What non-fiction are you reading in February, 2018?

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What non-fiction are you reading in February, 2018?

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2rocketjk
Fév 3, 2018, 1:35 am

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Armies of Labor: a Chronicle of the Organized Wage Earners buy Samuel P. Orth, a short, interesting survey of the history of the American labor movement published in 1919.

3dpevers
Fév 7, 2018, 8:06 am

I finished Western Ohio Railway, The: Minster & Laramie Railway, Fostoria & Fremont Railway, which I had started in January. Yes, I have some 'eclectic' books.

42wonderY
Fév 7, 2018, 8:17 am

Hot Dogs and Cocktails, detailing King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth's visit to Canada and the United States.

5SChant
Fév 7, 2018, 9:49 am

The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla. A collection of essays by young BAME people on their experiences in the UK today. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but some very good and thoughtful pieces.

6JulieLill
Fév 7, 2018, 11:57 am

>4 2wonderY: Love the title. I remember in the movie Hyde Park on the Hudson, they have a scene in it that depicts what happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ogNBaY2BY

72wonderY
Fév 7, 2018, 12:02 pm

>6 JulieLill: That's what led me to the book.

8Meredy
Fév 7, 2018, 7:38 pm

Howard Fast's The Jews: Story of a People (1968), on Kindle.

9LyzzyBee
Fév 8, 2018, 3:06 am

Currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which has made me think a lot and hard about where we get our food from and prompted me to join a food buying collective thing locally.

10JulieLill
Fév 8, 2018, 4:22 pm

>4 2wonderY: How is the book?

112wonderY
Fév 8, 2018, 4:47 pm

I'm discovering the king and queen were very nice and flexible people. They met every circumstance with grace and humor.

I can't imagine the tiresomeness of always having to stand and listen to 'God Save the King' drone on at every stop, and always looking pleased. At one reception, instead of having to shake 60 hands, there were over 600 people expecting to do so. The king walked away when his hand just couldn't take any more.

12SChant
Fév 10, 2018, 9:59 am

About to start Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith. An investigation into how consciousness works in cephalopods and how it might also work in humans. It's been on my TBR shelf for weeks, so I'm looking forward to getting to grips with it.

132wonderY
Modifié : Fév 12, 2018, 9:06 am

>10 JulieLill: I just realized that this author also wrote The King’s Speech. King George VI is his specialty. He does a good job with his subject.

15.Monkey.
Fév 15, 2018, 3:31 am

Just finished My father's name last night, really excellent bio/memoir-ish thing about Jackson's quest to find his family history and the story he can piece together of their lives, interwoven with the history of the county his family is from (so, a lot of slavery/race stuff, before, during, and after the war/emancipation). Wonderful book that ought to be more widely known!
And prior to that I read Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, and other writings, another great read with his clear vivid depictions of the horrors of slavery.

16Helenliz
Fév 15, 2018, 3:33 am

Just started Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne. It's a meditation by a medieval doctor on the nature of religion. I'm not sure what to expect, if I'm honest.

17cmbohn
Modifié : Fév 15, 2018, 3:40 am

I just finished The Black Hand by Stephan Talty. It was really absorbing - a great read that I just couldn't put down. It's about the rise of The Black Hand in the U.S. And the detective who was determined to bring it down.

18Bookmarque
Fév 15, 2018, 8:58 am

Having thrown in the towel on The Great Bridge, I started Walter Issacson's Leonardo da Vinci and so far it is fascinating, intriguing and absorbing. Good luck with that touchstone.

19TheFlamingoReads
Fév 15, 2018, 10:37 am

Tonight I will start Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter: A Biography of Princess Louise by Lucinda Hawksley. It sounds intriguing!

20JulieLill
Fév 16, 2018, 12:20 pm

>19 TheFlamingoReads: Let us know how you like this- I would read this.

21JulieLill
Fév 19, 2018, 11:08 am

Chasing the Last Laugh: How Mark Twain Escaped Debt and Disgrace with a Round-the-World Comedy Tour
by Richard Zacks
4/5 stars
Not knowing a lot about Mark Twain, I found this book at the bookstore which looked very intriguing. This is not a full biography of Twain but encompasses his later years when he is facing bankruptcy after investing in the Paige typesetter. To get out of debt he agrees to a round-the-world speaking tour beginning in 1896 and traveling through Australia, New Zealand, India, North and South America with his wife and two of his daughters. This book describes his experiences in those countries, the people he meets and retells some of the programs and stories he gives during his speaking programs. The tour is fairly successful but he has bouts of illness and a tragedy happens towards the end of the tour. I found this very interesting and it really expanded my knowledge of Twain and his writings.

