Non Fiction being currently read

[Decrepit&Senile]

At 0837, 21 Apr 2023, I concluded an initial read of the non-fiction title War is a Racket, by General Smedley Butler (1881-1940). I got wind of it thanks to a YouTube video reference. Butler, a 33-year military veteran was, as he puts it, for most of that time "a high-class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers." What drew me to the book is the time period it covers; approximately the tail end of the 19th century to the beginnings of World War II, prior to U.S. official involvement. It's a short work. What's in it makes for interesting reading. That said, I don't know that it's worth investing more in than the S0.99+tax my Kindle edition cost. Considering its 1935 copyright date, it might be best to hold off a few years and see if it becomes available at Project Gutenberg. A mild recommendation.

 

[Decrepit&Senile]

At 1630 this afternoon, during supper, I concluded an initial read of Brian R. Solomon's Blood and Fire, The Unbelievable Real-Life Story of Wrestling's Original Sheik. This, as with all "pro" wrestling books, was a loan from my brother. It was also my kitchen table read for the past some months, meaning that I read it only during meals, usually no more than a few pages at a time. It's an OK read about the long wrestling career of said person. (He had next to no post-career life to speak of, working at his profession into his seventies, by which point he was an utter wreck, both in and out of the ring.) I can recommend it to diehard wrestling fans with an interest in wrestling's past.

 

[suciul]

I finished Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age by Tom Holland and it was very good.

Following Rubicon and Dynasty, Pax ostensibly is about Rome's Golden Age though it really focuses a lot on the year of 4 emperors, the Vesuvius catastrophe of 79, and the provincial life (and numerous Jewish revolts starting from the one that brought Vespasian to power) during Trajan and Hadrian more than the usual approaches in popular history. So if you want to find out about Vespasian, Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian reigns from a policy perspective or even a Tacitus or Suetonius story type you won't really find it here, as this is a book that constructs a narrative with interesting characters and events in the context of the title.

Quite a page-turner and reading more like a novel, with many colorful characters, like the bigwigs of Pompeii fighting for dominance in the doomed city, or various Bythinian personages which come to attention both through Pliny (the Younger) governorship which is very well documented in his letters to Trajan and through the rise of one Bythinian native to high imperial positions, including the governorship of the Emperors' home province of Baetica in Spain.

The other notable feature (which I've seen in other recent works) is the mostly rehabilitation of Domitian's reputation as an able imperial administrator looking for the welfare of the people and running roughshod over the Senatorial aristocracy who was looking for its own welfare (and of course ensuring his trashing in the histories as they were written by the members of the aristocracy) and leaving peace, a full treasury and at least a semblance of morality restoration for his successors.

Pax is quite a good book and I definitely recommend it.

 

[XCMartian]

I'm reading Lee Kuan Yew's From Third World to First. Lee Kuan Yew was the former and first Prime Minister of Singapore whose visionary leadership helped a small poor country with no resources to become an economic powerhouse and a first world country. In this book, Lee talks about his journey from being a young Oxford Law graduate to becoming a Prime Minister to being the chief supervisor of Singapore's nation building. He talks in length about the difficulties he had to face and how he successfully sailed over it. Excellent read!
Also, Lately, I have been studying a lot on child Psychology and that has been helping me in trying to relate and sympathize with my child's thoughts and actions. My studies gradually led me into Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget's Transductive Reasoning - an erroneous method of thinking where a cause and effect relationship is drawn between two events that are not logically connected. It is super interesting to see how some kids do not overcome this reasoning due to multiple factors, and how sometimes superstitions and other fears imposed my parents affect children's mental outlook. I've been trying my best to create a safe space for my child from my upbringing perspective and reading child Psychology has helped.

 

[AtramentousFlux]

This urgent and eye-opening book makes the case that protecting humanity's future is the central challenge of our time.

At goodreads . Actually quite a hopeful view, while not diminishing the risks we face.

