By far the best book I read all year was…
“The Chief” by David Nassaw. It is a fascinating biography of William Randolph Hearst. I made my Dad and brother both read it. Next it’s my grandfathers turn. Last year I read “The Greatest Generation” and I still highly recommend that.
The “just give me gift certificates to book stores for Xmas” woman checking in.
::writing furiously::
Keep goin’, I’m taking notes!
I’ve been reading a book I picked up off the clearance rack called “God’s Funeral” about the 19th century philosophers and such whose viewpoints put the nail in the coffin on the “rule” of religion in society. Very well written and actually quite interesting. Can’t remember the author’s name but he did a book on the life of St. Paul and is a member of some Oxford something-or-other. (Isn’t that helpful?)
Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I read Anna Held and the Birth of Ziegfeld’s Broadway. Can’t recall the author’s name though …
Eve, if I haven’t said so before, I have enjoyed your books. Which is unusual, because celebrity biographies are not a favorite genre with me. So when you write books I like, you’ve surpassed your peers in the field.
Duck, everybody…here comes Eve with her sleeves rolled up and the rollin’ pin out.
Just finished reading Will and Ariel Durant, * The Age of Voltaire. * Good stuff, although you can tell they were getting tired as they neared the end (they’d been writing the history of the world for 30 friggin’ years).
How odd. From the reviews and ads I’ve seen here (not many, to be sure) I thought this book was fiction. Now I want to read it even more!
Non-fiction does rock, and I really should read more.
Adding another good one:
The Language War by Robin Lakoff. Lakoff is a linguist, and here she treats the issues surrounding black English and trials like OJ Simpson and Thomas/Hill; and Hillary Clinton as proactive First Lady. I’ve always enjoyed Lakoff’s work, and she illuminated a lot of things for me in this book.
Little Nemo: I read everything with skepticism, including the newspapers. The only issue I had with Loewen was citing his own books as evidence. He never did that without other supporting evidence, though.
Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor, an in-depth account of the World War II siege that manages to be academically informative without losing the real feeling of desperation and horror among the trapped German soldiers.
Rat Pack Confidential by Shawn Levy, a very readable (although slightly over-the-top) account of Frank Sinatra and his chums’ Las Vegas years, and how it all went pear-shaped.
Made In America by Bill Bryson, his best book – a detailed study of American history, politics, inventions, travel, leisure and so forth, concentrating on deflating popular myths and some entertaining anecdotes.
The Alan Clark Diaries by Alan Clark. The best book written about British politics, clearly showing the machinations of government as well as an insight into the life of a waning aristo.
The Nation’s Favourite by Simon Garfield, an account of the changes at Radio 1 in the 1990s, as seen by the DJs and management.
The Nudist On The Late Shift by Po Bronson. Entertaining read on some of the people working in dotcoms or hoping to make the breakthrough.
I have not had nearly enough time to read this year, and I will be looking for many of the books mentioned above as soon as I can get my new library card. That said, the two that stand out for me are
Moab Is My Washpot - autobiography (partial) by Stephen Fry. I love the way he writes.
The Lying Stones of Marrakech - Stephen Jay Gould. More natural history essays.
Huh? I certainly didn’t intend my remarks to be offensive. How did you interpret them?
Was it the use of the term “celebrity biographies”? I used this to distinguish the genre from historical biographies. I’m not saying one is better than the other but I do feel they have separate readerships.
Was it my writing that I don’t usually read biographies? I don’t usually read westerns either but both of these are just personal preferences not indictments of the genres.
Was it my saying that Eve has peers? She does; there are hundreds of other authors writing biographies. My point was that I find her work superior to theirs.
Uke, I realize that you were just making a joke and I shouldn’t overreact. But I want to eliminate up any possibility of confusion and make it clear that my post was a sincere compliment of Eve’s books.
An Evil Cradling: by John Keenan.
A story of how teacher John Keenan survived four and a half years of imprisonment after being taken hostage in Beirut in 1986.
Brian Brian Brian Brian His name is Brian Kennan. I need to sleep now.
Don’t worry, Nemo—I didn’t see anything but rose-covered flattery in your post. I think Ike was just hoping to start an ugly barfight in this intellectual thread.
“The Battle for Christmas” by Stephen J. Nissenbaum. A fascinating read – it explains howcum Massachusetts outlawed Christmas in the early yeasrs of the colony, where Santa Claus REALLY came from, the Christmas Tree, gift giving, and other aspects of the upcming holiday. It’s also about the transformation of society by the coming of the Industrial Age. There’s a heck of a lot packed into this little book.
Oh, yeah – and an obscure book called “Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon”. I forget the author’s name.
Cal! I was TRYING to remember that title, honest!
—President of Logroller’s Union
I apologize, Nemo…I saw an opportunity to attack both the Bishop and the Queen in a single move (in chess, it’s called a “fork”), and I couldn’t resist.
When you said “celebrity biography,” the picture that popped up for me was one of those mass-markets about Brittany Spears or N’Sync that show up in the drugstore racks and have a shelf-life of ten days…the twin images of Eve writing that sort of thing and of Anna Held being considered that type of celebrity was irresistably ticklish.
I liked Geeks, by oh crap I forgot his name. Katz? Not all of my friends liked it much, though.
Money, Milk, and Madness, about the politics and history of breastfeeding. It sounds like a bizarre topic for a book, but it’s pretty damned interesting. It’s also not nearly so leftist and granolaish as I’s anticipated, either.
I’ve been meaning to read this for two years and just got to it: Our Babies, Ourselves, by Meredith Small. It’s about how culture shapes our parenting. Very thought provoking.
A lot of your suggestions are going right on my Amazon wishlist. Thanks!
As a joke for a plane ride I picked up Into Thin Air by Krakauer (SP?), an account of the two Everest expeditions that got caught in a storm a few years back. This was at the time the IMAX film was shot (the IMAX guys summit a few days later.). Some of his accounts are controversial, he admits errors, and at least one other climber has a book I mean to get (Boukhrev - The Climb), but I guess mistakes can be made. They were on this climb, and everyone did NOT come back.
ditto.
Loewen has been soundly attacked on this board. Take stuff he says with that in mind.
also,
common ground-lukas : about school integration in boston.
tocqueville in america-pierson
Ship Of Gold In The Deep Blue Sea, by, uh, a guy whose name escapes me. It’s about salvaging a ship that sank off the Atlantic seaboard in the 1840s, full of gold from California. The book switches back and forth from the historical details of the ship and the wreck, and the scientific/technological details of trying to salvage it. I thought it was awesome.