On The Same Page discussion

Here is a thread where people can post about other not-challenge-related NF books they happen to read. This is a totally selfish thread for me because I have really enjoyed that thread when I've seen it elsewhere. It typically has not, however, been especially healthy for my TBR!

If you ARE doing the NF challenge but a book really impresses you (one way or the other), you can post about it on this general thread as well if you wish.

Anyone interested in WWII history should check out this one I read earlier in January- The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

This one makes me glad that my spouse and I are not going on a cruise ship again. Cabin Fever: The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic

I read in which Mark Hodkinson writes about his relationship with books growing up in an environment where reading was not encouraged and booklovers regarded as strange and suspect. He grew up just over an hour from where we are now based, but in a much more industrial area. I added quite a few books to my TBR inevitably.

Y'all are terrible for my TBR.

I've read a handful so far this year:

Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber, and the Golden Age of The New Yorker - This is a must-read if you are at all a fan of The New Yorker magazine.

The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science A very short (less than 100 pages) contemplation about a book Mukherjee read when he was still in med school that has shaped his thinking to this day. Mukherjee is a must-read for me, a brilliant writer about medicine and philosophy. I loved his The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, which won the Pulitzer, and also his The Gene: An Intimate History. Those are both the works of an established master in his field, so the peek at the "early doctor" was fascinating. I have his The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human coming up soon!

The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder What a twisted little puppy this guy is.

Write It When I'm Gone - about the relationship between former President Gerald Ford and the journalist who wrote the book. During the Watergate days, Ford inadvertently spoke his mind a little too frankly in the author's presence, then made an agreement with him that he wouldn't publish what was said until after Ford died -- a promise the journalist kept. Ford liked and admired many journalists anyway: his relationship with them wasn't adversarial. But he and the author were a level beyond that for the rest of Ford's life. I believe the common consensus opinion about Ford is largely true -- he was a fundamentally decent, intelligent, clear-thinking person who happened also to be a politician. (The inevitable conclusion is that neither party could get him elected today, more's the pity....) He made one heroic decision and it cost him greatly. This was a good book for anyone who likes political history and it rounded out some reading for me, because I've always found the Watergate story to be fascinating and this end of it is one I hadn't read about before.

Mosquito, Cabin, and Ford added to my tbr. Nurse had been on there since 2017. I had already picked the NF I planned to read for this year. I'll see if I can squeeze in these, especially the Nurse!

Glad it's not just my TBR being abused, Jackie.

I am adding the Ford book to mine as well. I went to his presidential library in Ann Arbor, MI three years ago and it was great. I always admired him and he was a moderate conservative, even for those days when there wasn’t quite the divide there is now. You are absolutely right, both parties would loathe him now. Look how moderates are treated by both parties today.

I always try to be prudent with adding any new tbr books at the first of the year, but as you can see, I'm not being very successful this year.

Do what I do, Jackie -- tell yourself that you're adding them because if you don't, later on you'll try to remember "what that book was that you saw that was about XXXX" and you'll waste valuable reading time looking for it. Putting it on your list at least guarantees you can find it if it crosses your mind later.

I actually do put things on my TBR that I think I might be interested in, or don't have time enough to really take a look at at the time, with the intention of deciding later. The stuff I actually am pretty sure I DO want winds up on a "to read- get" list of some flavor. The stuff on the plain old "want to read" is stuff I threw on the list in passing and haven't vetted yet. I periodically vet the "to read- get" lists also, to see if there's stuff on there that I'm no longer interested in and can delete.

Then I can be all proud of myself for saving all that money taking all those now-deleted books out of the running. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO virtuous!

What an excellent idea, Jen! I also have a list on my phone of ones that I am considering (it keeps the # off the tbr until I decide if I'm really interested in reading them). There are times when I add a Kindle Unlimited book because I can read it for "free". LOL I use the want to read in the same way that you do.

My desire to read again has increased finally. I have been in such a slump since 2020. I appreciate all of your good suggestions.

I stumbled upon this tonight.

Jen, I am so glad that I read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Siddhartha Mukherjee and own the other two, so on my TBR. He is incredibly smart and learned so much from that book. Happy you love him as well.

The Good Nurse also was pretty creepy, fortunately he worked 1 state away from me, but still.

Last, the book on President Ford looks very interesting, especially with the Watergate Part. Fortunately, I can come back and check on here when I get to reading it. I just ordered some history books, forgot which country and war, so will have to get to those first.

My TBR is very long. I do similar things and just add New Categories. Notice I have about 80. Also, just because I actually own the book doesn’t mean I’ve gotten around to adding it to Any List. I often Read a Book and Realize I’ve never even entered it. So, the TBR is actually bigger than it appears. I love The Mottley Challenge and 12+4 since those I finish each year. It forces me to finish the ones I committed to in January. That of course does not stop me from taking New 2023 Books to Read. I have slowed down somewhat.

