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Browsing all posts tagged 'biography'

The Making of Modern Paris, or, the demolition of prime real estate?

Title: Haussmann, His Life and Times, and the Making of Modern Paris
By: Michel Carmona

This is a critical biography of the ultimate urban planner, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann. A re-evaluation of the controversial urbanization of Paris, Dr. Carmona (professor of Urban Studies at the Sorbonne) does a fantastic job of laying out the truly hideous public hygiene problem, famously described as "a choleric swamp", and ... [Read more]

Posted by pollockl on Aug. 12, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography, art, travel
0 Comments

This House of Sky

Title: This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind
By: Ivan Doig

Doig captures a dramatic time in the history of his people settling the wilds of Montana, where growing up, he coped with the death of his mother and relied upon the hard-scrabble genius of his father. "My father had a humor unusual in a tense man, a casual gift of ... [Read more]

Posted by calln on Feb. 14, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography
0 Comments

The funniest travelogue ever?

Title: Into the heart of Borneo
By: Redmond O'Hanlon

Possibly the funniest travel memoir ever written, as well as an unexpected gold mine of accurate scientific information. When O'Hanlon invited his Borneo travel companion, the poet James Fenton, on a succeeding journey, the answer was an earbreaking NO! Would most readers want to accompany O'Hanlon? Probably not. But a ... [Read more]

Posted by curious on Jan. 30, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, biography, travel
1 Comment

It's A Long Drive Down Interstate 5, or that's a lot of cotton!

Title: The King of California, J.G. Boswell and The Making of A Secret American Empire.
By: Mark Arax

This book dovetails perfectly if you happen to be reading John Steinbeck, or studying the photographs of Dorothea Lange. A biography which examines the life of a very powerful farmer (at one point owning over 200,000 acres of rich farmland) used to driving bargains across bar stools and shaking down ... [Read more]

Posted by pollockl on Oct. 20, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography
0 Comments

Journeys of a Passionate Traveller

Title: A Year in the World
By: Frances Mayes

Mayes' most well-known work Under the Tuscan Sun and its offshoots never appealed to me so I was surprised and delighted when I discovered her more recent memoir, A Year in the World. In her day job Mayes was a writing instructor, and here she shows her craft in top ... [Read more]

Posted by Mayrose on Oct. 10, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, biography, travel
0 Comments

Ever worked a weird low-level job?

Title: Nickel and Dimed, on (not) getting by in America.
By: Barbara Ehrenreich

Haven't we all worked at some kind of wretched job at some point in our lives? And thought to ourselves "I am so over-educated for this!" In this book, Ms. Ehrenreich conducts an experiment, using herself for the test subject: find work in meaningless jobs and write about the experience ... [Read more]

Posted by pollockl on Oct. 4, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography
1 Comment

From Frito Pie to Pho

Title: Take Big Bites: adventures around the world and across the table
By: Linda Ellerbee

Longtime reporter, producer, TV host, and author, Linda Ellerbee calls herself "a recovering journalist who's traveled and eaten her way around the planet and lived to tell some tales." In Take Big Bites she has written a witty, sassy book about food that's also a blend of autobiography, travelogue and ... [Read more]

Posted by Mayrose on Sept. 15, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, biography, travel
2 Comments

Pathways to Santa Cruz County & Its People

Title: Pathways to the Past: Adventures in Santa Cruz County History
By: Alverda Orlando and 21 others

Pathways to the Past is not the first book on the history of Santa Cruz County. As a matter of fact, at the time of this writing, our library catalog alone shows 135 titles on its history from early ones like Illustrations of Santa Cruz County, California, with historical sketch ... [Read more]

Posted by Hui-Lan on Aug. 29, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography
1 Comment

Endearing biography of Doris Day

Title: Doris Day: the untold story of the girl next door
By: David Kaufman

Are you a "Dayniac" too? This biography is so much more than just the usual tell-all book about America's sweetheart Doris Day with the superb voice and acting career. This book will give you the real low-down on her smarmy manager/husband, Marty Melcher. Miss Day was one of the biggest ... [Read more]

Posted by pollockl on July 16, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography
1 Comment

The Wife of a Famous Man

Title: Song Without Words
By: Sophia Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy's wife bore him 13 children. He scribbled his novels in notebooks that only she was able to read so she spent all night copying in a legible hand everything he wrote the previous day...think about THAT the next time you see a copy of WAR AND PEACE. But ... [Read more]

Posted by Ruby Boggs on June 11, 2009
Tags: history, biography, photography
1 Comment

Something to Make You Think

Title: Principles of Uncertainty
By: Maira Kalman

Maira Kalman is a wonderful whimsical artist who has drawn many colorful covers for the New Yorker and has written several slightly wacky delightful children's books including Ooh-La-La (Max in Love), Smartypants, and Fireboat, an excellent 9-11 children's book. You don't have to have seen her art or read her ... [Read more]

Posted by Ruby Boggs on May 26, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, biography
0 Comments

A Colorful History

Title: Color: A Natural History of the Palette
By: Victoria Finlay

Doesn't this sound like something that would be assigned in a dry history class? If you think so, you'd be wrong! Victoria Finlay, an excellent writer, has given us a history of the development of color in paint that is actually a page-turner. Extensively researched, we learn that each hue ... [Read more]

Posted by Ruby Boggs on May 2, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography, art
0 Comments

Faraway Mountains

Title: Dog Man
By: Martha Sherrill

A patron highly recommended this book, which I found fascinating. The author describes the lifework of a Japanese man who has been part of the decades-long effort to bring back the Akita breed of dog in Japan. During the Second World War, many dogs were sacrificed for food and clothing. ... [Read more]

Posted by Chlorophyll on April 2, 2009
Tags: biography
0 Comments

Friends in the Kitchen

Title: M.F.K. Fisher and Me: A memoir of Food and Friendship
By: Jeannette Ferrary

If only it were my kitchen! I would prove to both Jeannette and Mary Frances that when I scramble eggs, or sear a pork chop, it was their advice that helped me make them turn out so "right." What serendipity! Jeannette is a cookbook writer and writes M.F.K. a fan ... [Read more]

Posted by pollockl on Feb. 26, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography
0 Comments