November Non-fiction Reading

No November thread yet! Are we slowing down in our non-fiction reading?

I'm reading Unflinching: The Making of a Canadian Sniper by Jody Mitic.

I am about to start Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder.

There is a non-fiction history thread running but I can never decide which one to use so I stay in the world of history and watch this one!

I'm reading Neurotribes which I got from NetGalley - it's very good, although I found the section on eugenics hard to read (as it should be and as I should do, obviously).

Finished Sextant which explores the development of the sextant in navigation. considering I grew up within a stone's throw of the sea I've never sailed, but it has a sort of fascination to me.

I'm reading The Big Short by Michael Lewis and its very readable. I usually consider financial regulation to be dry, but this is interesting.

I'm just at the outset of Beyond Enlightenment: Occultism and Politics in Modern France, and so far it's shaping up to be a good read. It seems theoretically conservative; it may turn out to be more of a particularist study than an effort to reach generalizable conclusions.

I read Feast : why humans share food, but I didn't enjoy it. It was too dry.

I've returned to The conquest of America and polished it off.

Now I'm beginning Racecraft, a recommendation from an LT member. Very promising.

Recently finished Dispatches from Pluto (subtitle: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta), which I rate a SOLID five stars, and I'm stingy with those.

I'm reading Worktown, about the start-up of the Mass Observation project in Britain.

>10 Seajack: Can you help me place Dispatches from Pluto with the proper Richard Grant, please? It's in the unknown pile at the moment on the disambig page.

He also wrote both CRAZY RIVER and GOD'S MIDDLE FINGER.

Reading The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.

I'm reading Without You There is No Us: My Time With the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim

I finished a LTER book American Sweepstakes and found it to be a fun description of the struggles involved in setting up the first legal state run lottery. The account is somewhat rambling in that it takes the time to give biographies of the major players and events in their lives. I found the diversions added to the human interest of the story.

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai.

I'm getting an education reading Black Earth. Interesting that fear by racial categories has not been adequately discredited.

I'm reading The Catskills: It's History and How It Changed America by Stephen M. Silverman.

Finished A is for Arsenic. Various of the poisons used by Agatha Christie are described in detail. The source, chemical nature, bio logical effect, history as a poison, their use in Christies books, and real life cases are all described. Intriguing but gets repetitious and sometimes more detailed than desired. Perhaps better read in snippets.

Among the Janeites, an interesting look into the Austen-fixated, which I am not.

With my left hand, so to speak, I am continuing to make my way through Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2, while in my right hand I'm avidly reading Zachary Leader's The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964 Volume 1. When either hand next becomes free, the next book I will begin reading is The Heart of Everything That Is, The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend.