[Crackerdog]

I just finished a great non-fiction book about mental institutions, Willard State Hospital in New York specifically. It was really engaging and sad, there were some typos but nothing to horrible. It's called:
"The Lives They Left Behind-Suitcases From A State Hospital"
written by Darby Penney and Peter Statsny
photographs by Lisa Rinzler

An attic full of suitcases was found in one of the old buildings slated for demo, they were full of personal belongings of former patients. They chose ten of the suitcases and found out as much as they could about those people and wrote the book around them. It's pretty short at 189 pages but still a very good read.

[BuddyRoo]

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a really good read.

I like Guns, Germs and Steel too, but it's a BIG book and very dry I suppose. I liked it, but then I like that sort of thing.

[DawnKebals]

I have The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks waiting to be read on my bookshelf! Maybe over the holidays I'll have a chance to start it.

[LauraKY]

Currently reading Drift by Rachel Maddow.

[mvp]

I just finished a great non-fiction book about mental institutions, Willard State Hospital in New York specifically. It was really engaging and sad, there were some typos but nothing to horrible. It's called:
"The Lives They Left Behind-Suitcases From A State Hospital"
written by Darby Penney and Peter Statsny
photographs by Lisa Rinzler

An attic full of suitcases was found in one of the old buildings slated for demo, they were full of personal belongings of former patients. They chose ten of the suitcases and found out as much as they could about those people and wrote the book around them. It's pretty short at 189 pages but still a very good read.

I used to live in Ithaca, NY and have driven by Willard. It's a classic-looking state institution. And as luck would have it, I now live near Salem, OR-- home to the facility where One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was filmed.

[mvp]

I dug the biography of Henry Clay Frick a while back:

Check it out: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/listin..._mmca2=pla&r=1

It's lush with detail, besides his art collection. And those Gilded Age dudes lived lushly weird lives in the first place.

[boosma47]

I dug the biography of Henry Clay Frick a while back:

Check it out: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/listin..._mmca2=pla&r=1

It's lush with detail, besides his art collection. And those Gilded Age dudes lived lushly weird lives in the first place.

mvp, my grandfather, John C Johansen, painted the official Frick portrait which now hangs in the Frick museum.

[hoopoe]

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

Have waiting
Shadows of the Workhouse
Farewell to the East End
In the Midst of Life

by Ms Worth

It was from these books the wonderful BBC / PBS series Call the Midwife was taken.

Not great literature but wonderful true stories of a not so distant past in Londons East End.

[boosma47]

The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn. Intriguing story and premise, if you like prophecy/biblical mysteries. Makes one think, though...especially if one doesn't believe in coincident.

[Dazednconfused]

About halfway through "How to Be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran. It is fabulous! Very funny and forthright.

[Huntersmom]

I am re-reading Taking Up the Reins by Priscilla Endicott. It is very inspirational for my riding goals.

[meupatdoes]

I'm reading, 'This Book Will Make You Smarter."

It asks leading thinkers of our day in all sorts of fields to answer the question, "What scientific concept will improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit?"

Topics offered by contributors include cognitive humility, holism, pessimism meta induction, etc etc. Essentially it is mainly about meta cognition.

Super interesting and actually very accessible to read, hifalutin chapter titles aside.

[suzier444]

I just finished Robert Massie's biography of Catherine the Great. FABULOUS.

[CVPeg]

Finnnnnally finished The Greater Journey - on unabridged audio tape. BIG mistake. So much of the book covers art and artists in the 19th C, and no illustrations w/ the audio. Realized later when looking at the book in a bookstore, it included illustrations and would have been more suitable to read the book. 17 hours long - listened in the car, stopped and started it dozens of times. Very dry to hear on CD. Lots of history of Paris as well, and well, although I wouldn't care for the illustrations - plenty of bloody battles as well...

Now reading Mrs Lincoln. Picked it up when visiting the Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington last year, and trying to cram it in before going to see the movie Lincoln. Really enjoying it.

[quietann]

I have The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks waiting to be read on my bookshelf! Maybe over the holidays I'll have a chance to start it.

Agree, that's a great one!

I also just read _Call the Midwife_, which is a re-issue of Jennifer Worth's memoir about being a young, home-delivery midwife in London's East End in the 1950s. Think of all the crazy stuff you cannot make up about pregnancy, and triple it... including a woman who has given birth to 25 babies!

(I don't have kids and have never been pregnant and never will be, but I work for a group of high-risk OBs... the other end of the spectrum from what's described here.)

There's a PBS series based on it, too. The author died in 2011.

One caveat: As an agnostic Jew, I could have done without the (not very well done) preachy insertion of her religious awakening into the book.

[ddashaq]

I recently finished Go Down Together which was about Bonnie and Clyde. Really good read. Currently working on J.Edgar Hoover- The Man and the Secrets. It is not quite as good (so far) as the Bonnie and Clyde book, but I am only about 70 pages in.

[Crackerdog]

I recently read "Floating Worlds" the letters between Edward Gorey and Peter Neumeyer. It was really interesting, Edward Gorey was an odd duck.

[Lin]

Interestingly creepy - based on his books and drawings

[MissIntent]

I'm currently reading Fast Food Nation.

If you're interested in activities in the Middle East, I really recommend Dreams and Shadows by Robyn Wright.

[big_red_ottb]

I've enjoyed all of Michael Shermer's books, particularly Why We Believe and the following books.

Quantum Gods by Victor Stenger is very good, but can be a bit hard to wrap your mind around.