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rachelmanija) wrote2017-06-02 01:39 pm
FMK # 3: Misc Nonfiction
The Black Arts, by Richard Cavendish. A history of black magic from 1968. Normally I would think this is total bullshit but it does have footnotes and a bibliography.
Chasing the Scream, by Johann Hari. A history of the US War on Drugs, starting from the death of Billie Holiday. Sounds like it might have a lot of info I didn't already know. By an award-winning British journalist, so probably good; probably also incredibly depressing.
Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey. Classic book from 1968 on being a park ranger in Utah; nature writing + politics, I assume. I'll be curious if it's aged well.
Do No Harm, by Henry Marsh. Memoir of a brain surgeon. I really liked some articles I read by him. Unlike the stereotype of surgeons, he seemed humble and compassionate.
A Higher Call, by Adam Makos. Nonfiction about an encounter between two fighter pilots, an American and a German, during WWII. I'm assuming it went a lot farther than one encounter, and no, I don't mean THAT sort of encounter.
A Voyage Long and Strange, by Tony Horwitz. The history of America interspersed with Horowitz's road trip to try re-enactments, go down the Mississippi on a canoe, etc. I've enjoyed some of Horowitz's books and found others forgettable.
Soldiers of the Night, by David Schoenbrun. A history of the French Resistance. Back cover mentions "the bilingual, bisexual American who executed Nazis and collaborators with an ice pick or his bare hands" and "dear little old ladies who became master thieves."
no subject
Both of the WWII books sound really interesting to me, but I'm interested in that general period of history as well (early 1900s through the Roaring 20s/Depression/WWII) so it's relevant to my interests. Especially the fighter pilot one. One of the things I find fascinating about WWII Allied and Axis pilots is that they appear to have gotten along really well even while the war was going on; I'm sure there were True Believers on both sides, but for the most part, they were guys who liked planes, who were happy to bond with other guys who liked planes as long as they were in a context where they weren't actually trying to kill each other. Some of them looked each other up after the war and formed friendships that lasted for the rest of their lives.
no subject
On a slightly relevant tangent, my entire life I'd been told that my Grandpa Artie (Dad's Dad, the one I loved) had been drafted into WWII, where he worked on early computers. I had always thought that was odd, since he was Jewish; he was hugely anti-authority, but I felt that was taking it a bit too far.
A couple years ago, long after his death, Dad told me that he had, in fact, volunteered. He wanted to be a fighter pilot, and got all the way through very difficult training. When he was supposed to ship out, his CO came up with his file. It was stamped COMMUNIST. In red! His CO asked him if it was true, and Grandpa Artie said it was. Reluctantly, his CO said Communists were banned from being pilots, but he could do something else instead. Grandpa Artie was so pissed off that he instead stomped home and sat there until he was drafted!
This story only makes me love him even more, but I still wonder why in all the times I grilled him about his war experiences, he never told me about it. I also wonder if him being a Communist is the reason I exist. Pilots had a pretty high mortality rate.
no subject
This is the most amazing war story I have ever heard. :D