Have you read a NON FICTION book in the last year? (encyclopedia, writing)

[browneyedgurl]

I only read fiction books that are thrillers. When I was little, my grandmother completely skipped over Dr. Seuss, and would let me read her Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Dean Koontz's novels once she had finished them, and those are the type of fiction books I prefer to read to this day.

As for non-fiction, well, I read a lot of textbooks, for one. I am always buying books that pertain to my major is some way. I also collect books on ancient Egypt. I'm a bit obsessed with ancient Egyptian culture.

[lolagranola]

At library sales, I always come home with culture books...generally children's...Life in Tibet, or What do they Eat in the Ukraine....Mostly I go for asian settings, and I especially like if they are in Chinese, or Korean! (no I do not speak/read either!)

Just recently I bought a copy of Oh the Places You'll Go in what I thought was Chinese. It is Japenese, I'm still happy!

[deja-zebbie]

Lola,

thanks for listing your WWII exampoes. I'll check out "Pocket Full of Seeds".

I, too like seeing history thorugh a human story, and what I like best is seeing how people attempt to manage in such circumstances as war -- not limited to battles, but also experiences such as occupation.

zebbie

[karibear]

Originally Posted by deja-zebbie

Lola,

thanks for listing your WWII exampoes. I'll check out "Pocket Full of Seeds".

I, too like seeing history thorugh a human story, and what I like best is seeing how people attempt to manage in such circumstances as war -- not limited to battles, but also experiences such as occupation.

zebbie

Here are a couple more:
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kozinsky[sp?]
Mila 18 and Exodus by Leon Uris

These are fiction, but are based on true events [Uris], and his own experiences in post-war Europe [Kozinsky]. I had a friend some years ago who grew up in Berlin during the war years. His family was Jewish and ran from the Russian pogroms to the west where they thought they'd be safer - just in time to have to hide from the SS etc in Germany! But they did survive, and he was the one who told me about The Painted Bird. He said it was the closest thing he'd ever seen to what life was like then, during and immediately after the war.

[BarbJ]

Blood Done Sign My Name a memoir by Timothy Tyson - growing up in racist Oxford, NC in the 60's and 70's
A LongTime Gone Ismael Beah - Memoirs of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone
The Storyteller's Daughter _ Saira Shah - Memoirs of her trip to Afghanistan as a reporter
The Lipstick Jihad - A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by AZADEH MOAVENI.

[cool_mommy]

I really enjoy the memoirs and autobiographies. My most recent reads that I really enjoyed were Angela's Ashes, My Lobotomy and Running with Scissors. I think that sometimes we are caught up in our own lives and what is going on in them that reading about other people's lives is a form of enlightenment. Some of the memoirs and autobiographies I have read have certainly put my life in pespective

If anyone has any suggestions along the lines of memoirs and autobiographies they have enjoyed I'd love to hear them! Especially if they were thought provoking.

[gentlearts]

Just read, Half Broke Horses-A True Life Novel, and liked it a lot. A good book for girls, but my DH liked it too.

[CharleyMcGarley]

I recently read "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young" by Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway

[SactoBankerGirl]

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson - very good book and inspiring
Lincoln and Douglas - boring, most stuff I already knew, very dry (A Team of Rivals is much better)
War Journal, My Five Years in Iraq by Richard Engel - very informative, a little impressed with himself
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali - incredibly eye-opening
Ship of Ghosts - awesome book, unexpectedly insightful into the plight of POWs and their psychological challenges. I highly recommend this one

[Sunnydee]

I read the Ben Carson Story. It was really inspirational.