What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

[Ternaugh]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

Just finished Stealing Time , by Alec Klein, about the AOL-Time Warner merger. The writing is choppy in a couple of places, but the book is a good read.

 

Currently about 50 pages into Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs , by Adrienne Mayor. The author delves into myth and histories to document biological and chemical weapons, and their use in war.

 

JoeG

[Lightray]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

D-Day, by Stephen Ambrose

 

Citizen Soldiers, by Stephen Amrose.

 

Band of Brothers, by Stephen Ambrose

I haven't read an Ambrose book I didn't like, so far. But I liked Pegasus Bridge the most. It's a quick, entertaining read. And since Ambrose had time to add an afterward on the edition that is in publication now, it provides an interesting update.

 

Since I was on a Band of Brothers reading kick recently:

 

Parachute Infantry by David Kenyon Webster. (that's Webster from the Band of Brothers miniseries, although in the miniseries his character was mangled by the script writers. my favorite review: "I love him. He's such a fuckin' whiner.")

 

Currahee! A Screaming Eagle At Normandy by Donald Burgett. (good first-hand account of the airborne drop through D-Day)

[death tribble]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

Just finished the Republic by Plato. Interesting reading even if you don't agree with some of the conclusions.

[Super Squirrel]

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I'm currently reading Database Nation. The author has done a terrible job of convincing me of privacy invasion except when it came to medical records.

[Markdoc]

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I'm almost finished "Monasteries of Western Europe. The Architecture of the Orders". Wolfgang Braunfels. Sounds dry, but isn't, as he uses architecture to trace the changing nature of the orders and then expands out to look at the effect of the monasteries on politics and economics in Europe (which was huge - the monks were pretty much in the forefront of every technological change for most of their glory years).

 

Particularly interesting to me given our debate of socialism/communism on the NGD at the moment was the economic section - he points out that for more than a thousand years the world's most effective economic organisation was communist - or at least communal - the monastery.

 

I've just finished "Through the Labyrinth" by Hermann Kern. It's supposed to be the definitive history of the labyrinth in architecture and history and myth. Most of it is a great steaming pile of horse dung studded with the occasional bit of useful or illuminating knowledge. Kern is one of these academics who have firm ideas and cling to them regardless of evidence. Ugh.

 

cheers, Mark

[BlackSword]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

I just got done reading it. Very interesting, but a little short on some of the details I was hoping for. Still pretty good, though..

 

Nightshade

I finished reading it and enjoyed it. The details were light in some places I was hoping for, but over all it was still a good read, and very creepy in some places. Especially discussing the criminal interviews and the some entry into the mind and psychology.

 

Just finished reading, "New World Coming: The 1920's and the rise of Modern America." Have to get the author. The underlying theme of the book is the similarities between some of the issues seen in the 1920's and some of the modern day issues we are dealing with. He doesn't try to make the case the decades are exactly the same, but on the other hand some of the quotes written in '20s could be used to desribe a situation in the modern day.

 

Just started to read "Skeptic" a biography of HL Mencken.

 

Also read a introduction book on fresh water aquariums. The author is a water changing fanatic, but will provide title and author when I get home. The book did have some good discussion on what equipment is neccessary what equipment is a luxury, and he provides about a dozen or so schemes for stocking the tank with fish that will be compatible.

[Outsider]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

Not previously mentioned (off the top of my head) :

Second Treatise on Government by John Locke

Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke

The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians by J. B. Bury

Embracing Defeat : Japan in the Wake of WWII by John W. Dower

The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe by James Chambers

Distant Mirror : The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman

 

A couple I've read that have already been mentioned, but are worth repeating the recommendation for :

Dreadnought by Robert Massey

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

[Mahubrahd]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

"the Politics"-Aristotle. (Boring, and the interpretation I read was difficult)

"The Tempting of America, Slouching Towards Gammorrah, and Coercing Virtue", By Robert Bork(All Highly recommended, very interresting and although heavy, extemely readable)

"Right Principles"-by Lincoln Allison, A discussion on a conservative philosphy of Politics, very good, sometimes too intellectual for my tastes, but touches on some very interresting socialogical and political stuff.

