Non-Fiction

Cybil’s Children’s Non-Fiction (The Last Two)

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I went on a Cybil’s binge last night. It’s easy when my binge comes from the children’s category. Quick, easy reads that are usually a lot of fun or pretty interesting. Last night, they were more interesting than fun.

The last two books from the Children’s Non-Fiction short list were The Frog Scientist and Marching For Freedom.

The Frog Scientist was interesting but I can’t see any of my kids reading this one for fun – or just because they were interested in frogs. It’s more like a resource for a paper about frogs or environmental issues. And as a resource for such a paper, it’s a great one. The photos are good. The description of the experiment taking place was excellent. Any kid who needs a research topic ought to consider the plight of the frog and the effects of pesticides on frogs. Fascinating, really.  (And way to go Tyrone! A fellow South Carolinian! Nice to see an African American scientist with a really diverse group of research assistants. For that alone, this book ought to be handed to every kid to peruse.)

I wasn’t prepared to really enjoy Marching for Freedom. I’ve read a whole slew of books about African Americans and their fight for the vote, Rosa Parks, MLK, etc…. this one was completely different. OK not completely different but because it really focused on the children and teenagers who played a huge role in the fight for the right to vote, it was a different story. Selma and the march to Montgomery – completely different look when you’re thinking about just how many children CHOSE to march. That’s a story that just hasn’t been told before – and one that we should be telling our kids about. Kids can do great things and make huge contributions – and they should. It’s a scary story – 10 year olds and 12 year olds and 14 year olds being jailed and beaten, but it’s important.  Those kids knew that this was something worth standing up for.  

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Henrietta Lacks

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Awhile back, Sassymonkey told me that everyone was going to be reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I admit, I only half believed her. It is non-fiction, after all. And a story about science and an African American family – not really mainstream reading, unfortunately. I don’t know if Sassymonkey is right and everyone is reading it. I do know my mother started reading it a few weeks ago. And I do know that everyone SHOULD read this book.

It’s a story that pissed me the hell off.

Everyone should know Henrietta Lacks’ name and everyone should know what happened to her, to her cells, and to her family.

Did I mention this pisses me off? I’d like to see Skootz do a book about  “The Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland” next. (Or maybe someone has already written this one and I just haven’t stumbled across it? I’m off to look.)

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Two for the Road

2010, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I’m a big fan of “Roadfood” and if I liked food in general just a little bit more… and also travel just a little bit more than that… I’d be envious of Jane and Michael Stern. What better job than to drive across the country, eating at diners and truck stops and hole in the wall restaurants? Thanks to Two for the Road, I can just convince TW to make some of these foods at home and live laugh vicariously through the Sterns’.

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Books About Prairie Dogs

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Non-Fiction /

The other night, I was looking for something light and fluffy to read and I came up empty. So I figured, what the hell, I’ll read these non-fiction prairie dog books that TW made me reserve at the library.

First – Prairie Dogs (The Complete Owners Handbook) made me stop halfway through and look to see if Sharon Vanderlip was on Twitter. She’s not and I want to know why. I would like to talk to her about some of the things she mentions are important for prairie dog owners to know. I’d also like to ask her some questions. Like has she ever spent any time with a prairie dog in her house. Ya know, stuff like that. I also am anxiously awaiting the updated version of this book because it’s only freaking available used – for more than $100. Do you know how many giant plastic balls I can buy with $100? I want the book but I need the stupid balls. (Which are not, by the way, mentioned in the book at all. They should be – along with the fact that you’ll have to buy new ones constantly.)

Next – The Prairie Dog: Sentinel of the Plains was awesome. I’d like to buy this one too, and I might because it won’t cost me four giant plastic prairie dog balls errr $100.  Great photos, nice bit of prairie dog history, and a well balanced look at the prairie dog “problem”. (I have an unbalanced opinion – stop killing the damn prairie dogs, people. They are a keystone species. We don’t kill our keystone species without serious consequences.)

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Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker in Training

2010, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I had high hopes for Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker in Training – it wasn’t bad, I just didn’t find it quite as interesting or compelling as Stiff. TW seemed to appreciate it more than I did – and when she read it, we ended up having an awful lot of discussions about plans for her death. Err I mean plans for her body after death. She’s sure that Prince J should be the one to manage her affairs after she’s gone – which insulted RJ – and made me laugh out loud. It made Prince J stare blankly at her – which is why I laughed out loud. I just can’t picture it…  I can, however, picture her being cremated and having her ashes placed in “bottle urns” and hung from a bottle tree.

