Author Topic: Non-Fiction (Read 439573 times)

ANNIE · « **Reply #400 on:** July 03, 2009, 09:00:34 AM »

Maryz,
Who wrote your book about the Met?? I don't want to find myself trying to read it. There must be a better one. Have you tried any of Thomas Hoving's books??? He wrote a lot about the Met and since he was the director there for a few years, they might read better. He was our author to meet in NYC in 1998 and just full of colorful stories about the Cloisters and the Met.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #401 on:** July 03, 2009, 05:27:35 PM »

Booktv is programming 3 days of non-fiction books, starting today............jean

maryz · « **Reply #402 on:** July 03, 2009, 08:03:04 PM »

AdoAnnie, it was written by Michael Gross.

ANNIE · « **Reply #403 on:** July 04, 2009, 12:27:43 PM »

Thanks, Mary Z. I shall put that on my short list of not reads.

Thanks, Jean, for the reminder about BookTV.

I just came in from the hometown parade. My grans were in it skating and bike riding, all decorated up.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #404 on:** July 05, 2009, 06:25:52 PM »

Anyone watching BookTV? See anything good?

H.W.Brands, a professor from the University of Texas, author of TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS, talked about FDR. He would be a fun prof to have, very enthusiastic, off the wall fellow, flailing his arms while he talked. He had some interesting ideas, best of all his reason for writing another biography of FDR.

joyous · « **Reply #405 on:** July 06, 2009, 01:47:15 PM »

I would like to mention a book written up in yesterday's book section.
I have not read but intend to do so. The library is taking no holds on it
at the present time. The name: In the Sanctuary of Outcasts--
a memoir, and it has a LOT of local appeal as it is about Carville, LA, just about 18 miles downriver from Baton Rouge (my location). The
only leper colony in the United States was in Carville- a federal institution for the incarceration of victims of leprosy -now called Hansen's Disease. All but a VERY FEW patients have been moved out
except for those that refused to go. Author is Neil White, who once ran
New Orleans Magazine and Louisiana Life magazines.
Joy

JoanK · « **Reply #406 on:** July 06, 2009, 07:35:35 PM »

My goodness, JOYOUS, how interesting! I think I, like most people, think of leprosy as occurring only in the Middle Ages, which of course isn't true at all.

Apparently, leprosy today is treatable, many countries have eliminated it. The treatment is available free from the World Health Organization. Many countries have eliminated it, but sadly, people don't always come forward for treatment because of the social stigma.

http://www.who.int/lep/en/

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #407 on:** July 07, 2009, 08:37:58 AM »

JOY, years and years ago I read a book written by a lady who was taken to the Leper Colony in LA after her doctor diagnosed her with the disease. A teenager, she came from a middle class family who were outraged as the doctor immediately called the health authorities and she was practically dragged from her home. She was at the Leper Center and not disfigured by the time treatment and the cure came, at which time the patients were given the choice of either leaving or staying. She left, married, had a child, attempted to work but wherever she went her employer or fellow employees would somehow find out her past and she was told not to come back. It was a sad story. I never forgot the book, but have been unable to find it again.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #408 on:** July 07, 2009, 08:40:29 AM »

Interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carville%2C_Louisiana

joyous · « **Reply #409 on:** July 07, 2009, 09:23:30 PM »

Additional input re: the Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) National Hospital @ Carville received patients from all over the world. It was located in Carville, LA because of the remote location.
Just a little postscript regarding the hospital. It is still a Federal institution but I am not sure
for what purpose it is used. It is a BEAUTIFUL place, well-kept, and nuns administered to the
afflicted in those by-gone days.
Joy

ginny · « **Reply #410 on:** July 08, 2009, 08:04:02 AM »

Joy, how interesting that sounds, let us know how it is as you read it? Ella, I hope you can find that book, I'd like to read it, myself, sounds wonderful.

One of the most interesting stories, to me, is that of Typhoid Mary, who insisted that she did NOT have typhoid fever and caused the deaths of so many people. She was a cook, was actually sent to jail, changed her name and kept on cooking in schools and institutions. She must have been a carrier. Scary stuff.

Mary, I'm enjoying Rogues Gallery but unlike you, I cheated. Since we met with Thomas Hoving I started with his chapter, wonderfully written, I thought (Hoving probably dictated most of it, he's very colorful as we know) and exciting. Since he DID talk directly to the author, he's all over the book. When I finish with his bit, I'll start at the beginning hoping for good writing, but knowing where Hoving appears adventure follows.

Hoving's own King of the Confessors remains one of the best books I have read and he's got an update on it in a down loadable version. I also liked his own Museum Confessional, Making the Mummies Dance.

I am enjoying reading about his background as well.

I'm also reading Service Included, which is not worth even a library loan, about an eavesdropping waiter at Per Se restaurant. Bland and blah.

Still picking up travel writers, just bought In the Merde by Stephen Clark about, apparently irreverently, travel in France.

I wish I could find more Rosemary Mahoney in print! Her Down the Nile is spectacular.

Frybabe · « **Reply #411 on:** July 08, 2009, 09:15:19 AM »

In the Merde by Stephen Clark. Love the title.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #412 on:** July 08, 2009, 09:53:04 AM »

There must be books about this Leprosy Center at Carville if we could find them. I wish I could find that old book I read, it was very interesting. As I remember it was dramatic when the doctors came to the center and announced a cure and those who had endured years of disfigurement shuddered in disbelief. All were given a choice, stay or go. Of course, those who were very disfigured chose to stay. I wonder if any remain there.

Somewhere overseas - was it in Rome? - there was an island hospital and it was pointed out to us that it used to be a leprosy center. I'll look it up.

Here's a very good quote, I think, about biographies.

"Of course I think biography aspires to be an art, just as the novel does. It is a piece of imaginative storytelling, as well as an historical investigation. It celebrates the wonderful diversity of human nature, and its aim is enlightenment. But biography is also a vocation, a calling. The dead call to us out of the past, like owls calling out of the dark. They ask to be heard, remembered, understood." - Richard Holmes

joyous · « **Reply #413 on:** July 08, 2009, 10:14:43 AM »

I do not have the book at the present time--public library is taking "no holds" on it right now, and I think the B&N price is in the range of $25-$30 (I looked it up but can't remember), which is a little steep for me.
In the same newspaper write-up last Sunday another book was mentioned --"Squint: My Journey with Leprosy" by Jose Ramirez, Jr. It also is in the $25-$30 range. To quote the paper:" It is a painfully honest chronicle of life as a patient there, a call for dignity for Hansen's sufferers". I haven't looked that one at our public library, but will do so today.
Joy

joyous · « **Reply #414 on:** July 08, 2009, 10:31:34 AM »

I have just looked up the "Squint; My Journey with Leprosy", by Jose Ramirez, Jr., and I think
I would even opt to buy that one first, if I have to buy. Look it up @ B&N and read about it.
Joy

ANNIE · « **Reply #415 on:** July 08, 2009, 05:35:34 PM »

Ella,
The book, "Squint: My Journey with Leprosy" is in our local library, should you desire to read it.

joyous · « **Reply #416 on:** July 08, 2009, 08:36:48 PM »

Ella: <I wonder if any remain there>----I am fairly certain that no patients remain there. The very few that had no family or anywhere to go now are one floor of one of our hospitals, just
as a residence. I have a friend who volunteers there, and they take them out to lunch once a month at a local restaurant, and other places of interest. My guess is that the Federal Gov't.
probably pays for them to stay there instead of at the hospital since there are so few.
Joy

HaroldArnold · « **Reply #417 on:** July 09, 2009, 05:23:30 PM »

Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy for the Wikipedia article on the disease. Though I knew that modern medicine had brought the disease under control and that the extreme isolation of victims was no longer a factor, I was surprised that 95 % of the human population is naturally immune to the disease. The Wikipedia article noted that modern drugs quickly bring the disease under control, but I saw no use of the word cure in the article. It is fortunate that under conditions of modern hygiene, it is very rare.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #418 on:** July 09, 2009, 06:59:39 PM »

HI Harold. Undoubtedly, you are right. I was in error; I should have said in a previous post that the doctors announced treatment. Regrettably, I mistake cure, treatment, cause, all those crucial aspects of medicine and diseases. It gets worse as I grow older, I'm afraid.