22snash
Fév 20, 2018, 7:09 pm

I finished Negroland: A Memoir which was an excellent examination of the conflicts, confusions, and mine fields wrought by attitudes about race, gender, and class in America, told via memoir. The author was born upper class black in the late 40's.

232wonderY
Fév 21, 2018, 11:29 am

Finished Fire and Fury, the Wolff book on the White House. Thankfully, it was much less sensationalist than its press coverage indicated. I thought the analysis had some depth. I certainly learned dimensions of the main actors that I hadn't been aware of prior.

24Helenliz
Fév 24, 2018, 3:01 pm

Finished Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne. An entirely unexpected ***** read for me. Just an amazing piece of work. Rhapsodic review posted to the book page.

25paradoxosalpha
Fév 24, 2018, 3:05 pm

I wrapped up Invented Religions, The Hippie Narrative, and Liturgical Traditions in the Didache, posting the first LT reviews for all three.

26TheFlamingoReads
Fév 24, 2018, 6:57 pm

I will! So far, so good.

27snash
Fév 25, 2018, 12:09 pm

A lady in my apartment building wrote a book about her great aunt which I just finished reading. Fearless and Free was an account relying on diaries and letters of Francine Forrester-Brown, an intrepid lady who spent 20 years with her husband in Guatemala and then after his death surviving as a single woman from 1905 to the 1930's. It provides glimpses into life in the Guatemalan jungle, and the difficulties of eking out a living as a single woman. It also paints a picture of a indomitable, curious, and lively woman. I found it a very enjoyable read.

28LynnB
Fév 26, 2018, 10:51 am

I'm reading (and looking at the beautiful photos in) Dam Builders: The Natural History of Beavers and their Ponds by Michael Runtz.

29JulieLill
Fév 26, 2018, 9:44 pm

The Zoo: The Wild and Wonderful Tale of the Founding of London Zoo:1826-1851
by Isobel Charman
4/5 stars
Charman does a wonderful job in describing the beginnings of the London Zoo. Each chapter highlights a different time period and a individual or individuals who were involved with the zoo during that time period including, a zoo keeper, a founder, gardener and an animal doctor. Even Charles Darwin gets a chapter for he was a corresponding member of the zoo and used the resources of the zoo in his work and research. I think I was most shocked at the deaths of a lot of the animals that came to live in the zoo and how the zoo personal tried everything they could think of to prevent the loss of the exotic animals.

30c_why
Modifié : Fév 26, 2018, 10:43 pm

Obsessed by current events I'm flipping between Fire and Fury Michael Wolff & Trumpocracy David Frum

312wonderY
Fév 27, 2018, 7:51 am

>30 c_why: Trumpocracy is on my pile too, but I haven't cracked it open. Your first thoughts?

332wonderY
Fév 28, 2018, 10:50 am

You're More Powerful Than You Think. Good stories and appears to try to balance along the political spectrum.

34JulieLill
Fév 28, 2018, 11:37 am

The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures
Library of Congress
4/5 stars
This is a fun and fact filled book on the history of card cataloging from its origins to its move to computers. I loved the short segment on J. Edgar Hoover, who worked at the Library of Congress and used that knowledge when reorganizing the FBI’s filing system.
Not a very long book but certainly interesting especially to me who grew up with card catalogs and now works in a library. I definitely remember using card catalogs and until a few years ago we had a couple left in tech services until they were sold to some lucky people who appreciated them.

35SChant
Mar 1, 2018, 6:15 am

Just started Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel Holmes. She has a chirpy, colloquial style that is a bit grating, but the subject is so interesting I can ignore it.

36snash
Mar 3, 2018, 7:35 am

I finished a LTER, Saving Talk Therapy. The first half of the book was a description of the damaging forces that are shunting the treatment of mental health into quick fixes that do nothing. The second half was a description of the type of therapy necessary to create and promote mental health for the sake of the individual and the society. It is very well done.

37Limelite
Mar 3, 2018, 1:07 pm

Psych sheets, heat sheets, and finals. The only non-fiction I seem to be reading these days are the "programs" at swim meets. I can't enjoy the smell of a new or an old book when first opened because my nostrils' membranes permanently smell of chlorine. The only chance for reading during short course swim season is when it's the 500yd Free. That takes between 4.5-5 minutes. Time to grab a few pp.

Long course season begins in a few weeks. Meters should give me a better opportunity than yards do. Riiight.