A book group for non-fiction...

[neotoma]

I was talking to ellen_fremedon at Small Press Expo (more on that later) and in the course of our meandering discussion, I came to the realization that I really want to talk about non-fiction books with other fans in an organized setting. I want to found a book group!

Mostly, I'm thinking about history, anthropology, and science books for the interested layperson and maybe the more accessible academic texts. Given that it takes a while to read these kind of non-fiction books, I think that such a group would only meet every other month.

ellen_fremedon and I brainstormed a list of books that we think might be interesting to read and discuss:

• The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony


• The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman


• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C Mann


• Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer


• Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History edited by Anne Walthall


• Viking Age Iceland by Jesse Byock
  

Personally, I'd like to get read more by female researchers and more on non-Western cultures.

I'd be willing to organize such a group, and host it part of the time -- so who in the Washington Metro area think this sounds interesting? Or you can just give me suggestions for books to read.

ETA: Jesse Byock's Viking Age Iceland, which is fascinating

Comments

[fyrdrakken]

Four titles that sound interesting, and one book (Albion's Seed) that's been sitting on my shelf for a few years now waiting to be read. Yeah, that sounds interesting -- pity I'm not in the area.

[neotoma]

Obviously, you need to move. ;)

1491 is probably most accessible of those titles to the layperson, and might be in your local public library. There's a sequel that isn't out in paperback yet... if the book group gets off the ground, we'd probably read them in a set.

[fyrdrakken]

Dad's actually got a copy of 1491, IIRC. Though I've already got several borrowed books of his I'm not likely to be reading and returning any time soon -- I've gotten absolutely addicted to the library-in-my-pocket aspect of using my Blackberry's Kindle app, and just don't want to mess with physical books anymore unless I pretty much have to. (I added a number of those titles to my Amazon wishlist, and might even get around to actually reading a few of them at some point.)

[settiai]

Ooh, I'd totally be interested.

(Sorry I didn't get to meet up with you on Saturday! I just completely failed at meeting up with anyone at SPX.)

[neotoma]

Well, to be fair, neither ellen or I remembered to get your phone number.

I was think of weekend meetings -- Friday, Saturday, or Sunday -- with Saturday evening being the most likely. How would that work with your schedule?

[settiai]

Yeah, I forgot to get anyone's phone number either. :-P

Believe it or not, I'm actually off a lot of Saturday evenings now that I'm working private events. (Friday and Sunday... not so much, unfortunately.) It's not always true, especially since we're getting into the busy season, but the managers are usually pretty good at giving me shifts off if I only ask for one every now and then.

[sanj]

Oh, dude, I want to get in in this even from a distance. Seriously, Skype my butt in. I love non-fiction.

Off the top of my head, I propose Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, and note that 1493 is now out.

Most of the other good nonfiction I've read lately is either older stuff (from gleaning my local library) or a little too counseling-specific. Although possibly I could raise some interest in Born For Love, a really good overview of empathy and its role in human development.

[neotoma]

Hmmm... I'd have to set up a Skype account, but I'll see if that's at all feasible. I'd definitely create a DW comm to coordinate and maybe post summaries of our discussions, just so the online people can get in on the fun.

Ellen mentioned 1493 -- we're going to wait on that until it's out in trade paperback, because it's likely that many of these books will only be of limited availability from public libraries, and I'd like to keep the cost to participants as low as possible.

Thanks for the recs for the other books. They sound interesting, and they're not something I would have found on my own.

[fyrdrakken]

Oddly enough, I've been having thoughts lately regarding needing to set up a Skype account at some point just so I'll know how it works and how to work it, and then have it available as a communication method in future. The thing that's been stopping me has been the lack of a purpose for connection to someone else on Skype.

[zana16]

I'd be up for this! I just finished Guns Germs & Steel and wanted someone to talk about it with! Collapse, by the same author, has gone on my "to read sometime in the next year" list.

1491 is on my "to read in the quite near future" list; it sounds fascinating.

The Future-Eaters is another thought-provoking nonfiction book I've been wanting to read for awhile, as is Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World.

[zana16]

Honestly not sure if I'd be able to reread The Guns of August, though. Very good book, very well-written. So awful to see how vividly she depicts the horror and stupidity of war.

[ellen_fremedon]

Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World.

That's another one we thought of! I read it recently, and it's just fascinating.

[ambyr]

You do not know me, but I'd also be up for this.

[neotoma]

You'll be welcome to participate. I'll probably put up an organizing post tomorrow or Friday.

Recs

[dorothy1901]

You've got one of my all-time favorite non-fiction writers: Barbara Tuchman. You might be interested in the works of two others: Elaine Pagels and the late Stephen Jay Gould. Pagels wrote several books about the Gnostic Gospels. Stephen Jay Gould wrote mostly about natural history. Both writers combine a first-rate scholar's understanding of the subject with a gift for writing readable prose.

ETA: I also (tentatively) recommend Why We Eat What We Eat: How Columbus Changed the Way the World Eats by Raymond Sokolov. I haven't read the book, but I've read many of Sokolov's columns for Natural History Magazine, and they were excellent.

Re: Recs

[neotoma]

I don't know if Gould would be a good idea, is simply because I'd pick apart everything he didn't mention or that I didn't agree with his interpretation of.

Elaine Pagel might be interesting, as well as Karen Armstrong, if we want to get into theology as sociology.

I've never heard of Sokolov, but I'll look him up.