 

[Decrepit&Senile]

At 1702 Saturday, 30 Sep 2023, I concluded an initial read of Ava Gardner: "Love Is Nothing" by Lee Server. This was a loan from my brother, the book I've been reading at the kitchen table during meals (but at no other time) these past some months. Expectations were low, never having followed Ms. Gardner's career and caring nothing for her celebrity. Turns out, she led a quite "interesting", if troubled, life, one that I can in almost no way relate to or want to immolate. Those core differences made the book an good read. I can't see myself recommending it to those not into movie/film personality bios, but those who are might find it a welcome addition to their collection.

 

[pogopossum]

PREQUEL: An American Fight Against Fascism. by Rachel Maddow.
For non-US folks, the author is a well known current affairs/politics commentator with her own show on MSNBC.
The book is a history lesson on pre-WWII Fascist groups in the USA and individuals who investigated, infiltrated and prosecuted them.
Maddow gives full credit to studies, books, academic papers and archives in the her 26 page notes and bibliography. Although she was a Rhodes Scholar and has a doctorate in political science from Oxford, the tone of the book is that of a chatty political reporter.
I am more than a third of the way through the book. Of note so far to me was the study made by Nazi officials of US segregation and political practices in the shaping of German Nuremberg race laws and the continuing anti-semitic discrimination and later murder of German and European Jews. Also the fight that early investigators had to get local authorities, often sympathetic to racist politics, to investigate illegal acts and direct $$$ support from Germany to what the Nazis saw as their allies in the US.
Three earlier books by Maddow made the US Best Seller lists. One on the international energy business, one on the exercise of American military power and one on the corrupt former US Vice-President, Spiro Agnew.
She is an opinionated observer, but not surprisingly given her academic credentials, one who documents every detail in her account.
It would be fair to say that although the book has zero comments on current US politics, both the title and Maddow's day to day reporting make it clear that she is giving a warning about current affairs.

 

[AtramentousFlux]

While I will probably regret it, I'm starting Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario .

I won't be at all surprised if it is every bit as scary as it's reputed to be.

Edit: Finished. Yep, it's horrifying. I don't personally regret reading it though.

 

[AtramentousFlux]

In Waves in an Impossible Sea, physicist Matt Strassler tells a startling tale of elementary particles, human experience, and empty space.

Starting this one and enjoying it. Prof. Strassler is very good at explaining difficult physics concepts to non-professional physicists.

 

[Westy]

I read Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, about Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to cross Antarctica. Instead they hit a large mass of ice floes in January 1915 before making land, and spend the next year and three months on the ice trying to find land - with the ship sinking halfway through the ordeal.

This was an engrossing read, vividly describing the conditions they went through (via the various diaries the men kept), how they survived mentally and physically, and the important decisions they had to make. It also showed how so many of the men were stoic in the face of adversity and never gave up. Recommended.

 

[Raf]

Finished " Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder". I wanted love this book, but I have mixed feelings about it. The author is well known for previous books about native Americans and was contacted by "Dan" a Lakota Elder (Sioux) to put his life into words.

While no one can deny the horrific treatment in the 1800's until even now on the reservations, I don't really buy into the idea of racial guilt for acts committed 200 yrs ago by people no one alive knows. And Dan lays a massive guilt trip on the shoulders of Kent Nerburn for everything the white man has ever done to his people.

To be fair, Nerburn allows it. I guess in order to get the story down like Dan wants it. Dan said during the book that his story would anger people. Indian and White alike.

All that said, the ending was heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. There are 2 more in the series, but I'm going to have to think about whether I want to continue.

Note: There was also a 2016 movie made based on this book. Same title.

 

[Cicero]

Making History : The Story Tellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen . he examines the great historians from Herodotus to Eric Hobsbawm. Explaining wthey things that shaped their intrpeation and understanding of History .

 

[AtramentousFlux]

The Forever War tells the story of how America's political polarisation is 250 years in the making, and argues that the roots of its modern-day malaise are to be found in its troubled past.

