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The dirty truth about apartment sales in NY. Not really a topic I was particularly interested in before I read the book, but it was well-paced and entertaining
Haven't been on CDF much in past month due to a head-spinning schedule...there are some great suggestions here and when I can slow down a bit, intend to check them out. There are many different categories of non-fiction. The fun is to read something that I ordinarily would not read. As many posters have noted, books can be very surprising in their content...that's why it's good to find out what other people think and just jump in and read. Winter will be a great time to do some serious reading. Happy reading!!!
Location: Pelion, South Carolina/orig. from Cape May, NJ
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Anything by Torey Hayden is excellent-she was a teacher of children with serious disabilities (mostly mental, caused by physical/sexual abuse). I have read her books over and over--real page-turners.
I've recently read two books by two women who escaped the FLDS polygamous sect. (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints).
Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall Escape by Carolyn Jessop
Both books are very good and I was actually surprised at the extreme behavior of the members of this sect. Both books are very unsettling but both women write very candid histories of their years in the FLDS and what their lives are like now.
Posting has fallen off on this thread...would anyone like to keep it going by posting some good non-fiction you'd like to pass on?
Under theBanner of Heaven and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer are both great. I haven't read Into the Wild.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is one of my all-time favorite nonfiction works. Made me want to visit Savannah, but I haven't gotten there yet.
I recommend Malcolm Gladwell's books The Tipping Point and Blink for some interesting insight into human behavior.
Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen about the creation of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair juxtaposed with the serial killer H.H. Holmes in operation in Chicago at the same time was really interesting.
April 1865 by Jay Winik--probably the best overall view of the Civil War in one volume.
1491 - Fascinating information about the people who lived in North and South America before Columbus. Most of it is not known outside the academic world and is very different from what we learned in school about the indigenous people who lived here.
The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto. This is about the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam before the British took over. Fascinating for anyone who loves New York City.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is one of my all-time favorite nonfiction works. Made me want to visit Savannah, but I haven't gotten there yet.
Oh, but you must make the time, and find the money, to visit Savannah. I think it is even more interesting than New Orleans. The layout of the city, and its many beautiful squares, just add to its Southern, moss-draped, charm.
I didn't get to see it, myself, until my daughter chose to attend the Savannah College of Arts & Design. Because Savannah is also touted as one of the US's 'most haunted' cities, and I enjoy Halloween, I must go one year just for the occasion, and to tour some of the most haunted places.
Having read Midnight made me enjoy the city all-the-more. It was fun visiting the house and the square, and seeing the Bonaventure Cemetery. I kept looking for what's-her-name(s) -- both the mystical old woman who gave herself credit for weaving spells and ciphering 'signs' and the transvestite, the Lady Chablis (who I did get to see at a club in Atlanta several years back -- she is so tiny, sort of like a miniature Dianna Ross).
Lots of good restaurants, interesting SCAD-related things to do, like visiting the shop carrying, and selling, a lot of the students' work, and the river front is a nice place to stroll, and shop, stopping for a bite to eat or having a drink. Savannah makes for great 'people-watching,' too.
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