BookTalk.org

What NON-FICTION book should we read and talk about in April, May & June 2020?

If you have 5 or more posts on the BookTalk.org forums you are invited right now to share with us a non-fiction book suggestion or two. What non-fiction book do you think we should read and discuss as a group?

In addition to make your book suggestion PLEASE read the suggestions other people make. Does anything suggested catch your eye? Do you think a suggested book is too long, potentially boring or maybe doesn't have sufficient positive reviews to warrant it being selected as an official BookTalk.org book? We need your suggestions AND feedback on suggestions made by your fellow members.

If we have a bunch of great suggestions we'll do a poll. But if this suggestion thread has a clear winner we can skip the poll and go with the book most of us seem to want to talk about. See why feedback is just as important as suggestions?

So what would you like to read and talk about next?

I would respectfully submit "The Three-Cornered War; The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West" by Megan Kate Nelson. I am currently reading this book, and learning things about a part of the Civil War they did not teach in my school.

We sure could use some suggestions here. I guess we're all at home quarantined but too stressed out for reading and talking about books. That makes sense. I do wish we could all come together and use BookTalk.org book discussions as a way to decompress and escape the stresses of this pandemic.

Hi Chris
DWill and I are enjoying discussion of The Wizard and the Prophet, and would welcome comments from others who aren't reading it. Next I would really like to discuss A Farewell to Ice by Professor Peter Wadham. I am sure Peter would be happy to discuss his book with us.

https://www.amazon.com/Farewell-Ice-Pet ... 0241009413

About the Author
Peter Wadhams is the UK's most experienced sea ice scientist. He was Director of the Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge from 1987 to 1992 and Professor of Ocean Physics at Cambridge from 1992 to 2015. He has made more than 50 expeditions to both polar regions, working from ice camps, icebreakers, aircraft, and, uniquely, Royal Navy submarines (making six submerged voyages to the North Pole). His research group in Cambridge has been the only UK group with the capacity to carry out field work on sea ice. He has also held visiting professorships ... (more)

Book Review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/ ... ate-change "The warning this book gives us about the consequences of the loss of the planet’s ice is emphatic, urgent and convincing"

Great book idea Robert. His credentials are impressive.

You all might have to be reading without me, though both books suggested sound tempting. I need to get a big dose of fiction--not necessarily escapist stuff, but kind of to get away from crisis all the time.

No doubt. We all need to escape right now.

Looks like we're really struggling this time 'round, April is almost over. I'll suggest this one although I've had trouble participating much in the book discussions, it is not easy.

The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians by David Rubenstein
This is a series of 16 essays on important figures by expert historians. For example, Taylor Branch wrote a 2,912 page trilogy on Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. Perhaps you'd like to know about his findings, but that is too much of a time investment. This book has a 24 page essay by Branch.

Robert Caro wrote four books totaling 3,552 pages about the career of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Again, perhaps you're interested in what that expert has to say and may find his 24 page essay in this book more easily digested.

Check out the table of contents - I'm sure you'll find the list of authors and their subjects to be intriguing.

Update: I have this book and cracked it open after writing the above. These are not essays by the historians, they are interviews between them and David Rubenstein. I would have preferred essays, but the interviews appear to be well done.

Regarding Cattleman's suggestion above, here is a C-Span interview with Megan Kate Nelson, the author of The Three-Cornered War.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?469345-1/the-cornered-war

OK, I'm creating a poll right now to select our next non-fiction book. All of your suggestions will be on the poll. Please vote!