Thanks, Ann. I'll look up that book in our library.

joyous · « **Reply #419 on:** July 09, 2009, 07:45:41 PM »

Father Damian(sp?) was the priest that went to treat the lepers on Molokai , and I THINK he eventually contracted the disease and died on Molokai. I am not sure of this, but ?
Go to: http://visitmolokai.com/kala.html
Or---just google molokai leper colony
Joy

ANNIE · « **Reply #420 on:** July 09, 2009, 08:23:36 PM »

Yes, Father Damien(sp?) did die from leprosy while serving the lepers of Molokai. I think that one can tour that island but not sure.

HaroldArnold · « **Reply #421 on:** July 13, 2009, 06:41:00 PM »

Some of you current Seniorlearers might remember our 2005 discussion of the W. Somerset Maugham fiction book, "The Moon And A Sixpence." http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/archives/fiction/Moon_SixPence.htm . This is one of only two fiction books that I have participated in as a DL. It is a fictional account of the life of an English artist escaping to Tahiti. In our discussion,true to my nonfiction inclination, I emphasized the comparison of Maugham's fictional character to the historical artist Paul Gauguin. Clearly Maugham intended this comparison in his creation of his fictional character. It made an interesting discussion with both fictional and nonfiction vectors.

Their was a close parallel between the narrative of the fictional artist and the historical one. Both were 19th century European Artists; both were struggling painters in Europe who left wives and children to escape to Tahiti to paint in a primitive south-seas environment. One notable difference was that the fictional artist died of leprosy; Paul Gauguin died of syphilis. In general most of the participants in scoring the character of the two based on their over-all social and human value easily rated the historical Gauguin far worthier than the fictional counterpart. The leprosy death at least to me was a surprise ending.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #422 on:** July 14, 2009, 11:24:04 AM »

That's interesting, Harold. Thank goodness the disease has been eradicated and aren't we fortunate that a few others have been also. Particularly polio.

We are getting ready to discuss the Frances Perkins book - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL by Kirstin Downey - and, of course, President Roosevelt, (whom you all know as the president with polio in a wheelchair) will be a prominent person in our discussion. We'll try not to let him take over entirely.

Frances was an impressive lady! She deserves all our attention!

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

Having seen a good documentary on HBO about the Booklyn Dodgers I wanted to read more so I got the book THE LAST GOOD SEASON by Michael Shapiro. It is the kind of book you can read a couple of chapters and then put down for a few days.

Also while on a weekend trip I bought a book titled ANNIE'S GHOSTS by Steve Luxenberg, which tells the story of his search for his mother's roots through imperial Russia, the Holocaust, the Philippines, and to the depression era of Detroit. What a story!

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #423 on:** July 15, 2009, 09:21:01 AM »

IS ANYONE AROUND - ARE YOU ALL AT THE BEACH - OUT TO LUNCH???

HAVEN'T HEARD A WORD FROM ANYONE FOR A LONG TIME.

COME TELL US ALL WHAT YOU ARE READING AND WHY YOU LIKE IT!!!

Frybabe · « **Reply #424 on:** July 15, 2009, 10:37:52 AM »

Just started with the book discussion for People of the Book and finishing up an Agatha Christie. I am really getting itchy to read one of the non fictions in my TBR piles, but haven't settled on which one yet. Bio of Winston Churchill or George Washington, The Dreyfus Affair, several Roman, Middle Eastern and American histories, Welsh and English histories. So many book, so little time. AHHHHHHHH!

ginny · « **Reply #425 on:** July 15, 2009, 10:50:49 AM »

I'm reading the Sebald, as mentioned in the Library, The Rings of Saturn, ruminations upon a walk thru Sussex England by an author who, had he not died prematurely, was to be considered for the Nobel Prize (according to the committee chair). It's quite good and as they used to say, "deep," so you have to read a little and stop and reflect.

I was reading but put down Service Included, which is the story of a real life waitress at Per Se, it's bad, tedious and tiresome. Don't recommend it, unless you want to eat there and know what not to say or do.

