have noticed I seem to be focusing on climate change. I have finished How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by Joanna Yarrow which I found to be completely lacking in substance and An Appeal to Reason by Nigel Lawson that I found very interesting and compelling.

A friend has asked me to read Smelling Land by David Sanborn Scott. I am only partway through this examination of hydrogen as an alternative energy source and have left the book at work so I won't be getting back to it until Monday.

#51 - bronwenanne, I have Waiter Rant in my TBR pile for this month. I am looking forward to diving into that book!

Currently reading Kabul in Winter, very good! Wish I'd read it when it first came out, but better late than never.

I'm one chapter into The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd and so far am enjoying it immensely. I hope it stays as good as I get further in.

I started The Battle for Christmas by Nissenbaum several weeks ago. So far it is interesting, but it is slow moving. I hope it picks up soon.

I'm reading Real food : what to eat and why by Nina Planck. It's good and full of information, but I like the writing style of other food authors I've read this year better (thinking especially of Michael Pollen and Barbara Kingsolver).

My non-fiction for this month:

Pardon My French by Charles Timoney -- memoir of his (expat) life in France in the form of a language guide.

Free for All by Don Borchert -- memoir of his life working in a public library.

Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day by Philip Matyszak -- overview of daily life. I liked the Roman version slightly better.

Smile When You're Lying by Chuck Thompson -- highlights of his life's travels (or low points, if you're not thrilled with drugs and ugly language).

Quiet, Please by Scott Douglas -- life as a librarian from a different perspective than Borchert's.

"Dancing with the Dead" by Helena Drysdale -- author's travels through Zanzibar and Madagascar -- much better than I thought at first.

A Little Fruitcake (pun) and Homo Domesticus by David Valdes Greenwood -- both well-written, but the former makes for a better memoir.

Ghost in the Mirror by Leslie Rule -- stories of haunted places, her fourth(?) I believe.

The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs -- a bit dilletante-ish, but funny.

House Rules by Rachel Sontag -- memoir of life with dysfuntional parents, rigidly inflexible father who played head games, and Stockholm Syndrome mother.

I seem to have refocused on Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Fundamentals of American Law. I will probably finish the former promptly then move quickly into the subject book itself; I also have Lila to read to round out that project. The law book will probably go a chapter or two a night with other books filling the rest of the evening.

Robert

#74 - I read Planck's book earlier this year . I remember thinking her tone was somewhat arrogant .

I'm reading:

The Unauthorized Guide to Choosing a Church by Carmen Renee Berry - It gave me the information I was looking for in pretty simple terms.

The Presidential Book of Lists: From Most to Least, Elected to Rejected, Worst to Cursed-Fascinating Facts About Our Chief Executives by Ian Randal Strock - This was okay, some interesting facts.

Little Chapel on the River, a wonderful story about real people in a small town and of learning what is really important in live.

The monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, about a serial killer who killed 14 people between 1968 and 1985. Not exactly Christmas literature, but worth it.

--> 77

Interesting you should make that remark about Planck's book.

A friend of mine read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver with her book club. She said that the book club members thought Kingsolver's book kind of "preachy". It didn't strike me that way, but I followed Kingoslver's book all through my CSA (community supported agriculture) year, and found reading it that way particularly fun.

Tyrants by David Wallechinsky Short biographies of twenty dictators. Has a lot of quircky fact about some of the world's major oddballs.

Listening to A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World by Simon Schama.

I am reading Traitor to His Class by H. W. Brands. I like it a lot - about one third of the way through. I do wonder how much the tone of the book has been shaped by the current political and economic enviroment.

Don't Look Round by Violet Trefusis A somewhat skewed postive Autobiography of the Daughter of Alice Keppel ( King Edward the VII's Lover) and who had an affair with Vita Sackville West 1918 -1920

Reading and enjoying the new biography of Chagall entitled, unsurprisingly, Chagall: A Biography by Jackie Wullschlager. The descriptions of life in late 19th century Vitebsk are vivid. I'm only a third way in.

I just started The End of Faith and I am enjoying it so far.

I finished A Distant Mirror and read The Polysyllabic Spree, and snuck in a book by Dean Koonz (boooring) and Running Blind by Lee child.

Next up: The Great Improvisation, since I bought it for my brother for Christmas but haven't read it yet.

Does The Mahabharata count as speculative non-fiction? I'm reading the first book of it.

Robert

(Just think, giant birds used to live on earth dropping tree trunks on remote mountains.)

I am currently engrossed in Amish Grace and then next up will be The Wolves at the Door.

The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way - Bill Bryson

(touchstones not working at the moment)

A goldmine of information about the words we use - and those we don't - as well as where they may or may not have originated. Unfortunately, reading this has resulted in my getting sidetracked even further, as I'm now motivated to delve more deeply into dictionaries - something I should have been doing all along, of course. Last night I dusted off my exceptionally weighty Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, the exploration of which sent me rummaging through drawers, searching for my magnifying lens.

I read an auto-biography Ronnie by Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones, earlier this month. I enjoyed it.

Now reading Justinian's Flea by William Rosen
Not too happy. Its not badly written and it is interesting, but at 129 pages has yet to touch on the topic of the Black Plague in 542 AD.

The book is only 324 pages, and the plague doesn't make an entrance until page 169 ! I looked ahead. Until then he is writing a short history of the Imperial portion of the Roman Empire, a history of the barbarians' migrations, a history of Justinian, a history of Hagia Sophia, and just now a history of Roman Law.

His premise is that the plague killed off the sickly Roman Empire, and birthed Medieval Europe. Unfortunately the book I have talks about the plague on the cover (Justinian's Flea: The first Great Plague and the end of the Roman Empire), which interests me more than the birth of Europe.

I feel this is a bait and switch. Perhaps he was only using the 'Plague' for something exciting to get people to buy the book, or there wasn't enough material just about the plague, or he got carried away with providing context, who knows ?

In any case I am not a happy reader in terms of this book.

>92 FicusFan:
Yikes! Justinian's Flea is in my TBR pile. Perhaps it's good that I didn't have to pay for it.

#91, you may also be interested in how the OED came to be written, and there are two good books about that: The Professor and the Madman and The Meaning of Everything, both by Simon Winchester.

I just finished The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman. My wife watches the movie monthly, and since we are visiting Warsaw in a few weeks, this seemed a good time to read his story. Will visit his grave, and a few places he would have hidden (though all the original buildings are long since gone) Luckily my Polish friend knows the area so well.

What a special trip you have planned, DatukLamak. The Pianist was a most amazing story and one I was honored to have also read. Have a good trip.

Well; I'm not planning much of it, really, as I am on a speaking tour. My Polish sponsors are making all "hard" arrangements. I do want badly to visit Szpilman's "haunts" and surprise my wife with an "in fresco" Chopin concert in the park near our host's flat. Shhhh...It's a surprise, as my wife loves Chopin, and was a pianist herself before she went blind.
Yes: I read to her every night, and The Pianist means a lot to us for another reason: her father was a POW in the War not too far away from where we are going.

Well, I'm afraid I must confess to The Guinness Top 40 Charts, which is endlessly fascinating to a charts obsessive like me.