lindapanzo's 2012 nonfiction reads

Probably at least half of my reading is nonfiction so I'm glad to have discovered this group. I heard about it thanks to Darryl and his narrative nonfiction comments. I'm not sure exactly what that is yet but, no doubt, I read some.

Particular favorites, in the nonfiction realm, are baseball and other types of sports history, as well as American history.

After 150 books read during 2011, here's my list of my 10 favorite books for 2011. Very heavy on nonfiction this year with 7 of the 10 (all but 5, 7, and 9, though 9 is an alternate history book based on actual events).

These are in approximate order.

1. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
2. Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides
3. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
4. On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery by Robert M. Poole
5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
6. Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman
7. A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
8. Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game by Dan Barry
9. Then Everything Changed by Jeff Greenfield
10. Drinking: A Love Story by Carolyn Knapp

Welcome! Nice to see 75ers here!

I'm not setting a nonfiction reading goal for myself for 2012 but I'd estimate that I should read about 60 nonfiction books this year.




1. Said in Stone by Steve Stone (4.5 stars)--finished on 1/3/12

Said in Stone by Steve Stone (4.5 stars)--finished on 1/3/12

I thoroughly enjoyed this analytical look at the game of baseball by former major league pitcher (and current White Sox color commentator) Steve Stone.

For most of the book, Stone takes a position by position look at the game and skillfully weaves in his memories of, and opinions of, players he's seen and/or played with. In the last few chapters, he takes a look at the baseball front office, the commissioners, and the state of the game today.

It's a pretty "high level" look at the game and, while I consider myself one of the most fanatic people you'll ever meet when it comes to baseball, I learned plenty from this highly informative book.

Highly recommended for the truly devoted baseball fan, though I suspect that the more casual fan might enjoy it, too.

Only 2 of my first 9 books this year have been nonfiction. I'm sure that'll turn around.

Here's the latest...

And Hell Followed With It: Life and Death in a Kansas Tornado by Bonar Menninger (4 stars)--finished on 1/16/12

This is the story of the June, 1966 tornado that ripped through Topeka, Kansas, from one end of town to the other (it was on the ground for 22 miles for 40 minutes). The tornado obliterated Washburn University. Though the Fujita scale hadn't been invented yet, it would later be called an F5 tornado.

Thanks to strong tornado preparedness and newscasters who got the word out, among other factors, only 16 lives were lost.

Initially, I was a bit put off by the author's use of a neighborhood by neighborhood approach to telling the story of this tornado as there seemed to be quite a bit of repeated information, but I quickly got used to it. The author excelled at mentioning something interesting about each person and his or her experiences during the tornado.

For instance, he talks about children and their families where the kids were about to start a music recital when the tornado hit. The group relocated to the basement but the piano in the southwest corner of the basement was out of tune so they relocated to another area of the basement (very fortunately, I might add). He wrote so vividly about the victims that, even though I met them only briefly, I really started to care about them and was glad that he followed up.

Many lessons were learned from this tornado, including the fact that the southwest corner of the basement is NOT the safest place to be.

If you like to read about disasters, this is the book for you. Excellent!!

Finished Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut by James Marcus (4 stars)--finished on 1/20/12

I thoroughly enjoyed this highly entertaining look at the author's 5 years of working at Amazon.com in the early days (1996--2001). As a personal note, he mentions that these were the days when Amazon included Amazon mousepads or travel mugs in shipments to customers. I remembered those and so looked it up and sure enough, my first order with Amazon was in October of 1997.

As for this book, the author is a literary guy who had no experience with the evolving internet and little technology experience. He tells of us his journey at Amazon from his initial hiring (he became employee #55) to his departure shortly after September 11.

His job was editor, which meant that he wrote many, many mini book reviews. At one point, they were told that their 500 and 600 word reviews were too long and the limit became 250 words. He had many duties but, for quite a long time, he was in charge of the homepage and also in charge of the "Literature" section of the website.

Mostly, I enjoyed the portions about books the most, such as how he'd take a fairly obscure book and give it primary attention on the website and sell lots of copies.

As with many things, Amazon eventually changed its strategy, towards a more personalized (for each user) website. It paid for outside reviews, such as from Kirkus, and shifted its focus towards those, along with a greater emphasis on customer reviews. The editorial department became increasingly less important.

I loved the book talk but even the technology parts and the corporate in-fighting parts were interesting, too.