Tag Archives: NonFiction

Nonfiction November, Week FIVE 2023

November 27, 2023Book Blogging Community, Challenge, Lists, NonFictionHashtags #NonFicNov #NonFictionNovember, NonFiction, sure feels nice to be blogging againCare

Link to the host for this month’s celebration of reading nonfiction:

Challenge: Read NONFICTION in the month of NOVEMBER #NonfictionNovember #NonFicNov2023 #NonFicNov

Week FIVE: What books I’ve added to my NonFiction shelf. [on gr]

I didn’t add as many as I thought I did! So that means I get the pleasure of going through everyone’s post with a more dedicated eye to putting titles on my tbr. Thanks Everyone!

I did clip the latest additions to my tbr (I thought I had added a few from Rebekah’s Palestine list? I will!) and a few are from this month’s #NonFicNov activity: (an obvious pic of how my interests are all over the place.)

I am interested in learning more about the Gaza strip to understand more what is happening there. I appreciate the books that explore the charged American topics such as Gun Control and Right vs Left. After having read The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin, I am eager to read the book that she wrote with Anthony Ray Hinton about his being innocent and in prison for 30+ years, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row.

And I can’t forget to share that I’m reading Ross Gay’s first of the Delightful series and have the next 2 ready to go:

PLUS! ***newsflash*** Apparently one of the TOB Long List books is narrative NonFiction! So I will hopefully be reading this soon. (I’m loving all the TOB books so far...)

The NonFiction book I’m currently enjoying is Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg, all about her friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Lots of good history in this, and feminine power. The TOB book I’ve got going FEELS like nonfiction, but they are calling it a novel. DO check out Dayswork by Jennifer Habel and her husband Chris Bachelder – about literary history, marriage, and all sorts of odd/fun flotsam and jetsam. Lots of goodness about Melville and Hawthorne; I’m 30% in.

Click on this link to travel to the Official blog for this fifth week’s festivities -> Hopewell’s Public Library of Life: New to My TBR

Happy Holidays!

Copyright © 2007-2024. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Nonfiction November, Week FOUR 2023

November 22, 2023Book Picked Me, Challenge, NonFictionHashtags #NonFicNov #NonFictionNovember, how did it shape my thinking?, I don't necessarily think it is the book everyone *must* read, Michael Servetus, might not actually fit the theme as suggested by this week but the first book that came to mind, NonFiction, Sticky Book, the GoldstonesCare

Link to the host for this month’s celebration of reading nonfiction:

Challenge: Read NONFICTION in the month of NOVEMBER #NonfictionNovember #NonFicNov2023 #NonFicNov

Week FOUR: Books that SHAPE understandings -OR- the ONE book that EVERYONE MUST READ!

I have a category in my goodreads that is labeled THAT-BOOK, so that I can easily find it when conversation goes in these kinds of directions. Which I guess is weird – why/how could I forget the title and author?! But I would or have, but maybe not so much now that I put it in a place to help me remember.

The book I refer to as THAT BOOK!

This book tells about Michael Servetus, scientist who is credited with the discovery of the pulmonary circulation of the human body. But you’ve probably not known about this because the book that he wrote to explain it (well, this interesting thing and more about how wrong the church powers that be were wrong, oops) was considered heretic! and Servetus was burned at the stake, along with most of the copies. Only three managed to survive. It took CENTURIES before his discovery was made known.

In my first blog post about it, I wrote:

I found it captivating, enthralling and unforgettable. Before book blogging and any attempt to track my reading, I did often forget the title AND the authors, but I could never get the STORY out of my head and would tell everyone about it – WOW! It’s got church history, medical history, book history, drama drama drama and more drama. If that appeals to you, I recommend it.
Also Known As STICKY BOOKS <– link to post from June 2009

Is there a book that you’ve read that rocked your world in some way, changed (or shaped) your thinking, or just was so good — THAT good — that you want everyone to read it? Or do you have a collection of books on a topic that you wish more people would become interested or more knowledgeable about?

