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Posts from the ‘non-fiction’ Category

27
Nov

#NonFicNov wk 5 Thanks for sharing your books!

 

Week 5: (Nov. 26 to 30) – New to My TBR (Katie @ Doing Dewey): It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book

 

  1. Here is my list of YOUR books….that I want to read (TBR).
  2. It’s important to read outside of your experience,
  3. …outside of your time,
  4. …outside of your comfort zones.
  5. That is the most important take-away  #NonFicNov!

 

  1. I’ve sifted through 73 posts and
  2. …always found 2 books I’d like...
  3. …be it about:
  4. …theatre, mental health, race, parenting and play, politics
  5. …memoir, foodie, travel, basic income, health issues, women’s rights
  6. …US First ladies, true crime (…not my comfort zone!)
  7. …essayism, perfect storms, tsunami’s, or inspirational books
  8. …like Educated, Tools of the Titans, In praise of Slow,
  9. …Daring Greatly
  10. …Living alone and Liking it and
  11. …C. Strayed’s Wild.

 

  • Thanks  to the readers for sharing your best non-fiction!
  • Thanks to hosts…
  1. Sarah at Sarah’s Book Shelves, 
  2. Katie at Doing Dewey, 
  3. Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness,
  4. Julz at Julz Reads,
  5. Rennie at What’s Nonfiction
  6. #NonFicNov

 

Jade@ReadingWithJade

  1. Silence: In the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge
  2. One Woman Walks Wales by Ursula Martin

Kazan @AlwaysDoing

  1. Command and Contorl – E. Schlosser
  2. The Clothing of Books – J. Lahiri

Angela @LiteraryWanderer

  1. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry – N. deGrasse Tyson
  2. In Harms Way – D. Stanton

Kate @BooksAreMyFavoriteAndBest

  1. Eggshell Skull – Bri Lee
  2. My Salinger Year – J. Rakhoff

Julie @JulzReads

  1. Hell is S Green – Lt. W. Diebold
  2. The Unexpected Truth About Animals – L. Cooke

Allison @MindJoggle

  1. Prairie Fires – C. Fraser
  2. Unbroken – L. Hillenbrand

Rachel @Hibernator’sLibrary

  1. Killers of the Moon Flower – D. Grann
  2. Them – B. Sasse

Sue @WhisperingGums

  1. House of Grief – H. Garner
  2. Isaac’s Storm – E. Larson

Cathy @746Books

  1. The Empty Space – P.  Brook
  2. What is Theatre? – E. Bentley

Helen @SheReadsNovels

  1. A Tudor Christmas – A. Weir
  2. The Plantagenets – D. Jones

Debbie Rogers@ExUrbanis

  1. In Pursuit of  Memory – J. Jebelli
  2. The Paper Garden – M. Peacock

Emma @WordsAndPeace

  1. Democracy in Chains – N. MacLean
  2. Fear – B. Woodward

Tina @ TbrEtc

  1. Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
  2. I‘d Rather Be Reading – A. Bogel

Katherine @TheWriterlyReader

  1. NeuroTribes – S. Silberman
  2. Thunderstruck – E. Larson

Deb Nance @Readerbuzz

  1. Leonardo da Vinci – W. Isaacson
  2. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of The Supreme Court – J. Toobin

Ellie @CuriosityKilledTheBookworm

  1. The Idiot Brain – D. Burnett
  2. Born a Crime – T. Noah

Raidergirl3 @AnAdventureInReading

  1. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark – M. McNamara
  2. The Ghost Map – S. Johnson

Reese @Typings

  1. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – F. Douglass
  2. Essayism – B. Dillon

Rory @LiteraryMixtape

  1. Fire Season – P. Connors
  2. John Muir and the Ice That Started a fire

Margaret @BooksPlease

  1. Painting as a Pastime – W. Churchill
  2. Why We Sleep – M. Walker

Tara @Running ‘n’ Reading

  1. The Line Becomes a River – F. Cantú
  2. Educated – T. Westover

Brona @Brona’sBooks

  1. Ghosts of the Tsunami – R. Parry
  2. The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire – C. Hooper

Iliana @Bookgirl’s Nightstand

  1. How to Travel Without Seeing:  Dispatches New Latin America – A. Neuman/J.Lawrence
  2. Code Girls – L. Mundy

Sarah @Sarah’s Bookshelves

  1. I Am. I Am, I Am – M. O’Farrell
  2. Red Notice – B. Browder

Tina says @BooksAreMyThing

  1. The Newcomers – H. Thorpe
  2. Shoe Dog – P. Knight

Louise @AStrongBeliefInWicker

  1. The Art of Frugal Hedonism – A. Raser-Rowland
  2. The Art of Living Alone and Loving It – J. Mathews

Susie @NovelVisits

  1. From the Corner of the Oval – B. Dorey-Stein
  2. Forty Autumns – N. Willner

Rennie @What’sNonfiction?

