Author Topic: Non-Fiction (Read 416038 times)

JoanK · « **Reply #2840 on:** November 10, 2015, 04:04:11 PM »

TO NONFICTION BOOK TALK

What are you reading? Autobiographies, biographies, history, politics?
Tell us about the book; the good and the bad of it.

Let's talk books!

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #2841 on:** November 10, 2015, 06:16:20 PM »

Haha well if we can really turn backwards how about going really back - found this and I am enchanted wanting to use some of these words...

Other old English terms, however, still have perfectly valid meanings in our modern world and really need to be brought back, if only for the pleasure of saying them. Here are 24 words and slang terms from old and middle English (or thereabouts) that are fun to say, still useful, and should never have left us in the first place.

I love it - I'm bedward - and to laugh with the word Billingsgate will be my new word button rather than steeling myself to the language used by so many even on TV. In the morning my hair can easily be described as elflock and how many times the phone has been my expergefactor, especially after I'm bedward for a nap. And grobbling around in my purse that is filled with a jargogle of things I never use that are actually trumpery.

1. Bedward
Exactly as it sounds, bedward means heading for bed. Who doesn’t like heading bedward after a hard day?

2. Billingsgate
This one is a sneaky word; it sounds so very proper and yet it refers to abusive language and curse words.

3. Brabble
Do you ever brabble? To brabble is to argue loudly about matters of no importance.

4. Crapulous
A most appropriate sounding word for the condition of feeling ill as a result of too much eating/drinking.

5. Elflock
Such a sweet word to describe hair that is tangled, as if it has been matted by elves.

6. Erstwhile
This very British sounding word refers to things that are not current, that belong to a former time, rather like the word itself.

7. Expergefactor
Something that wakes you up is an expergefactor. For most of us it’s our alarm clocks, but it could be anything from a chirping bird to a noisy neighbor.

8. Fudgel
Fudgel is the act of giving the impression you are working, when really you are doing nothing.

9. Groke
This means to stare intently at someone who is eating, in the hope that they will give you some. Watch any dog for a demonstration.

10. Grubble
Grubble might sound like the name of a character from a fantasy novel but it does in fact mean to feel or grope around for something that you can’t see.

11. Hugger-mugger
What a fun way to describe secretive, or covert behavior.

12. Hum durgeon
An imaginary illness. Sounds more like an imaginary word. Have you ever suffered from hum durgeon?

13. Jargogle
This is a perfect word that should never have left our vocabulary, it means to confuse or jumble.

14. Lanspresado
It sounds like the name of a sparkling wine, but no, it means a person who arrives somewhere, having conveniently forgotten their wallet, or having some other complicated story to explain why they don’t have money with them.

15. Mumpsimus
Mumpsimums is an incorrect view on something that a person refuses to let go of.

16. Quagswag
To shake something backwards and forwards is to quagswag, who knew?

17. Rawgabbit
We all know a few rawgabbits. A rawgabbit is a person who likes to gossip confidentially about matters that they know nothing about.

18. Snollygoster
I think we can all agree this is a fantastic sounding word. It means a person who has intelligence but no principles; a dangerous combination. Watch out for the snollygosters, they live amongst us.

19. Snottor
This old english term has the unlikely meaning of “wise.” Really?

20. Trumpery
Things that look good but are basically worthless. I said THINGS, not people.

21. Uhtceare
This means lying awake worrying before dawn. We all do this, we just didn’t know there was a word for it. Say it now, like this: oot-key-are-a.

22. Ultracrepidarian
Similar to the rawgabbit, this person takes every opportunity to share their opinion about things they know nothing about. Social media is the perfect outlet for these people.

23. Zwodder
Being in a drowsy, fuzzy state, after a big night out perhaps?

24. Cockalorum
A small man with a big opinion of himself.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2842 on:** November 11, 2015, 07:03:41 AM »

Barb, I know three of those words. Also, I thought Billingsgate was a place name, snotter indicated a pain in the butt who thought way too much of himself, and one I've run across but didn't precisely know what it meant.

