Suggestions for our May & June 2008 Non-Fiction book

Chris OConnor

Suggestions for our May & June 2008 Non-Fiction book

Please use this thread for making suggestions for our May & June 2008 Non-Fiction book selection. And when making your suggestion tell us a little about why you think your book suggestion would make for a great BookTalk discussion.

JulianTheApostate · Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:08 am Post subject:

My real-life book club will discuss the following two books in May and June. They both sound interesting and should give us plenty to talk about.

The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World's Most Troubled Drug Culture by Richard DeGrandpre

Ophelia · Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 4:38 am Post subject:

Hello Julian,

Dan Ariely's book seemed interesting, so I looked up what amazon readers were saying, and found one who had arguments against the book, he here is his view:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A24HT4LL5SP4EL/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp

DWill · Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:15 am Post subject: May-JUne Non-Fiction

Two that have been on my list are:

Stumbling Into Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. This one comes out of the positive psychology movement begun by Martin Seligman. It is not a self-help book. It analyzes the factors that promote our self-representations of a state of happiness. From my information, it delves into some of the paradoxes that relate to our feelings of happiness.

and

Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body, by Neil Shubin. This is not a book to convince us of the reality of evolution, of course; it is beyond that. It's more about the wonder of evolution, how we can see in ourselves the history of evolution back at least as far as the fish. This recent book received high praise from reviewers for its engaging style and sustained level of interest.

JulianTheApostate · Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:38 am Post subject:

Ophelia · Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:19 am Post subject:

Hmm, Julian, when I re-read my sentence, my phrasing sounds rather silly.

I did not (at least not consciously Wink

) pick this review because it was the one negative review in the list, but because it caught my attention and I read it with interest.

I'll go back to the info about the book and try to get an overall view.

lisamarie · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:28 pm Post subject:

I thought this book sounded interesting. It is 1150 pages long though.

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia

From 1936 to 1938, journalist and novelist Rebecca West made three trips to Yugoslavia. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia is a record of her travels. This immensely long book, which runs to 1150 pages, is much more than a travelogue, however. It is also a vivid account of the violent history of the Balkans going back many hundreds of years. West admits that before she visited the region, she knew almost nothing about it, other than that events in the Balkans (notably the assassination of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914) had led to World War I. Since the war had affected West’s own life—as it had all members of West’s generation—she wanted to understand how and why it happened. Her aim in writing Black Lamb and Grey Falcon was to show the Balkan past alongside the present it created.

In her travels, West became an admirer of the Serbs and their culture, often contrasting it favorably with the West. She repeatedly refers to the devastation that followed the famous battle of Kossovo in 1389, in which the Serbs were defeated by the Turks, and which led to five hundred years of Turkish rule. (In modern spelling, one ‘‘s’’ for Kosovo is preferred, rather than West’s ‘‘Kossovo’’.) In the epilogue (written in 1941, two years after the outbreak of World War II) she praised Yugoslavia for refusing to capitulate to Nazi Germany.

In addition to being a travelogue and a history, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a forum for West’s forcefully argued views on a variety of topics, ranging from relations between men and women, to art and music, to the nature of empires and questions of metaphysics. The book in some sections resembles a novel. It illustrates the relationship between West and her husband, and contains a lively cast of traveling companions, including Constantine (the Jewish Serb poet) and Gerda (his nationalistic German wife).

In Cold Blood

It details the 1959 slaying of Herbert Clutter, a wealthy farmer from Holcomb, Kansas; his wife, and two children. When Capote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime. Bringing his childhood friend and fellow author Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) along, together they interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousands of pages of notes. The killers, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested not long after the murders, and Capote ultimately spent six years working on the book. It is considered the originator of the non-fiction novel and the forerunner of the New Journalism movement.

The story weaves a complicated psychological story of two parolees who together commit a mass murder, an act they were not capable of individually. Capote's book also details the lives of the victims and the effect the crime had on where they lived. A large part of the story involves the dynamic psychological relationship of the two felons that culminated in this senseless crime. In Cold Blood is often regarded as a pioneering work of true crime.

Kenneth · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:43 pm Post subject: lisamarie's suggestions

Great suggestions! I have not read "Black Lamb Grey Falcon" but have always wanted to. Decades ago I read and loved a couple of her novels. The Balkans area is an international boiling point (witness the recent sacking of our embassy in Serbia over the Kosovo independence issue) Hint: the Serbs freaking hate our guts...... they especially hate Bill Clinton and Wesley Clark whom they regard as war criminals. (if Clinton wants to be President again all he has to do is go to Kosovo -- they'll kiss his feet). On the flip side of the coin, Milosovic was evil and we hastened his demise. Richard Holbrook, former U.N. Ambassador and broker of the Dayton Accords, in his own book, actually blames "Black Lamb Grey Falcon" for fostering unhealthy Serbophilia that may have contributed to eventual ethnic cleansing by Serbs. Let's dig into this book!! Conflict in the Balkans will return soon in a big way and we should learn more about the area.

"In Cold Blood" affected me profoundly when I read it many years ago. The arbitrary manner by which a family gets slaughtered out in the middle of nowhere scared the crap out of me. At the time I lived in a small town with my wife and 2 kids. We never locked doors, left our keys in the car. For several weeks after reading this book I religiously walked through the house before turning in, locking every window, every door. A great choice.

Ophelia · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:59 am Post subject:

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Lamb-Falcon-Penguin-Classics/dp/014310490X /ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205404723&sr=8-1

Lisamarie and Kenneth,

I think a book about the Balkans is a great idea, this is something I only know a very little about and I've always wanted to learn more.

The theme is interesting in itself and it's useful to understand European history-- as I was reading and writing in my journal about France and immigration, the way that unfortunate events kept piling up on top of each other sometimes made me think of the Balkans, where things must have been much, much worse, until people find it so impossible to live together that they need to create tiny, perhaps economically non-viable Kosovo into an independent state.

As to Black Lamb and Grey Falcon:

First, a hint to newcomers: if you want to suggest a title you will make your case stronger if you give a link to amazon, or perhaps some other reviews as well.

I may read this book for myself, but at this stage I doubt whether other BT members will choose it, because of its length.

On a personal level: I'd love to discuss a book about the Balkans, whether it's fiction or non fiction, but I wonder if one could be found that included the present time? Ideally, from the Turkish invasion to the 1990's-- perhaps that's asking a lot for one volume (!).

When I checked "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" at amazon, I saw that there seeemed to be a lot of other books about the Balkans at the bottom of the page, in case somebody wants to investigate.

Ophelia · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:16 am Post subject:

The Balkans, continued.

How about this:

1-

The Balkans: Nationalism, War & the Great Powers, 1804-1999 (Paperback)
by Misha Glenny.

About 750 pages (!), but covers the whole period I'm interested in, and sounds interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140233776/ref=pd_luc_00002014310490X 0140233776

or 2-

The Balkan Wars: Conquest, Revolution, and Retribution from the Ottoman Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Paperback)

320 pages.

Penelope · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:36 am Post subject:

Can these last few titles discussed, really be categorised as 'Fiction'?

Ophelia · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject:

What do you mean Penelope?

This is the non-fiction forum.

Penelope · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:50 pm Post subject:

Ophelia - I am so sorry - Today is obviously my day for getting everything wrong. Embarassed

I am going to sit quietly in a corner and read 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' - even though I know I am too late for the forum.

Mr. Pessimistic

Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea - by Mark Kurlansky

I liked Kurlansky's "Salt: A World History". He is a very engaging writer.


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