Click on the image above to find the Official blog for this fourth week’s festivities – Rebekah’s introductory post for this week is THAT good, too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nonfiction November, Week THREE 2023

November 15, 2023Book Picked Me, Challenge, Lists, NonFiction, PieHashtags #NonFicNov #NonFictionNovember, NonFictionCare

Link to the host for this month’s celebration of reading nonfiction:

Challenge: Read NONFICTION in the month of NOVEMBER #NonfictionNovember #NonFicNov2023 #NonFicNov

Week THREE: Book Pairings

I have two pairings to suggest: the first, I read both – kind of by accident! and the second, is a pairing recently brought to my attention that looks quite intriguing. Come to think of it, both of these suggestions could bring in the film to make a triptych – or nevermind. ANY book pairing probably has a documentary telling more, do you think?

The FIRST Book Pairing:

The classic All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque was my choice to satisfy the What’s in a Name Challenge 2023 category of a Title with Q or X or Z. But I had accidently requested the Modern Critical Interpretations book from the library instead. Which I read it anyway, of course. I also fell down a rabbit hole reading about Remarque – interesting guy.

The Interpretations was a collection of history and literary scholars discussing why the book was important, its major themes, its reception by the world, etc. VERY good stuff. A few were dry, some quite fascinating.

My review of the Nonfiction Interpretation s.

My review of the Fiction Classic:

The Second Book Pairing:

When I heard that Scorsese was making a film of David Grann’s The Killers of the Flower Moon, I figured it was time to finally read this book club darling. It seems like many people I know had read it. What struck me the most and shouldn’t be a surprise, especially in light of so much hate, terror and war on our globe right now, but still! Mankind has a scary appetite for greed and violence.

AND THEN, someone posted a comment on Facebook about an author and one of her books, Linda Hogan: “a Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories.” (Copied and pasted from the goodreads page) and how sad it is that Grann has all the attention/fame/fortune this story of these crimes against the Osage AND that he likely read this book: (Which, according to the recommendation I saw, is better written.)

Now, I haven’t read this yet; I do think more people should know of her work and give it a try, maybe a terrific way to celebrate during Native American Heritage Month (November). I’m ordering my own copy — and will be stopping by our Mid-America Indian Center to check if they have it on their giftstore book shelf.

What has been YOUR favorite FICTION read this year so far that has inspired you to look for a NONFICTION book for further study? Do you enjoy book pairings? I do.

Click on this image to find the Official blog for this third week’s festivities:

Nonfiction November, Week ONE & TWO 2023

November 9, 2023Book Picked Me, Challenge, Lists, NonFiction, PieHashtags #NonFicNov #NonFictionNovember, NonFictionCare

Link to (what I hope is) the host for this month’s celebration of reading nonfiction!

Challenge: Read NONFICTION in the month of NOVEMBER #NonfictionNovember #NonFicNov2023 #NonFicNov

Week ONE: What NONFICTION have you read so far this year?

Type/Source: Doesn’t matter where you get it or in what format you enjoy

I’ve read 18-19 so far, depending on whether or not you count the 1-2 hour Audible Musician “Words + Music” nuggets as “books” which goodreads only does sometimes.

This image is missing the Pete Townsend and the Alice Cooper. I have a thing for musicians, I guess. Also, I have no good time record of when I listened to some of those, so . . . In other words: “whatever”.

Interesting mix, doncha think? I do love nonfiction.

Which brings us to the prompt for Week 2:

Week Two: Choosing Nonfiction?

I have no idea what motivates me to pick up what when. Most can be attributed to spur of the moment and availability. The Dern and Ladd book was super quick: I saw them being interviewed on the Today Show and was already planning on visiting a bookstore that day so I bought it. The Many Lives of Mama Love? I have no idea how that hit my radar but I had requested the eBook from Libby and when it was ready to borrow, I read it. SO GOOD. The Roz Chast Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? was a gift from the Library kicking off the “Wichita (KS) Reads” program to spark community discussion and resource exploration on death care. VERY GOOD. Killers of Flower Moon because the movie… Walking With Sam was for an author event.

