Non-Fiction

Reading Jackie

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

My mother buzzed me to tell me that I should read Reading Jackie: Her Biography in Books – so I reserved it, even though my TBR list is huge.  TW read it first, as usual, and ranted a good bit about the author and about Jackie, too.

I didn’t find much to rant about, the author’s tone at times is a bit troubling – he’s a man, after all, but I’ve read worse. Jackie – well, she was born in the late 20’s.  Is it any wonder she didn’t want to be known as a brain? Her husband, the President, didn’t want her to be politically active – which also makes sense, look where that got Hillary decades later? Onassis was a dick, duh. All in all, I’d say there’s not much to complain about when you dig into who she was and what she did (or didn’t do.)

Looking at Jackie through the books she published at Viking and then Doubleday was interesting. I’ve only read a handful of them and now I find myself thinking about reserving a few more from the library.  Maybe I’ll start with the Tiffany books, just for fun?

Interesting book – if you’re at all interested in Jackie (and who isn’t, right?)

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Three Cybils Non-Fiction

2011, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

Goodness these three non-fiction books were long! At one point I told TW I would come watch a movie once I finished this book. She said “that’s another baby book, why haven’t you already finished it?”  I showed her why… there were a ton of words in that thing and all three of them were like that. A little surprising since the non-fiction genre can sometimes be light on words – particularly when they’re heavy on photos, as these three books were.

First, my favorite of the three – and maybe my favorite from this year’s non-fiction lists, Kakapo Rescue. You’re shocked, aren’t you? I am not a bird person and spend a considerable portion of my life cursing RJ’s cockatiel and counting down the days until it moves out of my house. I hate that bird. Kakapo’s, however, COOL and totally should be rescued. How fascinating. I want to rescue Kakapos!

Next, Hive Detectives – this is the story about the honeybee problem. Unfortunately, no real solutions – just a solid reporting of what happened and what scientists (and bee keepers) are doing to figure out what happened (and prevent it from continuing). We need bees so I hope they figure it out soon.

Last but not least, Unspeakable Crime. This is the story of Leo Frank and Mary Phagan. What happened? What didn’t happen? Interesting read.  I’m glad I didn’t live in Atlanta in 1913. Or anywhere in 1913, really.

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Spilling Ink

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

When TW read Spilling Ink, it made her want to write so badly that we had to dig around in the car to find a piece of paper and a pen so that she could write RIGHT THAT MOMENT. When I read Spilling Ink, it didn’t really make me want to write. It did make me want to pull out my altered book, though. So it definitely does something to spark creative juices.

I was hoping it would be a good book for RJ but it’s a little young for her – or she’s a little too sophisticated for it. Or … she’s too “something” for it. That’s ok, it did cause me to think of another book about writing that I think she will appreciate…

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Under a Red Sky

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I put off reading Under a Red Sky because I thought it was going to be boring. I thought it was going to be something other than what it was – which means I didn’t know it was going to be more of a memoir than a historical look at Romanian Jews after WW2.  (The darn sub-title that says it’s a memoir of a childhood in communist Romania is missing from the cover of the book.)

Because it was a memoir, it wasn’t boring at all. It was interesting and just a little sad and scary. The only thing I wish was that we had a few more chapters – what was it like to finally reach Israel? But then I’d probably want a few more chapters about heading to America.

I’m very glad I read this one and I’m sorry I waited so long.

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I’m on a Cybils Roll!

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction /

Four more children’s books from the Cybils list and I can just barely see the light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, I think the end of the tunnel will appear sometime in January of 2012. Behind schedule – but I’ll get there. Eventually.

Non-fiction first, since there are three of them:

First, Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped.

Next, Bones: Skeletons and How They Work. I liked it more than I thought I did. Some to scale images of bones of different creatures. Other smaller scale images of bones. Lots of different animals (and fish and birds and reptiles) represented here. Nice contrast between the bones and the background colors.

And, Dinosaur Mountain was fabulous. I’ve read a lot of dinosaur books in my time, for all ages, and this is one of the best. It was the narrative that did it. Forget the gold rush, think about the BONE rush. You’ve got Americans excited by the first dinosaur display, you’ve got Andrew Carnegie with an empty dinosaur room telling you to go find something big and here’s the money to do it… how do you find that big something? And just when you’re about to give up hope, you find it… but winter is coming and you’re in Utah. Gah. Imagine living in a tent next to the bones of a brontosaurus all winter long and not being able to get in there and dig those fossils out? Fabulous story. Loved it.

From the children’s fiction list, Shark vs Train. For some reason the two little boys reminded me of my nephews. Well really they reminded me of one nephew. That kid should have been twins, heck on wheels… heh. So two boys are playing. One has a shark, one has a train – who will win! Depends on the competition, now, doesn’t it? Cute book. Not my thing but I’m guessing there are a lot of kids who would get into this who would win type of game.

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The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

A couple of months ago, I was flipping through Michelle’s Bitch magazine and you won’t be surprised to hear that there were several book reviews that caught my eye. The book I had to reserve right then was The Blue Tattoo. The cover, with a picture of Olive Oatman is fabulous. And, since captivity stories have never been my thing, I didn’t know anything about Olive – the Oatman massacre only barely registered as being one of those covered wagons traveling west things gone very, very wrong.

