Author Topic: Non-Fiction  (Read 415280 times)

maryz

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #80 on: January 18, 2009, 09:24:26 AM »

Thanks for the recommendation, marjifay.  China Road sounds like a good one.
"When someone you love dies, you never quite get over it.  You just learn how to go on without them. But always keep them safely tucked in your heart."

ANNIE

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #81 on: January 18, 2009, 10:44:37 AM »
The China book sounds very promising.  I will be looking at my library for that one.

I also want to mention another title, "Higher: A Historic Race To the Sky and The Making of a City" by Neal Bascomb.  I read this before our BOOKS visit to NYC in September and I searched out the skyscrapers in the book. The story of the race to build the tallest building in the world during the roaring 20's is worth the read. 
"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." Robert Southey

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #82 on: January 18, 2009, 11:28:44 AM »


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!


Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #83 on: January 18, 2009, 11:41:35 AM »
Thanks, MARGE, for that recommendation!  I want to read the book also; we all need to keep our eyes on China, OH, GOSH, we owe them!   And I think they are beginning to lose faith in America's ability to pay back???  What do you think?

Hello Ann!

And now back to LINCOLN for just a few minutes.  I watched Meet the Press this morning and there was a panel discussion on the crises facing Obama and how he might best handle them.  And everyone talked of Lincoln. 

Phrases such as the "emotional intelligence" of Lincoln and the "push to succeed" that Stephen Douglas gave Lincoln, to name a few, were bandied about.  Why is it inevitable that Obama reminds people of Lincoln?

Of course, Lincoln was facing a crisis, but of such a different milieu.  In 1860 the country was literally falling apart, states seceding from the union, etc.

I would think that comparison with FDR, who faced not only a crisis overseas, but an economic crises at home would be more in tune to what Obama faces.

What do you think?

mabel1015j

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #84 on: January 18, 2009, 02:06:19 PM »
Since we have a while before we will be reading A Team of Rivals, do you think D.K. Goodwin might come on and talk to us in March? I don't know how those th ings have been arranged in the past, but i think she might enjoy hearing our questions and comments...........we're probably a different demographic than she has talked to so far..................jean

JoanK

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #85 on: January 18, 2009, 02:45:26 PM »
I'm definitely in! By ordering "Team of Rivals" and "The Guernsey Potato Peel Society" at the same time from Amazon, i squaked over the limit to get free shipping.

WELCOME, JONATHAN!! Good to see you again!

HATS: I also read "Night". A good book, but hard to read. I'll never forget it.

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #86 on: January 18, 2009, 06:32:55 PM »
Good, JOAN!  Keep the TEAM OF RIVALS ready to open come March and in the meantime we can continue to review other books and here might be a good place to discuss the political scene as it unfolds this coming week.  We've discussed so many former presidents and their administrations over the years that we have been on the Internet. 

I am sure that most of you know that Seniornet was the first online book club?

Have any of you been to an inauguration in person? 

How many do you remember and why?

HATS, I read NIGHT years ago and I, too, remember it very well.  You will never forget the horrors, the world will never forget.

How many watched the Lincoln Memorial Musical today?  I watched it on HBO and some of it was very moving; it is hard not to "tear-up" (actually almost sob!) when you see pictures of soldiers kissing babies and returning home to families.  But, Wow!  What a scene, those huge TV screens on the Mall, have they ever had those before????

I hope Obama is storing up these good moments for ahead of him are some very difficult problems and, undoubtedly, there will be mistakes made along the way. 

Lincoln said "We here hold the power and bear the responsibility."

JEAN, I can try to capture the attention of Goodwin!   Wouldn't that be something?


Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #87 on: January 19, 2009, 10:19:13 AM »
I emailed 2 contacts on this site:

http://www.doriskearnsgoodwin.com/team-of-rivals.php

A YouTube interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin about this book:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N3eU2UsYio

Jonathan

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #88 on: January 19, 2009, 01:11:49 PM »
'Good to see you again.'

