Non fiction books

I'm also listening to"My Name is Barbra" on Audible . My dip -in book at the moment, which I'll have on the go alongside whatever non fiction I'm reading, is Memoirs of an Arab Jew, life in Iraq. I also have Dan Jones "The Plantagenets" on my pile for this year, as well as one of my late mother's books, The Great Shame by Thomas Keneally about the Irish famine which I've been meaning to read for ages. Recently I've also enjoyed River Kings, Viking history, The House of Glass by Hadley Freeman, relating to three generations of her Jewish family who moved from Poland to Paris pre the second World War, Stolen Focus, Why We Can't Pay attention, a commentary on just that, very relevant today and the distractions of social media, Grace Dent's Hungry, her growing up working class years seen through the prism of food and how she went on to become a food critic. Non fiction that sticks out in my mind, A N Wilson's history of the 19th century, plus his biography of Queen Victoria which delves into the life of all her children. A book I loved by Juliet Nicholson, A Houseful of Daughters - 7 generations of her family which included her grandmother, Vita Sackville-West, Margaret Forster's biography of Daphne du Maurier. Further back in time, The Unequalled Self - A biography of Samuel Pepys and Ungrateful Daughters, Queen Mary and her sister Queen Ann, daughters of James 11, I love the Stuart period. One Two Three Four, The Beatles in Time, essentially about them but a great social commentary on the 1960s. I also have Simon Schama's 3 part History of Britain which I like to have for reference from time to time. I enjoy biographies as long as the subject matter is worthwhile and have made their mark, certainly no sports person or reality type non celebrity those would be two categories of people I have no interest in.

I am another who reads very little fiction. I also read very few new books. Most of mine come from secondhand book shops.

Most of my reading is historical and archaeological. My current reading, is Mrs Woolf and the servants about Virginia Woolf and her relationsip with the staff who worked for her. Many were with her for decades. ^ The Subjection of Women^ by John Stuart Mills, published in 1869. One of the first great feminist polemics. I am ashamed I have not read it before. And The Penninsular War by Charles Esdale.

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.

At the moment I'm reading " the nine" by gwen strauss. It's about 9 women survivors who were in the French resistance and escaped from the death march. Another book I'm half way through reading is " normal lwomen" by hilary
gregory. Women through history from 1500s. Still to start reading the barbra Streisand auto biography

I always have a non fiction book on the go, I tend to dip into them rather than read one continuously like say a novel. The books I go for tend to be either history, current affairs or biographies, but I'm pretty much interested in what you are OP.

I like history books. Tom Holland has quite a lot. Mary Beard and Bill Bryson writes non fiction with a humorous twist

I read a mix of books, probably 2:1 fiction/NF. I’ve just begun A History of the Bible by John Barton. It looks a good read.

www.penguin.co.uk/books/258551/a-history-of-the-bible-by-john-barton/9780141978505