• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Current Non-Fiction reads

Meep said:
I'm in the middle of reading "Gulag"
Click to expand...

This is in my TBR pile... let me know more of what you think when you are done. I need some motivation to pick it up.
 
I've just started "Winds of Freedom" by Margaret T. Bixler. The story of the Navajo code talkers of World War II.


RaVeN
 
Finished The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough this past summer. An absolutely fascinating read.

It chronicles the history of building the Panama Canal (1870 - 1914) - from the debacle of the original French attempts to the eventual opening in 1914 by the U.S. I found the political machinations of Teddy Roosevelt and how the U.S. "helped Panama gain independence" from Colombia in order to achieve control of the canal as interesting as the technical aspects of building it.

ell
 
Ell,
I am happy to hear that you liked The Path Between the Seas. The image of Phillipe Bunau-Varilla(?) gliding along in his canoe looking at treetops black with tarantulas has always stuck with me. If you haven't yet, I urge you to read McCullough's The Great Bridge.
 
funes, I will add it to my TBR list.

Have you read McCullough's Truman? I've heard it's also very good.
 
Am now reading Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary by Dmitri Volkogonov. Finished Russka: A Novel of Russia by Edward Rutherford - and even though the author covers a vast expanse of time, there were sufficient links between characters to hold my interest - really enjoyed this book.
 
I am finishing up Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country. Next up, after a fiction book is Blood From a Stone : The Quest for the Life Diamonds by Yaron Svoray and Richard Hammer.
 
Ell said:
funes, I will add it to my TBR list.

Have you read McCullough's Truman? I've heard it's also very good.
Click to expand...
No. I haven't read Truman but I am sure that it will be up to his usual standard. Ive read his The Great Bridge, Path Between the Seas, Brave Companions, and The Johnstown Flood. All were remarkable, but the bridge book is best.
 
I'm currently reading Francis Wheen's How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World and Richard Sennett's Respect. Both books I've only recently started, about 50pp thru so far. However, Wheen clearly is going for the new age ranters and the business gurus, such as Deepak Chopra, Tom Peters, John Gray (the mars/venus author, not to be confused with the straw dogs writer), Jean Houston, Robbins etc. Some of the nonsense he quotes from them sounds rather funny.

Sennett's book is quite autobiographical. I've been wanting to read something by Sennett for a while now. He discusses the housing projects around Chicago and Detroit in the 40's and how they failed to deliver the kind of environment that was needed. He focusses on Cabrini Green where he lived as a child. Its interesting stuff and I'm looking forward to finishing it. I've recently started to get interested in the history of cities. I bought Mumford's classic The Culture of Cities and Asa Briggs' Victorian Cities, both at second-hand book stalls on the weekend. I also bought Peter Hall's Cities in Civilization recently, so have some good books to compare. Mind you, will take a while to read these!

Skycat
 
I read "Truman" and really enjoyed the book. Right now, I just finished struggling through Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I was always curious about the book. Never read it in school.
 
Finally getting around to Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Last one to read it in my household.

Fascinating read, so far (I'll never look at the 'Golden Arches' in quite the same way again). :rolleyes:

ell
 
I have just begun reading Alive by Piers Paul Read. It is the true account of an airplane crash and of how a group of young Uruguayan survivors emerged from the Andes after seventy days. I saw the movie when it was released in theaters, about 12 years ago.
 
A couple of non-fiction books I got for Christmas:

Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
I'm chuckling and giggling my way through this very entertaining, yet informative book. I finally found the background behind my use of commas for lists - which I learned in elementary school - and realize I'm not wrong, just old-fashioned.

50 facts that should change the world by Jessica Williams
Facts that will give you a better perspective of what's going on in the world. Williams doesn't just give us a list. She also provides thoughtful commentary about issues we'd sometimes rather ignore.
- e.g. A third of the world is at war; Some 30 million people in Africa are HIV-positive; and 81% of the world's executions in 2002 took place in 3 countries - China, Iran and the USA.
 
For all the women out there.. (some males too, perhaps) a fasinating power book by Clarissa Pinkola Estes 'Women Who Run With The Wolves' combines Jung psychology with the mystery and myths of the Wild Woman in us all !!!! I've only got as far as 'The Dark Man in Women's Dreams' but I'd recommend it. Good hunting... and be strong ladies....
 
Keep meaning to get hold of Eats, Shoots and Leaves; Waterstones always has it on 3-for-2 but as usual I am discouraged by my unusual aversion to hardbacks :D Hopefully it will come out in paperback at some point.

Phil
 
my hubby bought me "The Most Evil Women in History" by Shelley Klein for Christmas. He told me I would be in the next edition. HAHA. Anyway, I just started it and it's pretty interesting. I'd heard of most of the women in the book, but I didn't know any details. He also bought me "The Most Evil Men and Women in History" but I already had that one and read it. It was also quite good.
 
phil_t said:
Keep meaning to get hold of Eats, Shoots and Leaves; Waterstones always has it on 3-for-2 but as usual I am discouraged by my unusual aversion to hardbacks :D Hopefully it will come out in paperback at some point.
Click to expand...
phil, get it! It's just a little book - no bigger than a paperback, really. :)

Think of it as an investment for those times when you just HAVE to prove yourself right; as in, "See, page 57! You can say Keats' poems or Keats's poems. I told you so!" There's nothing like authoritative proof to make a point. :D
 
I've got the following non fiction works to be read and on the go at the same time!

Any comments on any of these from those that have read them great ly appreciated.

  • Toulouse Latrec - Gerstle Mack
  • Bertrand Russell - history of western philosophy
  • The proud highway - hunter s thompson
  • twentieth century short stories
  • Speer the final verdict - joachim fest
  • the thrid reich - micahel burleigh
  • don quixote - cervantes
  • A time to speak - helen lewisd
  • primo levi - if this is a man/the truce
  • primo levi - the drowned and the saved
  • michaelangelo and the popes ceiling - ross king
  • leonardo the first scientist - micahel white
  • heroditus - the histories

HUUUGE list to get through but i have lots of time on my hands this week so can make a good helthy start!

Lisa (1)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top