Thanks, Joan. Surely that was the feeling of all of us as this site became available and we could renew our pleasant exchanges in recommending good reading. Over the years the tips I received from all you avid readers, changed, transformed my own reading habits. And great was the pleasure to hear that someone else was reading something I was engrossed in myself. Like:

KEPLER'S WITCH: An Astronomer's Discovery of Cosmic Order Amid Religious War, Political Intrigue, and the Heresy Trial of His Mother.

Remember that one, Joan? I just love the subtitle. A lot of comfort in that 'cosmic order', while wondering about the mother/son relationship.

Caro's THE POWER BROKER has been mentiioned numerous times here. A great book. I'm half way through it myself. I'm sure even Machiavelli could learn a thing or two about political machinations. I would like to recommend a companion volume to Caro's book. Just out recently.

ROBERT MOSES AND THE MODERN CITY: The transformation of New York. Edited by Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson. Moses' work is beautifully illustrated and is commented on by a number of good critical essays.

I must have a look at CHINA ROAD. There certainly are a lot questions raised by the sudden emergence of this potentially big player on the world's stage. What do they make of it in Beijing?  That turmoil on their far western border. Which prompts me to mention a fascinating book:

DESCENT INTO CHAOS: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. By Ahmed Rashid. Read this to learn where all those billions went. And nothing is being built, seemingly. Geopolitical pieces scattered about, waiting to be picked up, by somebody.

I'm far too impatient to have TEAM OF RIVALS in the house, not  to get into it. And it only adds to the interest to look at the front page of my newspaper. A huge, towering Lincoln looming over the president-elect and his wife as they descend the stairs at the Lincoln Memorial. I think you're right, Ella, in wondering about the Obama preoccupation  with his distinguished predecessor.

The Goodwin history? It's very entertaining.

ANNIE

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #89 on: January 19, 2009, 02:22:01 PM »
Didn't we mention reading "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortensen???  Last week, maybe.
 
Well, I turned on the news today and across the bottom of the screen was the story of the Taliban bombing the schools in NW Pakistan as part of their demand that girls not be educated.  They have bombed 170 schools and ordered all girls' schools to close.  They really don't want anyone to be educated.  The people who live in these places have until Jan 15th to follow the orders given by the Taliban.  Terrorists telling simple folks what to do!

The area that Greg Mortensen built girls' schools in was this area.  He must be devastated!
"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." Robert Southey

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #90 on: January 19, 2009, 06:52:02 PM »
STOP READING NOW, JONATHAN!!!  Stop reading TEAM OF RIVALS until we all get into it or you will forget it.  We want your instant responses!  That's an order, hahahaaaa

All those books you recommended sounded great!  I have never heard of Kepler, but have the Caro book.  For now, I am ignoring all those books about the Bush administration and the machinations of his policies; where the money went, the blame for the wars in Iraq, Afgahanistan.  I think we need distance from it all to see it clearly and I may or may not live to read the truth of it all, which will not bother one whit!

How do the rest of you feel about the books about the Bush administration; there are tons of them!

Ann, thanks for the post; I know the news is just devastating and those poor women and young girls!  The world is a sad place, but hasn't it always been?

------------------

The decision to just present one book a month on this new site is a wise one and the Book Club Online is doing the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society in February.  We are a fairly new site, even though all, or most all of us,  have been former participants on the old Seniornet site. 

Consequently, please keep your book TEAM OF RIVALS in abeyance (oh, I love that word!) and we will be opening them MARCH lst!

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #91 on: January 19, 2009, 06:59:09 PM »
One more important notice, and one that I am very grateful for, pleased about, shouting-happy about, is that PATH is going to be the co-leader on our discussion of TEAM OF RIVALS!

In this way, if one or the other of us needs to be away, or God forbid that we get ill, there will be one here to post the heading and inform you of the next chapters - tell you when to turn the page, so to speak - and I am so thankful. 