What has been YOUR favorite NONFICTION read this year so far? Mine is this one:

Because I just finished it and I can’t pick a favorite. Recency Bias for the win!

Maggie O’Farrell is a HOT author right now, coming off the success of Hamnet and her latest doing quite well, too. Someone recommended this and it was available. Had just finished an eBook so was ready for another.

In this memoir from 2017, she discusses all the near-misses and brushes with death she has experienced in her life and ends with a chapter on how parenthood challenges skew all of that perspective considerably. Fascinating and written SO WELL; I just might have to add her to my authors-to-read-EVERYTHING-written list. (IS there a good way to title this list? I never know quite how to phrase it…)

Honey, Baby, Mine

August 24, 2023Book Picked Me, Challenge, Family, NonFiction, Pie, Wian2023celebrity!!!!!!!!!!!, favorite challenge, I have never seen Jurassic Park, LD is about my age and we could be friends LOL, mothers and daughters, NonFiction, the word punctuation is a delight to type, What's In a Name, WiaN Punctuation category, Wild at HeartCare

Thoughts by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, Grand Central Publishing 2023, 256 pages

Challenge: What’s in a Name: Punctuation category

Genre/Theme: Nonfiction / Mothers & Daughters, Life Stories, Overcoming

Type/Source: Hardcover / Indie bookstore

What It’s About: Diane Ladd was diagnosed with a health challenge and one innovative, daring doctor prescribed walking as a remedy for her limited-capacity lung functionality. Laura took it on as a mission to get her mother walking by telling stories — a big ask because walking and talking when walking hurts is a freaking BIG ask!

They walk til they can’t and they talk. They ask the big questions. They celebrate their history and they celebrate their love.

Thoughts: I loved it. I have a soft gooey spongey spot in my heart for these two because of one of the WEIRDEST movies ever and truthfully, a movie that didn’t show well the 2nd or 3rd time I watched it (ah, youth) but … what can I say? Certain culture touch-points are tagged in memory for a place and time and the movie they made together, Wild at Heart, as batshit-crazy a movie you may never watch, is one of those for my mid-20s. (How’s THAT for an endorsement – hey! I warned you, it’s nutty!!!)

I was watching the Today Show when these ladies were interviewed about this book and I immediately ordered it. Artists, they are. This book has love and just good stuff. Or, at least that is what I remember – I read this back in April/May and just now reviewing it as my entry for Punctuation.

Rating: I gave it 4 slices of pie. I probably wanted more. I don’t recall any flaws – it is perfect for what it wants to be. Photos, a bit of gossip, evolving and changing love between a mom & dot, history, overcoming challenges by actively moving bodies to cure and help a situation, all good stuff.

… “You (Diane Ladd) love to go on cleansing fasts and then break them with a piece of pecan pie and a scotch and soda.”.

A Little Book of Sloth

August 23, 2023Book Picked Me, Challenge, Library, NonFiction, Pie, Travel, Wian2023favorite challenge, NonFiction, rescued baby sloths can never be returned to the jungle, sloths are truly adorable, What's In a Name, Wian 7 Deadly Sins categoryCare

Thoughts by Lucy Cooke, Margaret K. McElderry Books 2013, 144 pages

Challenge: What’s in a Name: Seven Deadly Sins category

Genre/Theme: Nonfiction / Animals

Type/Source: Hardcover / Library

What It’s About: Lots and lots of photos of adorable sloths. Some cutesy descriptions of adorable sloths, and a few interesting facts about sloths.

Thoughts: Yes, yes, just another book to fit the What’s in a Name Challenge. This time for category of 7 Deadly Sins. I still have another book I hope to get to yet this year that will meet the challenge; we’ll see.

Rating: Three slices of pie.

… don’t be fooled by his sweetie-pie looks.

