Non-Fiction

[serenesheila]

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!

Discussion Leader: Ella Gibbons

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I just finished reading "The Forgotten Man".  IMO, it is an excellent book about the "Great Depression".  So much of what went on then, is going on now.

Now, I am back to reading "A Savage Peace".  It is the story of what was happening in 1919.  One of the things that I have learned so far, is that thousands of American troops were still stationed in Russia.  They had been sent to Russia partly to fight the Nazis, but also to protect American business interests.  So, seven months after the Armitace, our troops where being killed, and maimed. 

These troops were short of supplies.  Communications with loved ones, was almost non enexistent.  Senator Hiram Johnson, of California, lead a protest to alert American citizens about what was happening. 

It makes me wonder if that will happen with our troops in both Iraq, and Afganistan.

Sheila

[HaroldArnold]

About 5 years ago Ella & I led a discussions on Margaret Macmillian's book on the Peace Conference that ended WWI  Its title was "Paris 1919."  I know a British contingent was In Russia to support the White counter to the red communist regime that was in power under Lenin.  I did not know Americans were involved. In any case they were fighting the Communists, not the Nazis. 

Clich the following for the Archived discussion of Margaret Macmillian's "Paris 1919".
http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/archives/nonfiction/Paris1919.html    

[serenesheila]

HAROLD, I have "Paris, 1919.  Just haven't begun reading it, yet.  I am looking forward to reading it, when I finish "Savage Peace".

Wilson sent the American troops to Russia, while WWI was still going on.  They were to fight against the Nazi.  The war ended November 11, 1918, of course.  However, they began fighting the Bolsheviks (? sp) and they were still there, in May of 1919.  The author writes that Michigan troops were there in high numbers.  People in Michigan collected signatures on petitions, and took them to D.C.  But, it wasn't until Senator Hiram Johnson became his campaign to bring the boys home, that Congress began to take some action.

I am just amazed by both this situation, and the similarity both the Depression, and American troops being in Russia.

Sheila

[serenesheila]

That is a terrble last sentence.  I meant the comparision between those two situations, and what is happening to the world today.   

Sheila

[HaroldArnold]

The following is further comment on "American Notes," by Rudyard Kipling that  I promised  in aqn earlier post. 
In 1889, Rudyard Kipling at the time an editor on an India publication “Allahabad Pioneer, made a West to East tour of the U.S.  It would seem the publisher was embarrassed by Kipling’s lampooning of certain high officials in the India Colonial Government and chose the tour of the U.S as a means of getting him temporarily out of India. Kipling traveled by Steamship first to Japan and on to San Francisco where he quickly related to the Wild West culture of the day that he described in this book.  Included were colorful descriptions of exclusive San Francisco Saloons in particular he liked the free lunch served in the Saloons).  He also visited a Chinese Opium Den.  Kipling made a hurried exit after witnessing a murder.
   
From San Francisco Kipling traveled by train north up the coast to the mouth of the Columbia where he visited a Salmon canning factory that was built on pilings over the river for convenient garbage disposal,   He seems to have been familiar with the product remarking that it was what every hostess kept available lest she have unexpected dinner guests.  He gave a rather complete verbal description of the process including the stuffing of the can, the lead Soldering-on of the lid with one small air hole, its cooking in a steam pressure cooker followed by the immediate sealing of the hole with additional lead solder.
   
Kipling continued his American trip with a train journey to the then new Yellowstone National Park.  His description of the trip with the train speeding through the day and night on primitive first generation tottering wooden bridge strictures over canyons hundreds of feet deep would terrify the modern traveler.  Kipling wrote an impressively descriptive account of the train racing through the night with all the men passengers drunk and armed to the teeth with rifles and pistols.  The few women, some with children were terrified 

From Yellowstone Kipling continued to Chicago and on to the east before continuing on east, eventually returning to India.  This book for is an outstanding example of interesting descriptive writing an art the practice of which the author has few peers.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/American-Notes/Rudyard-Kipling/e/9781406503081/?itm=2

[JoanP]

As often happens when there are so many nominations, the results tend to be scattered.  So that we come up with the title for the next book discussion with the most interest, we have set up a new poll with the top FIVE contenders.  You will only get to vote for one of them this time.