"teh World turned Right side up" (forgot the writer), and intellectual and historical accound of the acendecny of Conservatism in America and whether Reagan really lead to a Conservative revolution.

"Black and Right"-essays by and about Black Conservatives and their individual look on American politics.

"Liberalism and it's Discontents"-Alan Brinkley, An historical study focusing on FDR, the rise of modern Liberalism and Conservatism and their affects on teh political landscape of America, a very good book.

"The New Right Papers", by whittiker, Essays by the New Right on a host of social and political issues.

"The Right of Man and Common Sense" by Thomas Paine, I enjoyed these, but felt that Paine went on to long with Right of Man, his point could have been made with out dragging it on as he did, maybe he just wanted to dif into Burke or something.

 

These I read over the last 2 months.

 

-mahubrahd

[death tribble]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. Follows the start of the campaign through to the encirclement of the German 6th Army and what happened to them.

 

Recommended.

[Koshka]

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I should have checked out this thread before I made my Christmas list .

 

Some recently read (or reread) nonfiction books:

 

Operation Sea Lion by Egbert Kieser. An interesting look at the proposed invasion of Great Britain from a German perspective.

 

Deception In War by Jon Latimer. Skips around a bit, but a nice overview of deception tricks.

 

The Wannsee Conference And The Final Solution: A Reconsideration by Mark Roseman. We'll never know exactly what happened short of borrowing the TARDIS and planting bugs all through 56-58 Am Grossen Wannsee, and the author admits this. OK, so he didn't mention the TARDIS. But it's still an excellent examination of the conference and the path the Nazis took to the Final Solution.

 

Era Of Excess: A Social History Of The Prohibition Movement by Andrew Sinclair. Out of print, and if you're checking the library the hardcover edition was titled Prohibition: The Era Of Excess. A good but dated survey of the prohibition movement in America, probably not a book to start with though. If you're new to the topic, you might want to look at John Kobler's Ardent Spirits.

[Jhaierr]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

I posted this review of a recent book I read on my LiveJournal. I'll repost it here:

 

Book review: The Jesus Mysteries

I originally found this fascinating and enlightening book while reading articles on www.religioustolerance.org (a great site with tons of information about all religions). It's not often that I delve into religious topics since I am mostly agnostic and humanist in my beliefs, but I have experienced more interest in history lately, and religious history is pretty fascinating regardless.

 

The full title of the book is actually: The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God? It was written by British authors Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy. A good portion of the book focuses on the question of whether Jesus (the Christ) actually existed. It presents compelling evidence that in fact Jesus did not exist and was deliberately created as a mythic figure as a way of adapting the ancient Mystery religions (a common, cross-cultural, pagan religion that had existed for hundreds of years before 0 BC) to Jewish society. However, this myth was not meant to deceive -- it was meant to enlighten. The Mystery religions were filled with idealized "man-gods" (one in practically every society -- Dionysus, Osiris, Attis, Mithras, etc.), but the members were completely aware that their man-god was was imaginary. He was merely a representation of internal rebirth and enlightenment, a goal which each follower would aspire to achieve within him or herself. (No doubt this will be an emotional issue for many who are Christians, particularly fundamentalist Christians.)

The inner beliefs of the original Mystery religions are amazingly similar to the core of Christianity (e.g., love, compassion, spiritual improvement and enlightenment). The idea of an ultimate single God of love and compassion, with whom each person could have a personal relationship, was very appealing to many followers (like Plato and Socrates).

 

But there is more to this book than the idea that Jesus is a myth. Below the top layer of this theory lies another idea (much like the Inner Mysteries of the ancient religions): the idea that Christianity has lost its way and forgotten the core and inner meaning of what Christ represents. He represents rebirth, compassion, love, and understanding: he is what we aspire to be, not something we worship from afar. It is like staring at a light shining from someone else instead of trying to be a beacon of light ourselves.

