Non Fiction Literature

Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough

feeds@yuku.com (tabbynera) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:58:55 GMT

A "true" report of the crime era in America 1932-34, the days of many gangsters. I really enjoyed this book. I always had a interest in the gangsters of days gone by in America. This book is based on FBI reports and is the most realistic I have read up to now. Of course I have seen the Bonnie and Clyde film and the one about Ma Baker, but these were based more on stories invented to make the films interesting and not exactly on the truth. Especially the film on Ma Baker, but I...

Obit-Frank McCourt

feeds@yuku.com (Somerled) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:28:46 GMT

The celebrated author of Angela's Ashes has passed away. He was 78 years old.

http://www.nytimes.com/20.../books/20mccourt.html?hp

Frank McCourt is dying

feeds@yuku.com (Somerled) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:59:52 GMT

Well, according to the news Frank McCourt the author of Angela's Ashes is on the verge of death due to complications from meningitis. He was treated earlier this year to melanoma a lethal form of skin cancer, and apparently they say one out of 25 people who are treated from melanoma come down with meningitis....possibly from the weakened immune system.

Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life

feeds@yuku.com (sublimosa) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:59:18 GMT

I've always been drawn to Louis Armstrong's singing and never quite knew why. Over the last few months, I've been listening to more of his music (I was not familiar with much of it) and my appreciation grew. There is just so much he expressed with that raspy, awful voice. (if you get the chance, check out him and Billie singing "My Sweet Hunk O' Trash".)

The book itself was rather disappointing. The author (whose name I have conveniently forgotten) had...

Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall

feeds@yuku.com (librarylover) — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:58:39 GMT

While the kids were selecting books from the library, I was browsing the shelves. This book caught my eye. It is the story of a girl who was raised in the FLDS church. Because she's just a bit of a troublemaker (she actually asks questions), she is married off to a young man that she despises when she is just 14. The author is now a woman, and she has faced court battles over the situation. I had trouble putting the book aside last night even though I was exhausted from the...

Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them by John Ortberg

feeds@yuku.com (librarylover) — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:54:15 GMT

I began reading this book over the Memorial Day weekend. I picked it up because Pastor is doing a series of sermons based upon this book. Although the subject matter is serious, the author often presents his subject material in such a way that I find myself laughing outloud. Every time I do, my kids ask, "What is he saying now?"

The main theme of the book - written from a Christian perspective - is that people come "as is," and we need to develop relationships...

Dying to Survive

feeds@yuku.com (Frontl1ne) — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:05:51 GMT

Hi all,

New here.

Currently reading 'Dying to Survive' by Rachael Keogh. It's about her life story, as a 14 year old heroin addict, all the way up to two - three years ago, when she finally turned her life around, got off drugs, went back to college, started writing the book, and had a baby boy. Some of you might know of her from a SkyNews story she was featured in about three years ago. She was told at the time that she had to stop taking dugs or she risked...

The Author of Himself, The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki

feeds@yuku.com (tabbynera) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:07:19 GMT

I had to think a long while before I decided to write something about this book, but it is one of the best books I have read for a long time. I read the book in the original German Version "Mein Leben" (My Life) and it is written by a well known German critic, really one of the best. Born in 1920 in Poland, but grew up in Germany. Marcel Reich-Ranicki is a well known figure in Germany. As you can imagine his life was certainly not easy in Germany especially as he was Jewish. The...

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (true crime, Victorian England)

feeds@yuku.com (AirPrang) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:43:21 GMT

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale is a new-ish take on the story of Constance Kent, who supposedly murdered her three year old half brother when she was only a teen, all in mid 19th century Victorian England. The eponymous Mr Whicher was one of the UK's first police detectives, a man with an excellent reputation until the Kent case, a case from which his career never quite recovered even though he should've been completely...

Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood

feeds@yuku.com (librarylover) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:01:00 GMT

This is a great book to read. I've pretty much discovered that, unless I had my children with me, I'd be a lousy survivor. If I were alone, I'd probably be one of those brain-frozen people who wait for someone to tell him what to do. If I had my children, I'd be so concerned with their survival that I think I would think more clearly.