100 Things to Do in Wichita Before You Die

August 23, 2023Book Picked Me, Challenge, Life, Lists, NonFiction, Pie, Travel, Wian2023Bucket List, favorite challenge, NonFiction, The cover shows the LARGEST hand-painted grain elevator by a single artist in the US, What's In a Name, WiaN You or Me categoryCare

Thoughts by Vanessa Whiteside, Reedy Press 2022, 144 pages

Challenge: What’s in a Name: You or Me category

Genre/Theme: Nonfiction, Travel

Type/Source: Tradeback / (I don’t remember if I got this at the Indie bookstore? probably)

What It’s About: I grew up in Wichita and am back after alllllll those years after college; most of that time enjoying the East Coast. Now I need to re-acquaint myself with my new old home town.

The bad news first: the pie shop is already gone. Or moved farther away and became more of a general dessert shop. I am sad. I did manage to visit before they embarked on that change (and I visited after but wasn’t impressed by their offerings.)

Good news is that Husband and I have visited quite a few of the other food delights and tourist attractions and other sundry odd & ends of places with a few more yet to do. So I’m glad I purchased this book to have it handy for guests and overall angst of “WE NEED TO GET OUT MORE” feelings that I often have when succumbing to hiding at home reading a book. (Not that there is anything wrong with that… ahem.)

Wichita, KS named 4th best US city for summer travel!
Wallet Hub 2023

Thoughts: To be honest, I bought this and read it cover to cover to count for the What’s in a Name Challenge category of YOU in the title! Yay me! LOL

Rating: Five slices of pie because WHY NOT? Everyone should read books about their home town.

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

January 21, 2023Author Recommendation, Celebration, Challenge, No Pie Mentioned, Wian2023book #5 of 2023, book cover links to indiebookstores, Feminism, motherhood, NonFiction, religion, WiaN Celebration categoryCare

Thoughts by Anna Quindlen, Random House Trade 2012, 205 pages

Challenge: What’s in a Name: Celebration category

Genre/Theme: Essays, Family and Motherhood, Aging, Feminism

Type/Source: Tradeback / Second Hand Bookstore Purchase

What It’s About: Anna shares her thoughts on aging. She is so insightful and hopeful.

“At age 60 I find myself poised between the inevitable and the possible, the things I know and understand and the things I hope to learn and perhaps unravel. But it’s still a bit of a mystery, the yet to come, with that greatest of all mysteries, mortality, at its very end.”

Thoughts: She talks a lot about family and her place in the progression of time. Also her timing into the American workforce balanced with the progression of the women’s movement. And, considerate of being thankful that she lived past the age her mother died, and in the realization of how much her mother missed by dying young, and also the perspective of how her mother’s death impacted her appreciation of life ongoing. I was especially thankful and admiring of her essay on religion.

Rating: I don’t think I was cognizant of her use of the the title in the text, nor do I think she ever mentioned pie. Five slices of pie because I love her. And the cover makes me happy.

Modern Critical Interpretations: Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front

January 19, 2023Library, Mystery, NonFiction, Piebook #4 of 2023, Critical Analysis for the WOO HOO!, GRHS, hardcover, Harold Bloom, Library, NonFictionCare

Thoughts Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers 2001, 224 pages

Challenge: none, mistakenly thought this WAS the novel it discusses…

Genre/Theme: Critical Analysis / Essays (… other way around?!)

Type/Source: Hardcover / Library

What It’s About: This was Harold, being –what seems to me– a pompous ass. I don’t doubt that he is 3x, 4x, 5x smarter than I am, but his style is major “white man being pompous ass about knowing WAY more about literature…. no, sorry CAPITAL “L” Literature, than you do.” and that is OK. Let Harold, GRHS*, have his respect for his literary prowess. But EYE ROLL – the intro had me laughing! He says,

“After I discussed the Harry Potter fad in the Wall Street Journal, the Journal received eighty negative letters and no positive. JK Rowling, like Stephen King and Danielle Steele, will join the thousands of other writers in the “lumber of libraries” and the dustbin of the ages. Popularity is an index to popularity and to nothing more.”
PS – I almost bought Fairy Tales today… fad?!