 

This book was fascinating and well written. My only complaint would be that the authors chose to use endnotes instead of footnotes. There are hundreds of references and other pieces of information cited (as this is a heavily researched book), but I feel it would have been more effective if they had been cited directly on the page. But this is a relatively minor complaint, as the substance of the book is what is important here. If you are at all a spiritual or religious person, I would highly, highly recommend this book. If you aren't religious, I would still highly recommend it.

[Northstar]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

"The Paradigm Matrix" by Alan C. Walter.

 

Briefly, a work on how societies and cultures set up the social and economic patterns and maps they follow, and what happens when those become outdated while no one is paying attention...

[Old Man]

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When Thunder Rolled by Ed Rasimus, covers little ground that wasn't already done in Thud Ridge but an equally good and slightly less bitter account of the plight of USAF pilots flying missions over North Vietnam.

[Starlord]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

The King James bible - overly long and extremely preachy, but pretty inspiring with some highly profound statements throughout.

[BoneDaddy]

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The Golden Ratio. It's all about phi, the most important irrational number. A great deal of time and effort is spent debunking: a) various ancient societies' understanding and/or application of the golden ratio; the alleged aesthetic perfection of the golden ratio; c) various artists' applications of the golden ratio within their works; c) etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum. The math is fascinating. The explanations of the natural occurences of phi are mind boggling. The proofs are accessible to someone who understands and enjoys mathematics but not calculus (me).

 

I would heartily recommend it to anyone who is not afraid of a little algebra, a little history, a little philosophy, and a little critical thinking. It does get a little long winded, especially for such a short book, and has made it's way into my car, where I read it while I wait for whatever I might be waiting for.

[dbsousa]

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I am reading a book on the Weimar Republic, two biographies on Christopher Isherwood, and Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Diaries. I have applied to direct Cabaret at my local theater, and I want to be prepared.

[ahduval]

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Just finished The Last Ridge by McKay Jenkins.

The epic story of the u.s. army's 10th mountain division and the assault on hitler's europe.

The first half of the book is about the struggle to form a mountain and ski troup, the struggle against the army bureaucracy to not turn the 10th into a regular infantry unit. For most of World War 2 the 10th trained and tested specialized equipment. Once they got to Italy, they did a superb job without any of the equipment. The other thing I learned was that

1) The army didn't want a ski/mountain unit and didn't know what to do with it.

2) Many of the soldiers who formed the unit were European and American Olympians.

 

The book is better in the setup to the war, than the war itself, but it does a good job with what happened, especially to individual soldiers that the author introduced earlier. Rating 6/10

 

I am currently reading America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink by Kenneth M. Stampp.

 

This book is a fascinating tale of one critical year in history. The author takes one issue at a time, devoting plenty of pages to each issue. Unlike a general history book, or a book about the run up to the Civil War, this author has plenty of pages to explore the subject.

 

Just to add a quote ( because I felt it was interesting)

"According to the Washington Union {aside: which was literaly the mouthpiece of the Democratic administration} The black-republican party comprises within its ranks all the isms of the North ... Mormonism, abolitionism, free-soilism, spiritual rappings, women's rights, socialism, free-loveism, and know-nothingism, have sprung up from this corrupt state of political profligacy and religious infidelity, and are now ... madly bent on ruling, or ruining the country."(119)

So far I rate this book 8/10.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

I'm a fairly large fan of popculture star autobiographies - I find them interesting and amusing, and while I don't know exactly how much non-fiction there is in them, they are cool to read.

Recently finsished

To be the man - The autobio of Ric Flair

Don't shoot it's only me - the Autobio of Bob Hope.

If chins could kill - The autobio of Bruce Campbell

 

Although I'm only about 1/2 way through the last, but it has been really cool.

