Here it is week 2 of the Nonfiction November Challenge! I'm so glad to see so many people reading so many interesting books! This week's blog posting is hosted by Frances at The Volatile Rune.
Week 2 Prompt:
"There are many topics to choose from when looking for a nonfiction
book. For example: Biography, Autobiography, Memoir, Travel, Health,
Politics, History, Religion and Spirituality, Science, Art, Medicine,
Gardening, Food, Business, Education, Music to name but a few. Maybe
use this week to challenge yourself to pick a genre you wouldn’t
normally read? Or stick to what you usually like is also fine. If you
are a nonfiction genre newbie, did your choice encourage you to read
more?"
Is there a genre in which I haven't read? I've read at least one book in the categories listed in the prompt, and I have to add genealogy and language to the list. So instead of wracking my brain to try to come up with a category of nonfiction I've never read, here is a list of books, one in each category heretofore mentioned, that I have read.
Biography: Walkin' Lawton, by John Dos Passos Coggin. Lawton Chiles, Governor of Florida 1991-1998, campaigned by walking practically the entire state as a way of meeting Floridians of all socio-economic levels. He was an excellent governor, a progressive. His main concern was always the welfare and betterment of the people of Florida. He died suddenly during his second term, an event that shocked and saddened us all. John Dos Passos Coggin is the grandson of the acclaimed novelist John Dos Passos, known mainly for his trilogy, U.S.A.
Autobiography: Straight Shooting, by Robert Stack, with Mark Evans. Open this book and it is like walking into a Starbuck's and sitting down at a table with Robert Stack as he relates outrageously funny tales about his life. He also was a library of inside information about Hollywood, as his mother knew a number of Hollywood notables and he grew up in the film capital's aura.
Memoir: The Honeycomb, by Adela Rogers St. Johns. The author was a celebrated reporter, screenwriter, and novelist. In this memoir, she recounts some of her journalistic and life adventures, including her encounter with the notorious publisher William Randolph Hearst. I read this as a teenager, and it inspired me as a writer.
Travel: Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain, by George Mahood. Mahood and a friend began this unusual and madcap travelogue with nothing but their Union-jack patterned underpants. They started walking in the south of England and accumulated what they needed along the way to the north of Scotland by the kindness of strangers -- clothing, shoes, food, transportation, lodging. What they acquired and how makes for a fascinating and wonderful read!
Health: The Art of Cooking for the Diabetic, by Mary Abbot Hess, LHD, MS, RD, FADA. Type 2 Diabetes is our family curse: my mother and brother had it, my husband and I and our older daughter have it, my husband's sister and their father had it. The 375 recipes in this book make an effort to be tasty, and include full nutrition information. The last revision was in 1996, the one I bought when my mother's diabetes was diagnosed, so some of the information in the book may be out of date.
Politics: Jacksonville: The Consolidation Story from Civil Rights to the Jaguars, by James B. Crooks. I grew up in Jacksonville and was a Government major at Florida State University when the vote on consolidating the city and county governments was taken. Jacksonville's municipal problems had mushroomed, and Consolidation was offered as a remedy. Here's one observer's take on how it came about and how it has fared since that 1968 vote.
History: If it Takes All Summer: Martin Luther King, the KKK, and States' Rights in St. Augustine, 1964, by Dan R. Warren. Warren was a Special Prosecutor appointed by Florida Governor Farris Bryant to investigate demonstrations and violence in St. Augustine. 1964 was the 400th Anniversary of the settlement of St. Augustine in 1564 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles. The festivities were disrupted by violent reactions by white resistors to peaceful demonstrations by the once-again ignored black population of the city.
Religion: One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Religion, by Richard Abanes. This often critical history is well documented, with over 100 pages of endnotes. This faith, in which adherents do an incredible job of taking care of their own, has had its controversies and struggles. Religion is at times a hot-button topic. The reader must make up their own mind on this one, but it is an engrossing book.
Science: Geologic History of Florida: Major Events that Formed the Sunshine State, by Albert C. Hine. I first read this book in pre-publication manuscript, as it was the textbook for the course I took in Florida geology at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. The well-illustrated finished text is an elegant story of the formation of Florida millions of years ago, and its current status and challenges.
Art: Florida's American Heritage River: Images from the St. Johns Region, by Mallory M. O'Connor and Gary Monroe. Lavish illustrations trace a history of the St. Johns River, one of two navigable north-flowing rivers in the world (the other is the Nile) as portrayed by artists from a self-taught ex-employee with a grievance to such luminaries as Winslow Homer and Martin Johnson Heade. Packed with intriguing facts you never knew, this is an elegant and engaging book that will have a permanent place on your shelves.
Medicine: Quest for a Cure: the Public Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia, 1773-1885, by Shomer S. Zwelling. This slim volume published by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation makes me awfully glad I was born in the 20th Century! Williamsburg's public hospital was a mental institution, and medicine in regard to mental health was in its infancy during the period covered in this book. Treatment of mental illness and treatment of patients (in the sense of how they were perceived and dealt with) could be, to us, horrifying.
Gardening: Florida Home Grown 2: the Edible Landscape, by Tom MacCubbin. I used to have a garden, and MacCubbin's book was one of my go-to tomes for Florida gardening, which is vastly different from gardening in the north. So many gardening books are slanted toward the states north of us. Tom MacCubbin saw a niche that needed covering, and he covered it well. The edible landscape discusses not only garden plots, but also using fruits and veggies in landscaping -- veggies as a border, fruit trees for the yard -- such a very Florida thing to do.
Food: Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, by Mary Roach. The story of our digestive tract is told with humor by science writer Roach, but you had better have a strong stomach to read it, as it gets into some of the grittiest of nitty-gritty details about digestion. Don't eat before reading!
Business: Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians, edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills. In this book is all an individual needs to set up and run a business offering professional genealogy services, from structuring the business to contracts to fees and recordkeeping. Chapters are written by the top-tier professional genealogists, most of whom carry professional certification credentials.
Education: Self-University, by Charles D. Hayes. Education is where you find it, in a dedicated institution or by your own design as an auto-didact. I've done both, and enjoyed it. Hayes dissects institutional education, the media, and other outside influences. Then he builds on how one can educate oneself through knowledge and experience. The book is skewed toward the workplace, and in that, at a certain level. But the idea of designing one's own learning program can fit anyone.
Music: The American Songbag, by Carl Sandburg. Noted American poet Carl Sandburg gathered American music from folk songs to torch songs to ethnic songs, including all eight verses of "La Cucaracha." I have the 1990 edition, which includes an introduction by Garrison Keillor, of The Prairie Home Companion fame. The book is divided into sections by type of song. Brief explanatory notes give some information about the song -- its meaning, its origin.
Language: A Pleasure in Words, by Eugene T. Maleska. Crossword-puzzle editor for the New York Times when he wrote this book, Maleska looks at the etymology of words, noting contributions to English from the Greeks and Romans, the French, the Spanish and Italians, and other ethnicities. Contributions? As James D. Nicoll has it, "English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for vocabulary."
Genealogy: Only a Few Bones: A True Account of the Rolling Fork Tragedy and its Aftermath, by John Philip Coletta. Colleta had a bit of family lore about an ancestor's death at Rolling Fork Landing in Mississippi in 1873. He embarked on years of painstaking research, meticulously documented in the book, to tell the story and propose possible solutions to the mystery. This is a textbook of genealogical research.
There you have it. If you can think of a category I haven't covered here, let me know. I just might have a book on my shelves that fits it!
