Insider Information; Reality Reading

[iLander]

I like to read non-fiction.

I've decided to call it Reality Reading since people are put off by the phrase "non-fiction". Why would you name something based on what it's not?

I particularly like autobiographies of ordinary people, full of insider information. Here's some I would recommend:

IRS Agent:
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS by Richard Yancey

Cool tips to get more from your next hotel visit and weird guest stories:
Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky

CIA Agent, for some reason there are a ton of books on this subject, I thought it was supposed to be secret
Class 11: My Story Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class by T.J. Waters

Things you didn't know about a giant museum
Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Danny Danziger

Why I rarely eat out anymore!
Kitchen Confidential, Insider's Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Have you read anything along these lines? What can you recommend? Have you read any of these?

 

[JewelFreak]

The Metropolitan book sounds really interesting, iLander. Don't want to know about restaurant kitchens -- I'd rather stay ignorant!

I read a lot of history.

Unbroken, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. Un-put-down-able story of a GI at a Japanese POW camp & his unlikely survival through unimaginable cruelty. Happy ending requires kleenex.

Two with women's accounts of pioneering in the American West:
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey, Lillian Schlissel

Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier, Joanna L. Stratton

Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West, Dorothy Wickenden. Delightful tale of 2 young women who didn't want to get married & host tea parties forever, who volunteered to teach in rural Colorado in 1915. Wonderful & a great picture of a place we never hear about.

--- Laurie

 

[missy]

iLander, LOL on the Kitchen Confidential. It changed some of my eating habits as well. Much to the chagrin of my dh. Let's just say I am (and always have been) risk adverse and let's leave it at that. That and no way would I ever eat mussels again (well, only if they were prepared by my dh but that's the only way. )

My mind's drawing a blank or recommendations but if they come to me I will post them here.

Love your thread title btw.

 

[amc80]

IRS Agent:
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS by Richard Yancey

That one sounds really interesting!
If only I was a reader...

 

[missy]

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden.
Unbelievable story of the botched invasion of Somalia. Really riveting.

The Diary of Anne Frank.
If you haven't read it (though I am sure most already have) I highly recommend it.

The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven.
Amazing story of the tragic 1913 arctic expedition aboard the HMCS Karluk. Highly recommend.

Into The Wild
Into Thin Air
and anything by Jon Krakauer.
Stunning novels.


Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan.
A physical and emotional journey of a recently divorced woman with an Australia Aboriginal tribe.
ETA:
Not sure if it's really non fiction or not but a must read IMO.
When I read it the book had been released as non fiction but some facts have come to light that it might not be. I don't know what the truth is and I don't know what the drama surrounding the book is but all I know is I really enjoyed the book when I read it a very long time ago.

 

[LAJennifer]

The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven.
Amazing story of the tragic 1913 arctic expedition aboard the HMCS Karluk. Highly recommend.

Into The Wild
Into Thin Air
and anything by Jon Krakauer.
Stunning novels.

I just finished Into Thin Air. It was riveting! I've always been fascinated with those who choose to climb Mt. Everest. I'll have to check out The Ice Master - looks right up my alley.

 

[SMC]

Nothing to Envy - firsthand accounts of "ordinary" life in North Korea
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - about the life and legacy of the woman who contributed the first line of cancer cells for research

 

[portia]

The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven.
Amazing story of the tragic 1913 arctic expedition aboard the HMCS Karluk. Highly recommend.

Into The Wild
Into Thin Air
and anything by Jon Krakauer.
Stunning novels.

I just finished Into Thin Air. It was riveting! I've always been fascinated with those who choose to climb Mt. Everest. I'll have to check out The Ice Master - looks right up my alley.

Another Into Thin Air fan here. It was truely the only book I have ever picked up and read cover to cover. I just couldn't put it down.

John Krakauer's books are really interesting. I also liked Eiger Dreams and Into the Wild.

Born To Run by Christopher McDougall is also a fascinating read.