So, love the NF Category. I thought I signed up for one here or possibly that was the Tome 500 Page One. I will be sure to check back soon! 🥰

Kristine - boy do I feel you regarding having books that aren't on lists -- I'm surprised at how often I start a book I know I've had for a while only to discover it's not on TBR!

I read Mukherjee's "The Song of the Cell: The Transformation of Medicine and the New Human last month and liked it but not as much as I liked his "Emperor" or "The Gene" -- although I have to say "Song" is the logical next off-shoot after those two! If you like Mukherjee, I highly recommend Atul Gawande. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End and Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science.

I'm glad you posted here because I have forgotten to update this thread! Stand by for the next installment....

I'm woefully behind on updating this with my latest NF reads:

First, a bunch of true crime because it was free on audible, most of which was about as "meh" as you'd expect true crime to be (my expectations are low...):




A few Kennedy-esque memoirs or bios:
(absolutely skip the last one if you're contemplating any of these...)

A few royal bios and memoirs:



A few film/Hollywood/music bios/memoirs:


Some theater/Broadway books, the first three of which I really liked, the last was irritating:


Three Ann Patchett memoirs, all of which I liked. Truth & Beauty was a re-read after I read the others, because I wanted to see if my opinion of Lucy had changed in the intervening years. It hadn't. I thought she was selfish and shallow the first time I read it and I still think that.


WWII/Holocaust


Politics (I especially liked 1932 and Why We Did It):


Social Justice/Civil Rights (skip Uneasy Street, imho):


A couple of AIDS memoirs:


Standouts or Odds & Ends:
-sad but heartwarming.
- nowhere near as good as I'd hoped, since my family just went through this.
, , , all of which I liked and all of which I read because of Lance....
The science in this one wowed me.
-All wonderful science reads!
-excellent story I had been unfamiliar with.
- Nora Ephron -- 'Nuf said!
- she was feisty and I was not pleased with how she ended up!
- after reading this, I don't care if he killed himself, long as he's dead.
- enlightening *and* depressing



I'm about to run out of characters in this post....

Cont.

- I parsed this one out of the true crime group because she talks about a largely silent epidemic and I found it riveting.
- I separated this one from the true crime also, because it happened in my home town, and was investigated by people I work/worked with.
- good but horrifying story!
- wild ride and enlightening read.
- Also enlightening and a good reminder!
- love me some Old West.
-- SHARKS!
-- Good but not much in it I didn't already know.
- Man it's disappointing how much Truman wasted his talent.
- I find financial histories fascinating.

I haven't been here in awhile, but don't have nearly as many to add as @Jennifer. I do like pursuing those lists though, and I like how you have them categorized.

- this was really funny, especially listening to the author narrate on the audio book. Some really dry, sneak-it-in-there humor.

- LOVED. I've read a lot about this topic, both memoirs and investigative nonfiction.

- same elite private school as in the book above but this assault happened decades before. If a school has multiple books about sexual assault experiences happening decades apart, um, yeah, they have a problem as much as they want to deny it in their fancy suits and ornate buildings.

- I read this after her death. I had a lot of feelings about her, without really knowing much. I did mostly audio. If you want clear timelines, and clear topic sentences, you may not like it. I found it fascinating, especially in the beginning about her childhood - just the way her mind works.


- Another "how could this have happened?" story and I'm so glad the truth is starting to be told. Funny tidbit - a friend and I were talking about learning. I was asked, What did you learn this weekend? It was odd to have the first thought be, "Um, I learned about exhuming bodies."


- apologies if this sounds like I'm grouping people (assuming all people who have similar characteristics must be the same), but it was a tad challenging to read both of these memoirs by strong, African American, queer individuals back to back, only because there were a few times I forgot whose story was whose. I had strong feelings about All Boys Aren't Blue, but linking my review isn't working

- graphic memoir, fine

- a fairly untold perspective

- I've read a lot about the FLDS and this was one of my favorites

- I've read a lot about polygamist religions (see above). For some reason this one didn't stick with me quite as much. Maybe I've read too many and they are all blurring together

- very interesting story

- So hard to read, but interesting

- I read a couple books about Scientology this year. This one was more about the organization/business, and less of a personal experience (even though it was a personal experience)

- another about Scientology. I preferred this one.

- as a track and field fan, this was a must-read. I knew parts of this story, but helpful - and horrifying - to read it all together

There are a few more from this year, but I need to wrap it up!

"Um, I learned about exhuming bodies." -- that made me laugh out loud!

I have a new addition into my favorite nonfiction books of 2023:

I read the whole thing in one day, because I couldn't stop. Such fabulous storytelling for such tragic stories, I previously only had heard the OUTCOME of the Hurt family. This revealed much about the children's former lives before adoption. The author revealed much about through the child welfare system through those stories.

I didn't think it would be as good as it was. So glad I decided to keep it on my "hold" list at the library!

Glowing praise indeed, Amy!

Amy wrote: "I have a new addition into my favorite nonfiction books of 2023:

I read the whole thing in one day,..."

I just put this book on hold at my library, it sounds so good and I’m sure that it will break my heart.