Non Fiction being currently read

count-down-9781982113667_lg.jpg


Median human sperm counts are trending to zero by 2045, which seems either bad for us or good for the environment. Just starting this one.
 
Reading three World War II reference books:

Corporal Hitler and the Great War 1914-1918 (John F. Williams)
Herman Goering - Fighter Ace: The World War I Career of Germany's Most Infamous Airman (Peter Kilduff)
Heinrich Himmler: A Life (Peter Lungerich)
 
Nora Ephron: all her collected essays. A wickedly clever observer of the modern world who writes exceedingly well.
 
Trollheart said:
Reading three World War II reference books:

Corporal Hitler and the Great War 1914-1918 (John F. Williams)
Herman Goering - Fighter Ace: The World War I Career of Germany's Most Infamous Airman (Peter Kilduff)
Heinrich Himmler: A Life (Peter Lungerich)
Click to expand...
ObSFF: Have you ever read Norman Spinrad's book The Iron Dream?
 
AtramentousFlux said:
count-down-9781982113667_lg.jpg


Median human sperm counts are trending to zero by 2045, which seems either bad for us or good for the environment. Just starting this one.
Click to expand...
She had an article in the Guardian recently. Sobering stuff.
This topic was new in the 1990s when I was writing the third draft of my debut Memory Seed. In New Scientist, there were reports of feminisation of male animals etc. We are polluting our world in all sorts of terrible ways...
 
Currently reading We Are Bellingcat, by Eliot Higgins. In The Guardian's words: "a gripping account of how he reinvented reporting for the internet age". Although not quite as gripping as a good novel, it is certainly entertaining and a fascinating insight in (the added value of) open source investigative journalism.
 
Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie: by Lisa Napoli.
If you listen to NPR you'll know why it is interesting. My two favorite NF reviewers (The NYT and Miz Pogo) each said that it gets to be more of a recounting of events than a biography as it continues. However I am half way through and still find it enthralling.
 
o-1719f5fe-27a6-4225-84f4-1cd4ed2ccfe6.jpg


This is the podcast and website by a graduate student that evolved into the book by the PhD. In Defense of Plants is like the Cosmos of botany. Matt Candeias makes deep botanical questions issues approachable and interesting. His own fascination with the subject carries you along into ideas about ecology and evolutionary biology that you might have never considered. Great book, that I would recommend to anyone interested in plants.

The book can be obtained from the usual e-tailers, or ordered from the website. One can also read the blog or subscribe to the podcast:

In Defense of Plants

In Defense of Plants is brought to you by ecologist and botany-enthusiast, Matt Candeias, and aims to inspire people to care about plants as organisms.
www.indefenseofplants.com www.indefenseofplants.com
 
Infrequently dipping into Jack London, Hemingway and the Constitution, a collection of essays by E. L. Doctorow. His discussion of Nixon to Reagan to Bush (41) feels extremely timely. His comments on Jack London are insightful, I think, and also on Hemingway, love him or hate him, who Doctorow views as the writer whose work seems to have guided American fiction's direction since the 1920s. His discussion of the U.S. Constitution as a living document written by fallible human beings seems pretty spot on, too.

I really need to tackle Ragtime one of these days.
 
If I've to pick just two which I've been spending the majority of the time - it is Robin Wood's Hitchcock's Films and Trevor Noah's Born a Crime. Robin Wood's work analyzes Hitchcock's movies in general - plots, characters, themes. Wood picks eight Hitchcock films including Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window among others. It is an excellent piece of film criticism and appreciation. Noah's work is a memoir on his life and experiences facing apartheid in South Africa and emigrating to the USA. The ups and downs of Noah's life and his quirky writing makes for a great read.
 
Just finished E. L. Doctorow's Jack London, Hemingway & the Constitution: Selected Essays, which I've been dipping into most of the summer. I've not read Doctorow's novels, so had little idea about him and his writing. Published in 1993, these essays are at times challenging. His discussions of London and Hemingway are thoughtful and interesting to anyone who's read them, and maybe to someone just considering reading them. When he delves into national politics, his dissection of the Nixon, Reagan and Bush (41) years offers up insights and conclusions indicating that even then he saw the trajectory of the national discourse heading toward the current discord. He also gives a reading of the U.S. Constitution as a sort of sacred screed, or perhaps as a document perceived by some as such -- it's an essay I think takes more than one reading to encompass, at least for me. Other essays discuss subjects like what makes a standard (song) and its function, and a more personal essay about his friend, James Wright, whom he met while both attended Kenyon College after WWII, when a combination of the G.I Bill and the presence of John Crowe Ransom made the college briefly more accepting of a wider range of students than it had been (at least, according to Doctorow).
 
Full Disclosure here Nat and His Wife are friends from when I lived on Nantucket Before I retired to Maine His wife was my family's attorney and when he was teaching Sailing I was Teaching Celestial Navigation at the same place. Since he wrote this first book he has become quite famous in his area and it has been fun to read this and see the way his workflow has matured out of this first published book.
Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Amazon.com: Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890 eBook : Philbrick, Nathaniel: Kindle Store

Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890 - Kindle edition by Philbrick, Nathaniel. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People...
www.amazon.com
A book about a tiny island with a huge history, from the New York Times bestselling author of Valiant Ambition and In the Hurricane's Eye.

“For everyone who loves Nantucket Island this is the indispensable book.” —Russell Baker

In his first book of history, Nathaniel Philbrick reveals the people and the stories behind what was once the whaling capital of the world. Beyond its charm, quaint local traditions, and whaling yarns, Philbrick explores the origins of Nantucket in this comprehensive history. From the English settlers who thought they were purchasing a “Native American ghost town” but actually found a fully realized society, through the rise and fall of the then thriving whaling industry, the story of Nantucket is a truly unique chapter of American history.
Click to expand...

Nathaniel Philbrick (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator), Penguin Audio (Publisher)
51bg-QX1taL.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors


We try to keep the forum as free of ads as possible, please consider supporting SFFWorld on Patreon


Your ad here.
Back
Top