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Browsing all posts tagged 'non-fiction'
Title: Just My Type
By: Simon Garfield
Delectable. For those who relish font variety but cringe at typographic promiscuity, here's a tonic. Garfield has a gift for pedagogy without pedantry; his book conveys a great deal of information without bogging down. The book's design supports his text admirably. The illustrations are crisp, and detailed discussions of a ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on Jan. 23, 2012
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
Title: The Leila Fletcher piano course. Book one.
By: Leila Fletcher
I saw this book on a cart and the memories of my first piano lessons over 50 years ago came flooding back. Sitting up straight, feet dangling down, my mom or piano teacher sitting beside me. It is the same book with the same red cover that I used to ... [Read more]
Posted by ogradyj on Oct. 5, 2011
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
Title: A Bittersweet Season
By: Jane Gross
My father, in his 90s, lives on the opposite coast. I worry about his health, his safety, his security -- and my own. Over the past few years, searching for advice, I’ve tossed out countless newspaper and magazine articles and returned piles of library books half-read. I hesitated before checking ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on Sept. 28, 2011
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
Title: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1.
By: Harriet Elinor Smith, Editor.
Dear Mr. Clemens, So nice to hear from you! As always, I enjoyed reading your recollections of work as a cub pilot on the Mississippi, and the amusing stories of life on the never ending lecture circuit. I’m so sorry about your daughter Suzy passing away; she sounds like such ... [Read more]
Posted by pollockl on Sept. 14, 2011
Tags: fiction, non-fiction, history, biography, travel
0 Comments
Title: The Art of Happiness at Work
By: Dalai Lama XIV
The Art of Happiness at Work (2003) is the second collaboration by His Holiness Dalai Lama and Dr. Howard C. Cutler, an American psychiatrist, following their The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (1988). It focuses on finding happiness at work, a topic touching the lives of the majority ... [Read more]
Posted by Hui-Lan on Aug. 29, 2011
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
Title: How Babies Talk: The Magic and Mystery of Language in the First Three Years of Life
By: Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D.
I found the book fascinating! The authors discuss language development in children beginning before birth. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to a particular age range and within each chapter various language studies are discussed. They talk about how the studies were conducted, what was learned, and they also ... [Read more]
Posted by cockerillj on Aug. 22, 2011
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
Title: The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture.
By: John Leighton Chase
There's definitely a lot of "here" here in Santa Cruz. With its easy to read maps and charming photographs, "The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture" has been satisfying the curiosity of thousands of gawkers and walkers since first published in 1975. The 3rd edition (published in 2005) is edited ... [Read more]
Posted by pollockl on July 7, 2011
Tags: non-fiction, history, photography, travel
0 Comments
Title: The Family Dinner: Great ways to connect with your kids, one meal at a time
By: Laurie David
This book is full of great ideas for family togetherness at mealtime, including kid friendly preparation ideas, conversation topics, fun place settings, and even some great recipes. Featured along the way are tidbits of advice from Nora Ephron, Maya Angelou, Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Jonathan Safran Foer, and many others. ... [Read more]
Posted by Abbey on June 30, 2011
Tags: non-fiction
1 Comment
Title: The woman warrior
By: Maxine Hong Kingston
You may think you know Woman Warrior, but when was the last time you read it? When it first came out? In high school or college? Read it again, now. It is a stunning book. Check out our book discussion kit and share the thrill of reading great literature, written ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on June 1, 2011
Tags: non-fiction, biography
0 Comments
Title: The anthropology of turquoise: reflections on desert, sea, stone, and sky
By: Ellen Meloy
Warning: when you discover that Ellen Meloy died suddenly in 2004, you may feel bereft. "I was just getting to know her; how could she disappear?" The consolation is her books. Call them naturalist's memoirs or personalized landscapes or eco-history or (as she did) anthropology, they add up to a ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on April 28, 2011
Tags: non-fiction, biography, travel
0 Comments
Title: Just Kids
By: Patti Smith
What do artists mean when they refer to having “a breakthrough” and from that point, go on to create their own unique style of expression? This autobiography describes the working conditions of the poet and punk rock star Patti Smith, and her friend, the late avant garde photographer Robert Mapplethorpe ... [Read more]