Before opening your ballot, please be sure that you are familiar with the following titles so you know what they are each  about - (You can learn about them by clicking the title in the chart in the heading at the top of the page in the Suggestion Box Discussion)

The Last Dickens by Pearl (read together with The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens)
The Book Thief by Zusak
People of the Book by Brooks
Bridge of Sighs by Russo
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Wroblewski

 

VOTE  HERE: Run-off Vote for Future Book Discussions

[HaroldArnold]

All of these titles appear to me to be fiction.  The attached links will give you information on each of them.  All, based on their B&N “Sales Rank,” qualify as best sellers with three of them ranking below 1000.

The Last Dickens by Pearl (read together with The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Last-Dickens/Matthew-Pearl/e/9781400066568/?itm=1

The Book Thief by Zusak http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Book-Thief/Markus-
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Book-Thief/Markus-Zusak/e/9780375842207/?itm=1
1
People of the Book by Brooks
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/People-of-the-Book/Geraldine-

Bridge of Sighs by Russo
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Bridge-of-Sighs/Richard-Russo/e/9781400030903/?itm=1


The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Wroblewski
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Story-of-Edgar-Sawtelle/David-Wroblewski/e/9780061768064/?itm=1

[ANNIE]

Hi Harold,
Yes they are all fiction and Joan Pearson ask anyone to suggest some non-fiction so these are some of mine.


Ghost Train to the Eastern by Paul Theroux


The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
 

The Middle of Everywhere by Mary Bray Pipher (any of her books are a treasure read)


The Devil's Playground by James Traub[/b]

[Ella Gibbons]

OH, GOSH, DO I HAVE IDEAS FOR NONFICTION BOOKS!

Having just returned from an Elderhostel vacation in the Hudson River Valley, I find myself overwhelmed with history and ideas for books to read and despite my resolution not to purchase books I did and had to carry them home on two flights.  Darn, and they were heavy!

I brought home a book about the early years of John D. Rockefeller, one about FDR and Lucy Mercer, a Vanderbilt book and notes to get the following from the Library:

My Closest Company (a book about FDR and Daisy Suckley, whose home we toured)
A book about Henry Hudson which includes the early history of the Hudson Valley
A book about the Tiffany brothers
Books by Russell Shorsto, particularly one entitled (I think) The Island in the Center of the Earth
A book about Jay Gould

Has anyone read any of the above? 

Have you an idea for a good book to discuss?

[Ella Gibbons]

My trip was one of the best I have been on I believe, despite the long days and the hours on a bus.  We saw and were lectured on the following Hudson Valley Mansions:

LOCUST GROVE - Samuel Morse, Telegraph
KYKUIT, Rockefeller, petroleum
LYNDHURST, Gould, railroads
MILLS, Mills, Banking
SPRINGWOOD, FDR, International trade
Vanderbuilt, transportation
WILDERSTEIN, Suckley, International trade

They were all magnificent, but I would have to say that the Rockefeller estate was the most impressive; FDR's home the warmest, Daisey's the most interesting.

Fun, fun!  Nice people!

[ANNIE]

Hey, Ella, welcome home.
Of your list of books, we have read and discussed only one, Russell Shorto's "The Island at the Center of the Earth".  Most interesting.
I want to add another non-fiction to my list:

"Losing Mum & Pup" by Christopher Buckley, Wm F Buckley's son.

[Frybabe]

One of the nonfiction books I just picked up to read is The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe) by Peter Hopkirk. Hopkirk  also wrote Quest for Kim: In Search of Kipling's Great Game which I have yet to order.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=peter+hopkirk+the+great+game&sprefix=peter+hopkirk

I found Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer quite interesting, read way before the movie came out. The movie was better than I expected.

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell. I haven't read this yet, but my Mom has. She found it very interesting. In fact, I don't think she could put it down for long gauging from the speed at which she read through it.

Another recent purchase in the TBR pile is The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus by Jean-Denis Bredin.  http://www.amazon.com/Affair-Case-Alfred-Dreyfus/dp/0807611751/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242492118&sr=1-1 

Ella, your book about Henry Hudson and early Hudson Valley history sounds interesting. The Hudson and Genesee Valleys are rich in early colonial, revolutionary war and French and Indian War histories. It is something on which I would like to expand my knowledge. The Hudson Valley is also rich in artistic and literary inspiration.

