Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth Century America
Ann Braude
Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth Century Venice
Margaret Rosenthal
I enjoyed 1491 by Charles C. Mann. It’s about the Western Hemisphere before Columbus arrived.
The next two nonfiction books I am going to read is the new one called Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond and a Johnny Cash bio from a few years ago by Robert Hilburn.
I really liked “Coming Into the County” and “Control of Nature” by John McPhee.
@deb922 no I hadn’t seen that one, thanks! I only knew about the “best book I’ve read…” one.
Thank you all so much. My list is growing rapidly… I’m very excited to read many of these. The descriptions on Amazon sound fascinating! I knew I could count on my CC buddies 
How do you feel about biographies? I like that approach to history, especially women’s stories.
Hermione Lee has written about Willa Cather, Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Penelope Fitzgerald. They are serious books, but written for a general audience.
I like her books, although I prefer Wharton’s own memoir, A Backward Glance, and think it well worth reading.
@romanigypsyeyes, I hope you come back and tell us what you think of the books you choose. And I especially hope you feel better soon!
@alh I really like biographies. I especially like kind of blended biographies which are focused on one person but take a slightly broader look at the context in which people lived. I’m thinking of something like A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
@rosered55 of course! I’ve requested a few of these through the library already :).
I’ll add my own now in case anyone is interested. I’m currently reading Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society by Arwen P. Mohun. I thought it would be dry but it’s absolutely fascinating and the author is quite humorous. It just looks at different risks at different times in American history (fire, lightening, railroads, horses, cars, and so on) and how the average person thinks about it and what was done to try (or not) to contain the risk.
I just finished The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Sugrue, It’s a slightly older book but it is considered one of the foundational books in Urban History. It was absolutely fascinating especially to a native Detroiter because it turned many of our urban myths about what caused the collapse of Detroit on their head.
And then of course I have the book that I’m published in which I think is awesome… but I’m biased :">
The Wild Swans - 3 generations of women in China. Published in 1991. Fascinating
“And then of course I have the book that I’m published in which I think is awesome… but I’m biased”
Do tell! We are definitely interested!
I will PM anyone who is interested. I have no problem sharing but would prefer it not come up in a Google search :).
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Being Mortal
Older…Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
I would second the recommendation for Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns.
Couple of others:
Long Way Home by Saroo Brierly
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
And probably little known, but what I think of as a healthy antidote to Eat, Pray, Love–
Bootstrapper: from Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm by Mardi Jo Link
I just finished Ben Mezrich’s STRAIGHT FLUSH. Mezrich is the same guy who wrote ACCIDENTAL TOURIST which was about Facebook/Mark Zuckerbeg, The book has 147 reviews on Amazon and a 2.7 rating, which is low, mostly because people are ripping him because he gave the protagonists of the story a very kind and favorable treatment. They stole millions of dollars from their customers, the book is about online poker, and only one of them went to jail.
I am about to post on Amazon about the book.
Mezrich is a spectacular author. He can create drama like no ones business. This book is absolutely positively a page turner but I am 100% agree with the people who now hate Mezrich for glossing over the facts of how these idiots made their money and fame. That is a shame because he could have made the book so much better.
It is almost as if he rushed it on his way to the beach and one comment I read online, on a poker site not Amazon, is also right on the mark … Mezrich wanted to sell another story to Hollywood so he purposely made the guys in this story seem like heroes. BS. They are not heroes. The book fails only because Mezrich went out of his way to massage the story.
Here’s a book with Michigan ties http://www.amazon.com/Annies-Ghosts-Journey-Family-Secret-ebook/dp/B002EBDPHI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
I thought it was interesting
@deb922 that is actually the hospital I have a grant to do research on this summer. I have been in contact with the author and he’s been wonderful.
I grew up right next to Eloise and my sister and I used to explore the old buildings. It’s a story and history that I’m very personally attached to and will probably be the basis of my dissertation
@GoNoles85 was that book turned into a movie recently? It sounds familiar.
Several I’ve read recently that I really enjoyed: Dreamland (mentioned previously), Far From the Tree, The Boys in the Boat, Dead Wake, Grandma Gatewood’s Walk, Deep Down Dark, Truth and Beauty. And a couple of my longtime favorites are Seabiscuit and Unbroken, both by Laura Hillenbrand, who has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and has publicly shared a great deal about living and writing while dealing with a chronic disease. I’m so sorry you are having such difficulties with your health, and I hope you feel better soon. Happy reading!