It's April: what's YOUR nonfiction this month?

I've started Making an Exit - author travels the globe describing various funeral customs. So far not bad, though I understand where reviewers who claim it's really a (memoir-ish) story about her father are coming from.

I started The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman today. I always love her books and this is no exception, so far.

I am reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

Still reading the Nietzsche biography by Curt Paul Janz. After that, I go where my library takes me...

I'm STILL reading The Making of the British Landscape but only have about 100 pages to go now. It's great, though. And also Dennis Healey's autobiography. Two biggies!

Over the weekend read The Living and the Dead by Paul Hendrickson, after reading his more recent work Hemingway's Boat. I find his writing very compelling but at the same time I sometimes feel he overdoes it. He's very dramatic, and perhaps Robert McNamara and Vietnam would be better served by less drama...
Also read The Man who Never Died, a recent bio of IWW leader Joe Hill, which was excellent. Several years ago I read Wallace Stegner's novel about Hill and thought there were a lot of things that didn't make sense about the case.

I'm about half way done with Moneyball and next I'm moving on to The Extra 2%. It's a baseball kind of month. :)

>7 ReadHanded: - Definitely adding The Man who Never Died to my to-read list. I'm always up for a good Wobbly book.

I'm reading Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith. Great read so far and some interesting new insights.

I'm reading Miracles by C.S. Lewis and I'm finding it very annoying. He makes a lot of assumptions, calls them "true" and then proceeds to try to make a logical argument based off those false priors in favor of miracles. It is bugging me.

Yeah, Euclidean geometry does that to me too.

Robert

I read Child of the Jungle by Sabine Kuegler about her childhood in West Papua. An interesting, light and fun read if you want to learn about West Papua and don't want a heavier anthropological study. I would have liked more info about her experiences returning to European culture.

>10 jfetting:

That's why I stick with The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It is all true, all non-fiction.

Let me hear a halleluja!!

>3 banjo123:
Unbroken has been in my TBR pile and sitting on my shelf for much too long. Maybe I need to nudge it to the top.

>9 JMC400m:
I thoroughly enjoyed Elizabeth the Queen: the Life of a Modern Monarch. I am not especially a supporter of the queen nor a detractor but found this biography quite interesting. And I'm glad I'm not the queen!

Just starting My Lobotomy by Howard Dully.

Just finished reading "The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America" by Russell Shorto, Vintage (2005), Paperback, 416 pages. Outstanding book! Based on the most recent translations of Dutch records of New Amsterdam (New York) before the English takeover in 1664. It profoundly dispels earlier myths and clearly details how religious, national and ethnic tolerance in America began in the Dutch colonies rather than those of the English colonies. Also, a haunting history for anyone who has ever visited Manhattan Island.

Just beginning Robert Reich's Aftershock. Wrong title touchstone. Been wanting to read it a long time. Love seeing his interviews.

Reading The Pleasures And Sorrows Of Work by Alain De Botton. I'm very taken with his writing style, enjoyed in two of his other books, The Art Of Travel and A Week At The Airport.

Just started this morning Blind Descent by James Tabor, about the quest by extreme cavers to find the deepest place on earth. I'm fascinated by people who undertake extreme physical and endurance endeavors -- like mountaineering, for instance -- so I'm finding this book very interesting.

Nightrain -- agree about The Island at the Center of the World -- one of my ancestors was a Dutch trader who settled in New Amsterdam and married a Native American woman named Cateronas. We don't have a lot of records on them but the relationship apparently lasted... Their descendents eventually married into a prominent Dutch family, can't recall the name but its the same one referred to in Washington Irving's Headless Horseman story.
They owned some land in Lower Manhattan, too, but unfortunately they sold it...

I read The Island at the Center of the World two or three years ago. It did an excellent job of giving the flavor of New Amsterdam. I too have ancestors who were there during that time which makes it all the more interesting.

I'm reading the Prince in response to someone trying to get me to read the One Minute Manager. I think Machiavelli's management style suits my needs a little better.

I think Machiavelli's management style suits my needs a little better.

Ha! This made me laugh.

I'm reading Scenes and Studies of Savage Life by Gilbert Malcolm Sproat

LynnB - Could you say some more about that book? Nothing on here or on Amazon. Thanks.

This is the second book by Gilbert Malcolm Sproat that I've read. I'm reading them because of general interest in First Nations' culture. I work in the area of land claims and self-government.

Mr. Sproat was England's representative in British Columbia. This particular book was written in 1868. In it, he describes the native Indians he comes in contact with.

I am finding that reading a book written at the time, rather than a history written by someone today, provides a perspective that is new to me.

Thanks so much for the info Lynn. Sounds like a great job and a great read.

if you want to read Sproat's books, I got mine from abebooks.com. They have everything!

I just finished the exemplary (9 stars) Great Cases of Clarence Darrow. It touches on the end of his life, covering these 3 landmark cases, (Leopold and Loeb, Scopes Trial, Ossian Sweet) at at a high level, his relationships with his wife and former mistress. Highly recommended for any court watcher or fan of history.

I'm a little way into A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia by Thomas Keneally. It's really interesting so far, and giving lots of background about the roots of transportation and how much of it went from England to the United States (of course in school they tell you about indentured servants, but don't point out that many of them were criminals forcibly transported and then sold at auction in the states).

This is great I'm a huge Darrow fan so this one is going on my to read list.

I'm nearly finished with Beaten, Seared and Sauced, story of the author's time as a student at the Culinary Institute of America - a brutal experience that'd lead me to bow, and utter "All hail!" if I were to meet a graduate! Perhaps it's because I went back to school at nearly 40, as Dixon does here, but I really identified with him. Highly recommended!

My current reading includes When a Billion Chinese Jump by Jonathan Watts, All Things Must Fight to Live by Bryan Mealer, Blood, Iron, and Gold by Christian Wolmar, and The Oil Kings by Andrew Scott Cooper (I'm the sort who tends to have several books going at once).

Where China Meets India (Burma and the Closing of the Great Asian Frontier), which I'm finding easier to get into than I'd feared. Author is a grandson of former U. N. Sec-Gen U Thant.

I'm listening to All Creatures Great and Small. I definitely need some nice, light non-fiction sometimes!

I'm reading When I Was A Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson. The essays are great; she writes nonfiction as well as she writes fiction and I just want to start grabbing strangers on the streets and reading them quotes from the book. My friends and co-workers are getting tired of it.

Reading my ER Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn about, yep, running in Kenya with Kenyans. Great little read.

Currently listening to Musicophilia, reading Drift & Kindle version of The Best American Non-Required Reading 2011.

>17 Nightrain: - Island at the Center of the World is one of my all-time faves.

Can anyone recommend other Shorto?

I'm reading The Yankee Years by Joe Torre and Joe Verducci, although so far it seems to be entirely written by Verducci, meaning that it's written as a history, with liberal quotes from Torre, rather than as a memoir.

I just started Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer, and I'm looking forward to discussing it at my book club.

I'm over half-way through The Adventure of English which I'm generally enjoying (though there have been some questionable statements, such as "Americans still love spelling").

Arrival City: The Final Migration And Our Next World by Doug Saunders. Well-researched. This Canadian journalist has traveled widely internationally to gather material concerning mass migrations of people from the countryside to the city.

I know it has been out for several years, but I'm reading John Grisham's The Innocent Man. It's quite interesting so far, and sad as well. I like it more than I like his novels.

I'm just starting An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: Or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge by John O'Farrell.

>44 TooBusyReading:
My book club read The Innocent Man last year; we had so much to discuss. I liked it more than his novels too.

>46 aya.herron:
I'm reading it for a book club, too, a local club I've not been to before. It does seem like the kind of book that could lead to excellent discussions.

Just getting in to My Father and Other Working-Class Football Heroes by Gary Imlach. Excellent so far.

I just finished The Republican Brain by Chris Mooney and am currently reading The Wichita Divide by Stephen Singular.

I'm starting Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama by Gwen Ifill.

#50> I read Breakthrough a year or so ago and found most of it very interesting. I liked Ifill's writing style, too.

Complimented our move to Philadelphia by reading Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. Good and thorough even if sometimes a bit more detailed than one might want.

I'm currently reading The Moral Lives of Animals, though I don't know if I'll finish it by the end of April.

I'm just about finished with Where China Meets India, a book on Burma's strategic local in relation to those economic giants. Not sure I buy into the author's conclusion, but it's been pretty good as a combination of history and travel narrative.

I'm a little ways into Destiny of the Republic, which is absolutely amazing so far. I like the way it's written, with the author focusing on Garfield, then on Charles Guiteau then on Alexander Graham Bell, etc...

>55 mabith:, I LOVED Destiny of the Republic

I've read and really enjoyed a fair amount of nonfiction this month:
City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist
Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Plus a memoir and some stunt nonfiction:
Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess)
Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection by A.J. Jacobs

I'm also currently in the middle of Brian Clegg's Gravity right now. I'd probably be doing better with it if I'd taken physics more recently.

Devourer - Did you enjoy (maybe not quite the right word!) Nothing to Envy? I really liked that book and was so glad to learn more about North Korea.

I'm stingy with my five-stars, but Nothing to Envy definitely made it up there, especially the audiobook.

Hi All. I just joined this group because my reading has shifted a bit in the last couple of years and I'm reading more NF than ever. This could be a good group to find recommendations and reviews. So far I don't have any particular pattern of NF except that I am very interested in Greco-Roman history, but I read whatever interests me. I think next up might be something on the history and discovery of the Gilgamesh epic.

On the heels of March's NF book - The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan, I just finished The Poison King (The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy by Adrienne Mayor. I knew little about either and now I think I might know too much. : )

Welcome Bookmarque!

>57 mkboylan:,

I certainly found it fascinating, Demick is a mesmerizing storyteller. The weirdest experience was reading it in the same room where my husband was watching HGTV's Million Dollar Spaces; crazy juxtaposition.

I'm reading The Essential Gnostic Gospels by Alan Jacobs.

I'm reading The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge.

I just finished Child of the Jungle after checking it out from the library. I thought it was very interesting and also sent copies to two female relatives who are animal lovers. Thanks to MKboylad for recommending the book here on LT and reassuring me of its "shock proof" value as a gift. ;-)

Currently in progress: Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer, Yellow Dirt by Judy Pasternak and Mendel in the Kitchen by Nina Fedoroff.

#66> I loved Washington's Crossing. I read it right after 1776. They went really well together.

#67 I also enjoyed Washington's Crossing particularly since we lived 8 miles north of where the crossing was made at the time I read it. They reenact it every Christmas Day which makes for an interesting Christmas tradition.

Finished an ER book, Masters of the Planet. It was an excellent overview of where paleontology is now in understanding the origins of modern humans. It comments on some of the many controversies without getting bogged down in them, readily admitting the gaps in our knowledge. In fact, the author insists on not jumping to conclusions and presenting conjectures as exactly that. It has been some 20 years since l last visited the subject and I was impressed by the progress and the discoveries that have been made over that time.

>67 rocketjk: & 68: I finished the book yesterday and agree with you both--it's excellent.

My current reading also includes Film Noir: The Directors edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini.

65 Glad you liked Child of the Jungle I think it was Bookwoman247 whose post caught my interest in it. Hope your friends like it also.

>37 jfetting: I read When I was a child I read books over the weekend and totally agree, great essays, very stirring. I almost want to go back and read Leviticus. (Actually, I read the Bible daily and I try to work through the parts I'm unfamilar with, so I'm in the middle of Jeremiah, and if I ever finish, maybe then Leviticus.)

I'm working on the nice, short Europe Under the Old Regime and wondering how Mr. Sorel's views might have changed if he'd seen the first half of the 20th century.

Reading Richard Fortey's fascinating Horseshoe Crabs And Velvet Worms: The Animals And Plants That Time Has Left Behind.

While at the local white elephant store yesterday I purchased a mint-condition, hardcover copy of David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing for $0.50.

Just started The English Village: History and Traditions by Martin Wainwright. Looks like a very interesting book, each chapter is broken down by different aspects of the village. Looking forward to getting into it!