#20 LOL

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #2843 on:** November 11, 2015, 07:14:26 AM »

Fry... I thought Billingsgate was a prison

looked it up and found --- Billingsgate is one of the 25 Wards of the City of London. Its name derives from being the City's original water gate, and this small City Ward is situated on the north bank of the River Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge in the south-east of the Square Mile.

Billingsgate, old gate and fish market, London, England. First Known Use: 1652

However the dictionary still lists Billingsgate as abusive language - vehemently expressed condemnation or disapproval - implies practiced fluency and variety of profane or obscene abuse as in, directing a stream of billingsgate at the cabdriver.

emfoxwell · « **Reply #2844 on:** November 11, 2015, 02:50:00 PM »

For ghost story fans, some possibilities include:

-- _The Seen and the Unseen_, a collection of tales by Richard Marsh (best known for _The Beetle_): http://www.valancourtbooks.com/the-seen-and-the-unseen-1900.html

-- M. R. James. There are a few collections of his work published by Wildside Press.

There's also an M. R. James podcast:
http://www.mrjamespodcast.com/

JoanK · « **Reply #2845 on:** November 11, 2015, 03:49:46 PM »

I love it: I want to use them all!

Please let us know where you got that list.

PatH · « **Reply #2846 on:** November 11, 2015, 06:09:56 PM »

Billingsgate was the kind of language used by the fishmongers at the Billingsgate fish market--crude and abusive.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #2847 on:** November 11, 2015, 06:57:07 PM »

ah so... PatH - thanks - makes sense - maybe that says it all - that so many today are doing nothing more than selling fish stories using the appropriate language

JoanK · « **Reply #2848 on:** November 13, 2015, 04:55:15 PM »

Used "bedward" to my grandchildren. they loved it. If my memory were only better, I could have snuck a couple more words in.

JoanK · « **Reply #2849 on:** November 20, 2015, 04:34:13 PM »

read an interesting non-fiction book: "The Spy's Son" by Bryan Denson. About a high-ranking CIA operative who was selling secrets to the Russians and who, when he was caught and put in jail, trained his young son in spy techniques and had him sell smuggled-out information to the Russians.

I hadn't read a "true-spy story before: from the citations, apparently it's a whole genre of books.

The spying techniques in this one are much simpler than in fiction books. the main interest of the book is how his role as a spy influenced his role as a single father. He said he started as a double agent so he could provide for his children, and got his son involved so he could continue to provide for them in prison. (Instead, he nearly ruined his son's life. And the amounts of money earned were not enough to really provide) He was a very religious man, and encouraged his son with verses from the bible. The mixed-up sense of values involved, I found fascinating.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2850 on:** November 21, 2015, 06:57:06 AM »

Very interesting JoanK. My last true spy book was A Spy Among Friends which is about Kim Philby (remember him?) and the community of spies/friends that allowed him to operate for so long.

After a lengthy synopsis this WSJ review gives some criticism that is worth noting if you have read or will read the book. http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-a-spy-among-friends-by-ben-macintyre-1407533655

JoanK · « **Reply #2851 on:** November 21, 2015, 04:01:41 PM »

After Philby defected and there was all that fuss, I found that he had lived a few blocks away from where I lived. As far as I know, I never saw him.

Apparently, there were a whole lot of other double agents (moles), like Philby, on both sides. Apparently, both we and the Russians treated our moles better than the regular agents. And the same set of values that make good spies, make them ready to betray their fellow agents.

PatH · « **Reply #2852 on:** November 21, 2015, 07:14:30 PM »

That WSJ link would only give me the first paragraph of the review.

I've read another good book by Ben Macintyre. In 1943 British Intelligence pulled off a huge trick of misdirection, which persuaded the Germans that the coming invasion of Europe was going to be in Greece, when it was actually Sicily.

The first, The Man Who Never Was, by Ewen Montagu, came out in 1950. Montagu describes how he and his fellows dressed a body as a courier, with a briefcase chained to his wrist containing a faked description of the invasion. They sneaked the body close to a shore where bodies from downed planes often washed up, and it was found, and the documents believed.

Montagu's account is short and lighthearted, told from one man's point of view, with much left out because it was still classified. It's a good read.

