Non-Fiction

[hats]

Yes, it's me. Thanks for the welcome. Just stopping by. I will head to the Archives and look up "...Mr. Tiffany."

[Jonathan]

How nice to see posts from Friends. I won't say 'old', because I'm in a state of denial about that and I don't get the impression of that in your posts.

Thanks, MaryZ, for the confirmation on the president in the frame in the Oval Office. And the info that Andrew Jackson is the President's hero. The author (with the Pittsburgh Gazette) of another column in my paper suggests that the president is not well read. He has Andrew Jackson active  in the Civil War period.

Thanks, Kidsal, for the information aboutCity of Light, City of Poison, I'm going to look for that one. I'm wondering if  it deals with the events which are the subject of a book I've had on my shelf some time and have been meaning to read: The Affair of the Poisons, Murder, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV Is the police chief in your book one Nicolas-Gabriel de La Reynie?

How nice to hear from you, Hats. It's so long ago since I first began enjoying your posts. Best Wishes.

[JoanK]

reading a great book for us science nerds: "Furry Logic." by Matin Durrani, Liz Kalaugher

t explains how animals use physics to solve everyday problems.

Based on this book, I am creating a number of physics antidotes with morals to tell my grandchildren: moral lessons through physics. The first was how mosquitoes use Newton's second law to avoid being killed by raindrops. (short answer: they go with the flow).

Last night I told them how geckos use subatomic forces to stick to the ceiling. (they stick one hair at a time, and we got into a discussion of how Newton discovered (now called calculus) that if you divided a problem into tiny bits, solved them one at a time, and put the results back together, you could do amazing things! (a good motto for this wedding we're trying to put together!)

The kids loved it, especially once I told them there were no tests, and they couldn't fail. I'm told  one of them bragged he was the only kid who could get into physics discussions with his grandmother.   

[kidsal]

Yes the police chief is de La Reynie.

[ANNIE]

Never heard of your book and physics was not my forte in school.  I only took it to escape taking chemistry. I love your talks with your grandchildren. They are learning strange things! Sounds like you are a perfect grandmother!

[PatH]

...physics was not my forte in school.  I only took it to escape taking chemistry.

That's funny.  Most people think physics is even worse than chemistry. 

[maryz]

One of Charlie Rose's interview programs sent me to a new book - The Gatekeepers: How the Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.  It starts with Nixon's CofS.  I'm up to the Reagan area now.  It's fascinating, if you're into politics/government at all, nonpartisan, and very readable.

https://www.amazon.com/Gatekeepers-White-Chiefs-Define-Presidency-ebook/dp/B01I85QC28/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1499252517&sr=1-1&keywords=the+gatekeepers

[mabel1015j]

Because I'm facilitating presentations on women's history at the library, all my non-fiction reading is focused on American women in history. At the moment I'm anxiously waiting for a book from Amazon, American Women's History. It's a one volume encyclopedia that I found in the reference section at the library and it's so interesting.

I stopped doing the "series" presentations. I thought "these people must be weary of coming for 4 or 5 or 6 weeks at a time. So I suggested to the librarian that I do one a month - The History Cafe: the A, B, Cs of history - and I am doing one letter each month. The librarian said "oh, you're going to be the Sue Grafton of women's history!" 😀😀. So in June I did "Abigail Adams" - some of you, and David McCullough, are fans of hers, and "abolitionists". In July it was "The Blackwell Family" - they may have been the most active and progressive family thru generations and included not only the first and third women to become degreed medical doctors in the US, but had Lucy Stone and Antionette Brown Blackwell - the first woman ordained minister - as wives/in-laws. Where did they come from!?!

Their family papers are at Schlesinger Library at Radcliff. This website is easy and fun reading. There are many links to the whole family

Jean

https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2016-women-of-blackwell-family-exhibition

[mabel1015j]

Thomas Fleming died this week, he was 90 years old. He had written some great books about the Revolutionary War period, both non-fiction and fiction. I first found him through the fiction book "Officer's Wives" which I read while working for Dept of Army at Ft Dix and he had me laughing outloud. The cammander in the book was an egotistical blowhard and much like the commander at Ft Dix at the time. He also wrote several fiction books about the NY/NJ area during the colonial and revolutionary period which I enjoyed and he wrote history books for children.

Mr. Fleming wrote biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. He chronicled the battles of Bunker Hill and Lexington and Concord and a lesser-known one in Springfield, N.J., in 1780. He wrote about the seminal year 1776. And he looked back at the duel in 1804 between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.