I’m glad I read this. It was super interesting – I just Olive had told us more and had been able to tell us more of her story, without being influenced by men (and society?)  Fascinating. I cannot imagine what that would have been like – not just the massacre or even living with the Mohave for five years, but the re-entry. That… that might have been worse than all of it put together.

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Three More Cybils

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Poetry /

Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat is a children’s non-fiction book about Ella Fitzgerald. Great photos. Nice storytelling. Ella as a homeless teen is kind of dark, if you have really young kids – but I liked that her difficult early years weren’t glossed over. Nicely done.

Mirror Mirror is a children’s poetry book and it was pretty good. Each duo of poems is based on a fairy tale. The poem is told top to bottom and then bottom to top. Smartly done.

A Sick Day for Amos McGee was not my kind of story. Amos gets up everyday and takes the bus to work at the zoo. He does things with the animals like play chess with the elephant and tell bedtime stories to the owl, who is afraid of the dark. One morning Amos wakes up with a cold and doesn’t go to work – so the animals take the bus to his house and do all of the things for him that he always does for them. It was nice enough and I’m betting my kids would have asked for it to be read to them over and over again while I yawned a lot.

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Four Children’s Non-Fiction (During the #readathon)

2 Comments / 2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Dewey's Readathon, Non-Fiction /

I took a break from the other two books I’ve been reading and picked up four of the books from the Cybils Shortlist for children’s nonfiction. I enjoyed them all.

The Secret of the Yellow Death – I expected to find this one dull but I didn’t. It was interesting and exactly the right length with the right amount of photos. I highly recommend it.

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) – I expected to like this one the best, but I didn’t. It was fine but a little too dry though I did like the way Suzy’s journal was tucked into the book as its own separate journal. That was smartly done. The illustrations were nice as well. It was fine – just not my favorite.

Henry Aaron’s Dream – Why are there always baseball books in the Cybils shortlist? Could we have some football or basketball or soccer every now and then? I like the baseball books but there are other sports stories to be told to kids, ya know? Warning: If you are thinking of reading this to your children or letting them read it, the N WORD is written out (twice, I believe) so be prepared. 

Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum — Heh. Enough said, right?

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Dogs That Don’t Bark

2011, Animal Issues, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

It’s wrong of me to sit here thinking about how I might convince Duncan to bark. Just once. But I’ll admit it. I’ve thought about trying it (sort of how you might think of ways to corrupt an angelic three year old by teaching her to say bullshit…)  A dog that doesn’t bark is weird.  Don’t get me wrong, I like it. I like it a lot.  I’d like it better if I knew she could bark and was simply choosing not to. Which could be possible. She’s a very good dog, after all. Still. I just don’t know. And it’s weird.

And very unlike all of the other dogs I’ve had.

Hell. This dog slept through the dude cutting the grass today. When she finally realized he was here, she went to the porch and just looked at him and looked at me. And that was that.

What kind of dog does that? (Not TW’s mom’s dog, that’s for sure.)

In the morning, she goes out for her sniff (yes she’s really just sniffing the bush), waits til I fix her breakfast – though she is happy to lick the dog and cat food can while I fix it (and my coffee). She wolfs down her breakfast, drinks most of her water, grabs her tin cans and licks those for a bit and only if I say “Duncan, let’s go outside” and walk to the back door does she think about peeing.

Weird dog. I wonder if I can get her to pee on the floor, too. (Kidding, just kidding. Sort of.)

When she carries in the paper or the mail she doesn’t even really slobber on it very much (though on Sunday she did get the Smartsource a little drooly which was weird because she hadn’t drooled on any other piece of mail and hasn’t since. Maybe she was just really excited about the coupons?)

What kind of dog carries in the mail or the paper and doesn’t drool on it?

She doesn’t beg for food, though she will happily come and take it if you offer it to her.

She stands at the open door and waits for you to tell her she can go.

She does NOT walk on the left side like I was told she did but who the hell cares since she also doesn’t jerk my damn arm out of the socket when she’s on the leash.

When she’s in the car, she stays IN the back where she’s supposed to.

What the hell kind of dog does is this?

A mutant dog. She’s cute though. And I like her more than the dogs in Love at First Bark. If TW could find me a dog like Duncan… she could have a dog.

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Normal Gets You Nowhere

2011, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

Michelle-belle is a big Kelly Cutrone fan. I can take her or leave her. I mean, she’s ok –  smart, strong, talented. I like that. I just find her a little… much. I’m a fan of “freaks” and normal can be so boring – unless you’re part of a family full of freaks which means normal IS freaky. Heh.

The most interesting thing about Normal Gets You Nowhere is that it caused me to think of some really weird things like… how come there are no male supermodels? (patriarchy, duh) And just how do you define “supermodel”?  (I spent a lot of time reading about supermodels last night just because of of Kelly Cutrone.)  Also, might I suggest Kelly Cutrone check out Scarleteen for future reference or when a waiter’s daughter asks her how to give a handjob.

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