It's fascinating. I was up until almost 3am reading it. Maybe it's only of interest to me because I'm part Shawnee (and unsubstantiated family lore states that my great-great-great grandmother was his daughter -- an idea that seems more plausible now that I know that his mother and one of his daughters settled in East Tennessee, where most of the natives were Cherokee), but, dudes, this guy rocks.
So far, the book has been very careful to separate the myths from can actually be substantiated. Tenskatawa (a name Tecumseh's brother gave himself in adulthood) was actually one of a set of triplets. It's just chock full of juicy nuggets like that.
So, what non-fiction are you guys reading?
[ July 19, 2007, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: Olivet ]
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
I just finished a biography on Joe Namath, of all people. It was remaindered in a Walgreens for 5 bucks (the hardback edition), and it was written by a sportswriter I was familiar with so I picked it up.
It would be of zero interest to anyone who doesn't like football and/or Namath, but I found it fascinating.
Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
I'm reading "Interupted Presidency" Its a bio on Jimmy Carter after he left Washington. Yup, it looks like I'm going to have to do a write in again next election.
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
I just finished John Adams by David McCullough. It was freaking awesome.
I'm on a quest to own and read all of McCullough's stuff (yes, even Truman). I just bought The Path Between the Seas about the Panama Canal.
This is the first year of my life that I've read non-fiction (besides church stuff) and I'm loving it. I read the new and awesome Will in the World about William Shakespeare, and started my McCullough kick with 1776. I've discovered that I really enjoy the historical stuff.
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
quote:Originally posted by Narnia: ...and started my McCullough kick with 1776. I've discovered that I really enjoy the historical stuff.
I'm reading 1776 right now. It is a fascinating book.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I am also reading off and on Sears Baby and his book on discipline. What a useful book. Much better than Ezzo. But it's an older version and I finished Why Does He do that which is about domestic violence.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a solid regression analysis text that will bring you up to date on current best practices from both statistical (Gelman is a stats prof, and Hill's PhD is in stats) and social science (many of the examples are from real analyses that one or the other author did a paper on or was paid to produce) perspectives, without being all about economics regressions. The text is very readable and forthright, and there are numerous code snippets (in both R and Bugs code) for the analyses. It has been praised as both a graduate textbook and a practical researcher's reference.
edit: plus, it is extremely cheap for the sort of book it is (math textbook prices . . . *shudder*)
Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
Hmm, nearly every book I've ever read has not been Harry Potter. I read lots of non-fiction, most of it in the subject of agriculture. I've been working my way through Wendell Berry's essays lately, which are excellent and thought-provoking.
Oh yes, thanks to fugu, I'm also reading Thinking in Java now .
--Mel
Posted by Battler03 (Member # 10453) on :
quote:Originally posted by Artemisia Tridentata: I'm reading "Interupted Presidency" Its a bio on Jimmy Carter after he left Washington. Yup, it looks like I'm going to have to do a write in again next election.
For who, Jimmy Carter? Why don't you just hit yourself in the nuts with a ballpeen hammer right now and skip the middleman?
As for nonfiction I'm reading: right now I'm about a third of the way through "Imperial Grunts" by Robert Kaplan, the fantastic Atlantic Monthly correspondent. He also wrote "The Coming Anarchy," which is so insightful on geopolitics that I don't even take seriously people who haven't read it. I've also just started "Fiasco," which I'm not far enough into yet to have an opinion on.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
I'm reading "God is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens. Good read.
Posted by aretee (Member # 1743) on :
I, too, am reading 1776, and a biography on Benjamin Franklin that I picked up at Walgreens. But, the most interesting thing I am reading (non-fiction) is Why Gender Matters Man, this is interesting stuff on the differences between boys and girls (not just mental and emotional, but psysiological as well) and how they learn. I purchased it hoping it would help me in the classroom, but it is going to help me parent, too. Great stuff!
Posted by Leonide (Member # 4157) on :
I'm reading Why We Love, by Helen Fisher, and The God Delusion, by Dawkins. Next up, the seventh Harry Potter (or the book that must not be named!) and Parenting Beyond Belief, edited by Dale McGowan.
Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :
I am reading Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. (I know, I know, I'm kind of late to the game, but I'm a non-fiction n00b.) Pretty interesting, but after reading the first section and a bit of the second I'm starting to wonder whether there are any insights left in the 300 or so pages remaining, or if it's just a constant rehash of the same ideas with different names and dates. Meh.
Posted by aretee (Member # 1743) on :
Hey Mike, let me know if it is just a rehash. I have that book and it's on my list to read but it looks sooo long. I don't pick it up during the school year because I have too much to do and I have many other books I want to read during the summer.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Not so late. It's been on my to-read list for a while, but I haven't even gotten around to getting a copy.
Maybe when I finish the other three non-fiction books I'm slowly going through. (Somehow I rarely find non-fiction as gripping as fiction. Not enough angst! )
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
*takes notes*
Mel - I didn't mean it to be insulting, or anything, The thread title was just referencing how many threads are about Harry Potter right now. Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
Oh, I wasn't insulted! Just amused
--Mel
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
I figured, but I wanted to be sure I hadn't offended.
Most of my non-fiction reading tends to be articles in Harper's or The Atlantic about subjects that interest me, mostly historical stuff. I've always loved history, probably because I love stories and history is made up of stories. Also, ancient civilizations, how people lived and how we know about it. It's like a puzzle.
rivka- Guns, Germs and Steele has been on my list a long time, too. I meant to read The Coming Plague as well, because virology and infectuous diseases are another bizarre interest of mine.
ETA: Ew. The reviews are mostly awful. Bleh.
Posted by AutumnWind (Member # 9124) on :
I just finished "A Child Called It" Amazing and devastating book. It's recorded as one of the most "gruesome cases of child abuse" in CA.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I'm reading "Ghosts of Vesuvius" by Charles Pellegrino. His underlying thesis is that volcanoes are responsible for the development of life and the destruction of (aspects) of civilisation. Sounds dry, but it's absolutely fascinating. And he uses Pompeii as a benchmark to measure where Western civilisation could have been by now if ancient cataclysmic eruptions such as Thera, which destroyed the Minoan culture and was 1000 times more powerful than Vesuvius and 100 times more powerful than Krakatoa, had not interrupted progress. (Vesuvius was 1000 time more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.) He then looks at the events of 9/11 and compares what happened there as the towers collapsed to what happened at Pompeii, in terms of volcanic collapse columns. He also digresses on to all sorts of fascinating tangents.
I also just finished Peter Green's biography of Aleander, "Alexander of Macedon". Very readable and thoroughly enjoyable.
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