I have found a new (2003) Rosemary Mahoney! This one's about pilgrimages: The Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground

Here's the Amazon blurb:

Quote

Amazon.com Review
Sometimes purposeful, sometimes footloose, the act of undertaking a pilgrimage is "both a preparation for death and a hedge against it." So writes Rosemary Mahoney, who knows well whereof she speaks. A reluctant churchgoer, and less interested in religion per se than in the faith that underlies it, she travels in this absorbing narrative to some of the world’s great pilgrimage sites: Ireland’s Croagh Patrick, Lourdes, Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury, the banks of the Ganges. "As I got into the rhythm of it," she writes, "I found that the more I walked, the more I wanted to walk." Walk she does, over hundreds of miles, observing and recording along the way, talking with ascetics and skeptics, joining the multitude whose physical beings wander in order that their minds might turn toward the divine. And to what end is all this hard slogging? "Dunno, really," one of Mahoney’s fellow travelers shrugs. "When it’s done, you feel very good about it." Fans of travel narratives and religious memoirs alike will find much pleasure, and much on which to reflect, in Mahoney’s pages. -

I like her writing, loved her Down the Nile, and look forward to this one as well, she's a young woman.

I've gotten very interested in Stanley of Stanley and Livingstone, because of the current just ended National Geographic series of programs tracing his footsteps thru Africa. There appear to be no end of books and even movies on the subject, so I am going to consult the Read More About It part of the Nat. Geo website and see what they recommend, what an adventure!

Babi · « **Reply #426 on:** July 16, 2009, 08:27:40 AM »

Winston Churchill is bound to be interesting, FRYBABE, and I've always
found the Welsh fascinating as well. If you decide on one of those, let
me know what you think of it.

Y'all have me interested in Rosemary Mahoney; now if I could only find
one of her books.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #427 on:** July 16, 2009, 12:13:51 PM »

Where is National Georgraphic on TV - is it on one of those extra stations? I have HBO which I watch often.

Last night, (continuing on with baseball, and I am not even a fan!) I watched a Ted Williams documentary on HBO. Great hitter with the Boston Red Sox, lousy husband and father, but very good looking, cute smile. He was frozen when he died - cryogenics (sp?)

And I finished reading the THE LAST GOOD SEASON by Michael Shapiro about Brooklyn and the Dodgers.

Brooklyn, so many stories and books about Brooklyn over the years, but it still lives as a neighborhood of a mix of people from different places. Russians live in Brighton Beach, Haitians and others from the islands along Flatbush Avenue, and then there are the bankers in Brooklyn Heights, blacks in Fort Greene, Orthodox Jews and others mixed in. I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge once years ago and that is as near as I have gotten to it.

I think I read DOWN THE NILE, now, darn it, I'll have to look at it again. One forgets!

Yes, let us know Frybabe if you find a good book about Winston.

Babi · « **Reply #428 on:** July 17, 2009, 09:00:20 AM »

ELLA, you got me to thinking. 'Lousy husband and father' sorts tend to be
self-centered, I think. Is cryogenics popular with the egoistic, I wonder? It
seems like a logical common denominator. I suppose there are those who
want to do it purely out of scientific interest...but it's an expensive hobby with
very few opportunities to indulge.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #429 on:** July 17, 2009, 03:00:53 PM »

BABI, I love the word "egoistic."

Probably, there are many reasons why a person would want to be frozen after death.

PatH · « **Reply #430 on:** July 17, 2009, 05:47:41 PM »

"but it's an expensive hobby with very few opportunities to indulge." Tee, hee, Babi. Cryogenics figures in some sci-fi stories, but I can't believe that current techniques would give any chance at all of revival.

A number of years ago a local figure ran for president on the Maryland ballot with a platform of reviving the frozen dead. He didn't get many votes.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #431 on:** July 17, 2009, 08:21:56 PM »

I'm smiling at both of you!

In the Ted Williams documentary they showed the company where he is frozen and this is it:

http://www.alcor.org/ His children hated the publicity. Now their father is known as the frozen man instead of the great baseball player he was.

A site commenting on the subject - science fiction?

http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/human-cryogenics/2007/11/01/#comment-71013

PatH · « **Reply #432 on:** July 17, 2009, 10:25:38 PM »

Yes, science fiction. Nanobots are a good device for a writer, but nowhere near any practical use.

Babi · « **Reply #433 on:** July 18, 2009, 09:19:42 AM »

Quote

Nanobots are a good device for a writer, but nowhere near any practical use

.