This is from the NYTs obit
Mr. Fleming, the loquacious son of a tough New Jersey pol, viewed America’s struggle for independence as essential to understanding the history that followed. “So much of what happened later is virtually anchored in the Revolution,” he told the Journal of the American Revolution in 2013. “The whole Civil War pivots on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

Read the whole obit here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/books/thomas-fleming-dead-historian-and-historical-novelist.html

Here is his wikipedia site which list all of his books

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fleming_(historian)

Jean

[Frybabe]

Walter Isaacson has taken on da Vinci. His book will be released in October.

[ANNIE]

Having read your link to Walter Isaacson, I zeroed in on his book about Albert Einstein. I am convinced that the series called "Genius" was written by Isaacson.  Must go check on that!  But for
now 😉😉😉!

[ANNIE]

And I am right!  Tada!!!!😜😜😜

[Jonathan]

Thanks for that information, Frybabe. I'll be watching for it. What a genius. I've just started Ross King's Leonardo and The Last Supper. The biography will be a good follow-up.

[Frybabe]

I am just starting a book called The Day Democracy Died by Anselm Audley. I can't tell you anything about it yet except that it is about Athens. The author is a British fantasy writer who graduated college after studying Ancient and Modern History. His mother was Elizabeth Aston who wrote, among other books, the Darcy series. This is Audley's first work of non-fiction.

[mabel1015j]

I'm reading Hidden Figures. It's quite interesting. Lots of background information. And i'm just about ten pages into Chernow's Hamilton. No opinion yet.

Jean

[FlaJean]

I read Hidden Figures a couple of months ago.  I lived just a few miles from Langley Air Force Base and two of my children were born there.  My brother-in-law worked there at NACA (later NASA) but I never heard a word about the black engineers or mathematicians.  So there was much in the book that surprised me about that and much about the racial stigma that did not.  I haven't seen the movie but have read some good reviews.

[PatH]

We discussed Hidden Figures here.  It's a frustrating book in a way, because its organization makes it hard to follow, but it's packed with interesting stuff.  JoanK was a computer programmer back then, with many of the problems these women faced, though not segregated rest rooms.  It's disgusting the hoops marginalized people have to jump through just to do the work they're perfectly capable of doing.

[mabel1015j]

I'm enjoying her prose, but I'm also skimmimg a lot of the aeronautical descriptions. They are far beyond me. This is one of those times when I say "i'm very glad someone is interested in doing that job (or understanding that info - like Jane Goodall being in the wilds with the chimps) but I sure don't want to do it." 😀
I'll check the archives for the discussion.

Jean

[mabel1015j]

Oh, yes, I remember the discussion, but I had forgotten the link to what Shetterly was working on. I must remember to keep an eye out for those two books.

Jean

[kidsal]

Reading Grant

[JoanK]

I,m all into the post revolutionary war period of U.S. history. I read Hamilton, and have Jefferson on the order, and have started a book on Madison.

[mabel1015j]

I am reading The Woman who Smashed Codes:A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone. Very interesting story of Wm and Elizabeth Friedman who were two of the first cryptologists in the country. Altho she always lauded his work, she actually broke many of the important Nazi codes. They started out and met by working for this very creepy guy who was supporting the research of a woman who was trying to prove that Bacon was responsible for the Shakespeare writings. She thought she saw acode in the way the letters were formed. This was before WWI and the Friedman’s decided she was wrong.

Neither of them was trained in ciphering, they just fell into it and had the minds to do it. From the author
A hundred years ago, a young woman in her early twenties suddenly became one of the greatest codebreakers in the country. She taught herself how to solve secret messages without knowing the key. Even though she started out as a poet, not a mathematician, she turned out to be a genius at solving these very difficult puzzles, and her solutions ended up changing the 20th century. She helped us win the world wars. And she also shaped the intelligence community as we know it today.

Interesting read, new book.

Jean

[Frybabe]

I am reading Bomber Girls by M. J. Foreman. Did you know that the first female military plane and fighter pilot in the world was Ataturk's daughter?

[JoanK]

They both sound fascinating! Esspecially the code breaker. I'm continuing to read about the period after the Revolution, when our founding fathers were trying to figure out how this country try should work. Having done the battle between Hamilton and Jefferson, I'm reading about Madison and the constitution.

[Frybabe]

While at the library, I cruised through the Friends of the Library bookstore and came away with Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn by Nathaniel Philbrick plus two fiction books. I have no idea when I will get around to reading these.

[JoanK]

In reading a,biography of James Madison. The ideas are interesting, but I'm drowning in detail!

[evergreen]

Joan
I read a bio of Madison some time ago, and one of the things that has stayed with me is that he was a fifth generation American.   I didn’t think he was straight off the boat, but I was surprised at “5th.”

Monroe, who was Madison’s neighbor in Virginia, may have been a fifth generation also, but I’m not certain about about him.