In 2010, Macintyre wrote Operatiom Mincemeat, using much no longer classified information, describing all the players, filling in the gaps, and fitting everything into the bigger strategic picture. It's a detailed, complex picture, and it's fascinating, especially if you've already read the first book.

FlaJean · « **Reply #2853 on:** November 22, 2015, 12:58:53 PM »

Saw the movie The Man Who Never Was on Netflix. I enjoyed it.

marjifay · « **Reply #2854 on:** January 16, 2016, 10:11:56 AM »

Thanks for recommending The Man Who Never Was, FlaJean. I put it on my Netflix queue. Sounds interesting and gets a very good rating at IMDB.

And also thanks, Joan K, for your recommendation of A Spy's Son. I put it on hold at my library.

Marj

Jonathan · « **Reply #2855 on:** January 16, 2016, 02:41:27 PM »

My thanks, too, to everyone posting with 'reading' comments and recommendations. How often my reaction has been to rush out and get the book. So now I'm swamped by books, with no place to put them.

I envy you, Marj. I wish I could still anticipate reading David McCullough's TRUMAN. You will like it. I think I'll reread it. But first, since this is a presidential campaign year, I'm going to read A Magnificent Catastrophe, about the tumultuous election of 1800, by Edward Larson. What a cast! Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I can heartily recommend a book I just picked up by chance. In Search of Sir Thomas Browne, The Life and Afterlife of the Seventeenth Century's Most Inquiring Mind, by Hugh Aldersey-Williams. Browne wrote some great stuff, scientific and philosophical, in great style. Only Shakespeare coined more new English words.

And then, well along in the book, a quote from Rose Macaulay, an author I just got to know recently by reading her Towers of Trebizond. There were several comments in Library about her puzzling fixation on the English Anglican Church in her book. Now I find her quoted in the H A-W book, as saying that Browne in one of his books made 'in the most exquisite and splendid prose of the century, the best and most agreeable confession of the Anglican religion ever, before or since, published.'

Knowing that added a little more interest to what Macaulay was trying to do in her book.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2856 on:** January 21, 2016, 05:10:29 PM »

Another suggestion, Jonathan.

I have just stated to read a pulitzer-prize winning bio of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who is one of the subjects of my women's history series at the library in March. The author is Joan Hedrick who is a wonderful writer. I'm just 30 pages in, but the story of Harriet's childhood is delightful.......well, if you aren't one of Lyman Beecher's (H's father) three wives! His first wife, Roxana is smart and curious, the perfectly submissive preacher's wife, never competing with him in anyway. She is also fertile and had 8 children in 16 yrs, as was common in the early 19th century. She also died at age 41 of consumption when Harriet was 5 yrs old.

But the whole Beecher and Foote (Roxana's family) families are interesting. Lyman was a blinders-on Congrgationalist minister who believed and preached to his congregations and to his children that if they weren't "born again" they were damned to hell, a hell that he described in all its horribleness. Surprisingly, five of his children didn't seem convinced and were not converted until close to, or well into adulthood, frustrating L to no end. They were well-schooled in dinner table debate, so they debated him on that subject too.

Harriet had good role models in her Mother, two aunts, one from each side of her parents families. lots of readers, lots of those suspicious novels that were just becoming popular in the states, and an uncle who owned a ship and sailed all over the world bringing back wonderful stories about smart, inventive, educated peoples of many other religions and cultures, giving the B children a sense that maybe Father wasn't right about everything.

It's informative and sometimes funny and well-documented - there are 100 pages of footnotes! I'm looking forward to continuing reading her story.

Jean

marjifay · « **Reply #2857 on:** February 08, 2016, 08:52:44 AM »

I am in the middle of a book by Aaron J. Klein-- Striking Back. Am finding it hard to put down. All about the massacre of the Israeli Olympic athletes by the Islamic Black September group in Munich, Germany in 1972. Now I want to read a biography of Golda Meir and watch the film Munich. And read a book mentioned on the book cover -- Arab and Jew by David K. Shipler which won a Pulitzer.