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Julie and Julia

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

It’s weird, I really didn’t have any desire to read Julie and Julia. I don’t know why, the book has everything I like – food blogger, grand ideas, Julia freaking Child. So why didn’t I want to read it? I don’t know, it was probably the hype that turned me off. I only read it because a) I saw it on the shelf, in large print, and thought TW’s mom would like it b) TW’s mom said it was “weird” and it didn’t make sense to her that someone would do such a project c) TW’s mother raised TW who would CERTAINLY think up something like this – and carry it through.

I couldn’t NOT read it after hearing TW’s mom talk about it.

Turns out this was a horrible book for TW’s mom. She doesn’t do the F word and lord, the F word is all over the book. I think had this not been the case, she’d have probably had a different reaction. (TW’s mom would totally be one of those “bleaders” who gave Julie shit for her language.)

I, on the otherhand, loved every word of it. Every single word. Well the killing of the lobsters made me kind of queasy but that’s to be expected. Lots of the recipes made me queasy – that’s a lot of mess, a lot of work, a lot of crazy food that I really do not want to eat. But… the project… pure brilliance. And the writing, fun. Fun, fun, fun.

I’m so glad I read it. (I’m sorry though to hear that Robert, the dog Julie and Eric adopted post-project, passed away a couple of months ago. I was irrationally sad about that when I saw it on her blog last night.)

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Miriam’s Kitchen

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

I never would have read Miriam’s Kitchen had it not been for Sassymonkey’s post, Miriam’s Kitchen and Mine –  and tweets. And even then, if someone hadn’t nicely nominated it for BlogHer Voice of the Week, I might have skimmed and really missed something good.

I’m not a foodie and I don’t have those family memory food experiences that are always the basis of food memoirs. I’ve read so many Jewish memoirs that I don’t go out of my way to read more – not because they aren’t important or well written or I don’t enjoy them, but because I sometimes feel like those stories are becoming diluted for me and that’s not what should happen. So many words all melded together, I’m losing the individual story and find myself lumping it all into one massive trauma. Anyway, enough of that…

Miriam’s Kitchen is something you should run out right now and buy or reserve at your library. If you don’t – you will be missing something special. It may have been simply that I like food memoirs. Or it could be that I like grandmothers. Or also that I was reading it right around Shavuot and we’d been talking about celebration, spring harvest, dairy (who doesn’t love dairy?) and Ruth – which is an even bigger (WHO DOESN’T LOVE RUTH??)

Whatever it was – it all worked for me. Every story. Every question. Every recipe.

I’d happily own this one – but I would ask TW to just not put raisins in my cheesecake. That – that doesn’t work for me.

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Bibliotherapy

2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Non-Fiction, Reading Lists /

I wrote briefly about Bibliotherapy in BlogHer’s Book Club – go over there and read the post (and tell me about your favorite bad girls.) But more importantly, think about books that have become like a kind of therapy to you, even if you didn’t read them with that intention. And then go leave a comment on this post: Books Make a Difference – each comment means a free book for Head Start!

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Social Media 101

2010, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I finished Social Media 101 last night, just in time to get it back to the library today. I enjoyed it, even if it was a “101” style of book and I don’t need a “101” refresher.  I found the community manager pieces interesting and amusing and yes I found myself nodding a few times – makes sense, since I am a community manager, doesn’t it?

(I wrote more about the book in the BlogHer – How to Blog Better group, if you’re interested.)

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Written in Bone

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I know I said I wanted the Claudette Colvin book to win the Cybil but I’ve changed my mind after reading Written in Bone.

I didn’t mean to even read Written in Bone last night. I carried it over to my bedside table thinking I’d read it after I finished Demon Chick. But, as I set it down, I flipped it open, saw the photos, and decided to read just a bit of the intro… and then I couldn’t put it down.

Great photos. Interesting stories about finding graves of early settlers in Maryland and Virginia – trying to piece together who the people were, how they lived and how they died. Really fascinating stuff. I should have been an archaeologist!

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