  1. The Library Book – S. Orlean
  2. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen – L. Colwin

Andi @Estellasrevenge

  1. We Were Eight Years in Power – Ta-Nehisi Coates
  2. Eloquent Rage – B. Cooper

Paula @BookJotter

  1. Why Do  Birds Suddenly Disappear – L. Parikian
  2. Suffragette: The Battle for Equality – D. Roberts

Michael @InexhaustibleInvitations

  1. Hunger – R. Gay
  2. Hope in the Dark – R. Solnit

Nikimags @SecretLibraryBlog

  1. The Light in the Dark – H. Clare
  2. If They Only Didn’t Speak English – J. Sopel

Valorie Grace Hailinan @BooksCanSaveALife

  1. Great Tide Rising – K. Moore
  2. The Wilderness Warrior – D. Brinkley

Stacey @UnrulyReader

  1. Heating Cooling: 52 Micro Memoirs – B. Fennelly
  2. We’re Going to Need More Wine – G. Union

Maphead @Maphead’sBookblog

  1. Playing With Fire – L. O’ Donnell
  2. When They Come for Us We’ll be Gone – G. Beckerman

Melissa @I’dRatherBeAtPemberley

  1. War on Peace – Ronan Farrow
  2. So You Want to Talk About Race – I. Olou

B.I.P @BuriedInPrint

  1. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus – C. Mann
  2. Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World’s Most Seductive Sweet – C Off

Dana @LittleLovelyBooks

  1. Sons and Soldiers – B. Henderson
  2. Never Caught – E. Dunbar

Lou @LouLouReads

  1. The Vaccine Race – M. Wadman
  2. The Radium Girls – K. Moore

JoAnn @LakesideMusing

  1. Waking Up White – D. Irving
  2. White Fragility – R. DiAngelo

Kelly @StackedBooks

  1. All You Can Ever Know – N. Chung
  2. A Dream Called Home – R. Grande

Eva @ThePaperbackPrincess

  1. The Blood of Emmett Till – T. Tyson
  2. Shrewed – E. Renzetti

Kay @WhatMeRead

  1. The Last White Rose – D. Seward
  2. (posted only 1 book)

Karen @BookerTalk

  1. Do No Harm – H. Marsh
  2. The Wicked Boy – K. Summerscale

Carrie @Other WomensStories

  1. Betty Ford – L. McCubbin
  2. Upstairs at the White House – J.B. West

Jean @HowlingFrog

  1. Danubia – S. Winder
  2. Meeting the Remarkable Manuscripts – C. de Hamel

Brandy @ReadingBeyond

  1. Factfulness – Hans Rosling
  2. Destiny of the Republic – C. Millard

Melissa @MelissaFirman

  1. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing – D. Pink
  2. On Writing: A. Memoir of the Craft – S. King

Heather @BasedOnATrueStory

  1. Have Dog Will Travel – S. Kuusisto
  2. The New Farm – B. Preston

Amanda @GunInActOne

  1. A Higher Loyalty – James Comey
  2. Killing Pablo – M. Bowden

O @QuaintAndCuriousVolumes

  1. Virginia Woolf – M. Whitworth
  2. The Letters of Vriginia Woolf vol 1

Rita @BookishRita

  1. Eating Animals – J. Foer
  2. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Y. Harari

Katie @DoingDewey

  1. Black Ink – S. Stokes
  2. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicone Valley Startup – J. Carreyrou

Sue @BookByBook

  1. H is for Hawk – H. MacDonald
  2. Happiness is a Choice You Make – J. LeLand

Dee @Dee’sBookblog

  1. The Sun Does Shine – A. Hinton
  2. Bloodsworth – T. Junkin

Lisa @ANZLitLovers

  1. Letting Go – C. Corke
  2. 1947: When Now Begins – E. Åsbrink

Lance @SportsBookGuy

  1. I could not find a #NonFicNov post
  2. ….just a few of his sportbook reviews (..ho…hum)

Jaymi @OrangeCountyReaders

  1. Behind Enemy Lines – M. Cohn
  2. Ghost in the Wires – K. Mitnick

Sharlene @RealLifeReading

  1. The Diary of a Bookseller – S. Bythell
  2. (I read her other books!)

Beth @Bibliobeth

  1. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers – M. Roach
  2. Mapping the Mind – R. Carter

MaryR @BibliographicManifestations

  1. Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell – D. Yaffe
  2. Soul Food: The Suprising Story of Ameican Cuisine – A. Miller

Cathy @WhatCathyReadNext

  1. Darkest Hour: How Churchill Brought England Back from the Brink – A. McCarten
  2. Memory-Hold-The-Door – J. Buchan

Heather @Gofita’sPages

  1. These Truths: A History of the US (chunkster!) – Jill Lepore
  2. The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote – E. Weiss

