Laurie R. King Virtual Book Club discussion

A few of us have posted comments on another thread about interesting non-fiction books we've been looking at and I thought it deserved a thread of it's own.

So tell me, have you read any good non-fiction lately? And what do you like best about non-fiction?

I am finishing QUEEN OF THE DESERT by Georgina Howell. It's a biography of Gertrude Bell. Ms Bell was a fascinating woman: archaeologist, adventurer, writer, explorer, statesman. She was instrumental in the formation of modern Iraq after WWI. Also got a First from Oxford University's Lady Margaret Hall in 2 years. She spoke something like 9 languages.

I am just finishing, from the library, James Burke's The Pinball Effect, a very lively history of scientific inventions and how one discovery affected a near or distant investigator or field. It was written 20 years ago and a lot has happened since then but it was so much fun to read that I have sprung for a copy of my own.

Non-fiction that reads like fiction works best for me, mostly in science and space-related fields. The Right Stuff and The Difference Engine : Charles Babbage And The Quest To Build The First Computer had me on the edge of my seat. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is hilarious and uplifting. I've also enjoyed First Light, The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity and Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End...

In a completely different arena, Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World and Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture are among the most fascinating and eye-opening books I've ever read. They're also great fun.

I was going to say I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but clearly that isn't true. :)

Susan Pola wrote: "I am finishing QUEEN OF THE DESERT by Georgina Howell. It's a biography of Gertrude Bell. Ms Bell was a fascinating woman: archaeologist, adventurer, writer, explorer, statesman. She was instrume..."

Let us know how it is, Pola. I keep seeing it in bookstores and it looks interesting.

I just finished The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science, a well written and put together book on Alexandre Lacassagne (the founder of modern forensics) and Joseph Vacher (a serial killer who makes Jack the Ripper look tame). Absolutely fascinating and Sherlock Holmes is even discussed, critiqued, and compared. Mary Russell would likely agree that Holmes does have a tendency to make flying leaps of deduction...

10 Days in a Madhouse was a great first person account about the reporter Nellie Bly who faked insanity to report on conditions in Blackwell's Asylum in 1887. And Sailing Alone around the World by Joshua Slocum is a first person account of the first man to sail around the world singlehanded.

Next on my list is:
The Making of "Mammy Pleasant": A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco, who is considered 'The Mother of Human Rights in California'.
My Own Story by Fremont Older, a 1926 biography of the editor of the San Francisco Call.
Gaudy Century 1848 - 1948 San Francisco's 100 years fo Robust Journalism, a history of journalism in San Francisco.
The Hatchet Men, San Francisco Chinatown in the days of the Tong Wars.

Sabrina, it was excellent. Very well researched. Lots of primary sources. The book made me want to know more.

Another nonfiction boat that is deservedly getting a lot of attention is by Daniel Brown, The Boys in the Boat, about the racing crew, (and the coaches and boat builder) from the University of Washington that made it to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It's a book I will probably give to my teenage great grand children. It's a great read.

I agree with Sabrina that Killer of Little Shepherds was very well done and definitely worth the read.

I'm happiest when I am working my way through a non-fiction book in-between gulping down novels (I read quickly). I like maritime history, specifically tall ships and exploration, as well as travel narratives - not where to go, but where the author went and what it was like, and what history and culture are involved.

So I recently enjoyed Eighty Days, about the round-the-world trip by Nellie Bly - and the other female reporter sent by a competing newspaper. And I recommend In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's an account of the real ship whose fate inspired the climax of Moby Dick.

Elisabeth wrote: "Non-fiction that reads like fiction works best for me, mostly in science and space-related fields. The Right Stuff and "

I also prefer my non-fiction to be narrative. The first non-fiction to peak my interest was Testament of Youth by Vera Britain, which we read as a VBC pick several years ago. I like when the author is just telling a story, but the story happens to be true.

