Non-Fiction

[Deleted]

Very true about N&D. I liked how she acknowledged that there were a lot of things that she did that weren't 100% "poor". For example, she owned a car in almost every city she lived in. She also refused to live in areas that were "unsafe" and a lot of poor people really don't have those choices but she acknowledged that. However, she'd go off on rants like unionization and the legalization of marijuana and that would get on my nerves.

[Deleted]

I *ahem* bought No god but God because I saw Reza Aslan* on CNN. Yes, I bought a book because of raw animal lust.

Hee. I bought it because he looked so freaking yummy on The Daily Show. He was dubbed Hottie ibn Egghead in the TDS thread at TWoP.

I was just coming here to post about that book. I got it because he was super cute on the Colbert Report, and then two days later he came to my uni to do a lecture and book signing. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet him because I didn't have the book! (And yes, he was even dreamier in person.)

[Ripley]

I'm currently reading The Island of Lost Maps about a rotten stinking low-down no-good yellow-bellied man who stole maps from libraries across the US. I saw the author at a library conference, and it was such an interesting story.

On deck is Flapper: a Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern. I'm so looking forward to that book. I hope it's as interesting as the title makes it out to be.

[garnet927]

ripley said:

On deck is Flapper: a Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern. I'm so looking forward to that book. I hope it's as interesting as the title makes it out to be.

I read Flapper and enjoyed it. I don't know if I'd pay full price hardcover for it, but I'd re-read it again/possibly buy the paperback.

[sleepy]

jensational said:

Very true about N&D. I liked how she acknowledged that there were a lot of things that she did that weren't 100% "poor". For example, she owned a car in almost every city she lived in. She also refused to live in areas that were "unsafe" and a lot of poor people really don't have those choices but she acknowledged that. However, she'd go off on rants like unionization and the legalization of marijuana and that would get on my nerves.

She was good about fessing up to that stuff. I appreciated that frankness. But yes, she did take a bit of a superior, preachy tone sometimes (I'm not sure I was that bothered by it, though, as I agree with her stances).

[Deleted]

*bump*

I just finished Bill Buford's Heat, which I really enjoyed. I don't have an opinion on Mario Batali as a chef or a TV personality, but I really enjoyed the way that Buford framed the book. Originally, he just wanted to be a kitchen slave at Babbo (Mario's restaurant), but that experience led him somewhere else. Great writing, and I also recommend his earlier book Among the Thugs, about the phenomenon of English soccer hooligans.

I've recently started Rich Cohen's sort of family memoir/history of the company called Sweet and Low. It looks promising. Cohen's got an engaging voice, and the central conceit of the book is that he's from the branch of the family that got completely cut out of the family fortune. But why?