Juliana @The[Blank]Garden

  1. A Secret Sisterhood – E. Midorikawa
  2. These Ghostly Archives: The Unearthing of Sylvia Plath – G. Crowther

Molly @SilverButtonBooks

  1. Grit – A. Duckworth
  2. 1000 Books to read Before You Die (2018) – J. Mustich

Lynn @Smoke&Mirrors

  1. The New Jim Crow – M. Alexander
  2. The Boys in the Boat – D.J. Brown

Hannah @TheCozyReadingNook

  1. Bringing Up Bébé – P. Druckerman
  2. Play: how it shapes the Brain – S. Brown jr.

Rebecca @BookishBeck

  1. The Book of Separation – T. Mirvis
  2. Memories of a Catholic Childhood – M. McCarthy

Katheleen @SMS NonfictionBookReviews

  1. There’s a Boy in Here – J. Barron
  2. Making Peace with Autism – S. Senator

Lory @TheEmeraldCity

  1. I Don’t Want to Talk About It – T. Real
  2. Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales – M. von Franz

Joli @LiteraryQuicksand

  1. Educated – T. Westover
  2. (posted only 1 book)

Kim @SophisticatedDorkiness

  1. Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama – D. Pfeiffer
  2. West Wingers – G. Raghavan

Vera @UnfilteredTales

  1. Tools of Titans – T. Ferris
  2. Daring Greatly – B. Brown

 

Reserve list:

  1. Just Mercy
  2. The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our Brain
  3. American Radical
26
Nov

Best Australian Science Writing 2018

 

  1. Robyn Arianrhod –  Quantum Entanglement  “spooky action at a distance”
  2. Does quantum physics melt your brain?
  3. Don’t panic. You’re not alone.
  4. I’m still confused.

 

  1. Alicia Sometimes – Kilonova   (review)
  2. stunning poem and I added a video to the review!

 

  1. Nick O’Malley – Bureaucratic Bungle
  2. This reads like “fiction”….a who dunnit and why?
  3. Who destroys the memory of the plant?
  4. Would you burn the Mona Lisa?

 

  1. Michael Lucy – The Entangled Web  – Micius Satellite
  2. Quantum entanglement —physics at its strangest—
  3. …it seems this is a trendy subject!
  4. has moved out of this world and into space.
  5. Micius sends quantum particles to ground
  6. …stations separated by 1200 kilometers
  7. smashing the previous world record.
  8. The result is a stepping stone to a
  9. …space-based ‘unhackable’ quantum internet!
  10. Michael Lucy uses simple example to explain complex quantum theory.
  11. Now I’m starting to understand the basics of entanglement…
  12. …there’s still hope for this less confused reader.
  13. Now: bits out of a computer
  14. Future: qubits  (..good word for scrabble)…out of a quantum computer!

 

Richard Guilliaat – The Quantum Queen

  1. Quantum physicist Michelle Simmons (51 yr)  was
  2. …declared Australian of the Year 2018.
  3. If building a quantum computer is not enough…
  4. …she is also the mother of three children!
  5. This interview with Ms Simmons just made me so proud
  6. of women choosing science and
  7. ….family  and becoming the best!

Other favorites:

  1. Jo Chandler – Journalist of the year 2017 Walkley Awards
  2. Ms Chandler tells us about the last battle against polio
  3. Michael Slezak – Is Ian Cured?
  4. Andrew Leigh – Placebo effects and sham surgeries
  5. Peter Dockrill – seafaring trapdoor spiders
  6. Fiona McMillan – reveals secrets about Paris gutters (jick)!
  7. Ashley Hay – Leonie, zebra shark is world news!
  8. Liam Mannix – edible drugs from lettuce….that’s amazing!
  9. Elizabeth Finkel – Editor-in-chief Cosmos magazine
  10. In this book she reveals some bad science involving
  11. cannabis treatments!
  12. Ms. Finkel won QLD Premier’s Literary Award 2004  for her
  13. article about Stem cells.
  14. Rick Shine – Toad invasion…man the battle stations…
  15. science written with a flair for humor. #MustRead

 

Conclusion:

  1. This is a  treasure trove of topics!
  2. The essays and poems show us that
  3. …art and science feed off each other.
  4. I have given you a taste for what lies ahead
  5. in the rest of the book.
  6. Best Australian Science Writing 2018
  7. would be a great Christmas present
  8. …for that amateur scientist on your list!
  9. #EyeOpener

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I read the introduction to this anthology on the train.
  2. While walking home…
  3. I took Stephen Hawking’s advice:
  4. “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet!“
23
Nov

#Non-fiction: Evicted: Poverty and Profit

 

Who is Matthew Desmond?

  1. Matthew Desmond is a sociologist and  Professor of the
  2. …Social Sciences at Harvard University.
  3. In 2015, Desmond was awarded a MacArthur  ‘Genius Grant’
  4. …because Desmond has shown  extraordinary
  5. ..originality and dedication in his creative pursuits.