Thoughts: First, an admission. I thought I had checked out the classic WW1 novel by EMR. Apparently, no. This was Harold’s collection of essays of critical analysis of the novel that was just not as good as Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms, but the second most famous WW1 novel. I have NOT read FtA. And I likely will NOT. I will ONLY attempt, if ever, to read any more Ernie books, might read Moveable Feast. maybe.

I flipped through this, read the first few pages of most, some I read all the way through. I was fascinated by HOW LONG some of these essays were!

I had questions about how the author had “Maria” as a middle name, and why he was born with lastname Remark, but was known by Remarque… Then in the index, I saw Danielle Steele, –who is STILL publishing stories! I haven’t read her work in over 40 years.

I then started my googling and WIKI-ing and found out that EMR married Paulette Goddard! yikes and wowza. He dated some hot ladies before that, too. But that is the society pages… but still! INTERESTING (to me, don’t know why.)

I returned this to the library and picked up the actual novel. Reading it soon for the WiaN challenge of QZX.

Rating: Three slices of pie. No pie mentioned that I could find.

_{GRHS – God Rest His Soul, I don’t mean to be an HB hater but he seriously writes just to annoy me.}

Burning Questions and The Candy House

May 29, 2022Author Recommendation, Book Picked Me, Book Sharing, NonFiction, Pie, Read in Published Year, Rooster!, Sort of Review, Story Collection#CampTOB, apple pie, book cover links to goodreads, Five Slicers, I love pie, kapwing is my new goto to find book cover color hex codes, linked short stories, mud pie, NonFiction, Pecan Pie, pie crust, pie in the sky, pies sitting on window sills, trying to get back into blogging, Two Reviews in One!, US Memorial Day WeekendCare

Thoughts by Margaret Atwood, Doubleday 2022, 496 pages

Challenge: n/a

Genre/Theme: Essays

Type/Source: Hardcover / Gift from a friend

What It’s About: Wonderful essays on the climate, politics, book reviews and author tributes, bits about poems; reminisces on her childhood, her marriage, and husband, lectures she has given, etc and more.

“However, this does not make The Handmaid’s Tale a “feminist dystopia” except insofar as giving a woman a voice and an inner life will always be considered “feminist” by those who think women ought not to have these things.”

Thoughts: She’s Margaret Atwood!

“She came by her perky Mom voice and her “Howdy Stranger“ tropes honestly. She was a refugee, not to America but from within America: a mom and Apple Pie America, and America of the past that was being rapidly transformed by material inventions, …”

Rating: Five slices of pie.

“My own mother was of the non-interference school unless it was a matter of life and death. ___ She later said that she had to leave the kitchen when I was making my first pie crust, the sight was so painful to her.”
-Polonia (2005)

Thoughts by Jennifer Egan, Scribner 2022, 334 pages

Challenge: TOB Summer Camp

Genre/Theme: Linked Short Stories, 2nd in the Goon Series

Type/Source: Hardcover / Library

What It’s About: These stories continue the looks into the lives of characters touched on in The Visit From the Goon Squad. I can’t even pick a favorite. Actually, some seem abrupt or bring up people I would have hoped to explore more or really taxed my brain power! That said, I loved it. It felt SO GOOD to just read and relax and get lost in a story.

“The fact that so many thoughts could have gone through my head in 3.36 seconds is testament to the infinitude of an individual consciousness. There is no end to it, no way to measure it. Consciousness is like the cosmos multiplied by the number of people alive in the world (assuming that consciousness dies when we do, and it may not) because each of our minds is a cosmos of its own: unknowable, even to ourselves.”

Thoughts: I must link in my review of Goon Squad – because I don’t remember it nor was I able to capture its charms exactly – only entertained myself in the attempt. Others have noted that it is a wise plan to keep notes of characters at the start of BOTH these books, something I did not do but recognize it might be valuable advice. Me, I only hope to reread both of these, back to back. Put it on my ‘Retire-to-a-Deserted-{Desserted?!)-Island-Reading-List’.

My kind of story-telling. Five slices of pecan pie.