CLAP YOUR HANDS, RAISE YOUR GLASS, A TOAST TO PAT!

mabel1015j

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #92 on: January 19, 2009, 08:16:14 PM »
Cheers to Pat! Cheers to Obama and his administration and family! Cheers to the United States! It feels almost euphoric to watch the tv and what is going on in D.C. I can't recall another event that brought us all together in a happy/positive way. I think this is a unique day in the United States, and it's wonderful. So much togetherness, so many good feelings, so much hope, even w/ the dire straits we seem to be in! And MLK's birthday coming today and the inauguration being tomorrow is almost improbable.

The concert yesterday  - which is still playing on HBO - reminded me of some of the festivities of our bicentennial or the millenium, but even better. Pete Seeger, who in the 50's couldn't get a job because he and the Weavers had been labeled by McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover as subversives, in his 80's (?) singing on that stage for the president of the United States - i loved it!!! Yes we can change. It's all just so inspiring and exciting and wonderful........................

I've never been to an inaugural, but my husband and his sister were at the 1963 March to hear the "I have a dream" speech, and my son was at The Million Man March in the 90's, two other big events in D.C............we'll all be together w/ friends tomorrow, and in tears, i'm sure!...............................jean

PatH

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #93 on: January 19, 2009, 09:36:09 PM »
Cheers to tomorrow!  Although I live only 1 1/2 miles from a Metro stop, I will not be going down tomorrow.  The Inauguration in person isn't for the weak-limbed or cold sensitive, and I'm both.  I did see the stands at the Capitol, though, when I was downtown 10 days ago.

mabel1015j

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #94 on: January 19, 2009, 10:20:09 PM »
Whoopee Goldberg said on "The View" today that she wasn't going to D.C. because she has a special relationship w/ her bathroom and there CANNOT be a line between her and her bathroom ;D...........i saw on the news tonight that they have 1 porta potty for every approximately 400 people that they are expecting - i'm w/ Whoopee, give me a tv, a bathroom w/in 30 ft AND w/ a guranteed roll of  toliet paper available! That's good enough for me..............jean

JoanK

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #95 on: January 20, 2009, 03:06:29 PM »
I'm with Whoopee, too!!

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #96 on: January 20, 2009, 06:18:50 PM »
What did you think of THE SPEECH?

PatH

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #97 on: January 20, 2009, 10:49:42 PM »
WOW!!!

Incredibly impressive.  Just the right tone.  Really well written.  My friends and I were just about in tears.

pedln

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #98 on: January 20, 2009, 11:52:56 PM »
And Gwen Ifill’s book Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama was published today, Inauguration Day.

Now watching the Inaugural Balls -- if you didn't know them you might say, "what a cute couple.  Is it their wedding, their prom?  They look so happy and are having such fun."

And then I think, this man has the burdens of the world on his shoulders and  we are all expecting him to accomplish so much.  When will he look this happy again?

mabel1015j

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #99 on: January 21, 2009, 01:57:26 PM »
There were many tears here. We met with friends and our children - dgt, son and DIL - at a friends' house and we had a lot of tears of happiness. .........I've just watched Obama's statement on the rules of transparency in his gov't. I almost have to pinch myself to believe this is happening. It just seems so RIGHT! It's been too many years since i've felt this way about our gov't. I'm so excited about the possibilities for the future. Let's hope this euphoria and cooperation continue - at least for a while, i'm realistic enough to know it can't go on for long. ..................i saw a man, our age, at the inauguration yesterday who had on a "hippies for Obama" button and was doing the "v" sign for "peace." It took me back to the optimism of the mid-60's. That didn't quite work out, so let's hope this period of optimism is more successful..........jean

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #100 on: January 21, 2009, 04:02:13 PM »
PAT, you thought it was a 'WOW" speech. 

Gosh, I was disappointed.  I was expecting a "we have nothing to fear" or an "Ask Not" speech and I got a lot of neat phrases, but nothing to remember.  But he was refreshing to listen to, so well spoken and so well intentioned.