Give it time, PAT. We'll get there.

ginny · « **Reply #434 on:** July 18, 2009, 09:43:30 AM »

And for something completely different

Wednesday night on TV there appeared the original movie Stanley and Livingstone (or is it Livingston?) That thing, shot in 1939, with a young Spencer Tracy, was unreal, it was in black and white and had all the music of the old Movietone announcements they used to have in WWII.

It showed notations in pen in a diary with an overvoice and sweeping black and white scenery of Africa. At first the diary said XXX has misrepresented the difficulties of this journey, we're having a fine time. I switched channels, flipped back, and the next thing you saw was what appeared to be a million Masai or something flooding down the plain at them, unreal, they were running and setting fire to the brush and the next thing you saw was them trekking on and Stanley saying we will not come out alive.

I first want to read his diary, that's been reprinted. Then I'm going to see if I can see the movie thru, when were "Talkies" invented?

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #435 on:** July 18, 2009, 06:38:43 PM »

Quote from: joyous on July 06, 2009, 01:47:15 PM

I would like to mention a book written up in yesterday's book section.
I have not read but intend to do so. The library is taking no holds on it
at the present time. The name: In the Sanctuary of Outcasts--
a memoir, and it has a LOT of local appeal as it is about Carville, LA, just about 18 miles downriver from Baton Rouge (my location). The
only leper colony in the United States was in Carville- a federal institution for the incarceration of victims of leprosy -now called Hansen's Disease. All but a VERY FEW patients have been moved out
except for those that refused to go. Author is Neil White, who once ran
New Orleans Magazine and Louisiana Life magazines.
Joy

JOYOUS!!!

I just finished reading this book - it's so fascinating, I couldn't put it down. He writes so well, but then he has had a newspaper, editorial background.

I was surprised to see a number of books and DVDs listed in the Bibliography. Why I was surprised I don't know but it has been and still is a stigma, a frightening subject. The old Carville Hospital has been turned into a National Historic Site and I think the National Hansen's Disease Museum is located there.

The author touches on some of the history of the place and its patients, but leaves out more to be investigated by the reader.

And I didn't realize that there about 3000 cases being treated in the U.S. and about 250 new cases every year; of course, none of the people with the disease are talking about it. About 95% of the population of the country is immune to the bacteria that causes it.

The author was incarcerated there for year in a part of the institution which was being turned into a prison; which idea was later abandoned. There are still about 30+ patients still living there.

I highly recommend the book.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #436 on:** July 18, 2009, 06:43:49 PM »

GINNY, I JUST READ YOUR POST!

I saw the Spencer Tracy movie in which he portrayed Stanley. How much was true? I like old movies and I like Tracy. I think I saw in the credits that Sir Cedric Hardwicke portrayed Dr. Livingston, can that be right? Or who was it? I'll do some snooping.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #437 on:** July 18, 2009, 06:52:33 PM »

Yes, it was Sir Cedric, and, yes, it seemed true as far as movies go. Here are two sites:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0031973/

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/stanley.htm

ginny · « **Reply #438 on:** July 19, 2009, 07:37:07 AM »

Thank you for those links, Ella, that Imdb is something else. I read the entire thing (Walter Brennan too and neither he nor Spencer Tracy ever went to Africa, they used doubles for those scenes, pretty sophisticated camera work because there were some close ups). That's interesting in itself.

I did not watch it all but after reading in your first link about Stanley and Leopoldville and the Congo, I think I am not going to read Stanley's diary. He was considered a hero but look at what he did AFTER he found Livingston (spelled correctly finally). Not sure what to think, I think I'll pass on it tho. Now if Livingston had written a diary! Maybe I better check that out, apparently he was the true heroic figure.

Strangely enough I was reading about the Congo last night in the Sebold.

But it's a wide ranging book.

Did you watch the whole movie and do you recommend it? I can't get over the parallel between that and the National Geographic Channel's Expedition to Africa, very much similar, actually, as they tried to retrace Stanley's steps.

joyous · « **Reply #439 on:** July 19, 2009, 10:18:15 AM »

Ella: Many thanks for your report on "In the Sanctuary of Outcasts". I'm glad you could put your hands on the book, as in our public library there is a "no holds accepted" due to the popularity. Were you able to obtain it from the library??
JOY

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Author Topic: Non-Fiction (Read 439573 times)