Tag Archives: non-fiction

Review: The Glass Castle

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The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls
5 stars

I loved this book! Jeannette Walls is a wonderful storyteller.  The book follows Jeannette over the course of her life, mainly focusing on her childhood growing up with dysfunctional parents.  Jeannette and her three siblings lived like nomads in their early childhood then later settled in a small West Virginia mining town.  As she grew older, Jeannette’s parents gradually worsened and the siblings had to stick together in order to come up with resources to leave home.  Although this is a memoir, it is a quick read and has the feel of a fiction novel. I despised the parents during most of this novel, but I greatly admired Jeannette for how she loved her parents and kept an optimistic view. I love how she persevered, as did the other siblings, and made something of themselves. They did a wonderful job with the movie, sticking to the story, and picked actors just as I pictured them while reading the story. I will definitely check out Jeannette’s other books.

 

Read-alikes

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel

As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto

Review: American Wolf

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American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
by Nate Blakeslee
4 stars

Nate Blakeslee has written an engaging and knowledgeable book about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s and the controversy that started then and continues today. He gives you a 360 degree view with chapters dedicated to the wolf watchers, scientists, ranchers, hunters, and politicians…all of whom have varying opinions on wolves. He also gives background information on wolves in North America including how tightly knit their familial relationships are…almost human-like. A primary focus of his book is O-Six, a wolf matriarch of the Lamar Valley pack in Wyoming, who was born in 2006, hence her name. She is much revered by wolf watchers in the book and even became the star of a documentary. I was enthralled with her savviness and her gripping battles to survive and protect her family. I listened to the audiobook version, and Mark Bramhall does a commendable job as the narrator. This is a well-rounded account of when human forces and nature collide.


Read-alikes

Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation edited by L. David Mech and Luigi Boitani

Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservation in the 21st Century by Dave Foreman

Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenberg

Review: Lab Girl

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Lab Girl
by Hope Jahren
5 stars

Lab Girl is a memoir that follows the life and career of Hope Jahren. At the time of her writing, Jahren was working in Hawaii as a geochemist/paleobiologist (she currently works at the University of Oslo). Lab Girl details her childhood, studies, and personal life in honest (and sometimes painful) detail. She is eloquent in ways we don’t often associate with scientists.

Intermixed with her autobiography are beautiful descriptions of plant life. Jahren weaves metaphors an tells stories that will change the way you look at the world around you – and isn’t that the best quality a book can have?

If you listen to audiobooks (we have a copy available online, through Overdrive) Jahren reads the book. She pauses and cries at points, creating an atmosphere of near-reverence for the listener. At several points, Jahren discusses her manic-depression, a cycle that often benefitted her work-centric lifestyle while sacrificing her health. Hearing her read these passages, imbued with such raw and honest reflection, seemed almost like an honor.

If you’re science-minded in the slightest and appreciate a good memoir, this book will knock your socks off.

 

Read-alikes

Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World’s Most Famous Human Fossils by Lydia Pyne

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

Review: The Little Ice Age

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The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850
by Brian Fagan
4 stars

Reading or watching the news over the past decade or two, you cannot escape talk of climate change. Brian Fagan’s short book The Little Ice Age, despite being about a cool period starting from the late middle ages to the 19th century, fits right in with modern times with the book’s emphasis on how climate has affected the human civilization in the past and, ultimately, continues to do so today. His book focuses on European history, but North America, Asia, and Africa get a few mentions as well. I read this book for the History Roundtable’s Natural Disasters-themed October meeting. And there are a lot of natural disasters mentioned! The most explosive is Mt. Tambora in Indonesia which is considered the deadliest volcanic explosion in human history. Its effects included the “year without summer” in 1816 in the eastern United States and in Europe when crops failed and famine and disease weren’t far behind in some countries. Fagan writes clearly and concisely making what could be an esoteric topic understandable by the layman.

Read-alikes

Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans by Brian Fagan

The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History by Brian Fagan

The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History by William K. Klingaman

 

Review: Behind the Beautiful Forevers

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Behind the Beautiful Forevers
by Katherine Boo
4 stars

Katherine Boo is a very brave woman. Her passion for reporting on poverty led her to live in Annawadi, a slum in the shadow of the Mumbai airport in India. Over the course of nearly 2 ½ years, she followed the residents of Annawadi and recorded their amazing and terrifying lives. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is her narrative non-fiction account taken from hours of recorded interviews. I listened to this book as a downloadable audiobook. It is told from the perspective of several key residents of Annawadi, and the narrator does an excellent job differentiating each of their voices. I had to continually remind myself that the people in this book were real…that the terrifying situations and their struggles for success actually happened while I was living easy in the suburbs. The lives of the Annawadi residents are astonishing and heartbreaking with a dash of pluckiness thrown in. I wish Boo would do a follow-up so we can find out how Abdul, Asha, Manju, and the others are faring in 2017. A fabulous and eye opening read!

Read-alikes

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance

$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn J. Edin & H. Luke Shaefer