Posted by pollockl on Jan. 26, 2011
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography, poetry, photography, art
0 Comments
From a newsman's point of view
Title: Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City
By: Jed Horne
Like Goya's signature remark "Yo lo vi, I saw it…," Jed Horne, the metro editor of New Orleans' own excellent newspaper, 'The Times-Picayune', tells it like it really was, firsthand. He and his fellow news staff continued to report the news and serve the city residents in the middle of ... [Read more]
Posted by pollockl on Dec. 9, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, history
0 Comments
Title: Summit Fever
By: Andrew Greig
Most mountaineering writers are mountaineers first. Poet and novelist Andrew Greig did it the opposite way: he joined an attempt on the “unclimbable” Mustagh Tower as expedition scribe, and emerged a mountaineer. Summit Fever, his account of that expedition, is an idiosyncratic classic. Greig may have driven his companions crazy ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on Nov. 18, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, biography, travel
1 Comment
Title: Strength in What Remains
By: Tracy Kidder
At once heartwarming and tearjerking, Kidder tells the story of Deo who arrives in New York City with $200 in his pocket after a harrowing escape from civil war and genocide in Burundi. This is a story of hope and survival in the face of man’s inhumanity to man. Deo’s ... [Read more]
Posted by ogradyj on Nov. 11, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, biography
0 Comments
How a special cat helps people at the end of their lives
Title: Making rounds with Oscar
By: David Dosa
This is a remarkable book about a very ordinary, yet extraordinary cat. The story is set in the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, an Alzheimer’s nursing home facility in Providence, Rhode Island. The cast of characters include the nursing home staff, residents, and six cats. In this tale of ... [Read more]
Posted by downingp on Nov. 3, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, large print
1 Comment
The Petty Bringing Down the Great
Title: Hellhound on his Trail
By: Hampton Sides
I am not one to read history for pleasure, but I found reading "Hellhound on his Trail" is like reading a thickly plotted novel. This engrossing tale is all the more interesting because it is based on true events. Hampton Sides shows us the little known, gritty bits about Martin ... [Read more]
Posted by Abbey on Sept. 30, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, history, biography
0 Comments
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
Title: Homeowner's Complete Guide to the Chainsaw
By: Brian Ruth
For the weekend lumberjack, details all the common uses of the chainsaw: cutting firewood, felling, limbing downed trees, even turning logs to lumber with chainsaw milling attachments. A chapter on splitting and stacking firewood is a bonus. Every procedure is amply illustrated, step by step – everything is there in ... [Read more]
Posted by Tirantes on July 22, 2010
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
Title: What it feels like to be a building
By: Forrest Wilson
What does it feel like to be a load-bearing wall? A pitched roof? A door? Forrest Wilson's figures hunch (I am compacted; I am strong), stretch (be careful what you dump on top of that skinny guy), twist (ouch! torque hurts), and cluster (it takes a village to keep a ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on July 8, 2010
Tags: non-fiction
1 Comment
Title: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen
By: Christopher McDougall
McDougall shares his journey in tracking down and meeting some of the greatest ultrarunners in the world, the Tarahumara Indians. The Tarahumara live in the rugged Copper Canyons of Mexico and keep themselves isolated from the rest of the world. They can run incredible distances with nothing but strips of ... [Read more]
Posted by cockerillj on June 15, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, history
1 Comment
The cookbook classic: Why it is still the best reference.
Title: Mastering The Art of French Cooking:
By: Julia Child
Do we only consult this book when faced with a special occasion? Or can we read it, un-rushed, for sheer pleasure? I highly recommend adding to your nightstand, the classic cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. Written with her co-authors, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck, Volume One was first ... [Read more]
Posted by pollockl on June 3, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, history
0 Comments
Title: Planting the natural garden
By: Piet Oudolf
Piet Oudolf is the genius behind extraordinary gardens at Chicago’s Millenium Park & New York’s Battery and just-opened (2009) High Line parks. His characteristic swathes of grasses and indigenous perennials are a perfect fit for “natural” landscape designs, including so-called green roofs. This is the rare gardening/landscape design book that ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on April 29, 2010
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
I can't wait to visit a salt mine!
Title: Salt: A World History.