Only just starting this one but the thesis seems sound.

 

[Tim Craire]

Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior by Catherine Hanley, published 2020. I'm really enjoying it; a biography that's thorough but still just 300 pages . . . I come across a lot of 500- or 600-page biographies, and frankly there aren't many people I want to spend that much time on.

This one's well-written. The title is a bit inaccurate in labeling Matilda a "warrior;" Hanley is very clear that she never rode at the head of her troops. But she did strategize, clearly . . . very good portrait of this woman and her time, and the brutal civil war she and her cousin King Stephen waged for years.

 

[Decrepit&Senile]

Recently read history:

Finished 08/03/2025: 1031
“Escape from East Tennessee to the Federal Lines” by Captain Robert A. Ragan – Project Gutenberg ebook

I initially assumed this to be about the escape of a Federal soldier from Southern captivity, or possibly the escape of a slave as documented by a Union officer. It is instead about pro-union residents of Tennessee who are mistreated by their “rebel” neighbors, focused on the author’s escape, his helping others to escape, his becoming a Union soldier, and his unit’s actions until war’s end. Covering a little-publicized aspect of the U.S. Civil War, I found it an engrossing, worthwhile read. Recommended.


Finished 08/19/2025: 0828
“A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas
Being an Account of the Early Settlements, the Civil War, the Ku-Klux, and Times of Peace” by William Monks – Project Gutenberg ebook

This is “Escape from East Tennessee . . .” on steroids. Brutality abounds. The author, as the book alludes to, is not a well-educated man. It shows, yet gives the writing a rough-honed honesty. Bad things happen here. The author himself is no choir boy, but at least stands for honor and goodness, to the limited extent they exist during the Civil War and Ku-Klux (Klan) sections. A strong recommendation for anyone at all interested in this era of U.S. history.


Finished 08/21/2025: 2015
“The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler” by Robert Payne (fourth or fifth read)

A paper-book reread, read at the kitchen table during meals. It’s an excellent bio of a not-so-excellent individual. At 600 printed pages, it’s too short to do the man and his “achievements” full justice. Still, what it covers is handled excellently. Published in the early 1970s, it misses the mark on some aspects of Hitler’s life not unearthed until later; his health is a case in point. Payne says his health remained robust until relatively late in the war. The book also champions Hitler visiting England for a short time in early adulthood, a view that is nowadays disbelieved (so far as I know). Still, it’s a page-turner and a solid recommendation.

Speaking of Hitler’s health, my current kitchen-tablet paper-book is “The Secret Diaries of Hitler’s Doctor”, one Theodore Morell, receiving a second read.

 

[Ropie]

I'm reading Story by Robert McKee. It's about writing screenplays and is loosely related to a project I'm working on.

I started it thinking that I'd just have a skim through and see what it's about, but it's actually fascinating and very nicely written, so I've decided to read the whole thing. It's also making me want to watch a lot of the films that he uses as examples in the book. I'm learning a lot about a whole new topic and enjoying myself at the same time.

 

[Randy M.]

Why I Love Horror, ed. Becky Siegel Spratford

Spratford asked a number of horror writers the question in the title and compiled their answers in this book. Several answers are of the "I grew up with it" variety, and those provided this reader with a bit of nostalgia for his own reading history. Others -- notably Cynthia Pelayo and David Demchuk -- offer different, and quite affecting, perspectives. Finally, Stephen Graham Jones provides a final essay that wraps up the collection effectively.

This is one of the overviews of the genre that deserves to be read by genre fans as a way to learn a little more about a favorite author, to learn a few titles worth checking into, and to find other authors they haven't read.

 

[Hobbit]

In Joy Still Felt by Isaac Asimov



One I wasn't planning to read in depth, and yet it has taken over my reading for the last week. I wasn't going to, but I think I might end up writing a review for it.