Read the book and let me know what you think.

2009 Your year in non=fiction

feeds@yuku.com (saundrakane) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:01:54 GMT

I find that I read non fiction in a different way then I read fiction. I kind of use non fiction as reference books. And I have been buying and borrowing a lot this year.

1. Home Staging for Profit by Barbara Jennings
2.What White People Like by Christian Lander
3.The Proud Highway by Hunter Thompson
4. Staging for Dummies by Christine Rae

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle

feeds@yuku.com (librarylover) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:53:15 GMT

I thought some of you might find it interesting to check out this website. When formed in 1878, the goal was to "promote habits of reading and study in nature, art, science, and in secular and sacred literature... and... to encourage individual study, to open the college world to persons unable to attend higher institutions of learning." They have an amazing non-fiction reading list. Check out their reading list. It's updated through 2009. Yes, they're still in...

Decorating books

feeds@yuku.com (saundrakane) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:16:08 GMT

I love these and am starting to collect them. I do have the one by Candace Olson of HGTV. And my daughter just bought me Staging for Dummies for my birthday

Ghosts Among Us by James Van Praagh

feeds@yuku.com (PatLewin) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:14:33 GMT

Has anyone else read this? Someone on my Board recommended it, and I'm finding it fascinating. I'm about half-way through, and there's a lot I already knew, but there are also aspects which I question. I'd love to hear other's thoughts on the book.

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Product Description

Everyone loves a good ghost story. Perhaps the human fascination with the supernatural stems from the fact that most of us, at some point in our lives,...

Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11

feeds@yuku.com (AirPrang) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:49:25 GMT

For some reason I saw quite a few docos on September 11 last year. Maybe the distance of time made it easier to watch the Discovery Channel's Inside the Twin Towers and the extraordinary, life affirming Falling Man. Those docos sent me on a bit of a quest to read more about what happened, including the way in which we saw it all unfolding live, in front of us, and how the media interpreted and even censored it all for us too - for example, what was deemed unsuitable for domestic...

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

feeds@yuku.com (AirPrang) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:40:53 GMT

Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map is a rather entertaining but repetitive look at a cholera outbreak in mid Victorian London, where the outbreak's cause was traced back to a specific, highly regarded local pump in Soho's Broad Street and proved cholera was waterborne, rather than transmitted via 'miasma'. The information on how local authorities approached such epidemics is also fascinating, including where a concerted effort to improve sanitation across parts of London...

Rock and Popular Music Books

feeds@yuku.com (condreye buch) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:41:37 GMT

I don't mean those flashy promo picture souvenir books available at concert concession but real biographies and such. For example:
Lady Sings The Blues - Billie Holiday w/ William Dufty
Nico: Lies of an Icon - Richard Witt ( one of the best biographies of any type I've ever read)
Chronicles - Bob Dylan ( after puzzling over the amphetamine mess known as Tarantula, I was leery of a book by Dylan. Shows how wrong you can be.)
United States - Laurie...

A Short History of the English People (vol 1) by J R Green

feeds@yuku.com (librarylover) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:21:46 GMT

The title of this book lets us know what it's about. The book was published in 1898 and was introduced to my library system in 1916. The pages are so thick and wonderful. And the illustrations help to tell the tale. I've already learned a few things ~ which gods our days of the week are named after.

Geography of Bliss

feeds@yuku.com (Gracewings) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:55:56 GMT

I have been enjoying this book immensely; in fact, I even slowed down the reading of it as I don't want it to end.

It is a travel commentary with trips taken by an author who is searching to find the happiest country. This adds a philosophical flavor along with many curious observations that are recounted with wit. While it is always interesting to learn about other countries and their people, I have never found it as delightful as presented in this book.

Do you borrow non-fiction books from your library?

feeds@yuku.com (magusachan) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:51:21 GMT

Especially with non-fiction books, I prefer to borrow them. I'd say non-fiction books are more expensive than average fiction books.

I borrowed two non-fiction books from my local library:
- a small one about Mao Tse Tung's life
- one about women from abroad and how they are forced into prostitution, it is written by Mary Kreutzer and Corinna Milborn