Oh, well, as JEAN expressed - "i'm realistic enough to know it can't go on for long."  The hope that he - we - can get us out of wars and debt and make it all better somehow!

Put us back into 2000 maybe?  Weren't we in pretty good shape then?


Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #101 on: January 21, 2009, 04:05:54 PM »
On the way home from shopping I listened to NPR and they had two authors on; THE FORGOTTEN MAN and THE DEFINING MOMENT (I can't remember the authors' names but those are the books) and both are about the depression.

The topic was whether FDR's policies of government spending shortened or lengthened the depression.  The two authors disagreed.  Perhaps we should be reading and discussing FDR?

The moderator asked phone-in folks to talk about what they learned in school about the depression.

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #102 on: January 21, 2009, 04:47:24 PM »
HERE IS "WOW!"  The new generation - THE INTERNET AND THE GOVERNMENT:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Will our kids know history better now that they can click it and see it, read it, watch a video, from their computer?

Will we need universities in the future?  Did you notice that one of the big commercials yesterday, along with the two big colas, Walmart and Lipitor, was THE UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX online?

marjifay

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #103 on: January 21, 2009, 05:42:18 PM »
Ella, -- re the Whitehouse.gov  websight.  Really great!  The internet is wonderful.  Especially, for me, I love Wikapedia. 

However, I'd not want to attend college only via the internet.  I loved having discussions with the professor and other students.  I think I'd have missed so much not being in an actual classroom.

I thought Obama's speech was just great.  I was really surprised to see that he was hard at work today after what must have been a grueling day yesterday and with all those late night inaugural balls.  (I wonder if McCain at his age would have been up to all that?)

I loved the ending on the benediction prayer by that old man who had been so active in the civil rights movement.  Something about how everyone can get along -- the Browns can stick around, the Yellow can be mellow, the Reds can get ahead, etc.  Fun.  And I'd like to get a copy of Elizabeth Alexander's poem -- so far I can't find it.

"Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  Barbara Tuchman

CubFan

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #104 on: January 21, 2009, 06:57:04 PM »
Transcript of Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem
1:25 PM PST, January 20, 2009

The following is a transcript of the inaugural poem recited by Elizabeth Alexander:

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
 
A farmer considers the changing sky. A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; we walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign, the figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self." Others by "First do no harm," or "Take no more than you need."

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

"No two persons ever read the same book" Edmund Wilson

mabel1015j

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #105 on: January 21, 2009, 10:18:22 PM »
I tho't the speech was great, very practical and down to earth about where we are and what we have to do.............i'm hoping that's the way the Obama administration is going to be.

Cubfan - thanks so much for the copy of the poem. I loved it too. Again everyday people, tho'ts and actions....................it's so great to get away from the lofty statements that then turn out not to be the actions that are being taken by the same people who made the statements...........From the past administration we had so much rhetoric about patriotism and freedom, etc. and then so much destroying of our civil rights and behind-the-doors decisions.............. The ironic thing is that altho everything about the inauguration and the Obama rhetoric has been practical/down to earth/realistic, it has generated an idealism and inspiration for so many people...............have you heard that w/ all those people in D.C. yesterday there was essentially no incidents of crime..........there was just an over all good feeling in the air, the feeling of best of humanity rising into the atmosphere..................hooray!................

Marjifay....I feel the same way about needing to have discussion in my college classes. That's the most fun about going to college.............when i was teaching at the community college, they asked me a couple times to teach an on-line class and i always said, "no thanks, that's not the way i like to teach. I want to know and hear the interactions of the students." ...........................

Ella - i would like to read and discuss the FDR years. The only problem is we'd probably need three months to get thru the 4 administrations..... ;D........let alone his whole life AND Eleanor!................................jean

marjifay

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #106 on: January 22, 2009, 05:48:37 AM »
Thank you so much for posting Alexander's lovely poem, CubFan.

