Non-fiction

[ajoe]

All right, I've moved on to a new phase, which is liking nonfictional books such as Seabiscuit and Mollie's Job. Any recommendation for this genre?

[Isagel]

I would recommend "Rosario is dead- Documentary Novel" by swedish journalist/writer Majgull Axelsson. Rosario is dead is a book about childprostitution, and the children Majgull Axelsson met while writing. I read it in small pieces, and cried my way through it. It is painful to read this book, but I think this might be one of the most important books I´ve read. If you want something more cheerful I suggest "84 Charing Cross Road", by Helene Hanff. This is a collection of the 20-year correspondence between Helene Hanff, an American writer living in New York, and Frank Doel, the Manager of Messrs Marks and Co. a bookshop in London's Charing Cross Road. In the letters you can follow how their friendship grows, and also get alot of reading tips. In the library you can also check out travel descriptions - I think they where popular during the seventies. On of my al time favorites is Steinbecks "Travels with Charlie in search of America". It is a description of how he travels around in America with his dog Charlie, and the people they meet. There you have three very different nonfiction books. I hope you might like them.

[papayahed]

I'm currently reading Madam Secretary, its the Madeleine Albright Autobiography. It is pretty interesting.

[imthefoolonthehill]

Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers Once, and Young, and Cornelius Ryan's books.

[Jean-Baptiste]

I have nothing to contribute to this thread, but I'd like to revive it, rather than starting a new one for my query.

I'm taking a Creative Nonfiction Writing class, and I need to find a book to read and review as part of the course. I'm sure there are tons of great books that my fellow members can recommend. The restrictions for the assignment are that it has to be creative nonfiction (of course), it has to be either originally written in English or translated into English by the author, and it has to be written by an author who was alive at any time between 1950 and the present.

I was given a list of suggestions by my professor, but none of them appeal to me. They're all either memoir type things about living in the Western United States (which is alright, but I've had about enough of that for now) or military reflections (which I simply can't get excited about). Anyway, I'm sure there are many fine books in this genre, and I look forward to your suggestions.

Also, so that I can justify my hijacking of this thread with the insistence that I'm merely reviving it--please don't feel constrained to limit your suggestions to my preferences, but deposit all according to ajoe's request above. :D

[genoveva]

I was given a list of suggestions by my professor, but none of them appeal to me. They're all either memoir type things about living in the Western United States (which is alright, but I've had about enough of that for now) or military reflections (which I simply can't get excited about).

Would you mind sharing this list?

What about Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, or Norman Mailer?

I just bough Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City which is supposed to be really good.

[Jean-Baptiste]

Sure, genoveva, I'll dig this list out when I get back from classes and share it with you. I'm sure there are plenty of fine suggestions on it.

Thompson is a good idea. Although, I've already read a couple of his books, viz. Generation of Swine, and The Great Shark Hunt, which were both very good, and I'd like to discover something new for my academic endeavor. Norman Mailer, eh?

[B-Mental]

I recently read Salt: A World History by Kurlansky. Its about the way that human society and culture grew around the salt markets. I liked the book a lot. Many different bits of cultural knowledge and insight.

[ennison]

'A Voice Through A Cloud' Denton Welch. Autobiographical.

[Whifflingpin]

What exactly is "creative non-fiction?" Is Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" a good example? i.e. a work of non-fiction but written in a well crafted style. Or a work such as McCullough's Roman series, which, although technically fiction, and readable as such, provides a formidably scholastic description of the rise of the Roman Empire?

If the latter, then, clearly I'd recommend any of the series, but start with "The First Man in Rome."

If the former, then there are some works by Arthur Koestler - "The Sleepwalkers," "The Case of the Midwife Toad," "The Thirteenth Tribe," for instance. All written in English post 1950.

[Jean-Baptiste]

Here's what's on the list I was given. It's actually out of a textbook by Philip Gerard entitled Creative Nonfiction. It includes

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey
Fire and Power: The American Space Program as Postmodern Narrative by William Atwill
Sitting in Darkness: Americans in the Philippines by David Haward Bain
Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder by Jerry Bledsoe
In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote
Rolling Nowhere by Ted Conover
Hatteras Journal by Jan DeBlieu
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Interview with History by Oriana Fallaci
Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War by Paul Fussell
Brilliant Passage by Philip Gerard
Boys Will be Men: Masculinity in Troubled Times by Richard A. Hawley
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Hiroshima by John Hersey
Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by L. Rust Hills
Bay Country by Tom Horton
The Place Where Souls Are Born: A Journey to the American Southwest by Thomas Keneally
Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape by Barry Lopez
Of a Fire on the Moon by Norman Mailer
Plaintext: Essays by Nancy Mairs
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
Coming into the Country by Joseph Mitchell
Also (because I'm tired of copying this, and I'm not sure of the legality of doing so) included are
Edmund Morris
Ron Powers
Bob Reiss
Richard Shelton
Harry Stein
John Steinbeck
Gay Talese
Studs Terkel
Wallace Terry
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
John Updike
Gore Vidal
John Hall Wheelock
Terry Tempest Williams
Tom Wolfe
and Tobias Wolff
If one of these latter authors strikes you as having an interesting name, I'll be glad to provide the suggested title.

So, I guess it's not as bad or limited as I was making it out to be, I just can't seem to get excited for any of them. Perhaps I just can't get all that excited about reading something that promises not to lie to me. :lol: What's the point of reading, if I'm not going to be lied to? :confused: :p

Whifflingpin: I'm not sure how to address your question. I know that Creative Nonfiction is distinct from straight history, and involves personal perspectives and subjective experience, but it cannot be fictional, or able to be regarded as fiction. Memoirs, Travel Journals, Family Histories, Meditations, Speculations, and Profiles on individuals can all apparently fit into the genre. It does not include scholarly research type essays, or purely informative articles, and does not necessarily need to include support for its positions. That's what I am understanding so far from this class. I'll look into Arthur Koestler. Thanks.

Thanks for your suggestions, Ennison and B-Mental! :) I think I've known about this Salt book--that sounds interesting.

[mtpspur]

You would probably find this in a library--a book titled Marine--the biography of General 'Chesty' Puller--can't recall the author but if you don't mind a flag waving book it's a great portrait of a man up there on the Patton level.

[genoveva]

Here's what's on the list I was given.

In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote


Seems like a good list. Of course, no list is all encompassing. If I had to pick from the list, I'd go with Capote.

Have fun, sounds like a great class!

[Idril]

I think I've read a total of 2 non-fiction books so as you can see, it's not my favorite genre. :p One was a Tolstoy biography and the other was A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius by David Eggers. It's an account of the death of his parents within weeks of each other and his experiences of then raising his younger brother. I'm not sure it's exactly what you're looking for but it was very entertaining, funny, sad, at times completely random and most importantly for you, factual.

[higley]

Non-fiction is my entree of choice right now. Most of it's military history, but I'm also reading an Abe Lincoln book that's really good. ("Team of Rivals," if you're interested.) After I plow through the enormous pile of books in my life, I'm planning on picking up "The Devil in the White City," a book by Erik Larson on the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, that's supposed to be excellent. Maybe give that one a try; it seems interesting and I've heard great things about it.

[Jean-Baptiste]

Hm. Yes, _The Devil in the White City_ does sound interesting. Above, genoveva suggested that one as well. I had not heard of it before, but I have been quite intrigued by that Fair.

I had my eye on Capote, genoveva, but I'm not big on True Murder stuff. I'm thinking about finding a copy of Ralph Steadman's new book about Hunter S. Thompson: _The Joke's Over_.

I like the title of this book about Tolstoy, Idril. Perhaps such a book could bring me to an appreciation of his work (he's one of my least favorite authors, but I admit that I haven't given him a fair hearing.)

mtpspur: I'm not usually very tolerant of flag waving books, but if the man's life is on the level of Patton's, that could be interesting.

