Nonfiction November Week 4: Diverse perspectives

 We've passed the halfway mark in this challenge month.  Week 4 asks us which book we read this past year from a diverse author, or one that changed our perspectives.  The host this week is Rebekah at She Seeks Nonfiction. 

 I've done both. 

Diverse authors:  I picked George Takei, Japanese-American (nisei), reading his graphic novel They Called Us Enemy, about his family's experience being interned by the government during World War II.  I think he picked the graphic novel format to appeal to readers younger than I am, though the format has an immediacy that mere words cannot achieve, even for an old fogey like me.  We see the degradation these thousands upon thousands of loyal American citizens suffered, the indignity of being considered "enemy aliens."  Ever since I first learned about the internment, when I was in high school, it has been something I consider to have been offensive.  Do I not get the concept of "national security?"  Yes, I do, having served in the military and having taken a seminar in national defense taught by a retired Navy admiral with wide experience in the concept.  The mass labeling of people who don't deserve the label is offensive to me.  If there are a few security risks, concentrate on them.  Don't throw innocent and loyal folk into concentration camps.  War hysteria is a thing.  It is not a good thing.

For a book that changed my perspective, it is Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, by Sheri Fink.  Fink, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter, demonstrates the horrible lack of preparedness for Hurricane Katrina.  The subject hospital, in New Orleans during and after that storm, was cut off by flood waters.  Services -- electricity, supply, rescue -- were unavailable for a period during and after the storm.  Medications and other supplies were running out.  Patients who needed machines -- respirators, monitors, IV pumps -- had to depend on the failing generator capacity of the hospital.  Finally, the staff were presented with the extreme of triage, having literally to decide which patients could be saved and which could not.  Having been a registered nurse, I had to conclude that I don't know how I'd have reacted in such a situation.  But I think the staff made the only choice they could make, under those incredibly horrid circumstances.  Where lies the blame, if any is to be assessed?  I think it belongs to those who made paper promises of rescue and restoration, and failed miserably to keep them.  

Nonfiction November Week 3: Pairings

This week's hostess for Nonfiction November is Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running,and Working From Home.  The prompt:

This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or maybe it’s just two books you feel have a link, whatever they might be. You can be as creative as you like! 

I'm pairing books about art: a nonfiction book, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. by John Walker (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., n.d.) and a fiction work, Water Studies, by Virginia Mann (Bretton Bay Books, 2017).  

First, a disclaimer:  Virginia Mann was my first cousin.  She and I had several years ago renewed contact via Facebook.  She died a few years ago, much to my sadness and regret.  She had a great career as an art historian and museum curator.  She had one last bucket list item just a few years before she passed: she wanted to write a novel.  And so she did.

The plot of Water Studies revolves around two mysterious artist's sketchbooks of a few hundred years' vintage, discovered in two very different places by two different women.  The investigation into the sketchbooks' origin and provenance reveals also the story of a family torn apart and then reunited.  Sprinkled among plot points are references from our own family's life.  One is a reference to one female family member's boyfriend half a century past, a young naval aviator in training at the Pensacola Naval Air Station.  This is a wonderful reference to my father, a fine tribute and heart-warming to me, as he died when I had just turned seven years old.  Another reference to one of the protagonists offering to teach the other hula, which she learned in Hawaii, is a nod to Virginia's mother, my aunt Sally, who learned the hula when Uncle Dick was stationed in Hawaii during World War II, and who taught hula when they returned to the mainland.

The author's knowledge of art shows through the story.  If you are familiar enough with the lore surrounding one particular artist, you may guess the identity of the creator of the mysterious sketchbooks.  If you do, it doesn't diminish the story, in my estimation.   

The nonfiction book I have chosen as a companion to this fiction work is a brief history of the National Gallery of Art.  Significant collections donated to the Gallery are described.  The book even includes maps of the floors of the building, marked with the themes of the works found therein.  The rest of the volume is composed of plates of important paintings in the Gallery's collections, with a description and history of each work.  Following that are several pages of small monochrome images of each painting described in the main body of the book.  Finally, there is a list of the illustrations.  

The author, John Walker, was the Director of the National Gallery from 1956 to 1968.

 

 

Nonfiction November: Week 2. A genre in which I haven't read?

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!