Non-Fiction

[Deleted]

I've been going through a run of non-fiction reading lately. I wrote down a bunch of recommendations from the old thread and I am so glad. As has been mentioned, y'all are so smart!!!

Friday Night Lights was excellent, but heartbreaking. The book is about so many things, but what resonated with me was the rah-rah Americanism. It was a slap-in-the-face refresher of why Dubya was elected!

Jon Krakauer can do no wrong. I had previously read both Into Thin Air and Into the Wild but he blew me away with Under the Banner of Heaven. So eye opening and just fascinating.

I am also a huge fan of Bill Bryson and am glad to see the love on these boards. He is HILARIOUS. Short story: My boss hands me A Walk in the Woods in an airport 'cause he's just finished it and he knows I'm a reader. I read the description and think "Crap, now I have to read some stupid hiking book". Fast forward to me in hysterics in bed reading this book and my neighbor pounding on the wall!! I've read all his stuff except A Short History...and I plan on getting to that one soon.

I would love it if I could gather some more recommendations from my fellow CPMCoG'ers. Or 'Greece-ers', as I like to call us!

[valueofaloonie]

MsMisery said:

I am also a huge fan of Bill Bryson and am glad to see the love on these boards. He is HILARIOUS. Short story: My boss hands me A Walk in the Woods in an airport 'cause he's just finished it and he knows I'm a reader. I read the description and think "Crap, now I have to read some stupid hiking book". Fast forward to me in hysterics in bed reading this book and my neighbor pounding on the wall!! I've read all his stuff except A Short History...and I plan on getting to that one soon.

Man, I was just coming over here to pimp Bill Bryson, and then I find I'm not alone in my love for him. Excellent. MsMisery, you really must pick up A Short History. As a science person, I can say it's an excellent intro to nearly all disciplines. And funny, to boot.

[vacationland]

As I mentioned over on the "what are you reading?" thread, I'm in the middle of a Bryson book, too: Notes From a Small Island. I'm definitely a fan; it's clever, literary travel writing.

I've also got a lot of Paul Theroux (another travel writer of some repute); you might enjoy his stuff?

Other nonfiction I've enjoyed in the last year or so:

She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan (formerly James Boylan, a transexual college professor and writer); it's very affecting and personal and the writing sparkles. Boylan is best pals in real life with author Richard Russo (Empire Falls).

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil by John Berendt...yeah, it's old, but I missed it when it first came out. If you missed it too, it's worth a look.

And I haven't finished it yet, but I'm liking Ann Patchett's Truth & Beauty, about her wonderful, terrible friendship with fellow writer (and eventual suicide) Lucy Grealy. It's a painful but fascinating read.

[snacktastic]

I love Bill Bryson. I met him a few years ago when I worked in a bookstore. He was totally nice. And Notes from a Small Island was my favorite. I have never been to Britain, but it made me want to go to Shetland like nobody's business (someday...)

As far as Paul Theroux, I read Happy Islands of Oceania--born from a love of Oliver Sacks and now Jared Diamond, I love reading about societies on small island nations and his sarcasm, skeptism and generally curmudgeonness made for fabulous reading.

I am sure you guys read Granta. It's a great place to find some good excerpts.

I also recommend Arctic Dreams. Fascinating travel literature about someone going to the far north.

God, I wish I had more resources to travel and fewer student loans.

[Deleted]

The only Bill Bryson I've read so far is I'm a Stranger Here Myself and it was hysterical. While reading it, I had to keep stopping to call a friend to tell her a particularly funny part. Eventually, she was like "DUDE! Stop calling me!"

[afrayedknot2]

I was thinking about a Non-fiction thread today with Bill Bryson books in mind. I like all of his books, but I have two particular favourites. Notes from a Big Country is a compilation of columns he did for a British newpaper when he moved back to the US after living in the UK for 20 years and is hilarious. I also love Made in America which is about the origins of ‘American English’. As an Australian I found it great as it combined (completely irreverent) US history with information on the origins of numerous words and expressions. It’s a veritable goldmine of useless trivia you can bore your friends and relatives with!

Has anyone read A Short History of Nearly Everything? I’ve gotten a few chapters into it but haven’t had the time to really get stuck into it.

[tmi]

Sometimes Tracy Kidder bugs me just a little, but I LOVE his latest, Mountains Beyond Mountains. It's about Paul Farmer and the mind-blowing, seemingly impossible work he's done for public health in Haiti ind elsewhere. The man just does. not. quit. The book doesn't make you feel guilty really, more like you should and CAN get off your ass and do something.

Opening Skinner's Box by Lauren Slater (who is a trippy author in her own right) is very cool too. She revisits a number of famous/infamous psychological experiments of the twentieth century (like the Milgram trials). Keep in mind that her veracity on a few points was challenged by her subjects-- especially Elizabeth Loftus, the debunker of recovered memory-- but in a way that makes it even more interesting. My favorite was her repeating an experiment where 70's psych grad students showed up at an ER saying they heard a thump-- that is ALL they complained of-- and observed how the psych staff contructed their sanity-- or lack thereof.

[MrsCatHead]

tmi, I've been wanting to get that book on Skinner. Thanks for the review!

I, too, like Bill Bryson. I actually giggle sometimes when reading his books.

I just got A Short History of Nearly Everything. Haven't dug in yet.

[Deleted]

Here are a couple of Downers:

Fat Girl by Judith Moore. Miss Moore is one hard, cool, clear, unsentimental Fat Girl. No Oprah Inspiration story from her.

Passing For Thin by Frances Kuffel. This book is much more on the inspirational side but very disorganized. And she doesn't address what was to me the most interesting Fat Girl Formation question---her older brother. She has a sentence about his sexual rapaciousness toward herself and her younger brother in reference to him, and then he is never mentioned again. Instead, she writes about her food rapaciousness for the rest of the book. Miss Moore would have told us about him in hard, flat prose---we know what the consequences were.

These books were both sort of depressing but interesting. A different world view.

[marywebgirl]

I luuurve non-fiction. Whenever I hit a bookstore I head straight for the sociology section.

Another Bill Bryson fan, too. My favorites are In a Sunburned Country and The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America. I really liked both, but The Lost Continent struck a chord with me because he really praised the Midwest and pretty much said it was the best place in the USA (he grew up in Iowa). Being a Midwesterner and lover of the Midwest in general, it's nice to know there are two of us.

Has Bill ever written about Italy? I'm going there soon and it was fun reading In a Sunburned Country when I was vacationing in Australia.