Summer Is The Perfect Time To Read Non-Fiction
Many people think of summer as the time for 'beach reads', those fast-paced, plot-driven novels that capture your imagination and hold it for many hours at a time. I find that summer is also a great time to pick up a book that requires a bit more concentration and focus over an extended period of time, something like a non-fiction book. It can be challenging to find the time to focus on these books during the normal course of life, but vacation time is perfect.
If you feel like reading some non-fiction, have a look at one of these relatively recently published books. I know I'll be tackling a few before September.
Looking for more suggestions? Have a look at this at our We Recommend: Literary Non-Fiction list.
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The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J Bass
This is the first full account of the involvement of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the 1971 atrocities in Bangladesh. They supported Pakistan's military dictatorship as it brutally launched a crackdown on what was then East Pakistan. This lead to the killing hundreds of thousands of people and resulted in ten million refugees fleeing to India. The resulting war between India and Pakistan shaped the history of the area ever since. Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize in 2014.
• eBook
Capturing the Light: The Birth of Photography, a True Story of Genius and Rivalry by Roger Watson and Helen Rappaport
During the 1830s, two men developed their own dramatically different photographic processes in total ignorance of each other's work. Henry Fox Talbot worked away on Talbotype, secluded in his English country estate. Louis Daguerre, living in post-revolutionary Paris, developed Daguerrotype. Both these men overcame extraordinary odds to discover how to capture the light to create a photograph and changed how we see the world.
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, exhausted hospital staff chose to select certain patients as the last for rescue. Months later, some of these health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Fink exposes what happened in those terrible days, as people tried to cope in the most extraordinary and challenging of circumstances. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
• Large Print
• Audiobook
• eBook
• eAudiobook
• Talking Book (Restricted to print disabled patrons)
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
Never one to shy away from taboo or icky subjects, Mary Roach takes the reader on another one of her hilarious, entertaining and informative investigations. This time she goes 'down the hatch' in an investigation into eating, digestion and elimination. She tries to find answers to many questions, such as why crunchy food is so appealing, how much we can eat before our stomach bursts and if constipation really did kill Elvis?
• Large Print
• Audiobook
• Talking Book (Restricted to print disabled patrons)
The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by Margaret Macmillan
In her new book, the author of Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World turns her attention to the causes of the Great War. In the century since the end of the Napoleonic wars, Europe had enjoyed its most peaceful era since Roman times. As they entered a new century, Europeans looked forward to a happy and prosperous future. Instead, rivalries, colonialism, ethnic nationalism, and shifting alliances helped to bring about the outbreak of a war that transformed Europe and the world forever. A finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing by The Writers' Trust of Canada.
• Audiobook
• eBook
One thought on “Summer Is The Perfect Time To Read Non-Fiction”
The LastingMatters Organizer by Barbara Bates Sedoric was recently highlighted and posted on NHPR’s Exchange Program and listed on their website as “a must-read Summer 2014 book”. Available at: http://www.LastingMatters.com