Laurie’s Picks of Non-fiction

Many readers only like factual books and that’s good because approximately 70% of all books published are non-fiction.  I love a great history book or a biography.  When I’m not reading I love to cook and have an extensive collection of cookbooks and really enjoy the genre of food writing.  Humorous writers like David Sedaris or Bill Richardson are a great antidote to the more stressful times in life.  While most of us will never climb Mt. Everest or visit Antarctica, the breadth of travel writing makes it possible for the reader to travel anywhere.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Wayson Choy is one of my favourite authors.  Not Yet, his recently released memoir, is a stirring work which begins with his near death in 2001 when an asthma-heart attack has him hospitalized for months only to recover and have another heart attack four years later that required quadruple bypass surgery. Beautifully written -- as are all his novels, including The Jade Peony, Paper Shadows and All That Matters -- Wayson Choy gives us in Not Yet an honest and intimate look at life and death.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, by Kate Summerscale, is a true crime story that

reads like a great Victorian mystery. Set in 1860 in rural England, the case focuses on

the grisly murder of a three year-old boy.  With no apparent clues to be found, the

newly-formed Scotland Yard sends in Jonathan Whicher, one of its top new detectives;

his findings cause an uproar as well as the birth of the detective novel genre.

The Secret Lives of Saints, by BC journalist Daphne Bramham, is subtitled “Child Brides & Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect” and examines the community of Bountiful, British Columbia.  This fundamentalist sect believes that their leader speaks directly to God; his rules include each man having at least three wives and women are only accepted into heaven if invited by their husband.  Their duty is to “keep sweet”, have many children and obey their husbands. The most appalling aspect of this book is its laying bare the ineffectiveness of both the BC and federal governments to address the issue.  This book was a real eye-opener in so many ways.

Ascent of Money, by Niall Ferguson, is a timely book to say the least, The Ascent of

Money looks at the history of money from the moneylenders of Mesopotamia to the

current economic situation.  Using historical evidence in a lively writing manner,

Ferguson delves into several economic theories and their outcomes to support his

theory that economic freedom is far different than economic stability.

Alain de Botton first made the bestseller lists with his book How Proust Can Change Your Life, a tongue in cheek self-help book that uses Marcel's angst to teach us many useful things. de Botton, Swiss-born, Cambridge educated author has also tackled architecture, philosophy, love and travel. In his new book The Pleasures & Sorrows of Work, he surveys the world of warehouses, accounting, cookie-makers, and entrepreneurs to pose his philosophical questions -- why do we work and why do we choose the jobs we do? Can we be fulfilled personally and still love our jobs and what will we define as success? Witty and very clever, de Botton is a joy to read!

In 1914 Godfrey Davis arrived in India, a junior officer in the Indian Civil Service. By the

time he reluctantly returned to England thirty years later he was a high court judge    

with a knighthood. Sir Godfrey fell in love with India. He sympathized with the     independence movement and shared a great friendship and mutual admiration with Mahatma Gandhi. Wendy Davis inherited her father’s affection for India and its people.         In Dal & Rice she chronicles the memories of her childhood and offers a poignant and measured character study of her father. Her story is part social history, part travelogue,     but mostly a very personal account of a relationship with an exotic, chaotic, and often mysterious country.

Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by economist Jeff Rubin is a

wake up call about the global economy and what will happen when there is no more

cheap oil.  Rubin argues there will be "peak oil" and that the supply & demand model

does not apply when nature is the chief supplier.  When transportation costs and environmental issues outweigh the value of strawberries in February, whether we like it

or not, our world will get smaller, but not necessarily worse. There should be a

revitalization of local economies, manufacturing and employment.  A really interesting

look at globalization and certainly not boring!

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a great book for anyone who feels they don’t understand science.  Of course, anything by Bill Bryson is great.  He mostly writes travel books with a cranky and unflinching honesty that is completely addictive – I particularly liked Notes from a Small Island about his walk through Great Britain.

Riding with Rilke by Edmonton author Ted Bishop is his account of recovering from a motorcycle accident that gives him the chance to reread his favorite books and examine a life combining his profession (University professor specializing in Virginia Woolf) and his personal passion (motorcycling). 

Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gilder is an autobiography of growing up as an only child to an eccentric couple just across the border from Canada.  I laughed out loud at her recollections and highly recommend it for book groups.

The General Book of Ignorance is a compilation taken from a BBC TV show of the same name where the authors strike out to prove that everything we take for granted is wrong (the highest mountain, the color of the universe and other such material trivia). Great fun for the whole family.

Aphrodite by Isabelle Allende is part memoir, cookbook and art book as Allende shares her Chilean background and love for food as both nourishment and aphrodisiac.  (Her novel ‘House of the Spirits” is also one of my favorites).

Not Quite What I Was Planning is an anthology from Smith magazine wherein people describe their lives in six words. A lot of fun and quite thought-provoking – you try it!

The Professor & the Madman by Simon Winchester is a wonderful book that combines the history of the making of the Oxford English dictionary with the personal story of one of its greatest contributors – a doctor in jail for murdering women.  Anything by Winchester is good as he likes to take a look at small and often forgotten events in history that lead to larger impacts upon out world.

Kitchen Confidential by New York chef Anthony Bourdain will open your eyes to the real world of restaurants (never eat buffet on Monday for example).  Bourdain has also written two restaurant based mysteries and has followed up on his first book about food with others including his around the world trips where he will eat anything (and I mean anything!)

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman is her autobiography of growing up in a book-drenched family (her father was Clifton Fadiman, the great anthologist) and how near and dear to her heart reading has become.

What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim by Canadian author Jane Christmas is a wonderful “Midlife Misadventure in Spain’s Camino de Santiago de Compostela” wherein Jane decides to get a group of women together to trek this famous religious pilgrimage and the problems and joy this creates.

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