Non fiction books

Just about to start this book. Don't know if my attached photo will work

Sparklefizz

Hi polo I was just about to recommend "Normal Women" by Philippa Gregory but I see you're in the middle of reading it.

I have found it very interesting but it's also made me angry regarding the more recent history of women.

My friend just recommended this to me, it sounds very good.

Spelling correction, Claire Tomalin, Colim Toibin.

I always have one fiction book on the go alongside non fiction, diaries and letters which can be dipped into.

I’m loving Clare Tomlin’s biography of Pepys which I’m reading alongside his diaries, Lucy M. Boston’s Memoirs, Colm Toibin’s book on the fathers of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and W.B.Yeats, a fascinating read, Noel Coward’s diaries and Norah Ephron’s Heartburn, not really fiction as it’s about her marriage breakdown with Carl Bernstein.

Another vote for Simon Schama - an incredible author .

I'm reading Eve's War . the diaries of a military wife during second world war.. it's in diary form... by evelyn shillington
she was an army wife and followed her husband whenever she could and keeping her diary which was found in an attic many years later.........

I’ve got it on reservation from the library. Hope I’m not too far down the queue.

I’ve just had a message from our independent book shop to say my recent order for this book has just come in. I will pick it up in a couple of days.

mayisay

I can highly recommend "Brazen" by Julia Haart. In actual fact I couldn't put it down for long! She tells how her life was as an Orthadox Jew in New York, and how she goes on to change her life completely.

I finished this last week. I was engrossed for the first half - about her life as a Jewish girl then mum in an ultra orthodox community. The second half I found myself wading through the treacle of celebrity mwah-mwah ‘what can you do for me?/can we network?/want to read all about my sexual ‘firsts’ as a newly liberated feisty non-conformist woman?’

Goodness it was tedious. Needed some serious editing in my opinion. It just went on. And then some.

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold is a fascinating insight into the lives of the Ripper's 5 victims who were not all prostitutes as some would have people believe. Years of research went into this book and you can see why. I love history and I found this book a real page turner and opened my eyes to the full facts of the Ripper murders.

I am listening to an Audio book version of Living Better by Alistair Campbell. It is about his mental illness which also affected others in his family, it is a very honest account and he narrated it himself. I find it interesting and I am learning a lot about this awful affliction. Although my favourite audio books are about crime, I also love to read biography too.

I can highly recommend "Brazen" by Julia Haart. In actual fact I couldn't put it down for long! She tells how her life was as an Orthadox Jew in New York, and how she goes on to change her life completely.

I read a book much the same as yours retread about 2 brothers or friends, I can't remember which, who survived the boxing day tsunami and started a business making flip flop sandals to help the economy of the devastated area. Their parents did not survive.
Another thought provoking book was " alive" about the plane crash in the andes and the rugby team who had to consume the bodies of their friends in order to stay alive. There is a film on netflix just now about it

I must try and get that book humpty as I've read several, make that a lot, of books about surviving the ghettos and the camps. Makes me often wonder how brave and strong I would be under those circumstances

Can't recommend highly enough 'For Those I loved' by Martin Gray:

Who better to guide our understanding and give us hope than Martin Gray--a man who survived the worst of times, flourished, and still managed to find joy in living? Martin has come full circle since his boyhood world was turned upside down by the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Overnight, the teenage Martin and his family were immersed in the horrors of the Holocaust and held captive in the Warsaw Ghetto. It was a nightmare of brutality, starvation, and death. Martin became a clever smuggler to help his family survive--until the "butchers" of Treblinka took his mother and brothers. Against impossible odds, Martin survived and returned to fight in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. As the Nazis incinerated the ghetto, he escaped to fight with the partisans, and then the Red Army. After the war, Martin made his way to New York. The cunning and skills he developed during the war enabled him to learn the language and create a successful business. At 35, he retired to France with a fortune and a beautiful Dutch wife, starting a family and living in happiness and peace. But his world was shattered once again by a forest fire that engulfed his fleeing family. In a tragic repeat of history, Martin alone survived.

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala is a remarkable book, beautifully written, about coming to terms with the loss of her beloved husband, two sons and her parents in the Sri Lanka tsunami of 2004. In the end, it is an uplifting book as she "reclaims" the memories of her family life.

What a lovely list of books you have all suggested, just my cup of tea. I've read David niven book" the moons a balloon" many years ago plus the sequel. I've read all kuki gallmans books about an Italian woman moving to Africa with her husband and how she built up an animal sanctuary. Her first book was " I dreamed of africa" which has now been made into a film
I've read a few books about the so called happy valley in Kenya

I enjoy a lot of non-fiction. Recently one's of mine have been autobiographies by Bob Mortimer and Grace Dent, a couple written by Holocaust survivors. I enjoyed books about Doctor's, Nurse's, and Criminologist's work. My next one is one written by Governor of a prison.

Love Bill Bryson's books for informative, light hearted reading. And social history is always fascinating.

The Moon's a Balloon - David Niven
And the sequel.

Shocking Life: The Autobiography of Elsa Schiaparelli

This is a fabulous (and easy) read.

Oh, I found this fascinating in the 1970s when I was researching the Titanic:

A Night to Remember - written in the 1950s - he interviewed survivors and produced quite a picture of the ship and disaster.
I know he wrote a follw-up in the 1980s when the wreck was discovered.
I was looking for this in the study only last week - it has lived with me all these years and I thought my grandson might like it.

Let It Go , the memoirs of Dame Stephanie Shirley would definitely appeal to you *polomint.

A truly remarkable woman.

I read a mixture of both fiction and non fiction. I am another Bill Bryson fan. I really like social history and the Time Traveller’s Guides by Ian Mortimer are amazing.

Never read fiction, has to be non-fiction for me each time.

I'm really a fiction person but have just started Risotto With Nettles: A Memoir with Food which is a memoir of Anna del Conte from growing up in Italy to the arrival of grandchildren.
I'm really enjoying it - what an amazing life.
Family and food.
It does have some recipes but the story shines through.