All right, yes, date and shop and hang out and go to school and save the world from unspeakable demons. You know, I wanna do girlie stuff!

Buffy ,'Same Time, Same Place'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


hippocampus - Mar 08, 2014 5:55:05 pm PST #22135 of 28348
not your mom's socks.

Kat - any science writers, like Richard Preston (FIrst Light, Into the Trees (I think, not in front of me) or David Quammen (There are a few, Song of the Dodo is too huge) - or am I misunderstanding the NonFiction slant?

Henrietta Lacks is amazing.


Kat - Mar 09, 2014 10:38:28 am PDT #22136 of 28348
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo

I love David Quammen, but were looking for full length as opposed to essay anthologies. In terms of natural writing we have Pilgrim at Tinker Creek which is excellent, but no one has ever taught it, which is a problem.

In terms of science, I think that Atul Gawande is incredible, but again, we have the essay issue. We do a ton of essay/article/long form work already, and we're looking for full-length NF because there are some unique skills to apply to that.

Part of the issue is that I'm buying for a whole department and need to get people on board with whatever I choose.


Connie Neil - Mar 09, 2014 11:00:20 am PDT #22137 of 28348
brillig

Guns, Germs, and Steel?


flea - Mar 09, 2014 11:10:55 am PDT #22138 of 28348
information libertarian

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a tough book for high school. I sat in on a college class that read it a couple of years ago, and it was tough for them.


flea - Mar 09, 2014 11:12:58 am PDT #22139 of 28348
information libertarian

Have you looked at The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?


Pix - Mar 09, 2014 11:23:26 am PDT #22140 of 28348
The status is NOT quo.

It isn’t nonfiction, but I think most students would be totally engrossed by Eggers’ The Circle. I have mixed feelings about the book as a whole (one-dimensional characters), but it’s a good read and really raises great questions about social media etc. Also links nicely to the current passion for dystopian fiction.


Ginger - Mar 09, 2014 1:14:12 pm PDT #22141 of 28348
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

Amy, for students, Devil in the White City is entirely boggy in the parts about the building. They love the serial killer stuff but the rest is boring for them (and me).

I am the opposite. I thought the story of the fair was competently done, but the serial killer stuff was pedestrian and relied more on "Oh, the horror" than actual research. Also, the two stories needed to be integrated more. There's a lot he could have said about the economic conditions of 1893 (severe depression) and the forces that made the victims vulnerable.

Do not get me started on the Eurocentric nonsense that is Guns, Germs and Steel.

The Poisoner's Handbook is a brisk read that not only has lurid crimes but also tells a good story about the rise of modern CSI and the impact a few individuals had on it.

I was charmed by The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, And Other Ecological Anachronisms. I'm frequently irritated by having too much of the writer in modern science books, but Barlow does a great job of mixing science and her own amateur naturalist experiments. She feeds local animals fruits she suspects evolved for megafauna and sees whether they disperse the seeds. She takes things like avocados and osage oranges to museums to see if fossilized jaws could chomp on them.

I think David McCullough is one the best of contemporary historians. I confess a fondness for his early stuff. I'd think The Johnstown Flood would certainly keep students' attention, and it has many elements that apply today: the rise of disaster journalism, the arrogance of the rich, misplaced faith in experts and so on.

My personal campaign is to get everyone to read The Education of Henry Adams, Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery and Han Zinsser's Rats, Lice and History. My success to date has been limited.


Amy - Mar 09, 2014 1:27:58 pm PDT #22142 of 28348
Because books.

I've been wanting to read The Worst Hard Time, too, about the Dust Bowl. I bought it for Kindle ages ago on sale and just haven't started it yet.

Rats, Lice, and History sounds sort of cool, actually. I know there was another really popular book about rats a few years back, although I can't remember the title. And I really want to read Stiff.


Consuela - Mar 09, 2014 1:31:41 pm PDT #22143 of 28348
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

Kat, have you tried Amy John McPhee?


Kat - Mar 09, 2014 1:32:10 pm PDT #22144 of 28348
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo

I loved the parts of The Worst Hard Time but not all of it. Definitely incredible and useful especially if you are teaching Grapes of Wrath.

I have the Poisoner's Handbook in my TBR. But I'm partway through 2 other books I need to finish first.