Jean's words in her post are so true.  Say it plain....
"Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  Barbara Tuchman

HaroldArnold

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #107 on: January 22, 2009, 07:08:35 PM »
There was considerable comment during the last months of the old non-fiction board on the 1980.s David McCullough Biography of Theodore Roosevelt, "Mornings On Horseback."  I was even about to propose its discussion this winter.  Since then I have acquired another later Biography (2008) of this ex-President By Aida Donald entitled "Lion in the White House."  Has anyone read this book?  It is some 100 pages shorter  than the McCullough title but aside of this convenience in my judgment I think the McCullough title is still be best general reader biography of the  24th President.

I also have another new biography of another former U.S. President.  This one is by Jon Meacham the editor of Newsweek.  It is a biography of Andrew Jackson entitled "American Lion."  Some of you might remember Meacham as the author of a previous best seller, "Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship."  The Andrew Jackson book too would make an interesting discussion.  Have any of you seen it or read other books by Jon Meacham?

During the last several months that saw the apparent decline and fall of Seniorsnet I have taken on several new assignments in connection with my work at the local National Historical Park that precludes my participation in any on-line discussion at this time, but possibly later this year subject to the procedure of our new board, I might push for a discussion of one of these books.

mabel1015j

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #108 on: January 22, 2009, 11:39:43 PM »
I read Mornings on Horseback many years ago. Wasn't that only part of TR's life? I remember a lot about his young years - mornings on horseback w/ his father when TR suffered from asthma attacks, thus the title. I don't remember where in his life it stopped. Did it continue thruout his life? I remember that i enjoyed it very much...............jean

hats

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #109 on: January 23, 2009, 06:12:03 AM »
Ella,

You're right. I finished "Night." It's an unforgettable book. Thank goodness it's small. I didn't know Night is one of a trilogy by Elie Wiesel.
 
1.Night
2.Dawn
3.Day

hats

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #110 on: January 23, 2009, 06:16:12 AM »
MaryZ,

Thank you.

AdoAnnie, thanks for the "Team of Rivals" link.

I hate to admit it. I've never read a full biography about Lincoln. I think Jonathan mentioned Gore Vidal's Lincoln. I might try that one. It's Historical Fiction. To pick a nonfiction one, I wouldn't know where to start.

I've always wanted to read a full biography about Thurgood Marshall too. Nothing calls to me to read a book about Hillary Clinton unless she wrote an autobiography. I would like to read "It Takes A Village."

hats

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #111 on: January 23, 2009, 06:26:41 AM »
Years ago I might have read "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" by Bishop. I'm not sure. I think so. Just can't say it for sure.

marjifay

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #112 on: January 23, 2009, 11:28:04 AM »
I haven't read much about Lincoln either.  Am looking forward to reading TEAM OF RIVALS which I just got from the library. 

Hats, Hillary Clinton did write her autobiography:  LIVING HISTORY, which I read sometime ago and enjoyed.  Haven't yet read Bill Clinton's MY LIFE--its over 900 pp.  Also want to read FIRST IN HIS CLASS; A BIOGRAPHY OF BILL CLINTON by David Maraniss of the Washington Post who won a Pulitzer for his coverage of Clinton's campaign.  A review said you simply can't understand Clinton without Maraniss's analysis of his past.  (in case anyone really cares (LOL), altho I do because I've found him to be an interesting character)
"Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  Barbara Tuchman

hats

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #113 on: January 23, 2009, 11:37:15 AM »
Marifay,

Thanks for that title, "Living History."

marjifay

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #114 on: January 23, 2009, 12:49:47 PM »
Hats, I own a copy of THURGOOD MARSHALL; AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY by Juan Williams (author of Eye on the Prize), but I haven't read it.  Maybe you've read it.  Bought it when I heard Justice Sandra Day O'Connor praise Marshall during an interview on BookTV.  Looks like a very interesting book -- maybe I'll pull it out and read it. 
"Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  Barbara Tuchman

mabel1015j

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #115 on: January 23, 2009, 01:46:20 PM »
Oh gosh! All the books you've mentioned are ones that i would love to discuss w/ all of you - how much time do we have? ;D

Marjifay - i've always tho't Bill Clinton was a fascinating personality, from a psychological perspective. He's such a bundle of ambiguities, so smart, yet so stupid in his personal life and why is that? I think it's time for me to read First in His Class...................jean

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #116 on: January 23, 2009, 03:53:30 PM »
“However, I'd not want to attend college only via the internet. I loved having discussions with the professor and other students. I think I'd have missed so much not being in an actual classroom.”