Marj

JoanK · « **Reply #2858 on:** February 08, 2016, 05:18:08 PM »

Golda Meir was a fascinating person. I never met her when I lived in Israel. I did meet Ben Gurion, briefly, when he was old and crabby.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2859 on:** February 09, 2016, 12:17:23 AM »

Joan - I thought Ben Gurion was always old and crabby.

I'm just starting to read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring for my library book group, and she will be one of the "women scientists" in my women's history series. She is a beautiful writer and a fascinating woman.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2860 on:** February 09, 2016, 06:15:54 AM »

Oh good, Mabel. I read Silent Spring eons ago. It is a wonderful book. I also read, and enjoyed, The Edge of the Sea.

ANNIE · « **Reply #2861 on:** February 09, 2016, 09:34:05 AM »

Have not read "Silent Spring"! Will see if I can get it on my iPhone.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #2862 on:** February 15, 2016, 07:19:09 PM »

Recently I read a biography of Mary McGrory: The First Queen of Journalism by John Norris. Do you remember her columns? She was syndicated across the country, back in the day we had two or more newspapers daily.. What wit and humor she had! One of the first women journalists she pointed the way for others. She loved the political world and met many of our presidents at Washington parties and affairs. What memories the book brought back.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2863 on:** February 18, 2016, 12:58:15 PM »

The name doesn't ring a bell, Ella. I'll have to look her up.

While waiting for my next book to arrive from the library, I finally started The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss. I've had in on my Kindle for about a year now. Seeing as this month is Black History Month, it seems a good time to start it. It is about General Alex Dumas who was Alexander Dumas, Pere's father.

JoanK · « **Reply #2864 on:** February 18, 2016, 04:03:06 PM »

The name Mary McGory does sound familiar, though I don't think I read her.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #2865 on:** March 02, 2016, 09:32:45 PM »

If you have time look and listen:

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/19/441470551/dont-call-her-doll-how-mary-mcgrory-became-the-first-queen-of-journalism

Frybabe · « **Reply #2866 on:** March 18, 2016, 07:56:37 AM »

I just picked up from the library Meet You in Hell by Les Standiford. Now, how can you pass up a title like that? It is about Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, their rivalry, and a transformational steel strike. Another book (Last Train to Paradise...) by him about Henry Flagler is up next in my library TBR list.

I am also still reading The Black Count... which I am finding very interesting, especially France's early attitude regarding slavery and blacks.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2867 on:** March 21, 2016, 12:52:12 PM »

Reading Lynn Sherr's book Sally Ride. Since Sherr reported on the space program, she and Ride became friendly and her book is a delightful read about a very interesting, delightful woman.

My son, dgt and I met Sally Ride in 1985. She was the first winner of the Alice Paul Equality Award. Ride had just been in space in 1983, at age 32, she is still the youngest ever astronaut. Sherr, who has been a fan of the Alice Paul Institute, told us that Ride got 1000s of requests to speak in the mid-80s and refused most of them. But AP was one of her heroes, so she came to South Jersey to share dinner and a press conference with us. Because of her presence we got a lot of men to come who heard about AP for the first time and we had an overflow crowd and a lot of tv coverage.

Ride is one of the women scientists i will be talking about in my women's history series at our library. Rachel Carson and Adm Hooper, developer of the COBAL computer language are two others.

I recommend Sherr's book.

Jean

JoanK · « **Reply #2868 on:** March 21, 2016, 06:08:39 PM »

JEAN: how wonderful to meet Sally Ride. What was she like (I was sorry to hear of her death recently). I hope the book goes into her role in the investigation of the challenger disaster. Apparently, she was the one who was anonymously feeding the physicist Feynman clues to help him avoid cover-ups. Good for her!

I did meet Adm. Hopper (you accidently typed Hooper) when I was a programmer in the early days of computers. she was a formidable woman: everyone, men and women, were afraid of her. I was talking about that with my daughter the other day: one of the biggest differences I notice between professional women in "men's" professions today and the few I knew back in the fifties is that they feel free to be both serious professionals and to enjoy feminine things. In my day, that was often not the case.