Thanks for all the suggestions, all. Keep 'em coming! This thread will be a great stockpile of ideas for when I discover my passion for nonfiction. :)

[ennison]

There have been periods in 'My Life As A Reader' when I have read only non-fiction. The amount and variety of non-fiction OUT THERE is overwhelming and no one can ever do anything but scrape the surface of the knowlege to be found there. I guess most of us read those books that contain information on subjects that interest us, readily acknowledging that we sometimes only dip into the manuals, catalogues, encyclopaedias, commentaries, criticisms, guides, anthologies etc that delight and educate us. Sometimes we buy a book at random on a topic that for that moment in our lives catches our attention. On my kitchen table (messy messy boy me) now I can see two poetry anthologies (An Tuill and A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry -editor Oscar Williams); The Power of Art by Schama; Mushrooms of Great Britain and Europe by Phillips; American History-A Survey by Current, Williams and Freidel; Songs of Gaelic Scotland by Gillies;Deisel Engines by Wharton;Healing Threads, Beith; Superstars of The World Cup (My young fellow's) and a Biobull. Ah but poems are creative writing not non-fiction you'll say or else you'll say 'For goodness sake have you room to eat at that table? You should tidy it' and I agree. Still allow me my little digressions (Before the wrath of the only woman who ever achieved anything by talking descends on my head again)
Here are another few enjoyable non-fiction books of general interest. (These are scattered elsewhere, their positions as indiscriminate as the mind of the reader that chewed on them)

Uncle Tungsten - Sachs

Scurvy - Bown

Stalin - Montefiore

King Leopold's Ghost - Hochschild

Islomania - Clarke

My Schools and Schoolmasters - Miller

Testament of Youth - Brittain

Gulag - Anne Applebaum

Badland - Raban

The Botany of Desire - Pollan (Well-named eh)

Seven Wonders of The Industrial World - Cadbury

Tank - Wright

Cider With Rosie - Lee

Uttermost Part of The Earth - Bridges (My favourite but I'm sure long out of print unless in Argentina)

The Blue and The Gray - Commager - which text I read from cover to cover during a three month stay in a children's hospital ward aged 8 and which retains an almost mystical pull upon my heart as the ultimate book about the effects of war on a nation in the words of those who experienced it.

So these are a few but you will find what you like yourself and I doubt if many of the books above would strike a chord with all that many others on this forum though I suppose one or two might. Happy reading.

[liesl]

i find that most non-fiction i read is historical non-fiction. i recently finished reading two books i received for christmas - the first two books of 'Monarchy' by David Starkey.

As for other non-fiction i would absolutely love to read Truman Capote - 'In Cold Blood' but unfortunately my university library doesn't own a copy and i am too busy with exam revision and essay planning to find one.

[LPRox015]

The Diary Of Anne Frank is definitely a great book! Enjoi! ;)

[atiguhya padma]

The Discovery of France - Graham Robb
An Intimate History of Humanity - Theodore Zeldin
A History of Bombing - Sven Lindqvist
Family Britain - David Kynaston
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
A History of Christianity - Diarmuid Maculloch
Europe - Geert Mak

All excellent reads

[dfloyd]

Capote's In Cold Blood and Hemingway's A Moveable Feast would be good choices. Good reads but fairly easy to read. If reading about the murder of a Kansas family sounds too horrorific for you, try Hemingway's semi-autobiogrphical book about his days in 1920s Paris. It's interesting and
you'll learn something.

[atiguhya padma]

Robert Winder's magnificent Bloody Foreigners shows why immigration is so important to a growing, vibrant culture.

[janesmith]

"Marie Antoinette: The Journey" - Antonia Fraser

[LuggageFan]

I recently read Salt: A World History by Kurlansky. Its about the way that human society and culture grew around the salt markets. I liked the book a lot. Many different bits of cultural knowledge and insight.

Reading this now. Pretty good! :)

[arrytus]

1] Herodotus

2] Thucydides

3] Gulag Archipelago 1-3 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn [this will blow your mind]

4] 'Roughing it' By Mark Twain

5] The collected letters of Van Gogh [edit insert]

6]'Down and out in paris and london', 'homage to catalonia', and 'road to wigan pier' by George Orwell

7] 'in cold blood' by truman capote

8] Tom Wolfe's Electric kool-aid acid test

9] Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon