non fiction

[susanliber]

I have been on a non-fiction binge.

I just finished "MY LOBOTOMY" by Howard Dully. This is a memoir written by a survivor of Dr Freeman's transorbital lobotomy procedure that was done when he was 12 years old. I was in the book store to get something else entirely and this book "called" me. I read it in 2 days. It is not very long...it is written in the first person by Howard.

I am nearly finished with "TREBLINKA". This is an account of the revolt of the prisoners there. It reads like a suspense novel, even though you know what the outcome is.

[Kairho]

What I am reading: link.

[Gesualdo]

No wonder you couldn't post it here. Bwahahaha! I'm into Craig Ferguson's autobiography right now. It's interesting so far.

[vacationagent]

Somehow I doubt that Kairo is really reading The Romance of Proctology.

I just recently read The Big Rich. It is the story of 4 of the Texas oil families since the turn of the 20th Century up until present day. It was very interesting - great bios about H L Hunt, Roy Cullen, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson. The writer is Brian Burrough and he must have read every book, newspaper article, or magazine article ever written about the oil business. I enjoyed the book.

[rampo]

I'm midway through Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition and am loving it. It's an informative account of that bizarre period of social experimentation and is written in an accessible and highly entertaining style.

[Gesualdo]

My latest is "Stop Getting Ripped Off" by Bob Sullivan. Interesting and sometimes unusual strategies for avoiding hidden and unfair fees in every area of your life. I'm only into the second chapter and have already learned a lot.

[pezmanffx]

I'm reading "the fundamentals of federal tax accounting" . Good times, good times.

[Gesualdo]

skznxxxxxxxxxx....

[NW CTC]

Originally Posted by rampo

I'm midway through Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition and am loving it. It's an informative account of that bizarre period of social experimentation and is written in an accessible and highly entertaining style.

This is on my list, too.

I've just finished Operation Mincemeat, the story behind The Man Who Never Was. It's an excellent read and provided a good deal of insight into lesser known aspects of WWII history. If you've read Cryptonomicron you'll recognize a number of its subplots. Now I want to follow up on the footnotes to Mincemeat and check out some of the source materials.

[vacationagent]

I just finished Andrew Young's scathing portrait of John and Elizabeth Edwards in his book The Politician. I had resisted the book when it came out because I liked John Edwards and didn't really want to believe the negative press about him. Anyhoosie, I was at the bookstore the other night and saw it in paperback and decided to buy it. It did NOT restore my faith in John Edwards and in fact the book portrayed both him and his wife in the most unflattering way. He was - according to the author who was his right-hand man for several years - a narcissist and power hungry and totally impressed with himself and not very familiar with the truth; his wife was even worse. Everthing that was in the tabloids and more was true according to Andrew Young.

My brother happened to be at my house for dinner one night this week and saw the book on the kitchen counter. He has a bs-o-meter that spins when it comes to politicians and said he had John Edwards pegged as a narcissist from the beginning.