[ANNIE]

Reading Wally Lamb’s “I know this much is true” but don’t know if I will continue it.  I am finding it to be a real downer. I will give it a few more pages.  Also picked up a Monk book by Anne Perry. 

We have s big library here in the Villas plus the Columbus library comes in once a month offering much for us to peruse.  And you can order anything you want.  They set up on the bridge where many folks play different games like euchre and poker plus we had a great Halloween party out there a few weeks ago.  Costumes were worn by most. And food was provided by a family whose dad lives here. He came dressed as Liberace. It’s amazing how creative everyone was. Lots of fun here. Whole different world!

Today OSU will be playing Illinois and many of us will be watching the game in one of the living rooms.  There’s a pool or two offered. I bet in two of them last week and won them both. $20! A little spending money in my pocket.  We watch the game and eat all kinds of good food many different folks bring. All is set up on big table along with drinks. No one has to cook their dinner on game day.

All this reminds me of Ella Gibbons and the things she told us of her three tier home. She’s been gone a year and I still miss her.  She was such a big part of SL and the books she discussed with us were always good!

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes, Annie I too miss Ella and it is not over 2 years since my very best friend left us - found a poem I put in the Poetry that said something to the affect at the table we drink coffee with those from our past - I realize it is true - our memories are part of us and when we muse while drinking coffee it is these good friends who come to mind. I decided instead of banishing such thoughts as too depressing instead to keep them close so they become as everyday as a cup of coffee - I may turn into one of these little old ladies who appear to be talking to herself as I talk to those who are as much a part of me as my drinking a cup of coffee. So there is a tear or two - worse things can happen... 

[JoanK]

I miss Ella so much! She's really knew how too pick good job fiction.

[Frybabe]

Someone came in with lots of books for the library bookstore today. I picked up two American history books: Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery - The U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. by Nathaniel Philbrick and The Desert Between the Mountains - Mormons, Miner, Padres, Mountain Men and the Opening of the Great Basin, 1772-1869 by Michael S. Durham. Talk about your mouthful for titles.

In just a while I am going downstairs to watch the last episode of Medieval Dead. Very interesting.

[BarbStAubrey]

Medieval Dead over Charlie Brown's Christmas...   

[Frybabe]

Yes. Haven't watched Christmas cartoons/programs/movies for years. But my favorite has to be The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The cartoon, not the Jim Carey one. I don't remember seeing that one.

[mabel1015j]

I’ve read just 40 pages of “The Patriarch: the remarkable life and turbulent times of Joseph P. Kennedy” byDavid Nasaw. The writing is very good and appears to be very well researched. It was published in 2012 and apparently there have been many letters that have come to light, or available to writers and scholars. I think I will find it enlightening and enjoyable. I don’t have a very positive picture of JK. The author implies in the intro that that very negative portrait we’ve been told is misleading, so I’m curious to see what I might learn.
Jean

[mabel1015j]

Some of you were around, long ago, when we read much of Ariel and Will Durant’s “Story of Civilization” i think we went on for 6 or 7 years ( that doesn’t seem possible, but I believe I’m right on that. Robbie??? Help me out)
I actually learned about what became Seniorlearn because of that discussion. I was teaching a course on Western Civ and googled something and the discussion came up. Robbie did a yeoman’s job facilitating it for us and it was such fun to be able to see the links of all sorts of things related to early civilizations i.e. art, architecture, etc. I assume the discussion is in the archives, I haven’t looked.

Some comments about that series of books is in a discussion “The lessons of history” offered for free on the Learnoutloud site. It was mentioned in their end of year newsletter.

https://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/Philosophy/History-of-Philosophy/The-Lessons-of-History/3841?utm_source=FROTD&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Free%2BResource%20of%20the%20Day

By the way- The Patriarch continues to be good reading.


Jean

[Frybabe]

Two books showed up on Project Gutenberg with rather interesting titles, neither of which I plan on reading. The text is a bit too "stuffy" (maybe even pedantic?) and, of course, I am not a guy. Both might come under the category of self-improvement books of the early to mid 1800's and might interest those who are into the history of education. 

Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners by William Hazlitt http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3020

How to Be a Man by Harvey Newcomb http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56263 Newcomb also wrote Young Lady's Guide among other self-improvement books along the same line for both young girls and boys.

[mabel1015j]

Those books from the past about behavior are interesting to browse through and, in some cases, appalling, and in other cases I wish for some of that civility.

Jean

[Frybabe]

Yesterday I picked up The Reminiscences of Mary Hallock Foote, Edited by Rodman W . Paul,  from the library. These are the real life letters from which Wallace Stegner wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Angle of Repose. 

[Frybabe]

Anyone interested in Goethe may like to read his autobiography. Gutenberg has it: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52654

[BarbStAubrey]

thanks Frybabe - saved the Goethe link