Archive for the ‘Non-fiction’ Category

UNBROKEN by Laura Hillenbrand

UNBROKEN by Lauren Hillenbrand, is the inspirational story of a courageous and resilient man, Louis Silvie Zamperini who, after flying a series of dangerous missions during World War II, spent over forty days stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a life raft with two of his buddies. They were scorched by the sun, buffeted by storms, and subsisted on a minuscule amount of food and water. Subsequently, Zamperini was captured and interned in a series of brutal Japanese POW camps where he was treated mercilessly by his sadistic captors. Miraculously, he emerged, battered and emaciated, but still alive. Little did he know that some of his biggest battles still lay ahead.

January 29, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Non-fiction, y Award Winning Author

GAME CHANGE by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

If Hollywood Central Casting were asked to put together a group of actors with the most monstrous egos on the face of the planet, they could not have done a better job than the two national parties did in the last election.

January 25, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Non-fiction

A VOICE FROM OLD NEW YORK by Louis Auchincloss

Born in 1917 to a prominent New York City family – all eight great-grandparents were natives and resided within blocks of each other – Auchincloss belonged to an insular, elite group that, over the course of his 92 years, furnished him with material for some 60 books. This memoir, completed shortly before his death a year ago, was his last.

January 12, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: Class - Race - Gender, Non-fiction

PUBLIC ENEMIES by Bernard-Henri Levy and Michel Houellebecq

Originally published in 2008 in France, the newly released English translation of PUBLIC ENEMIES: DUELING WRITERS TAKE ON EACH OTHER AND THE WORLD doesn’t quite deliver the literary death match promised in the subtitle. That is, rather than a frenzied cockfight between two writers the French love to hate – the writers in question, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Michel Houellebecq are both controversial superstars in France –this collection of letters is something far better: a measured exchange between two thoughtful (and thought-provoking) writers on a wide range of philosophical issues. And while the letters lack the intimacy and the casual, almost incidental, handling of the abstract that often characterizes published correspondence–indeed, Lévy and Houellebecq aren’t friends; the correspondence was initiated with an eye to publication, a fact that mars the book with an off-putting self-consciousness – the exploration of topics as wide-ranging as the social and political obligations of the writer, the purpose and desirability of confessional literature, our all too human need to be liked, the perils of fame, Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, divine breath and the life source, the void, the nothingness, render the book fascinating.

January 11, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  Â· Posted in: France, Non-fiction

JUST KIDS by Patti Smith

There are a handful of writers who haunt me. That is, as I’m reading their books they come to me in my dreams, usually with sharp elbows and voices clamoring for attention. Cormac McCarthy effects me this way. So does, not surprisingly perhaps, Friedrich Nietzsche. No writers whisper to me in my dreams. It was the second night of reading Just Kids that I discovered here too a voice so strong and compelling so as to ring in my ears after the book is closed, the eyes shut and the brain turned off. Like caffeine, if consumed after a certain late hour, you know you’re in for a ride. Patti Smith is an original. She is a poet with the heart of a rock star and the drive of an Olympic athlete. She comes at you hard and fast and won’t let go, even in a dream state. She is that mesmerizingly good.

January 3, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  Â· Posted in: 2011 Favorites, Coming-of-Age, National Book Award Winner, New York City, Non-fiction, y Award Winning Author

THE DISAPPEARING SPOON by Sam Kean

One of the most striking pictures in Sam Kean’s entertaining book, The Disappearing Spoon, is of an innocuous ceramic pot. The “trendy” Revigator, the caption points out, is a pottery crock lined with nuclear radium. “Users filled the flask with water, which turned radioactive after a night’s soak. Instructions suggested drinking six or more refreshing glasses a day.”

True to its title, THE DISAPPEARING SPOON is full of such awesome and intriguing facts and tales related to the periodic table. The “disappearing spoon” of the title for example, would make a cool April Fool’s trick. Fashion a spoon with gallium—which molds easily and looks like aluminum—and set it out with tea. Guests would be horrified to see their spoons “disappear” as they used it to stir their Earl Grey, Kean reports.

December 28, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Posted in: Non-fiction