I’m not sure how online courses work, MARGE.  My daughter taught one in nursing, but it was connected to a university and the students got together now and then and, of course, for exams.  I agree a student would miss the socialization that college offers.

----------------------

Thanks, CUBFAN, for the poem.  It does speak to everyone doesn’t it?  “Every day we go about our business”  but she ends the poem with a verse about love.  I thought it was wonderful.

-------------------------

JEAN, I smiled at your reference to four months for FDR!  You are so right!  But I think there has to be a book that condenses it all, isn’t there?  We all know his story, though, is there something new to talk about there?  What a lady Eleanor was.  We discussed a book about her last years on our old Seniornet site.  She died at the home of a friend - a doctor she got to know.  Actually, it was quite pathetic - I’ll look up the name of the book.

----------------------------

HELLO HAROLD!   Good to see you here.  Speaking just for myself, I have read a couple of books about Teddy; I would like to read and discuss the Andrew Jackson book as I don’t know a thing about him.  Here is a clickable:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=American+Lion

Looks very good and we look forward to your offering a book for discussion.  Meanwhile, we would love for you to participate in our MARCH DISCUSSION - TEAM OF RIVALS by Doris Kearns Goodwin 

Have you read it?  Whether you have or not, do come in and post!

------------------------------

Incidentally, if any of you have not read RIVER OF DOUBT about Teddy’s trip down the Amazon, do read it, it’s a great book and shows the depth of Teddy’s character and also his lack of organization!

-----------------------------------

HI HATS!  No, I haven’t read the others by Elie Wiesel, but now that you mention him, I’ll put that on the list.  Thank you!.  AND I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR PARATICIPATION IN TEAM OF RIVALS, where we will be looking in depth to Lincoln’s character and qualities that he brought to the presidency.  A good book, you’ll enjoy it!

---------------------------

YES, JEAN, read that book about Clinton and come tell us about it! 


serenesheila

  • Posts: 494
Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #117 on: January 23, 2009, 08:31:38 PM »
Hi, everyone.  I flew home from Ohio, January 13th.  It is good to be home!  I missed my solitude.  On the flight home, I read more of "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shlaes.  I am now half way through this book.  I find it fascinating!  The author writes that the biggest contributer, to the Great Depression was not the failure of the stock market, but was the banks unwillingness to free up money.  That led to home foreclosures, and high unemployment.  To my surprise the stock market ranged in the 100s, and went up and down.

I am enjoying the read, and learning so much about those days.  I had not known that Wendall Wilkie was the head of a power company that provided electricity to Americans.  The TVA project, gave ownership to the government, to build dams, which then provided power to electric companies., and communities.  The power company which Wilkie headed, obtained a line to take electric power from TVA.  I find this book flows, and is an easy read.  She writes in an interesting way.

Sheila 

Sheila

marjifay

  • Posts: 2658
Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #118 on: January 24, 2009, 07:12:49 AM »
THE FORGOTTEN MAN sounds like an interesting book, Sheila.  I've put it on my TBR list.  (Sigh--one more)

I think I still have my Wendell Wilkie button from the first grade (I saved everything).  I think I just liked the sound of his name because I sure knew nothing about politics then.  My parents voted for FDR.
"Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."  Barbara Tuchman

hats

  • Posts: 551
Re: Non-Fiction
« Reply #119 on: January 24, 2009, 03:14:33 PM »
Marifay,

I haven't read it. If you get a chance to read it, let me know.