What Non-fiction are we reading in May, 2018?

doesn't look like we're reading much non-fiction, as this thread is starting on May 25!

I'm guilty myself, having just started my first non-fiction book of this month: Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder.

I have just reread Opium Fiend, by Steven Martin, the 2012 memoir of a paraphernalia collector turned addict (review). I found it even more compelling than the first time, four years ago. I considered it a niche interest then, but now I think more people should read it.

Just before that, I completed The Bletchley Girls, by Tessa Dunlop, which in my opinion is an example of an author's tackling of material she's not really up to handling.

Just got The God Species by Mark Lynas, and Carlo Rovelli's new one The Order of Time from the library. Looking forward to some challenging Bank Holiday reading.

Reading America's Hidden History, fascinating. The chapter on early FL history is particularly interesting. I haven't been this amazed and intrigued since reading The People's History of the United States.

>3 SChant: CHUNK! The sound of The God Species tossed atop my mountainous TBR pile.

>4 Sandydog1: Your link for America's Hidden History goes to a zero-member work by Kenneth C.

>4 Sandydog1: Having got into it I realise it was published in 2011 and some of the information is well out of date. I will persevere, but there are more current environment books out there.

Halfway through my ER title You All Grow Up and Leave Me, a true-crime memoir. Disturbing but good.

Right now, I'm reading two:

Women and the Making of the Modern House: a social and architectural history, by Alice T. Friedman, and
A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica: the Ladino Memoir of Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi

I recently finished City of scoundrels : the twelve days of disaster that gave birth to modern Chicago, by Gary Krist. This was read for my book club, which met this past weekend, and we were fortunate to have the author present (lucky for him we all liked the book!).

Also this month, I read Daniel J. Wakin's The Man with the Sawed-Off Leg and other tales of a New York City block.

I finished the excellent history Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty by John M. Barry. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the first origins of the concept of separation of church and state in American (and English) political/religious though, 100 years before Jefferson and the rest of the founders of the American republic.

I'm reading The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben.

>10 LynnB: Oh! I liked that one!

>4 Sandydog1: nvm, I was thinking of a different book The People's Almanac

I belatedly finished my ER reading and review of Soundscapes: a musician's journey through Life and Death by the violinist, Paul Robertson. It's the harrowing tale of a ruptured aorta through visions dreams, but with the back story of the Medici String Quartet.
I am now embarking Phyllis Tickle: a life, by Jon M. Sweeney. It's a new book, and so I need to enter it into LT, so the touchstone can work.

Alongside several works of fiction, I'm also reading John McCain's book The Restless Wave.

Into the last hour of the audiobook version of Negroland not stellar, but surprising in small ways.

I'm reading January: A Woman Judge's Season of Disillusion by Marie Corbett.

I am reading Native Ferns, Moss & Grasses by William Cullina. Just finished reading The Armchair Birder: discovering the secret lives of familiar birds and The Armchair Birder Goes Coastal: The secret lives of birds of the southeastern shore, both by John Yow.

I'm reading The Shawinigan Fox: How Jean Chretien Defied the Elites and Reshaped Canada by Bob Plamondon.

Agent of Destiny Not a book I would have choosen, I know nothing about its subject, but its for a History Book Group later this month and there discussions are always interesting. Heck a year ago I had no idea who Alexander Hamilton and now look at me... :)

Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction
by Grady Hendrix
4/5 stars
Hendrix writes about the horror genre when it really took off in the 70’s and 80’s. He reviews the different genres (and there are a lot of them) within the horror spectrum, the authors, the publishing companies, the artists that painted the book covers and of course lots of pictures of the actual, wonderfully horrible graphic covers. This is not a dry book; Hendrix uses much humor to describe the plots of these books and I found myself chuckling throughout the book. The only problem with this book is I now have added several more books to my never ending reading list.

>20 JulieLill: "the only problem with this book is I haven added sever more books to my. . . "

One would not be on LT if it wasn't for this disease we have. I say I'm not going to bring anything more home until I do something about all the boxes in the library.

I brought home a box with more about a week ago and had the bookseller order another book for me so enough for my little statement in the preceding paragraph. . . oh my.

>19 cindydavid4: Wow, I cannot put this book down! For one thing I have been living in Hamilton's world for several months, literary wise. This book is basically a sequel - what happens after 1804, with many of the same characters, and with subject who is has a bit of Hamilton and Burr under all that swagger. But most importantly it is extremely well written. Im not big on reading about battles, I usually turn the pages to see what finally happens and read on. But his writing is so good I want to know, plus the author includes several very helpful maps that makes the events easy to follow. Recommend this to anyone interested in the history of the time period