 

What is the book about?

  1. Matthew Desmond centers on eight Milwaukee Wisconsion
  2. families faced with losing their homes.
  3. He analyzes how an increase in evictions has affected
  4. …residents of America’s poorest cities.
  5. In larger cities like Washington D.C. the wait for
  6. ….public housing was counted in decades.
  7. A mother of a young child who put her name on the list
  8. …might be a grandmother by the time her application was reviewed.
  9. How can this happen in one of the richest countries on earth?
  10. The book also give us the landlord’s point of view.
  11. Many landlords were fearful of renting to poor residents in these neighborhoods.
  12. Landlord Sherrena knew that it could be extremely profitable.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Arleen: she had 2 small children  Jafaris (5) and Jori (13).
  2. They had been evicted 3 x within 4 months.
  3. Arleen tried hard to make her livings quarters….a home.
  4. She did her best.
  5. Strong point:  Desmond does not only gives the reader a glimpse into
  6. …this side of life for many people
  7. ….he also suggests solutions for the problems.
  8. Arleen’s  favorite song was : ‘Keep Ya Head Up’.
  9. After I finished the book I sat and listened to
  10. 2PAC for the first time in my life.
  11. I followed the lyrics and listened.
  12. It is the essence of this book….’Keep Ya Head Up’.
  13. If you have the time…..
  14. …listen to the audio  4 min song.
  15. You won’t forget it.
  16. Poor black men were locked up (prison)
  17. …poor black women were locked out (evicted).

 

Last thoughts:

  1. My general feeling about the book?
  2. It was depressing…I was shocked how many people
  3. …struggle to keep a roof above their heads.
  4. Some people spend 80% monthly income on housing.
  5. What is left?

 

19
Nov

#NonFicNov week 4 Reads Like Fiction

  • Author: Carlo Levi (1902-1975)
  • Title: Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year
  • Published: 1945   (275 pg)
  • Genre: memoir
  • Trivia: Matera (setting book)
  • Some of the scenes from Mel Gibson’s
  • …Passion of the Christ were filmed here.
  • List of Challenges 2018
  • Monthly plan
  • Non-Fiction Reading List
  • #NonFicNov

 

Week 4: (Nov. 19 to 23) – Reads Like Fiction (Rennie @ What’s Nonfiction): Nonfiction books often get praised for how they stack up to fiction. Does it matter to you whether nonfiction reads like a novel? If it does, what gives it that fiction-like feeling? Does it depend on the topic, the writing, the use of certain literary elements and techniques?

 

  • I have selected Christ Stopped at Eboli
  • …which is rarely seen on reading lists.
  • What gives this book it that fiction-like feeling?
  • Top-notch writing….absolutely breathtaking!

 

Introduction:

  1. Every Italian schooled in Italy has read
  2. …Carlo Levi’s book Christ Stopped at Eboli.
  3. Eboli is a town just south of Salerno in Southern Italy.
  4. Once you go south past Amalfi, you enter the REAL Italy.
  5. Carlo Levi was a doctor, a writer and painter who originally
  6. …lived in Turin in the northern province of Piedmont.
  7. He was an outspoken opponent to the creeping Fascism.
  8. Because he was not quiet about his beliefs,
  9. Levi was sent into exile for two years to a tiny southern Italian hill town
  10. …in the southern province of Lucania called Aliano.

 

Why was this book so important in 1940s?

  1. Levi’s writings went on to shed light on what was later called the Shame of Italy.
  2. The Shame of Italy was the fact that the
  3. …people of the nearby hill town of Matera lived in abject squalor.
  4. Levi’s book caused an uproar
  5. The people of Matera were moved out and into government built houses.
  6. They were provided food and medicine.

 

What does the title mean?

  1. Locals told Levi that “Cristo si e Fermata A Eboli”.
  2. Christ stopped at Eboli, north of them and
  3. ….not even Christ himself had cared to come this far south.

 

Conclusion:

  1. This is an account of anti-fascist Carlo Levi’s exile
  2. 1935-1936 in the peasant village of Aliano.
  3. In the book the name is changed to Gagliano.
  4. Strong point: Top-notch quality writing.
  5. For example Carlo Levi describes Gagliano:
  6. “…I had a feeling of disgust for the clinging contact
  7. of the ridiculous spider web of their daily life
  8. …dust-covered skein of self-interest.”
  9. But at the end of the book Carlo Levi had difficulty leaving Gagliano.
  10. This book is a gem
  11. …but it has fallen between the cracks!
  12. It is on my list of  TOP-10 books of 2018!
  13. #MustRead….you will not be disappointed!

 

Carlo Levi

 

 

6
Nov

Non-fiction: Pulitzer

 

Trivia:  Portrait of Joseph Pulitzer by J. Singer Sargent

  1. …if cover one eye and you see a tyrant
  2. …cover the other eye you see a unhappy depressed man.
  3. Fascinating.

 

Finished: 06.11.2018
Genre: biography  (31 chapters, 463 pg)
Rating: C
#NonFicNov
Conclusion:    
  1. This book started slowly:
  2. emigration from Hungary odd jobs in USA and
  3. local politics in St. Louis Missouri.
  4. The narrative finally got interesting  in chapter 16
  5. …once Pulitzer became a newspaper mogul in NYC.
  6. Pulitzer was obsessed with control over his empire and literally
  7. worked himself to death.
  8. But what do you do with fame and fortune when your
  9. health problems lock you up in a gilded cage?
  10. #GoodButNotGreat

 

Last thoughts:
The most important lesson I learned?
The Pulitzer Formula:
Write a story so simply that anyone could read it
…and so colorfully that no one would forget it.
29
Oct

#NonFicNov week 1 Top 10 books

  • Week 1: (Oct 29 to Nov 30)
  • Hosted by:
  • Hashtag: #NonficNov
  1. Katie @ Doing Dewey)
  2. Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness
  3. Rennie of What’s Nonfiction
  4. Julz of JulzReads
  5. Sarah of Sarah’s Bookshelves

 

Week 1: (Oct. 29 to Nov. 2)

  1. What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?
  2. Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year?
  3. What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?

 

  • I read 60 non-fiction books in 2018.  Here is my LIST.
  • My TOP 11  non-fiction 2018 are:
  1. The Trauma Cleaner – S. Krasnostein  – memoir  Victorian Premier’s Literary Award  2018
  2. Darkness Visible – W. Styron – memoir
  3. An Ordinary Day – Leigh Sales – memoir
  4. Brit(ish) – A. Hirsch –  memoir
  5. Atomic Thunder – E. Tynan – Prime Minister’s Literary Award 2017  Australian History
  6. Feeling the Heat – J. Chandler – climate –  Walkely Award 2017 best Freelance journalist
  7. James Wright: A Life in Poetry – J. Blunk – biography
  8. Seamus Heaney – H. Vendler – biography
  9. Blood in the Water – H. Thompson – history –  Pulitzer Prize for History 2017
  10. Deep South – P. Theroux –  travel – Shortlist Stanford Travel Book of the Year 2017
  11. Christ Stopped at Eboli – C. Levi – READ – memoir

 

  • Memoir/biography  has captured my attention this year.
  • These are books that stay with me months after reading them.
  • Three of the four memoirs were written by women.
  • Writers who have struggled identity, depression  and one’s mortality.

 

I choose 3 books that I have recommended the most:

 

The Trauma Cleaner – Sarah Krasnostein (memoir)

  1. Who is Sandra/Peter?
  2. She is a transgender, a survivor of a dysfunctional childhood, a husband, wife,
  3. father, svelte star of many brothels and a savvy businesswoman.
  4. Sandra’s personal life is a rollercoaster ride of emotion.
  5. Hold on to your hat!
  6. But the chapters alternated with her work as trauma cleaner
  7. …..showing a compassion that just took my breath away.

 

An Ordinary Day – Leigh Sales (memoir)

  1. If you have a pulse…and I know you do
  2. this book will grab you and not let go.
  3. Absolutely inspiring!
  4. Sometimes I have to let a book sink in for a few days
  5. ….and this was one of them.
  6. Leigh Sales managed to make me realize that if you look around your
  7. ‘ordinary days‘…in hindsight they are nothing but miraculous.
  8. Life can change in an instant.

 

James Wright: A Life in Poetry – J. Blunk (biography)

  1. You know how once in a while you run into a book that’s
  2. so good you don’t want it to end,
  3. so you draw read it very slowly?
  4. For me, this is one of those books.
  5. I just had a few pages more to read
  6. ….but stopped and….went to bed.
  7. I just did not want Jimmy to leave me that last night.
  8. James Wright is one of 20th C best poets
  9. …won 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
  10. …and I never heard of him.
  11. He did not walk around, observing the world and
  12. coining apt analogies for what appears most striking.
  13. He suffered to express is emotions.
  14. His story is amazing.

 

 

24
Oct

#Dutch: nr.2 Shortlist Libris History Prize 2018

  • Author: Remieg Aerts
  • Title: Thorbecke Wil Het
  • Published: 2018
  • Trivia: Shortlist Libris Literature Prize 2018  for History
  • Trivia: Winner PrinsjesBoekenprijs 2018  (best political book of the year)

 

Conclusion:

  1. I guess the idiom that best describes Thorbecke is:
  2. “…all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
  3. After reading this monumental biography about the man
  4. who formed modern The Netherlands
  5. ….Thorbecke was far from dull!
  6. It is difficult to compare Thorbecke with any current politician.
  7. He was from another era:
  8. style was singular: we do it my way….or no way
  9. his thinking came from another source… German philosophy
  10. his personality was controversial:
  11. …when Throbecke enters a room, the temperature invariably drops.
  12. The Netherlands is indebted to this great man.
  13. Thorbecke had a vision for Dutch politics.
  14. He always asked himself:
  15. “Did I act and guide the government
  16. for a  better and stronger future?”
  17. As the author so poignantly remarks in this last sentence:
  18. “How many people can honesty ask themselves this question today?

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I’ve lived in The Netherlands for years and everywhere you
  2. see Thorbeckeplein, Thorbeckstraat or Thorbecke School
  3. …but who was this man?
  4. I think 80% if the Dutch know he was important
  5. …but they don’t know why he was
  6. …a pivotal man in Dutch history.
  7. If you are willing to persevere through 763 pages
  8. with an analyses of:
  9. Thorbecke’s intellectual development (early years)
  10. his marriage to Adelheid Solger (one of the greatest love stories 19th C)
  11. the parliamentary culture in The Hague
  12. ….(led a team to create the modern Dutch Constitution 1848)
  13. his leadership (Thorbecke PM 1849 – 1872)
  14. …you will discover a man who towered above all others.
  15. Weak point: book is  massive, difficult to balance in my tired hands!
  16. Strong point: there are many…
  17. ….but the last section pg 738 – 763 is excellent.
  18. Remieg Aerts ties up loose ends as a biographer
  19. …and links Thorbecke’s legacy to our modern times.

 

Shortlist Libris Prize 2018 for History:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19
Sep

Non fiction: Worst book 2018!

 

Quickscan:

I cannot for the life of me understand the high
scores this booked has accrued on Goodreads.com

Reading books that numb my soul
teach me to appreciate how
a good book can change a life!

This books wins the prize.
Worst non-fiction I read in 2018
and here is why…

 

  • If you have the time….here are my notes.
  • If you decide to skip this review
  • …I understand completely!

 

At Table In Paris:

  1. Liebling studied in Paris 1925-1926 and
  2. traveled around Normandy etc.
  3. The stories are filled with references
  4. to buildings and streets he knows well.

 

Paris the First:

  1. Liebling describes his visit to Paris with his parents in 1911
  2. He was 7 years old…and I wonder if a child is a reliable narrator.
  3. While Liebling’s parents dine on French food and wine “en ville’
  4. …he was firmly in the care of a dreaded nanny ‘fraulëin”
  5. This chapter was quaint but awful.
  6. It was an overblown narrative about childhood memories and
  7. fantasies with nanny and family in Paris.
  8. I lost interest about half way through the story.
  9. I hope the dispatches from the WW II years will be better.

 

The War and After:

  1. Unfortunately the reports written during Liebling’s time in Europe
  2. during WW II were disappointing to say the least.
  3. He is still gushing about food and wine and not
  4. enough storytelling about the people. Unbalanced.

 

Letter From Paris June 1940:

  1. Clinical tone…I expected more emotion describing the dread of
  2. invasion of Paris after Holland and Belgium’s swift collapse.
  3. The images I remember from Suite Française (I. Némirovsky)
  4. …are still vivd in my mind.
  5. Liebling did not come close to
  6. describing the angst the Parisians felt with the
  7. Germans standing ready to pounce on the city.

 

Westbound Tanker:

  1. Trip from England in convoy sailing to
  2. …Port Arthur Texas during WW II.
  3. This story was just pointless
  4. …waste of my reading time.

 

Quest for Mollie:

  1. This was not a WW II dispatch…..it was a novella!
  2. I just cannot understand the praise given to
  3. Liebling’s WW II correspondance.
  4. His stories are too long…and I cannot find a moment
  5. the hook ” that captures my attention.
  6. This is yet another chapter that I have started in good faith
  7. …and ended up being disappointed.

 

Days with the Daydaybay:

  1. Long description of Liebling’s
  2. ….walk around the streets of the Sorbonne.
  3. He recalls his student days there.
  4. Long description of Liebling’s entry into liberated Paris.
  5. The narrative includes his fellow reporters from other
  6. newspapers: Jack Roach and A. Morrison.
  7. This was one of the better stories….but still too, too long.
  8. Details, details and more details that numbed this reader.

 

The Hounds with Sad Voices:

  1. Liebling returns to Normandy (1957) and is
  2. searching for a chateau. All he can remember is
  3. the sound of hounds with sad voices near the building.
  4. But as always Liebling’s days end in restaurants.
  5. This is yet anothr gastronomic exposition….ho-hum.
  6. It is no surprise that Liebling loved his food and drink.
  7. He drank and ate excessively and reached a weight of 250 lbs.
  8. He sufferd gout in the later years of his life.
  9. He died at the young age of 59 yr.