JoanK · « **Reply #2869 on:** March 28, 2016, 06:28:58 PM »

Read an interesting book, "The Soul of an Octopus" by Sy Montgomery. he describes her experiences playing with the octopuses (the correct plural, she tells us) in the Boston Aquarium. Now I'm fascinated by them. They are very intelligent, and have to be given puzzles to solve. If not, they get bored, and spend their time trying to find ways to escape (and often succeeding). they also have different personalities (one of the studies she participates in gives personality tests to wild octopuses. A kind of octopus Myers Briggs).

Light reading, and very engaging.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2870 on:** May 25, 2016, 02:57:54 PM »

I'm reading a very interesting ebook, The Hunting of Hillary by Joe Conason and Gene Lyon, both awarded journalists. You can get it for free from Conason's blog "national memo". I'm amazed that she is still standing and willing to take the arrows that are constantly hurled at her, even those repeated arrows that have already been debunked by congressional committees and objective journalists, altho, by their own admission, there don't seem to be many of those.

She has stood for decades in the midst of the onslaughts and no, I don't believe the cliche "where there's smoke there's fire," for it appears her opposition has frequently created its own smoke machine. I don't think she's perfect, who of us are, but IMO, she has a lot going for her. Why she would want to run for president and have the unscrupulous opposition have another big attack at her, I can't imagine. But it sure would be nice to have a woman president.

Jean

kidsal · « **Reply #2871 on:** May 26, 2016, 05:56:32 AM »

BLACK MONEY to understand how money from those like the Koch Brothers have impacted our lives.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #2872 on:** May 26, 2016, 01:41:43 PM »

Yes, Black Money sounds interesting and the author is a good one.

evergreen · « **Reply #2873 on:** May 27, 2016, 01:51:56 PM »

Kidsal - I have Dark Money on my TBR list. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it. I suspect it isn't going to be an easy read.

kidsal · « **Reply #2874 on:** May 28, 2016, 01:50:44 PM »

It was our May read for my book club. Lots of discussion. We are all Democrats so a little biased. But can see so much in current Senate and House proceedings and news concerning many think tanks, etc. Very wealthy deciding the way to influence people and to grow people to their way of governing was to sponsor college/university classes which taught their point of view, create think tanks, etc. Koch brothers sponsor seminars attended by many people of interest -- a very exclusive and very secretive meetings. Of course Senator McConnell on first day of President Obama's Presidency announced the Republicans would do everything to undermine him and they have kept their word!
Both Democrats and Republicans should read this book to discover how many of the very wealthy are influencing you.

evergreen · « **Reply #2875 on:** May 28, 2016, 07:14:46 PM »

Somehow I can't see the Koch Bros. et al supporting Trump, but they'll probably concentrate their support on Senate and House elections.

The book sounds interesting...and timely.

evergreen · « **Reply #2876 on:** June 09, 2016, 05:38:20 PM »

Finished reading Isabellaa biography by Kirsten Downey, who also wrote The Woman Behind the New Deal. Serious research, interesting history. Was a little surprised at who some of her contemporaries were. Enjoyed the book very much.

JoanK · « **Reply #2877 on:** June 09, 2016, 06:01:23 PM »

Is that the Isabella who financed Columbus?

evergreen · « **Reply #2878 on:** June 09, 2016, 06:31:14 PM »

Yes. But she did so much more.

marjifay · « **Reply #2879 on:** June 16, 2016, 12:47:23 PM »

I recently watched the 1973 film, A DOLL'S HOUSE, with Anthony Hopkins and Clair Bloom. Very good film, and I got to thinking how on earth Henrik Ibsen, who wrote the play on which the film is based, could have writen such a film in the 1800s regarding a woman's feelings about the way she had been treated by both her father and her husband so that she did not feel she was a real person, only a doll to be played with. So, I read part of Ibsen's biography and it said he was greatly influenced by his mother-in-law who was the leader of the feminist movement in Norway at that time. Now I'd like to read about the history of the feminist movement in the world and how it got started in what had been almost forever a world ruled by men. Anyone have any suggestions on where to begin? I want to know about the movement in the world, not just the United States.

Marj

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Author Topic: Non-Fiction (Read 416038 times)