[Ella Gibbons]

Hello Ann!   I heard Christopher Buckley, son of William T., on BookTV not too long ago, and was impressed by all he has written.  Surprisingly that memoir of his parents that you mentioned is a humorous one by all accounts.  I do want to read it.

Hi Frybabe:   Those books look VERY interesting.  I didn't know there was a movie about Seven Years in Tibet and must look it up at the Library.  Gertrude Bell books have been around for while and I think I read one and, yes, they are all good about this marvelous woman.

The Dreyfus Affair.  It's so familiar and yet I cannot think of the details - what it was about.  Of course, I have Google which is so-s-so helpful!  I'll look it up.

But I have NO BOOK on Henry Hudson and I want one.  So many fascinating details were brought up in a lecture I heard and I want to pursue them, so I will soon be looking for a good one at the Library or the Book store.

I was hoping one of you could suggest one.

[Frybabe]

Ella, No I can't recommend any books about Henry Hudson - yet. I have read some of Carl Carmer's work (Genesee Fever, a novel, and Listen to a Lonesome Drum, folklore and myths).  Carl Carmer contributed to something called the River Series, by writing a book about the Hudson River and one about the Susquehanna River (just a third of a mile from my home). Both of these I intend on buying some day. I believe that Columbia University Press (I think I have the right Univ.) still prints them.

Within the last two years or so several TV programs focused on the French and Indian War and the American Revolution in the area which have peeked my interest in actually going up the Hudson some day. I would love to take the Adirondack up along the Hudson and stop to see such places Stonybrook Battlefield and Fort Ticonderoga. It would also be neat to see some of the scenery that inspired such literature as Rip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow not to mention all the great artwork.

...And then, too, my best friend has a family connection to Mad Anthony Wayne. Genealogy and history are big subjects in his family.

[Babi]

  The book we are discussing now, "Three Cups of Tea", by Greg Mortenson and Daniel Relin, is excellent.  We have an enthralling story, full of information and insights on the people, culture, and political situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan for the last two decades.  You find yourself involved with the people you meet in this book, their hopes and their struggle.

[Ella Gibbons]

FRYBABE -   If you get a chance to do so, you will be enchanted by the Hudson River Valley and the scenery; I cannot remember when I have seen such views.  I won't even attempt to describe them, you should see them for yourself.  The Gilded Age folks, those wealthy enough, built their homes with a view and what a view!!!  Have I emphasized the "view" enough??

I am in no mood for a war book but a biography of Henry Hudson appeals to me.

Hi BABI. 

[ANNIE]

Ella and Frybabe,
I just received an email from the NYC Museum about this program on May 20th by Russelll Shorto about Henry Hudson Legacy.  Now this has to be very psychic!  Here's the link:

http://www.mcny.org/public-programs/lectures/ussell-Shorto:The-Accidental-Legacy-of-Henry-Hudson.html

[Frybabe]

Thanks Adoannie, I checked the exhibition schedule and found that "Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson" runs between April 4 and Sept. 27 at the museum.

[Ella Gibbons]

Well, darn, I'm not in NYC, but that's the book!   That's the book that was mentioned on my trip, so I have it reserved at my library.

I hope it is a good read!  He's an interesting fellow.

Shorto wrote a number of books, I must look them up.  Anyone read any of his books?

[Ella Gibbons]

THANKS, ANN!  I HAVE NOT GONE THROUGH ALL MY NOTES YET FROM THE TRIP, BUT I RECOGNIZED THAT TITLE RIGHT AWAY!

NOW, WILL YOU DO MY LAUNDRY?  HAHAHAAA

[Ella Gibbons]

One of the homes I toured in the Hudson Valley was Wilderstein, Daisy Suckley's home.  She was a fifth cousin of FDR,  as was Eleanor,  and very close to him.  He confided in her and claimed she was more knowledgeable about the problems facing the country than he was and he used her as a companion and a confidant. 

I read a small paperback book about FDR and Lucy and it tells the story of all the female friends that FDR delighted in; he helped them with their decisions, often helping in appointments and finances.  Father and friend to the females.

Daisy was homely, wore her hair straight back in a knot, didn't try to impress but she was warm and friendly and loved her dogs.  She gave Fala to FDR; outlived most of them living to the age of 100.  There was a grainy video, black and white, of an interview with her shortly before she died in the sixties and she was asked why she didn't paint her house - a huge thing on the Hudson River.  She answered that she had painted it several times over her lifetime and it is rusting away as she is; however the house is now in the National Historic Trust and is being repainted.