By: Mark Kurlansky
Thanks to Mark Kurlansky, who always makes history come alive - I learned that simple salt has not always been simple, in fact, man's need for salt and its manufacturing process helped shape civilization. He writes about how salt influenced trade routes, dynasties, and empires, from ancient Egypt, to China, ... [Read more]
Posted by pollockl on April 22, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, history
0 Comments
Title: Why things bite back: technology and the revenge of unintended consequences
By: Edward Tenner
If the words “we’re upgrading our phone system” make you go “uh-oh,” you’re ready for this book. Tenner is no technophobe. But his scientific bent leads him to wonder whether the claims made for various time- and labor-saving gizmos are accurate. Do devices free us, or complicate our lives? Do ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on April 15, 2010
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
"Trust me, this is an interesting place"
Title: In a Sunburned Country
By: Bill Bryson
Australia has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. This fact has stuck with me ever since I read In a Sunburned Country several years ago. "Of the world’s ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures – the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed ... [Read more]
Posted by deejas on April 1, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, travel
1 Comment
Title: Pain-Free for Life: The 6-Week Cure for Chronic Pain- Without Surgery or Drugs
By: Scott Brady
Scott Brady, M.D. is the founder and director of the Brady Institute of Health in Florida. He discusses, in great detail, a program for ending chronic pain such as migraine headaches, back pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and sciatica. The author suffered from headaches, back pain, and irritable bowel syndrome himself ... [Read more]
Posted by cockerillj on March 25, 2010
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
Title: Davenport Cement Centennial
By: Alverda Orlando & Robert Piwarzyk
Librarian Alverda Orlando has been an authoritative historian on Davenport, California for decades. This is the first time she has collaborated with Robert Piwarzyk, a limestone expert/engineer, to compile a complete history of Davenport Cement Plant, one of the few cement plants existing in California. It will be of even ... [Read more]
Posted by Hui-Lan on March 1, 2010
Tags: non-fiction, history
0 Comments
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
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
Title: The Girls from Ames
By: Jeffrey Zaslow
Imagine a group of friends that you have known literally all your life. You grew up in the same small town, knew each others' families, attended the same schools, went to the same parties, went off to different colleges and jobs, moved to different parts of the country, married, had ... [Read more]
Posted by ogradyj on Dec. 17, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, audiobook
0 Comments
Title: A unit of water, a unit of time: Joel White's last boat
By: Douglas Whynott
You’re not likely to stumble upon this gem unless you’re given to browsing technical tomes on boat construction. But oh, how lucky you’d be! This engrossing portrait of a cranky, brilliant craftsman racing against terminal illness is also a family saga: master wooden boat builder Joel White was the son ... [Read more]
Posted by curious on Nov. 30, 2009
Tags: non-fiction
0 Comments
Title: Last Chance In Texas
By: John Hubner
The most violent criminal youth find hope in an unlikely place, "punish-'em-hard" Texas, The Giddings School, where all-day, one-on-one and group therapy sessions led by dedicated professionals teach the juvenile offenders to take responsibility for their crimes and to develop empathy and compassion for others. Instead of coming back into ... [Read more]
Posted by calln on Nov. 11, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history, young adult
2 Comments
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
4 Comments
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
Reflections from the Land of Fire and Ice
Title: The Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland
By: Bill Holm
Perhaps because I have never been there, I have always had a strange fascination with Iceland: the medieval sagas, the stark yet beautiful landscape, those small horses.... So when I heard poet and essayist Bill Holm being interviewed on NPR about this book, I immediately added it to my list. ... [Read more]
Posted by fatorangecat on Aug. 17, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, poetry, travel
0 Comments
Title: The Complete Guide to Flight Instruction
By: Gregory Penglis
This Bay area flight instructor has taught flying to hundreds of students for more than fifteen years. He recounts his experiences at age 16 learning to fly. He then writes about his challenges teaching student pilots and the state of flying instruction in the United States. While the book is ... [Read more]
Posted by downingp on Aug. 4, 2009
Tags: non-fiction
2 Comments
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
Title: Lime Kiln Legacies
By: Frank A. Perry, and others
Lime Kiln Legacies is the first complete history of the lime industry in Santa Cruz County. The rise and fall of the lime industry in Santa Cruz County coincides with the developing history of California. In the first half of the 1800s, only small amounts of lime began to be ... [Read more]
Posted by Hui-Lan on July 1, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history
3 Comments
The Happiest Places in the World
Title: The Geography of Bliss: One grump's search for the happiest places in the world
By: Eric Weiner
Part travelogue, part memoir, part twisted self-help guide, this humorous ramble takes the reader around the world in search of the happiest places to live. NPR correspondent Eric Weiner discovers some surprises as he blends travel, psychology, science, and humor to ask not what happiness is, but where it is. ... [Read more]
Posted by Mayrose on June 20, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, travel
0 Comments
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
Watching The Oscars Will Never Be The Same.
Title: The Big Show : High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards
By: Steve Pond
All the in-fighting and back-stabbing and shocking shenanigans of Hollywood and the behind-the-scenes gossip of the biggest show we all love to watch! Written by an observer extraordinaire who loves juicy gossip as much as we do. Now I know just how quirky the hosts can be, and it's the ... [Read more]
Posted by pollockl on May 12, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history
0 Comments
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
French wine makers in WWII: an inspiring story!
Title: Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure.
By: Don and Petrie Kladstrup
The authors interviewed several members of five prominent wine making families in France. Very interesting stories of how they personally hid Jewish refugees in wine caves and smuggled members of the Resistance in wine barrels! We read of grape harvests ruined because of the shortage of horses, sulfur dust and ... [Read more]
Posted by pollockl on March 19, 2009
Tags: non-fiction, history
1 Comment
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
Title: The Great Bridge
By: David McCullough
Part biography, part engineering study, and part political history, The Great Bridge tells the story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Popular historian David McCullough brings history to life in this book, which has all of the interest, characters and plot of a good novel. Even those (like myself) ... [Read more]
Posted by fatorangecat on Nov. 4, 2008
Tags: non-fiction, history
0 Comments
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