[Supreme]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

If any of you are going to run or play in a Victorian era game you NEED to read "What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens Knew." An excellent book for getting a grasp on British culture and life at all levels during the period.

[zornwil]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

I'm a fairly large fan of popculture star autobiographies - I find them interesting and amusing, and while I don't know exactly how much non-fiction there is in them, they are cool to read.

Recently finsished

To be the man - The autobio of Ric Flair

Don't shoot it's only me - the Autobio of Bob Hope.

If chins could kill - The autobio of Bruce Campbell

 

Although I'm only about 1/2 way through the last, but it has been really cool.

I thought the biography of Andy Kaufman by his close friend/associate, Bob Zmuda, was quite good.

[ahduval]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

I have been reading more non fiction books lately and decided to share with my online friends.

 

and no, I am not posting each review separately just to up my post count, I am posting each review separately to organize my thoughts, make it easier for people to read them, and to up my post count.

 

First book is Long Shadows by Erna Paris. Subtitled: Truth, Lies, and History, This book is a study of what several nations remember/teach about their own history. Focusing mostly on events that happened in the 20th century, nations/people that are covered include: Germany, France, Japan, America, South Africa, Jewish people, and Serbia. The author does this by talking to the people that influenced opinions, along with some more 'normal' people. Many sides are shown, and while the author has a viewpoint, all sides are explored. The downside is that even though this is a pretty big book, I felt that each chapter could have been explored in its own book.

 

Also, after reading this book, I wish that someone had written a book this accessible about other points in history.

 

9/10 (plus bonus points for getting the book from the sale table at one of the big box bookstores)

[ahduval]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

The next book recently read is The Island of Lost Maps : A True Story of Cartographic Crime by Miles Harvey.

 

The author intersperses the true story of Gilbert Bland with the History of Maps and printing from the 16th century into the 18th century.

 

Gilbert Bland was (until he got caught) successful and stealing maps from rare book libraries (cutting them from the books) and selling them to collectors. He was caught in the act of stealing in Maryland and who he is and why he committed crimes is explored.

 

The history of maps and map makers is covered. The most interesting thing about this is how, especially in the earliest days, maps were considered state secrets of the highest kind. Map theft in those days was a way to gain advantage over one's rivals. Examples of map thieves are Columbus, whose brother was a noted cartographer in Portugal (the leading sea power at the time) and Drake, who escaped the Spanish in the Caribbean by finding a map.

 

Recommended with a 7/10

[McCoy]

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Tim Flannery, The Eternal Frontier; An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples

 

Fascinating, explains a lot about North America. Favorite quote: "The US now trains and employs more palaeontologists than any other nation and its innovative techniques, explorations and studies are the global engine of that discipline. Hence, its inhabitants know how life unfolded on their continent in great detail. North America, paradoxically, is also the global centre of Creationism, whose dogmatic followers believe that the Earth was formed just 6000 years ago. Enigmas such as this abound on the continent, and indeed seem typical of it."

[ahduval]

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The third book I read recently was Brunelleschi's Dome:How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King.

 

This book tells the tale of Filippo Brunelleschi and how he spanned a dome at the unheard of ,and still hard to beat, span of 140 feet. Along with his inspiration the author covers his rival. Along with the shear magnitude of building such a building, details are given for further inventions, such as hoists that would bring the tools up to the workplace, although it was soon ruled that the workman couldn't use the hoist to get themselves up to work.

 

Filippo Brunelleschi is one of the first architects that we know their name, and for good reasons this hot headed genius deserves all the fame he can get.

 

Recommended.

[Mike W]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

Vince Starrett's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" is a great read if you can find. You'll probably have to find it in most college libraries. It's a sort of "biography" of Holmes based on the stories and talks about his writings, his personality, what real life house the Baker Street apartment was based on, things like that. Instead of chronologically, it is more divided up by subject/theme. It's written from the point of view of an enthusiast and was written back when William Gilette and others who had met Doyle were still alive, so it has some interesting stories.