[Ella Gibbons]

Here is the site showing the house; if you click on Restoration it goes into great detail of what the Historic Trust is doing, but this paragraph tells the story:

http://www.wilderstein.org/

"When Wilderstein was established as a not-for-profit institution in the early 1980s, the house and grounds were in a severe state of decay. The exterior of the mansion had not been painted since 1910, windows from the tower were missing, and water had penetrated the failing roof."   

[Jonathan]

'...she was asked why she didn't paint her house - a huge thing on the Hudson River.  She answered that she had painted it several times over her lifetime and it is rusting away as she is; however the house is now in the National Historic Trust and is being repainted.'

That's wonderful. Wilderstein deserves to be restored and preserved. But what an undertaking, to paint that place. What an architectural wilderness. Isn't it interesting that Daisy wanted her place to grow old along with her. It's unfortunate that nothing can be done for rusty Daisy.

The last dozen posts have brought it all back. The wonderful journey my wife and I did along the Hudson Valley a few years ago. There just has to be a good book in here somewhere that would make for a good discussion.
 

[Ella Gibbons]

Hi Jonathan!  You loved the Valley also I see, the history there is fabulous and the views, did I mention the views!

I agree, there should be a book here somewhere.  Of course, we could read an autobiography of any one of these people who built these grand mansions; who controlled the railroads, the ports, communication, finance.  But that's not what I want. 

Do  you know that most of these robber barons (as they are called) could have the railroad stop at their home while they hooked on their own private car - all except Jay Gould, whom none of them liked.  He had no influence with the railroads so he bought a huge yacht and made a show of getting on his private boat to go to the city.  Most of these people knew each other and could walk or ride their horses to visit. 

It would be a book regarding the late 1800's, early 20th century, I would think.

Let's all browse around and find one that looks good.  Meanwhile I will look at Shorto's book.

[HaroldArnold]

Regarding  the History of the Hudson River valley, my exposure was  through my 2003 Seniorsnet/Books discussion of Francis Jennings’s  “The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire<” http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/archives/nonfiction/AmbiguousIriquoisEmpire.html .

The Hudson’s European intrusion began in the 17th century by the Dutch West Indian Company whose trading ships sailed up the Hudson where they would chain their ship to trees lining the shore to trade with Iroquois.  This early trading operation led to the promotion of the Iroquois Confederation by the creation of the “Covenant Chain,” as a trading association in which the Iroquois came to occupy a favored position over other tribes throughout much of the North East.  This was an area that extended from Canada as far South as Virginia.  In effect it resulted in the creation of what the historian Francis Jennings called “The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire” in which throughout the last half of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century , most all colonial Indian trade with all area Indians went through the  Iroquois. 

This book was not a great book for a Seniorsnet discussion because it was really written for professional historians.  Jennings writing style was not really for the popular reader.  It really required effort to understand.  Nevertheless when it was over I was much impressed with Jennings’s most scholarly writing and his book’s great contribution to American Indian History.  In addition to the discussion archive that I linked above I also wrote a Readers Guide that apparently has not survived the transfer from the Seniorsnet site as it is not in the current Seniorlearn menu.

[HaroldArnold]

I found my Reader's Guide to The Ambiguous Iriquois Empire still availaable on the old Seniorsnet board. The folloing is a copy of the Plot Synopsis section or click the following for the complete Guide.

http://www.seniornet.org/php/readerguide.php?GuideID=34&Version=0&Font=1


Plot Synopsis:
In the Preface to this book the author, Francis Jennings, tells us it "is a history neither of the tribes nor of the colonies, but rather of the Covenant Chain that bound them together." The Covenant Chain was the unique 17th and 18th century trade arrangement for the conduct of North American, inter-culture trade between the Northeast tribes and the English Colonies. The Dutch at their Fort Orange colony originally initiated the Covenant Chain early in the 17th century. Later after Fort Orange had become English, renamed Albany, the concept of the chain was refined and formalized by a series of treaties between the tribes and the English. Under these treaties the Iroquois Confederation acquired a particularly strong position of power as middlemen and the agent of other tribes in their trade dealings with the English colonies. This position of Iroquoian power led Jennings to suggest the use of the word, "Empire," to describe the status of the Iroquois Confederation during the last half of the 17th and much of the 18th centuries.