 

City Life: The Jollity Building …and the rest of the stories

  1. The last half of the book describes
  2. …colorful promoters, boxers, trips to the
  3. ….Place Bar & Grill.
  4. Liebling loved the horses so we also
  5. read about the Turf & Field Club and Belmont Racetrack.
  6. Eating again…

 

Conclusion:

  1. Libeling wrote for The New Yorker magazine so
  2. we can assume he was a good writer.
  3. But in my opinion the stories were too long and
  4. the pace was slow because of downpour of
  5. details that inundated this reader.
  6. Liebling’s vivid descriptions of boxing matches
  7. and other sporting events are of a bygone era.
  8. It did not interest me at all.
  9. In truth…I read 60% of the book…then skimmed the rest.
  10. I was glad when I could close the book.
  11. #SoDisappointed
  12. Reading books that numb my soul
  13. teache me to appreciate how
  14. a good book can change a life!
  15. This books wins the prize.
  16. Worst non-fiction I read in 2018….so far!
12
Sep

#AWW 2018 Atomic Thunder (NF)

 

Who is  Elizabeth Tynan?

  1. Elizabeth Tynan is a science writer and academic
  2. at the James Cook University  in Queensland, Australia.
  3. She completed a PhD on aspects of British nuclear testing in Australia.

 

What is Atomic Thunder about?

  1. Britain wanted to join the nuclear club.
  2. Britain needed Australia’s geographic assets (testing ground)
  3. …and its distance from the British electorate.
  4. Britain conducted three atomic explosions at
  5. the Monte Bello Islands off the coast of Western Australia
  6. …and nine at Maralinga and Emu.
  7. This book chronicles the scandals that ensued:
  8. 1950 Australian prime minister Robert Menzies
  9. agreed to atomic tests without informing his government
  10. the overall levels and distribution of radioactivity
  11. …that wreaked havoc on Indigenous communities
  12. …and turned the land into a radioactive wasteland
  13. the uncovering of the extensive secrecy around British testing
  14. This book is the most comprehensive account of the whole saga.
  15.  After the British departed they left an unholy mess behind.

 

Conclusion:

 

Strong point:

  1. Mw Tynan shows in the last chapters
  2. the transformation Australia society has endured.
  3. What a difference a generation makes
  4. …layers of secrecy and inertia are lifted!
  5. Investigative journalists and media are not
  6. ….interested in comforting the powerful
  7. No more stonewalling….
  8. The people of Australia demand accountability!

Quote: pg 290

  • “Britain knew in the 1960’s that radioactivity at its former nucelar
  • test site in Australia was worse than first thought.
  • But it did not tell the Australians.“

Quote: pg 300

  • “Australia in the 1950s and early 1960s was essentially
  • ….an atomic banana republic…
  • useful only for its resources…especially uranium and land.”
  • Chilling and selfish attitude of Britain
  • treating Australia as a lackey. Disgraceful

 

Last thoughts:

  1. The whole story is shocking but while I was reading
  2. chapter 9 Clean-ups and Cover-ups I  put my hands
  3. over my lips in absolute horror.
  4. Clean up crews were working 12-hr shifts scooping
  5. up topsoil that was liberally
  6. …dotted with plutonium-contaminated fragments.
  7. No-one says any thing about this to George Owen (British Army recruit).
  8. After 5 months working at Maralinga he is discharged.
  9. Soon after he notices strange growths on his hands.
  10. This is plutonium-239….
  11. 1 millionth of a gram may be sufficient to
  12. cause lung cancer if inhaled.
  13. How much dust did Owen inhale?
  14. Speechless….
  15. #MustRead
  16. PS…I read it in one day…could NOT put it own!

 

 

 

 

7
Sep

Classic: Mary Wollstonecraft

 

Feedback  for Cleo Classical Carousel

Mary never had a formal education and she taught herself by
reading and working for a Scottish publication ‘Analytical Review’.
She wrote in her ‘peak’ 30 reviews per issue. Now that is a lot of reading…thinking….and writing. I guess she did like ‘namedropping’ .
Mary thought education/understanding (SENSE) was the touchstone…the standard by which judgement was made….and not as was the case by many women
being influenced by a gush of emotion! (SENSIBILITY)
This book needs a good eye to skim the ‘padding’ and get the Wollstonecraft’s important message. chapters 1-5 are the longest….then is it much easier.
One of my favorite chapters was 11 ‘Duty of Parents ( easy read and very short)
“The parent forms the heart and enlarges the
understanding of his child, has given the discharge of a duty.”

 

Introduction:

  1. A Vindication of the Rights of Women
  2. …is a document of 85.000 words (13 chapters, 222 pages)
  3. Wollstonecraft is an unusually repetitive writer
  4. ….and  a lover of long quotes from Rousseau!
  5. This work could be condensed by 90 %
  6. …with no great amount of her sense lost.

 

Who was Mary Wollstonecraft?

  1. An in depth portrait of the author can be found  here
  2. A self-taught London teacher, Mary
  3. ….and her sister Eliza became convinced
  4. that the girls they attempted to enlighten
  5. were already enslaved by a social training
  6. that subordinated them to men
  7. At the heart of Vindication of the Rights of Woman
  8. are the twin virtues of freedom of thought and devotion to family.

 

What is The Vindications  in a nut shell?

  1. The document is a response to the many
  2. ‘Conduct Manuals’ circulating at the time.
  3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Emilius; Or, An Essay On Education. (1763)
  4. Dr. James Fordyce: Sermons To Young Women (1766)
  5. Dr. John Gregory: A Father’s Legacy To His Daughters (1774)
  6. Baroness De Stael: Corinne (1807)
  7. Mrs. Piozzi: Letters To And From The Late Samuel Johnson LL.D. (1788)
  8. Madame De Genlis: Adelaide And Theodore (1783)
  9. Hester Chapone: Letters On The Improvement Of The Mind (1773)
  10. Catherine Macaulay: Letters On Education (1790)

 

Reading strategy:   16 hours total reading

  1. Read the chapters preferably early in the day
  2. …with some strong coffee
  3. …when your mind is fresh.
  4. Wollstonecraft defends women
  5. against anti-feminist poets, clergymen,
  6. physicians and philosophers!
  7. She had read them all!
  8. Ch  1-3  – I took it slowly…just one chapter a day. = 5 hours
  9. Ch 4 – 5 = 5 hr
  10. Ch 6-7-8-9  took only 2,5 hours to read.
  11. I’m learning to skim..many extra paragraphs that
  12. are written to illustrate a single point
  13. example: ch 8: men becoming soldiers and statesmen
  14. or women who need representative is government.
  15. MW loves to elaborate on a proverbs
  16. …and more episodical observations.
  17. Ch 10-11-12-13 = 3,5 hr

 

Trivia:

  1. Novels, music, poetry, and gallantry,
  2. all tend to make women the creatures of sensation.
  3. Wollstonecraft: rejected the sentimental novel’s depiction of women
  4. silly shallow creature of emotion.
  5. Jane Austen: never mentioned Wollstonecraft by name
  6. …but several of her novels contain positive
  7. allusions to Wollstonecraft’s work….especially  Sense and Sensibllity!
  8. Wollstonecraft:
  9. “ …reason is absolutely necessary to enable a woman to perform any duty properly,
  10. .. and I must again repeat, that sensibility is not reason!”

 

Conclusion:

  1. This was a great read….it really was!
  2. Warning: You just cannot rush the reading…it is too dense!
  3. I had to get used Wollstonecraft’s style
  4. She uses the ‘ask questions style.
  5. chapter 5 – 75 questions
  6. chapter 12  –  (31x)
  7. chapter 13 – (29x)
  8. You have been warned!
  9. After reading 8 chapters
  10. ….I realized Wollstonecraft’s book
  11. is filled with self-indulgent verbiage.
  12. It is exasperating to read at times.
  13. Now I’ve decided to read the chapter
  14. selecting the CORE idea from each paragraph.
  15. I’m letting the rants against Rousseau flits by.
  16. Redundant questions per chapter
  17. …are getting only a glance from me.
  18. I get it….Wollstonecraft and Rousseau
  19. ….will never see eye to eye!
  20. I’ve finally finished A Vindication of the Rights of Women
  21. …and feel sad.
  22. I only wish I was given this piece of literature as a
  23. sophomore in high-school.
  24. It would have enlightened me more than the
  25. Catholic nuns who were part of the
  26. “pestiferous purple (pg 83)…which renders the
  27. progress of civilization a curse, and warps the understanding.”

 

  1. Wollstonecraft was well-read..for a woman of her times!
  2. Here are a few on the items she mentions:
  3. Milton
  4. Lord Francis Bacon
  5. Shakespeare: Hamlet
  6. Thomas Day: British author
  7. Job 38:11
  8. Matthew 25: 14-30 the parable of the five talents
  9. Philippians 4:7
  10. Mr David Hume
  11. S. Richardson (Clarissa)
  12. King Louis XIV
  13. Dr. Adam Smith: Scottish philosopher (Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759)
  14. Gottfried von Leibniz (1646-1716) German philosopher
  15. Sir Edwin Sandys, English politician
  16. Lord Chesterfield’s Letters: (on education)
  17. Dryden
  18. Vicesimus Knox (1752-1821) essayist, headmaster, Anglican priest
  19. Lucretia: ancient Roman noblewoman
  20. Cerberus
  21. Dr. S. Johnson
  22. John Locke
  23. Jonathan Swift
  24. Charles James Fox, politician (1749-1806)
  25. Alexander Pope: 1743, Epistle to a Lady
  26. Cato
  27.  WHEW!!

 

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