 

[Dee*Jay]

I like to read non-fiction.

I've decided to call it Reality Reading since people are put off by the phrase "non-fiction". Why would you name something based on what it's not?

I particularly like autobiographies of ordinary people, full of insider information. Here's some I would recommend:

IRS Agent:
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS by Richard Yancey

Cool tips to get more from your next hotel visit and weird guest stories:
Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky

CIA Agent, for some reason there are a ton of books on this subject, I thought it was supposed to be secret
Class 11: My Story Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class by T.J. Waters

Things you didn't know about a giant museum
Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Danny Danziger

Why I rarely eat out anymore!
Kitchen Confidential, Insider's Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Have you read anything along these lines? What can you recommend? Have you read any of these?

This is going to be the FIRST book I allow myself to read for pleasure -- as soon as I finish taking all four parts of the CPA exam on August 27th!

ETA: I read Kitchen Confidential several years ago and there are also things I will never eat out again!

 

[Dee*Jay]

iLander -- sorry for the threadjack, and maybe I just need to go back to the other thread to see if you posted, but what did you decide to read for your daughter's project where she needed to interview someone who had read a book by a foreign woman?

 

[iLander]

The Metropolitan book sounds really interesting, iLander. Don't want to know about restaurant kitchens -- I'd rather stay ignorant!

I read a lot of history.

Unbroken, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. Un-put-down-able story of a GI at a Japanese POW camp & his unlikely survival through unimaginable cruelty. Happy ending requires kleenex.

Two with women's accounts of pioneering in the American West:
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey, Lillian Schlissel

Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier, Joanna L. Stratton

Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West, Dorothy Wickenden. Delightful tale of 2 young women who didn't want to get married & host tea parties forever, who volunteered to teach in rural Colorado in 1915. Wonderful & a great picture of a place we never hear about.

--- Laurie

Hi Laurie! The Metropolitan Book is awesome, but it will have you constantly hopping up to google the art that they reference. Why couldn't the guy include pictures?! What's so hard? Probably didn't want to pay the fees. It did talk about pieces that I've never seen before, quite amazing stuff. Check this out, I know you'll appreciate it; http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2002.620

 

[iLander]

iLander -- sorry for the threadjack, and maybe I just need to go back to the other thread to see if you posted, but what did you decide to read for your daughter's project where she needed to interview someone who had read a book by a foreign woman?

It's impossible to threadjack one of my threads, I expect conversations to have a winding quality.

"Death of a Bachelor" by Arthur Schnitzler. She's reading it now, I'm next. She said "Tell the ladies on the forum that I'm not proud that I chose it." Don't know what that means, but I guess I'll find out . . .

 

[iLander]

You guys gave me some good suggestions!

I'm going to take the whole list to the library and see what looks good up close.

I read "Into Thin Air" and it really bothered me. I felt bad for the guy.

 

[JewelFreak]

You did? I read it when it first came out & don't remember a lot, but finished it thinking how DUMB many climbers are. Experienced climbers, not so much -- they go up with their eyes open. Too many others seem mainly to want bragging rights & are willing to risk others in their parties & never coming back to their families. It's gotten out of hand imho.

iLander, will check out your link -- lack of illustrations when a subject is discussed at length is frustrating. I read a ton of Civil War history & get antsy at detailed analysis of battles -- and no battlefield map; sends me constantly to the internet, growling all the way. Unfair!

--- Laurie

 

[iLander]

You did? I read it when it first came out & don't remember a lot, but finished it thinking how DUMB many climbers are. Experienced climbers, not so much -- they go up with their eyes open. Too many others seem mainly to want bragging rights & are willing to risk others in their parties & never coming back to their families. It's gotten out of hand imho.

iLander, will check out your link -- lack of illustrations when a subject is discussed at length is frustrating. I read a ton of Civil War history & get antsy at detailed analysis of battles -- and no battlefield map; sends me constantly to the internet, growling all the way. Unfair!

--- Laurie

Okay, you caught me. I was going to type "I found the guy profoundly irritating and stupid," but I wanted to play nice. Also, I couldn't quite remember if that was the "irritating climbers book" that I read or not.

Have you read Into The Wild? That will tick you off big time: young, idiot backpacker. Seriously annoying.

 

[anne_h]

I really enjoyed 'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer' by Siddhartha Mukherjee (an oncologist).

Also 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed' by Jared Diamond.

Anne

 

[dragonfly411]

I have a few to contribute:
A Pirate of Exquisite Mind - The life of William Dampier. - Dampier was a biologist/naturalist who ended up traveling with "pirate" fleets. FASCINATING read
The Quantum Mind - quantum physics applied to psychology, really eye opening book
Living to Tell the Tale - Autobiography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez also a really really awesome book

 

[NewShiny]

JewelFreak, I just finished Unbroken during a recent business trip to the Marshall Islands - it was an amazing and very well written book. I couldn't help but take a photo of myself in front of the Louis Zamperini dining facility sign (ironic since he wasn't fed much of anything while he was there!) while on Kwajalein.

Another recommendation for books is anything written by Michael Lewis (The Blind Side, Moneyball, and lately he's been writing about the financial industry), and if you are into food, anything written by Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma).

Thanks for the other suggestions everyone!

The Metropolitan book sounds really interesting, iLander. Don't want to know about restaurant kitchens -- I'd rather stay ignorant!

I read a lot of history.

Unbroken, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. Un-put-down-able story of a GI at a Japanese POW camp & his unlikely survival through unimaginable cruelty. Happy ending requires kleenex.

Two with women's accounts of pioneering in the American West:
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey, Lillian Schlissel

Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier, Joanna L. Stratton

Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West, Dorothy Wickenden. Delightful tale of 2 young women who didn't want to get married & host tea parties forever, who volunteered to teach in rural Colorado in 1915. Wonderful & a great picture of a place we never hear about.

--- Laurie

 

[JewelFreak]

Some story, isn't it, NS? I was awed by his pure strength of character. I can dig taking that photo -- wish I could see that too.

iLander, I read Into The Wild too. That kid was in trouble the minute he got the idea. People like him romanticize Nature, don't do their homework, & pay the price, which is only fitting imo. Krakauer did such a good job of portraying what he went through that I felt sorry for him on one hand, but wanted to shout at him throughout the book!

I'm now reading "The Island at the Center of the World" by Russell Shorto. About the Dutch who settled Manhattan, full of really fascinating stories & facts we sure didn't learn in school. Well written, hard to put it down. It's almost like being there!

--- Laurie

 

[aviastar]

If you have any interest in the studies of consciousness/brain development/nurture vs. nature (especially from an 'Arts' point of view), check out:

Anything by Oliver Sacks, but I started with Musicophila and really enjoyed.
This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Bruce Perry

These were all books I found in the course of my thesis work on the neural origins and attributes of creativity and music; they are mostly case studies so not usable as such for my paper, but they pointed me in the direction of the right fields of study and helped me see through the murk that is defining your thesis statement. Clarified my whole outlook on the ability to brain has to create and why/how we should be encouraging and nurturing it.

ETA: Thinking in Pictures, Temple Grandin- very interesting look into autism. Temple Grandin is one of my heroes for pure fearlessness!

 

[lliang_chi]

Living to Tell the Tale - Autobiography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez also a really really awesome book

Cool rec Dragon, he's one of my favorite authors so I"ll have to check it out.

ANy book written by Mark Bowden. He wrote a REALLY interesting one about the 79 Iran hostage crisis. My dad stole it

Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbot. About Chicago's Levy District during the Prohibition Era. Really good, reads like a fiction.

 

[minousbijoux]

"Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Cheryl Strayed. Couldn't put it down.

"Beyond the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity" by Katherine Boo. (National Book Award winner)

Both amazing books. I love memoir and reality reading!