After the Iroquois through a series of successful 17th century inter-tribal conflicts known as "the Beaver Wars" established their position of power, Jennings continues to document the significantly different interpretations of the respective roles of the Iroquois and the English in the Covenant Chain. While the Iroquois never saw the relationship as involving any concession of tribal sovereignty on their part, the English, on the other hand, interpreted the position of the Indians, including the Iroquois, as junior partners, the subordinate agents of the European powers subject to their overall sovereignty.

As Jennings continues his account of the century long story of Iroquois successes and failures, the reader can not help but note the accumulating effect on the Iroquois of the mounting losses from war and pestilence, and the growing pressure from the ever increasing European population. At this point Jennings ends his book with the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster, which, as interpreted by the English, opened the entire Ohio Valley west of the mountains for the European settlement that promptly followed. Though the Iroquois still remained a power in the Covenant Chain, their inevitable decline was poised to follow.

[Ella Gibbons]

Hello Harold!  Glad you found the Readers Guide.  I missed that discussion and it sounds so interesting.  What year did you do that one?

This book was mentioned to me and it does look interesting.  Anyone read it?

It's called Ligthning Man and is a biography of Samuel Morse, who was a man of many parts.

Morse (1791-1872) is best known as the inventor of the electromagnetic telegraph, but Silverman (English, New York U.) throws light on his many endeavors as a painter, pioneer photographer, the first professor of fine arts at an American college, and republican idealist who ran for Congress and for mayor of New York City. Annotation #169;2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

It should be well written as the author teaches English at NYC.

[ANNIE]

Sounds interesting, Ella. I did find a link to that museum that I mentioned at lunch but had remembered it wrong.  So forget about the Morse Museum at Winter Park, FL.

[Ella Gibbons]

The book LIGHTNING MAN: The Accursed Life of Samuel F.B.Morse by Kenneth Silverman (winner of the Pulitizer Prize) looks very good.  The "accursed business" is explained somewhat in the jacket as follows:

"Morse viewed his existence as accursed rather than illustrious, his every achievement seeming to end in loss and defeat; his most ambitious canvases went unsold; his beloved republic imploded into civil war, making it unlivable for him; and the commercial success of the telegraph engulfed him in lawsuits challenging the originality and ownership of his invention."

I can believe that last sentence; however, those other assertions don't ring true.  Ambition does not sell paintings, war happens in the best of times.

Edison did not have too much trouble with his inventions being challenged did he?  I can't remember, of course, he came along at a different time.  But certainly in Morse's days we had the patent office??

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

I like this quote and I think it is still true:

"We are a people essentially active.  I may say we are preeminently so.  Distance and difficulties are less to us than any people on earth.  Our schemes and prospects extend every where and to every thing." - John C. Calhoun, speech in the U.S.Senate, June 24, 1812"

Samuel was born in 1791, the first child of a Congregationalist minister in Massachusetts, near Boston.  The family called him Finley and he contracted smallpox when he was 4 years old; he had 6 siblings - only two survived. 

I think I'll open the book and settle down to read how Finley became the man we know as the inventor of the telegraph, Samuel B. Morse.

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WHAT ARE YOU READING?

[Ella Gibbons]

HEY, HEY, HEY, IS ANYONE AT HOME? 

IS ANYONE READING A BOOK?

I have several I can loan you or suggest, if you like.

[Frybabe]

HI Ella,

I am into a SciFi at the moment - Elizabeth Moon's Victory Conditions, which is the last of her Vatta series. I will start on Carol Goodman's The Night Villa, on Monday in preparation for the upcoming discussion starting June 1. Sometime in this coming week I will be starting one of the Wallander series books we are discussing in the Masterpiece Mysteries group. After that, I have several non-fiction books clamoring for attention.

[PatH]

I'll put in my comments on the books I know anything about.

We read Russell Shorto's "Island at the Center of the World" on SeniorNet.  He did a remarkably good job of poring through historical documents and getting the real story and a remarkably poor job of telling his story in a way that made sense to a reader.  You really had to work hard to figure out what was happening.

Hopkirk's "The Great Game" is one I've been meaning to read for a while.  Frybabe, thanks for telling me about "The Quest for Kim", which I didn't know about.  Both of these touch on our discussion of "Three Cups of Tea", since they deal with earlier political manipulations in the area.  I recently reread "Kim" for a f2f discussion of Edwardian literature, and found it every bit as good as I remember from my youth.

