What Non-Fiction Are You Reading this Month (July, 2017)?

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What Non-Fiction Are You Reading this Month (July, 2017)?

Tämä viestiketju on "uinuva" —viimeisin viesti on vanhempi kuin 90 päivää. Ryhmä "virkoaa", kun lähetät vastauksen.

1LynnB
heinäkuu 6, 2017, 3:39 pm

I'm reading The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman for a book club discussion.

2fikustree
heinäkuu 7, 2017, 3:15 pm

I've got The Amazons Lives & Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World from the library because I saw Wonder Woman and realized I didn't know anything about the Amazons. It's a fascinating book. I was especially interested to read that warrior women's tombs were misidentified as men's tombs until recent DNA techniques showed that there was gender equity in places outside of Greece in ancient times.

3Helenliz
heinäkuu 7, 2017, 3:58 pm

I started Common People last month, but didn't make much headway. Aiming to get further through it this month.

4LyzzyBee
heinäkuu 9, 2017, 12:40 pm

I'm reading Long Road from Jarrow by Stuart Maconie at the moment, which is about him walking in the footsteps of the Jarrow Marchers, 80 years on, and is very good.

5Sandydog1
heinäkuu 10, 2017, 8:52 pm

Finishing up Hillbilly Elegy written by a Yale Law school grad and sounds like an admissions essay. Still, very worthwhile.

6snash
heinäkuu 12, 2017, 10:39 am

I finished The Twilight of American Culture which I found thought provoking, depressing, with a glimmer of hope.

7Sandydog1
heinäkuu 14, 2017, 11:04 am

Hillbilly Elegy made a profound impression on me, but I need an antidote. The perfect choice, 'currently reading the upbeat, simple, comforting Little Book of Hygge.

8Helenliz
heinäkuu 15, 2017, 3:01 am

Finish Common People which was interesting although not actually riveting. She grew up about 10 miles form where I did, so it was interesting to read about the evolution of Portsmouth as a place. Although no-one has ever described residents of Portsmouth as Portsmuthians. Most distracting.

9Polite_Society
heinäkuu 15, 2017, 12:33 pm

Death at Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner by a former superintendent (warden) of Mississippi's Parchman Penitentiary who began his career in "corrections" as a staunch supporter of capital punishment and, after personally facilitating two executions, quit his job and spoke out against 'the death penalty' ever after. This book is his matter-of-fact account of his career in prison administration; Christopher Hitchens called it an "extraordinary book," and it is, because Don Cabana was such an ordinary man. (He died in 2013.)


Next to be read is Sailor and Fiddler, a memoir by Herman Wouk, published on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

10SChant
heinäkuu 16, 2017, 5:36 am

Finished Out of the Ashes by Tim Albone - the heartwarming and uplifting story of the Afghan cricket team. There was a tear in my eye!

11LynnB
heinäkuu 18, 2017, 8:18 am

12LyzzyBee
heinäkuu 20, 2017, 3:08 am

I just this minute finished Running Like a Girl which was excellent, and had lots of experiences recognisable to this runner. I'll be interested to find out what non-runners think of it, though. Will it put them off?

13fikustree
heinäkuu 20, 2017, 11:42 am

I'm on to THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE: THE GERMANS, 1933-45 it's fascinating. Really glad the American author is often comparing antisemitism to racism in the US.

14rocketjk
heinäkuu 21, 2017, 1:29 am

I've started started The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell.

15varielle
heinäkuu 22, 2017, 4:51 pm

I'm reading The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World about a cholera outbreak in London in the 1840s. London used to be a nasty place to live.

16JulieLill
heinäkuu 22, 2017, 5:15 pm

>15 varielle: This is on my list to read.

17Sandydog1
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 23, 2017, 1:39 pm

> 14, >15 varielle:

Both Orwell's memoir and Johnson's epidemiological thriller, are 5-star books! I'm currently reading The Map Thief

18snash
heinäkuu 23, 2017, 3:10 pm

I finished The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency upon the recommendation of BookConcierge. It was a fascinating biography of a very influential and powerful woman who's not been given enough credit for her contributions to FDR and his policies. Besides giving a detailed but interesting and readable account of Missy LeHand, the book also provides some insight into FDR and others of his circle.

19Helenliz
heinäkuu 23, 2017, 3:52 pm

>15 varielle: that looks good. *adds yet another book to the list*

20LyzzyBee
heinäkuu 24, 2017, 4:00 am

Really enjoying When God Spoke English, a marvellous work of history and narrative.

21fikustree
heinäkuu 24, 2017, 4:00 pm

I'm plugging through Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic it's well researched and compelling.

