Entertainment For Lively Minds
Christmas Reading
Posted by TIAL on 23 November 2009 - 8:16pm.
Can you good people recommend what decent reading is to be had over the Christmas period?
I am interested in mainly factual books, and due to the high praise from this website I already have Leviathan and London - An Autobiography on my Christmas list.
Are there any other fascinating/entertaining reads that are worth knowing about?
Thankyou!
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I give you
Critical Practice In Social Work, or
Eoropean Welfare States, or
Controversial Issues in a Disabling Society
All riveting :-)
at the risk of banging on
Any Human Heart by William Boyd (a manufactured autobiog)
Seconded
I read this on a recommendation from this site and it raised the bar for my reading this year. A wonderful book which I shall no doubt read again.
War-related
Churchill's Wizards, by Nicholas Rankin - it's about the development of deception / camouflage / intelligence from 1914-1945. I thought it was fascinating, and threw an interesting light on history.
Pegasus Bridge, by Stephen E Ambrose - one company's effort in the vanguard of D-day. It tells the story in excellent detail, how they were developed into elite soldiers, how their competitive edge was honed, and how they led the assault to take and hold 2 vital bridges.
Crazy Horse & Custer, also by Stephen E Ambrose - excellent telling of a strong story. Lots of interesting threads to follow up, too. The US Government reneged on treaties and promises throughout the exploitation of the West, eventually leaving all the tribes in poverty on reservations. Good background on the changing circumstances of America in the 1800s, and on the naked ambition which Custer lived his life by : his regular toast was "Promotion! Or Death!" .
Custer's wife, Libbie, was a strong-minded lady. Her father disapproved of Custer. She wrote to him with words which should be on the mantelpiece of every father of daughters : "Father, you cannot understand, as you were never a girl".
Nixon Kissinger - Robert Dallek
If you're interested in modern American history or indeed in Nixon Kissinger themselves this is a superb book. Heavy going of course and very complex but rewarding if you stick with it.
Simon Sebag Montefiore - Stalin At the Court of the Red Tsar - simply brilliant!
Dawkins' "The God Delusion" or even better "God is not Great", Christopher Hitchens. Dissection of all things God and religion with a scalpel.
"Crisis What Crisis? Britain in the 1970s" by Alwyn Turner - an examination of politics and popular culture in that decade.
'Crisis What Crisis? Britain in the 1970s' looks interesting...
I've just read 'Strange Days Indeed' by Francis Wheen which seems to cover similar territory and that was excellent.
On a similar theme
Seventies: The Sights, Sounds and Ideas of a Brilliant Decade by Howard Sounes. Debunks the lazy stereotype that the 70s was grey, dull and lifeless.
Also the Andrew Marr one - Britain since 1945 is an excellent read.
If you want to read an excellent autobiography...
then I heartily recommend My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times by the former editor of The Sunday Times and The Times Harold Evans. His writing is wonderfully evocative and he has shone a revealing light on a life in newspapers that doubles as excellent social history. I haven't enjoyed a book so much for ages.
The Age of Wonder
by Richard Holmes - a first rate thrilling read about the explosion in scientific knowledge around the cusp of the 18th/19th century (ish). Genuinely exciting with lots of revelatory material.
Decent review here..
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-age-of...
John Lennon
I'm working my way through John Lennon - The Life by Philip Norman.
Trust me it will last you well into the New Year.
Great read so far.
Thanks for all reccomendations so far!
I shall have to look in to these tomorrow.
On a podcast theme, has anyone read The Junior Officer's Reading Club? I'm tempted to give it a go after hearing the interview with the author.
Also I've just remembered the slang dictionary, I think that'll be a fun one :D
I haven't read it
but I heard bits of it serialised on Radio4 earlier this year. It seemed to me to be unable to decide whether it was a "gung-ho, we're all army chaps together" memoir or a more reflective view of the role the army plays in modern society and how that affects the soldiers. But when it's in the latter mode it was quite moving, so I would suggest giving it a go. (Were the concept not so quaint and twentieth century, I'd suggest that it's the sort of book to borrow from a library rather than buy)
When I saw the title for this thread
my first thought was "how's that going to work, those poor buggers will freeze in tents this time of year".
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
by K Summerscale, In the 1850´s a young child is killed in the family home and sets in motion an extraordinary investigation which will influence crime fiction and society. Part thriller, part social history. Really well-researched and well-told
Usable science
I can't get enough of Gary Klein - great work that's easy to read, very deep and well researched.
"Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions" made me change much of what I do at work, and I've got his new one lined up for over Christmas.
Some that may have gone past your radar
Most of these aren't new but they're certainly worth checking out...
How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the World by Francis Wheen - Great analysis of the last 15 years and how we have allowed it to happen.
The Dark stuff by Nick kent
I'm sticking my neck out by saying this, but surely one of the greatest ever anthologies of rock journalism that trees were rightly pulped for. The Brian Wilson and Rolling Stones sections are astonishing.
I agree with david Sutherland (above) - indispensable: as is Ian McDonalds masterpiece of HJH scholarship, Revolution in the Head
Finally, if you can track down a copy, Visiting Mrs. nabokov, by Martin Amis - a collection of collected journalism from, I think, the early 90s. One of the reasons for his reputation.