[Frybabe]

I don't actually remember if I ever read a Kiplinger book or not when I was little. I kind of think I did, but it could be I just remember seeing Kim and Gunga Din ten million times. It would have been Kim if I did. I know I didn't read Jungle Book. Anyhow, I have Hopkirk's book, a book about Alfred Dreyfus, one about Gertrude Bell and one about the MIddle East just after WWI called The Kingmakers to read soon. I have not ordered In Search of Kim yet.

After just getting my last stack of books, I am up to five on my new to  buy list already.

[Babi]

  I looked up the Vada series in my local library, and found the had books 3 & 4, but not 1 & 2.  Pity. If I'm going to read a series, I like to have all of them available.
  I remember how enthralled I was reading Kim.  It was a new arena for me, and I remember trying to remember the ways to identify different groups. The Sikh headdress, for example.  I can still recognize that.

[Frybabe]

Yes, Babi, with the Vatta series it is best to read from the beginning. I got my hands on book 3 and read that before I realized it was part of a series. Then I went back and read 1 & 2. It explained a few things I puzzled over in book 3.

[marjifay]

Hopkirk's THE GREAT GAME is a very interesting read, as was TOURNAMENT OF SHADOWS by Karl E. Meyers, also about the "great game."

Have never gotten around to reading KIM.  Will have to read it now, along with QUEST FOR KIM (thanks, Frybabe).

That was funny, Steph, about your cousin redecorating your room in black.  I feel for you parents.   My favorite room color back in the 1960s was dark green with lots and lots of green plants (which usually didn't live long, as my thumb, unlike my walls, was not very green.

[Babi]

 You must have had a romance with the forest going back then, Marjifay. I'm no great shakes at gardening either, but I found one plant that seems to thrive under my level of care, and I stick with it. My violets do beautifully, thank goodness.   

[ginny]

I'm still reading the Billionaire's Vinegar, which I like very much and am learning a lot from, a good bit on Thomas Jefferson, but more on the business of wine. It's pretty fascinating.

Still reading Rogue's Gallery about the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring a huge chapter on our own Thomas Hoving and he's in a lot more, too, fascinating. Almost as good as one of his books.

Am making great headway thru Mary Beard's newest Pompeii book which I read frantically during our Latin classes, it's on Pompeii and it's not a book you should read like I did in bits and pieces, so started it over and I can see why it's shortlisted for a prize: it's really good. Dr. Beard teaches Classics at Cambridge and she has a lot of interesting information on Pompeii. Once you read it, you really do know a lot more, (even tho you may have thought you knew a lot, when you get through you know a lot more.

I ran out and bought all of the books I could find by Rosemary Mahoney who wrote Down the Nile. The only one which has come so far is Whoredom in Kimmage, about women in  Ireland, and I love the way she writes and can't wait to get into it.

I'm also reading The Library of the Villa dei Papyri by David Sider and if you are remotely interested in ancient books, this one's for you, it's fabulous.

I guess that's about it for me and non fiction so far this month.

[Ella Gibbons]

OH, FUN!!

Hearing about all the books you are reading and I would make a list of them for my own  pleasure if I didn't already have a list that is impossible to expect to ever succeed reading.

ONE AT A TIME.

Having put aside a delightful book about Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor, while taking a vacation in the hills of the Hudson River Valley, I have opened it at my bookmark and this morning have read the following paragraph which I wondered if it is at all pertinent to today's young women.  Two women in my family kept their names after marriage.

"Early on in her marriage, she decided to keep her own name.  Although she used Mrs. Paul C. Wilson in private and on her passport, professionally Frances kept her last name for various reasons, citing different motives at different times.  On one level, she said, she'd been touched by feminist ideas: and was interested in preserving her sense of identity.  More pragmatically, she also had seen that in the career world, single women were viewed more favorably than married women. 

[marjifay]

That was an interesting paragraph about Frances Perkins you posted Ella.  I have that book on my TBR list.  I suppose employers preferred single women employees, thinking that married women would become mothers and quit their jobs.  I remember all the (now verboten) questions I was asked when applying for a job:  How many children do you have?  Who takes care of them?  Do you intend to have more children? etc. etc.  Frances Perkins was a smart cookie.