Your highly recommended non-fiction books

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 20 2004 Posts: 17151

Please post those non-fiction books that you think were terrific. If you have the author's name and can write a one-line description of it, that would be great Smile

Here are some:

Intensive Care by Echo Heron
a nurse's experiences

the Mormon Murders
about deception and greed among those who run the Mormon church

Son Rise by Kaufman
an autistic little boy recovers after intensive work by his parents and others

Medical Heretic and Mal(e) Practice by Mendelsohn
MD denounces the ills of the medical world

Escalante by Jay Matthews
about a fantastic math teacher who did wonders with his students

Posted: Sun, Jan 06 2008, 8:12 pm Post subject:

Holy Days
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don't wonder why people go crazy ... rather wonder why we don't
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NUTso but cute ~ things balance out Nervous

Platinum Member Joined: Jul 27 2007 Posts: 15029

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
The story of her husband's death and her daughter's serious illness. In my opinion, she describes really perfectly the way one's mind works following such a devastating loss.

In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing, a Geography of Grief
by Christopher Noel
A beautiful biographical tale of a writer's loss of his fiancee. He tries to make sense of it and examines himself and their relationship with great honesty.

The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
When she lost her fiance, she escaped her New York life and worked on ranches in Wyoming. Her descriptions of the land, the people and how they healed her, are amazing.

More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
A cookbook that's autobiographical

1185 Park Avenue by Anne Roiphe
Autobiography of her youth in a dysfunctional family on NYC's UES.

A Bintel Brief edited by Isaac Metzker
A collection of letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward
Sixty years of letters which illustrate the lives of Jews who came to the US.

How We Die by Sherwin Nuland
An unflinching look at the ways that people die. Demystifies it but is also incredibly sensitive and interesting. Not for everyone.

Also, any book of essays by Calvin Trillin, Anna Quindlin or David Sedaris, though they wouldn't be considered "kosher" reading. In this sense, I make no claims about any of these. They're just books that I like.

tuesdays with morrie - An Old Man A Young Man And Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom

the memoirs of gluckel of hameln.

Platinum Member Joined: Jul 27 2007 Posts: 15029

Just remembered another one I liked, haven't read it for a long time:

A Leak in the Heart, by Faye Moskowitz

Stories about growing up in the mid-west in the 30's, along with essays about her life, marriage, motherhood, etc.

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got that Way by Bill Bryson
a very funny llinguistic journey through English History

Freakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt
a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Turbulent Souls by Steven Dubner
an award wnning journalist who embraces Judaism after being raised by parents who had both 'converted' to Catholocism

Beyond A Reasonable Doubt by Rabbi Shmuel Waldman
wondrous proofs of Hashem's existance for those who already believe as well as for those who don't-yet

Chinuch in Turbulent Times by Rabbi Dov Brezak
I carried this book around for several weeks, so insightful

The committed Life by Rebbetzin Jungreis
as easy read, I quote from it a lot

Holy Woman by Sara Yoheved Rigler
biography of an unbelievable tzedekkes (the author stayed by me when our Kollel brought her in to speak about the book; she is an incredible role model herself)

Just One Word by Esther Stern
stories

Everything But Money by Sam Levinson
an autobiography by a humorist who grew up during the depression

Here's an offbeat one, but I've been reading it this week so I'll add it here.

For anyone who is into classical music, you will love an old book (from 1953) called "Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven's Time." The book is hysterical. It's a compilation of critics' reviews of classical composers' works, written at the time their work was first performed (mostly late 1800s - early 1900s). The critics just absolutely skewer everyone from Beethoven to Stravinsky.

The index includes entries such as "advanced cat music," "alcoholic stimulus of a big baboon," "blood-curdling nightmare," "bomb in music factory," "bomb in poultry yard," "bone-softening trills," "hideously writhing dragon," "scratching of a glass plate with a sharp knife" ... that sort of thing.

It's like so many painters are not lauded until after they're dead. What is that? Not appreciating what we have?

Yeah, I don't know... also what these composers were doing was often radical for their time, using dissonance, etc. Beethoven is one of the earlier ones; the later ones are more "modernist" classical.

If you've ever played anything by Bartok... well, he's in the book... (didn't mean to hijack the thread - carry on!)

Ruchel, I'm glad someone found my funny little suggestion helpful! I wonder if it is still in print...

Diamond Member Joined: Oct 29 2006 Posts: 4461

From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine
by Joan Peters

The I-hate-to-cook Cookbook by Peg Bracken (I love to cook but this book is f u n n y)

Platinum Member Joined: Jul 27 2007 Posts: 15029

I love this thread, and hope people will continue to post as they think of more books.

It would be nice if you read any of the suggested books, to let us know what you thought of them

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48224

I did not like Freakonomics.

Silver Member Joined: Dec 13 2007 Posts: 759

The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin - NYT bestseller about the supreme court justices

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell - I read it too long ago to give an accurate description

Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (or something like that) by Bill Bryson - all his books are laugh-out-loud funny

I'm in middle of The Zookeeper by Dianne Ackerman (I think) - I'm not crazy over the writing style, but it's a very interesting story about how the Zookeeper of the Warsaw Zoo and his wife helped save a number of Jews during WWII.

I'm an avid reader of non-fiction - if I remember any more great reads, I'll post again.

Gold Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 1859

Population 485 by Michael Perry - about life as a volunteer fireman in a small town

Complications: a surgeon's notes on an imperfect science by Atul Gawande - great book about medicine from the perspective of a physician

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - By a social psychologist (you know those free calendars charities send you...?)

Bringing Down the House - : the inside story of six MIT students who took Vegas for millions by Ben Mezrich.

Blink by Gladwell

Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott

anything written by Oliver Sacks

The Baby Thief by Raymond - True account of the infamous Georgia Tann who in many cases literally stole babies from poor women/families and sold them to wealthy families in the 30's and 40's

Platinum Member Joined: Jul 27 2007 Posts: 15029