1) Platinum Girl: The Life & Legends of Jean Harlow
2) Vamp: The Rise & Fall of Theda Bara
3) Golden Images
4) Anna Held and the Birth of Ziegfeld’s Broadway
5) The Brief, Madcap Life of Kay Kendall
(glad she didn’t ask for four!)
And the Band Played On
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Godel Escher Bach
The Way We Never Were
They Fought Like Demons
(Off the top of my head, this is the five that come to immediate mind - I have read each book more than once. Rather eclectic - and I didn’t understand all of (or most of) Godel Escher Bach).
The First Elizabeth - Caroly Erickson
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
I’m a Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal - Eric Schlosser
Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America - Arianna Huffington
Can I list more??? g
In no order…
Duel of Eagles - Peter Townsend
- One of the best books on the Battle of Britain
A Night to Remember - Walter Lord
- The book that first sparked my interest in the Titanic
The Glory of Their Times - Lawrence Ritter
-Old-time baseball as told by the players themselves
Battle: The Story of the Bulge - John Toland
-Good book on the battle
Shelby Foote’s Civil War Trilogy
-I like his writing style. Bruce Catton’s trilogy was already mentioned. Read it, too!
I confess I don’t read that much non-fiction. Four off the top of my head:
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowicz
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam
Secrets of the Temple by William Greider
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
Chaos by James Gleick
(1) Simon Singh, The Code Book (worth another vote!)
(2) James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom
(3) Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game
(4) Alexander Kinglake, Eothen
(5) Eli Maor, E: The Story of a Number
Of books I’ve read recently, I’d add:
Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers and
John Derbyshire, Prime Obsession .