22paradoxosalpha
heinäkuu 24, 2017, 5:31 pm

Having just wrapped up Civilization and Its Discontents and posted my review, I'm on to Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity, a scholarly work that promises to be rather unsettling.

23fritzs
heinäkuu 26, 2017, 11:21 pm

The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke it is a work related book. It has made me really think about how we produce and create electricity in the United States.

24eo206
heinäkuu 30, 2017, 1:19 am

Reading Sherman Alexie's latest book You don't have to say you love me about his mother.

25LyzzyBee
heinäkuu 31, 2017, 3:14 am

I've just finished How to Talk like a Local which was a fun book about British dialects, and am reading Run for your Life, which isn't quite what I thought it was.

27Sandydog1
Muokkaaja: elokuu 1, 2017, 8:07 pm

Reading Concussion. So far Bennett has just arrived in the USA from Nigeria. We shall see. 'Also reading an Early Reviewers copy of Spy Schools

28Limelite
elokuu 5, 2017, 11:34 am

1/3 to go in Li Cunxin's autobio, Mao's Last Dancer. Quite a memoir of growing up a profoundly poor villager in a commune, to being selected as one of a handful of China's youngsters to be trained in ballet at Mdme Mao's Dance Academy, to his days of rising dancing accomplishment and beginnings of communist disenchantment, to his present recent arrival as one of the first two ballet cultural exchange students at the Houston Ballet during the Bush I years.

"Extraordinary" is over-used to describe some people's lives. It's barely adequate in Li's case.

29cindydavid4
Muokkaaja: elokuu 5, 2017, 1:16 pm

Just finishing up a reread of Galileo's Daughter. Need to start her new one Looking Glass Universe

30framboise
Muokkaaja: elokuu 5, 2017, 3:51 pm

>28 Limelite: I saw that movie when it came out; it was really good. Glad to hear the book is too.

31Meredy
elokuu 5, 2017, 9:29 pm

Current read: The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America, by Frances FitzGerald (work: http://www.librarything.com/work/18935444 - touchstone isn't working). It's a pretty hefty volume, and not light reading. Its tone is scholarly but not overly academic. My interest lies at least partly in the fact that this account puts my own family background into a social-historical context of which I was largely unaware.

I've always thought it was good for people to have a sense of where they come from, but I didn't realize that I myself was lacking that. Awareness of the roots and traditions of New England from the colonies on down does not explain the particular influences that came through my family's involvement in the Protestant evangelical and holiness movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I'm gaining a perspective both on my parents' histories and on the things I so wholeheartedly rejected in my own turn, now seeing how they fit into the broader social fabric.

I wish I'd known more about these things decades ago. It might not have changed what I did, but it would have given me a better understanding of the context in which I grew up and perhaps a bit more charity toward some of the key players.

32snash
elokuu 6, 2017, 12:50 pm

I finished Einstein: A Biography which presents his life by subject first and chronology second which means it is sometimes confusing as to what happened when. I particularly appreciated the several chapters that attempted to follow his thought processes. The book also does not sugar coat his difficulties in dealing with women and those close to him.

33LyzzyBee
elokuu 7, 2017, 2:54 am

I'm enjoying Eat and Run while happily knowing I will never attempt anything but the most road-based ultramarathon!

34SChant
elokuu 7, 2017, 4:45 am

Finished Long Road from Jarrow: A journey through Britain then and now by Stuart Maconie. I didn't take to it at first - seemed a bit of a superficial way to treat such a serious subject - but it won me over by its warmth and genuine interest in working-class life and concerns. Plus, I'm now prompted to read an old Left Book Club copy of The Town That Was Murdered by Ellen Wilkinson, a first-hand account to the poverty and deperation that led to the Jarrow Crusade.

35LyzzyBee
elokuu 8, 2017, 4:00 am

>34 SChant: I just read that, my review in Shiny New Books is out today! I really enjoyed it.

36SChant
elokuu 8, 2017, 6:00 am

>35 LyzzyBee: Great review!

37LyzzyBee
elokuu 8, 2017, 6:09 am

>36 SChant: Thank you!

38titov
elokuu 8, 2017, 12:12 pm

Reading The hour between the dog and the wolf - John Coates. Great read. Fascinating to see how the body influences the brain, rather than the widely held view that the opposite is generally true.

39snash
elokuu 10, 2017, 7:15 am

>15 varielle:, >16 JulieLill:, >17 Sandydog1: Upon your recommendations I read The Ghost Map. It is ostensibly about a cholera outbreak in the 1850's in London but in telling the story it tells the story of London, various persons, public health, epidemiology, bacteria etc. The ending kind of wanders off in speculation but otherwise excellent.