I really enjoy Bill Bryson's work now. And Mary Roach. I recently picked up Assassination Vacation and The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell on recommendation, but haven't read them yet.

Those books about Nellie Bly sound really interesting. Talk about intrepid reporting!

Erin wrote:.Those books about Nellie Bly sound really interesting. Talk about intrepid reporting!

I haven't read Nellie Bly's trip around the world yet, but the madhouse one was a quick and easy read. Only 80 pages since it was originally published as newspaper serial, but her writing style is engaging and humorous at times and told in 1st POV.

Kate wrote: "I agree with Sabrina that Killer of Little Shepherds was very well done and definitely worth the read.

I'm happiest when I am working my way through a non-fiction book in-between gulping down no..."

How funny, Kate, it looks like we've been reading the same subjects. I was totally amazed with Killer of Little Shepherds. It could have been so dry, and/or grisly, if the author hadn't written it the way he did. Really masterful.

I'll have to check out Heart of the Sea. You might really like Joshua Slocum's firsthand account of sailing around the world. He stopped at all kinds of islands and places and met quite a number of interesting people and cultures. One native Samoan girl's name meant: 'To make the sea burn'. I just loved that!

farmwifetwo wrote: "Do you find you read in "themes" for lack of a better word.

For years all I read was autism and home schooling books. I still read the odd one but it was a habit I had to break as my kids became t..."

Yes, this can happen because I read acknowledgements and bibliographies. So one book leads me to another on the same topic. For a while I was reading about Afro-Natives. These are black members of Native American tribes. I also read a number of books about Japanese minorities.

Susan Pola wrote: "I am finishing QUEEN OF THE DESERT by Georgina Howell. It's a biography of Gertrude Bell. Ms Bell was a fascinating woman: archaeologist, adventurer, writer, explorer, statesman. She was instrume..."

I've always assumed that Gertrude Bell was something of a model for Miss Ruskin in LETT.

I recently read Eugene Rogan's The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. Of course, then I had to go and rewatch all of the famous WWI films set in the region (Lawrence, Gallipoli, The Light Horsemen), but that's not such a hardship!

Erin wrote: "A few of us have posted comments on another thread about interesting non-fiction books we've been looking at and I thought it deserved a thread of it's own.

So tell me, have you read any good no..."

I'm reading a biography of the artist Amedeo Modigliani which was written by Meryle Secrest. The book contains exhaustive research of never before seen correspondence and manuscripts, as well as interviews with surviving relatives and people who knew people who knew Modigliani. In fiction, all of this background information is woven into a narrative illumined by the author's imagination. Although rewarding, I find reading nonfiction is much harder work.

I read biographies and memoirs related to a topic I'm pursuing if there are any. For example, I read a memoir of an Ainu, but I didn't find any memoirs to read by members of other Japanese minorities. So I read history/anthropology about them.

I read biographies of people such as artists whose lives and work are fascinating to me. As an artist, I have an affinity for their work and want to learn about their motivation and inspiration and how they fared in life.

I recently read The Figure of the Detective:An Analysis and Literary History by Brownson. It's rich with theory about how the detective novel emerged and developed. Brownson doesn't just give examples, he writes at length about some detectives...comparison tables even. Holmes gets a whole chapter. It wasn't an easy read for me but I keep going back to it. I'm going to order a hard copy for reference; in addition to the detectives I haven't read, there's a list of detective movies at the back. Would I recommend it to this group? No. Would I like to discuss it with this group? Yes.

sounds interesting, Linda. Thanks for the recommendation.

Sabrina wrote: "Kate wrote: "I agree with Sabrina that Killer of Little Shepherds was very well done and definitely worth the read.

I'm happiest when I am working my way through a non-fiction book in-between gu..."

Sabrina, we are reading in the same vein - there's a copy of Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World here just waiting for me to get to it! :)

Let me know what you think, Kate! I quite enjoyed Slocum's narrative style. I thought he took understatement to a whole new level. Are you a sailor?