Non fiction books

I can recommend Auntie's War by Edward Stourton, about the BBC in wartime.

Witzend

I just wish dh would stop buying NF books! They’re nearly always very heavy (content wise) and often long, too, and he’s a very slow reader. He has a huge ‘to be read’ pile, and still keeps ordering more. I’m not exaggerating when I say that even if he lives to 110 he’s never going to get through them all.

I love him - pass him over here when you've had enough, would you? I've got about 50 "to be read" books on a special shelf devoted to my impulse buys. Never without something to read and think about! Some people buy cakes, others buy scratch cards, some can't resist new plants. But books last. There is no such thing as too many books.

Sarnia, I so agree about Halli Rubenhold's The Five. It was a real eye-opener, as I'd only seen the women killed by Jack the Ripper portrayed as victims walking on "the wrong side of the road". The book showed just how difficult many women's lives were in those times, regardless of class - not least because they needed a man's money and position in order to live. As soon as a woman's male supporter died, she effectively had nothing - no home, no money, no status. It's something we struggle to understand now, so I've developed a new respect for the brave suffragettes and other women who got us the vote and the right to possess our own money and property. If I may put on my literary reviewer's hat for a moment, I found this book an excellent piece of research in itself, regardless of its subject. She has written several other books, all I suppose coming under the umbrella of "women's studies", although don't let that put you off!

SophieBookupied Thu 26-Dec-

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polomint

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

Normal Women by Philippa Gregory was a really interesting read. I have just finished Unleashed by Boris and am now reading a biography of John Maynard Keynes.

I just wish dh would stop buying NF books! They’re nearly always very heavy (content wise) and often long, too, and he’s a very slow reader. He has a huge ‘to be read’ pile, and still keeps ordering more. I’m not exaggerating when I say that even if he lives to 110 he’s never going to get through them all.

I also prefer nonfiction. Just a few of the nonfiction books I like: Cosmos by Carl Sagan, The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson, The Best American Science Writing 2020, Understanding History by Bertrand Russell, Swiss Watching by Diccon Bewes, and anything by Barbara Ehrenreich.

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SueDonim

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

SueDonim you might also like "Heresy: Jesus Christ and the other sons of God" by Catherine Nixey. It is about the ways in which Christianity could have taken a far different path from the one we see today.

"Yet in the years after the death of Christ there was not merely one word, nor any consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered. There were many different Jesuses, among them the aggressive Jesus who scorned his parents and crippled those who opposed him, the Jesus who sold his twin into slavery and the Jesus who had someone crucified in his stead."

"Moreover, in the early years of the first millennium there were many other saviours, many sons of gods who healed the sick and cured the lame. But as Christianity spread, they were pronounced unacceptable – even heretical – and they faded from view" from the Amazon blurb.

I do read a lot of biographies of ww2 and Jews surviving the holocaust. I often wonder after reading those books whether I would have been as brave and resourceful as the authors had been. I'm ploughing through barbra Streisand autobiography. A really big book but have left it for the moment to read sue barker " calling the shots" and I'm enjoying her book

Yes I've read that one lemsip and enjoyed it. Such a shame his family are now tarnished due to the financial gains his daughter received and extra building on the house etc

has anyone read Captain Tom's autobiography. Tomorrow's another day?
a good read and an interesting life including his time in Burma during the war.

If you like a witty lighthearted read, I recommend Rupert Everett’s autobiographies, not only a good actor, but a good writer.
Also Nicky Haslam’s autobiography in the same vein.

lemsip

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 have just ordered this for my Kindle .... Thanks for your recommendation

Thanks for the tip MOnica.
There are 3 books of Nella Last’s diaries. I think she was a bit neurotic and that she wrote for effect, but so did most of the Mass Observation writers I daresay.
At this time of year I often re-read Cherry Apsley Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World about Scott’s last Antarctic expedition.

One book to avoid 'Great Uncle Harry' by Michael Palin. the biography of his Great Uncle who died in WW1.

The problem is that Great Uncle Harry was a very ordinary man who kept a very ordinary diary (Rifle drill this morning, Marching this afternoon, went into town this evening). and even Michael Palin's extensive research and writing skills cannot make his Great Uncle sound interesting or make any dramatic revelations about the war. the book is just dull.

I was given it for Christmas, read it and by mid-January it had been given to a Charity shop.

I have also read Nella Last's book

Nella Last was an English housewife who lived in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England.

She wrote a diary for the Mass Observation Archive from 1939 .

I read Spycatcher the autobiography of an intelligence officer at MI5 by Peter Wright.
banned in this country when first published back in
because it revealed too many secrets. now available amazon ect; published in 1987 in australia

The former assistant director of MI5 offers an account of British Intelligence, including his work on the Ring of Five and exposing Soviet espionage and the conspiracy to oust Harold Wilson from the office of Prime Minister in the 1970s which involved the earl of mountbatten.

'The Hiding Place' by Corrie Ten Boom is a brilliant account of a Dutch woman's life in the 2nd world war.

Polo mint ! A woman after my own heart. I can’t get into fiction books either & have given up on book clubs because of this. There are some interesting suggestions of books here I will study.
This is a good thread !
My personal best ever is Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir
- 20 yrs in a desert jail ( Morocco )

Reading through this thread I realise I’ve read many more non-fiction books than I thought - thanks for reminding me of many wonderful reads. One of the best, and most harrowing, books I’ve ever read was Feargal Keane’s The Madness about his life during the years as a war correspondent. Among others on my table is Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry and Rory Stewart’s Politics on the Edge. And I’ll read anything about Richard III!

Journey through a small planet, emanuel litvinof.

The Fishing Fleet, Husband Hunting in the Raj, by Anne de Courcy.