Read ten to twelve books that can be classified as nonfiction.  You decide what to read and when!  And, give us a statement or two about why you liked or disliked those you read!  Mine start below:

1.  The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone, 1/13/2020, 5 stars.   INCREDIBLE READ about an incredible woman who, working with her husband, opened Germany's coded messages in WWI and WWII.

2.  When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, 1/30/2020, 5 stars.  So sensitive, so much depth and dignity.  Even though he couldn't put it off as he wished the author shows how to meet death on his own terms.  Brought tears to my eyes.

3.  Dear Theo : The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh by Irving Stone, Jean Stone, 4/24/2020, 4 stars.   

4.  Denali's Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America's Wildest Peak by Andy Hall, 7/7/2929, 4 stars

This book details the tragedy of a 1967 climb of Denali by a team of twelve from which only five survived.  While the team was on the mountain a fierce storm blasted the mountain.  The team was unprepared for a seven day storm and unfamiliar with the dangers of climbing this mountain.  While they planned carefully, included primarily experienced climbers, drew up extensive lists of equipment and followed the rules of the time to make the climb they were so unlucky to encounter the most fierce storm documented for the mountain.  This is their story as researched by a young man who was a child at the time and carefully collected documents and interviewed everyone he could to construct what happened.  Bodies of the seven who died were never recovered.  It's well written and easy to read.  I admire the young author's hard work and tenacity to gather information about this tragic event.

5.  A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube (Travel Library) by Patrick Leigh Fermor

6.  Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin' by Paula Deen, Sherry Suib Cohen, 8/5/2020, 3 stars.  One cannot but admire a woman who works so hard to change her life and takes the risks to do so. Obviously, she is a successful cook but I grew up in the upper Midwest and several of the foods she talks about as being Southern are also favored where I grew up including fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw and many others.  Liked that recipes she included at the end of most chapters.  Sometimes I was disappointed when she would rave about a certain food but give a recipe for something else. That happened twice and the first time was in chapter one where I looked for peanut butter balls. One particular food selection she found a gentleman made is appealing to my husband - a hamburger, topped with a fried egg, a little cheese and sliced onions all of which are among his favorites.

7.  Self-Portrait with Turtles : A Memoir by David M. Carroll, 7/8/2020, 5 stars   This is a peaceful and charming read about an individual's love of those areas that nurture turtles.  The author is an artist whose connection to the wet areas around him are a necessary part of his life.  He won the John Burroughs Medal for Best Natural History of the Year for Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year.  The book begins and ends with a walk in the swamp where he finds Ariadne, the first turtle he spotted as a child.  I loved this book. 

8.  Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, in process

9. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore, 8/31/2020. 4.5 stars.  An awesome read by a talented author.  Can one say one enjoys a read like this?  Probably not but the historical aspect and the research that went into this novel is out of this world.  As the author looked at what had been printed about the topic she found that most were scientific or legally focused.  She decided she wanted to tell the story from the point of view of those affected by radium poisoning.  The brave women who took sued the companies and braved the lawyers who represented them are to be admired.  In spite of their illnesses and how it affected them the women were determined to bring the companies to task.  Few lawyers would represent them because of the difficulty of the trials, the laws that should protect them but didn't and the companies tricks and lies made the effort so very difficult.  It took 50 years before laws were in place to protect the workers.  Interestingly, the eventural impact was great that the individual who was in charge of the Manhattan project using plutonium put rigid protective guides in place for those working with this element.

10.  Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother  by Amy Chua, 12/4/2020. 2 sstars. Hard to believe that the author represents Chinese motherhood as she states again and again in this book.  Found her approach to raising her daughters a bit much.  It's not acceptable if her daughters are not at the top of their classes or do not perform musically beyond every other child.  The author admits that she yells and screams to get them do do what she wants them to do because it's for their own good.  Is this what it takes to be a good mother?  I think there is much more to the task which she tries to admit at the end of the book, but her statements left me wondering if she ever would. 

11.  Joe Biden (People in the News) by Joe Biden, 12/6/2020, 4 stars.  It's amazing that a man we will soon call President can still represent the American dream.  Joe Biden is from a working class family, stuttered as a child into high school, was a lackluster student, and an average performer in college and law school.  Yet he had a dream and set his goals high:  "I'm going to be President," he'd say to those around him.  Few believed him but with the help of his family he became involved in politics, succeeding with their help and the encouragement of his two wives and a sister who often served as his campaign organizer.  Biden climbed the political ladder to gain the experience of years and years in the Senate and become vice president of our country.

Perusing his life, one can see how his views were shaped by his background, experiences and those who gathered around him.  He became highly respected in the Senate and when Barak Obama searched for a man who could become his partner working for our country, no one ranked higher on the list.  And, when the the election was over and the work began the two spent hours together each day.  Obama was not looking for a "yes" man.  He wanted someone who would speak his mind.  Biden did.  It was as much Biden's interview as Obama's.    

The first emerging issue that impressed me was Biden's concern for the environment.  As I read more I found that he stood up for the common man, African Americans, women and others who needed a voice.  He was that voice but in his home community he was just Joe or Joey no matter how high he rose.  The first book I read (2019) was one he wrote himself titled "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose". I need yet to read "Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics" which will tell me more about Joe Biden.

Biden is compassionate, gentle and ambitious.   His father taught him to never give up.  He has a sense of humor and is able to laugh at himself and his public gaffs.

12.  The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris, 5 stars, 12/17/2020

I first heard about Kamala Harris when my spouse began talking about her and telling me what a good president she would be.  So we watched as the Democratic candidate pool dwindled and she dropped out.  Little did we know that she would become our next vice president - the first woman and the first woman of color to occupy that role in our country.  And, what an individual she is.

Harris is positive, upbeat, loves politics and helping others.  She is an unusual person who believes in America and all citizens in spite of their economic status.  Her quick rise to increasingly influential positions proves that she is one unusual politician.  Would that all politicians could be so.

In this book she details her life from childhood to her role as a U.S. Senator for California.  She champions women, people of color and those who have no one to help them.  No, she doesn't always win but she doesn't give up.   She just creates alliances to help win the next time around or the next.,

Harris says her "daily challenge to herself is to e part of the solution, to be a joyful warrior in the battle for the soul of the country."  Like the newly elected president, Joe Biden, she believes that Americans must work together to solve its problems not necessarily for ourselves but for the generations beyond us.  

This was a good read for me, one of the best of those I read for the year.  It left me with a positive feeling and belief in democracy, Americans, and the future.  I recommend it to any reader who wants to know the new vice president.

1.   Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick  2/1  I have Massachusetts colonial ancestors and picked this up to see what life was like.  Turns out, everything I learned in elementary school was a myth. Very interesting read, extensively researched. 4 stars.

2.  Women Rowing North: Navigating Life?s Currents and Flourishing As We Age by Mary Pipher 3/10.  Thoughts on aging as a woman by a psychologist from Nebraska. I enjoyed the stories of other women, some composite, dealing with change. 4 stars

3.  The Bird Market of Paris: A Memoir by Nikki Moustakis 3/28.  This memoir recounts a young girl's love for her grandfather in Florida, her growing proficiency with all birds, both caged and wild, and her descent into alcoholism as a college student.  The bird market is a metaphor for personal redemption and only shows up at the end.  Bleak in places, but well-written.  3.5 stars

I will join as well!

JANUARY......This month I am reading All Over but the Shoutin'Author: Rick Bragg.  I had never heard of these books before joining PBS and managed to collect them but never got around to reading them. So far I am REALLY enjoying the first one!

I loved this book. I think most of all I loved his matter of fact way of writing. Just telling his story as it was some of it entertaining...all of it believable. Just getting started on the 2nd book by him.

Ava's ManAuthor: Rick Bragg

I will join/ I have a bunch of memoirs and non fiction in my tbr. 

Read ten to twelve books that can be classified as nonfiction.

1.) The Men With The Pink Triangle by Heinz Heger, 5 stars: 

Little known victims of the concentration camps during the holocaust, homosexual men were often  put in prison and transferred to a concentration camp. They were assigned a pink triange to wear on their prisoner uniform. They were beaten, tortured, starved and worked to death. A frew lucky men could trade sexual favors from Capo's ( A term used for certain prisoners inside Nazi concentration camps during World War II in various lower administrative positions. Capos received more privileges than normal prisoners.) and therefore recieved more food and easier work details. 

They were called the ''175ers'' homosexuals that the Nazis arrested, beat, used as prison labor and sometimes castrated.Charges were brought under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code, which outlawed ''unnatural indecency'' between men, starting in 1871. The Nazis broadened the statute to make ''simple looking'' and ''simple touching'' reasons for tracking and rounding up gay men..  In Austria, where the narrator of the this story is from, homosexuality was outlawed until 1971.

The interest in these victims was almost nil, as they were considered perverted in society even after the war.. So many did not come forward.

2.)  Auschwitz: A New History by Laurence Rees   - 5 stars  - Interviews with survivors -  Devastating. Good for anyone who wants an overview of the concentraction camps and the death camps of the Nazi regimes. It will haunt you.

3.) Columbine by Dave Cullen, audiobook --  5 stars . Delves  into chilling  detail into  the minds of  Eric and Dylan ,  Much more than was available in the media. .Details of some of the victims and their families. A must read for anyone concerned with America's gun epidemic and mental illness problem. The sheriff's dept.. had evidence, from erics website,  of the plans a year before it happened, They never followed up on it and took many steps to hide the evidence from the day it happened, april 20, 1999.until years later.

4,) Hillbilly Elegy By J.D. Vance - 4.5 stars. The story of a conservative "hillbilly" (his words not mine) who graduated from Yale Law after  growing up in Appalachia and the Rust Belt. He was the  son of an absent father and a single mom addicted to drugs and men.  He was mostly  raised by grandparents that pushed him to do better, get a good education and provided the only stability in his life.  He studies why he is the only one from his town to graduate from an ivy league school  . Although I don't agree with all his conclusions, he makes a compelling comparisson of the lives of urban minorities and the lives of the white working class of Appalachia and the Rust Belt.. Factory towns full of addiction, teenage pregnancies and hopelessness. Factories pulling up and leaving to go overseas. The story of America. Good read. I recommend it.

5) Poop Happened: A History of the World From the Bottom Up by Sarah Albee 5 stars. Fun facts about number 2 and how the development of sewers and indoor bathrooms have helped end disease. For all ages ;)  

6.) Rosemary : The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson - 5 stars

7.) Roman Vishniac Children of a Vanished World by  S. Mark Taper Foundation Book in Jewish Studies - 5 stars

8.) Deer Hunting With Jesus by Joe Bageant - 5 stars

9..)  Methland The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding 4 - 4.5 stars 

10.) The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy by Jean Kennedy Smith - 5 stars

11)  Flu by Gina Kolata - 4.5 stars

12.) Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States (P.S.) by Pete Jordan - 4 stars

13.) The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan by Laurence Leamer - 4.5 stars

Hmm, I might jump in on this.  I usually do between a half dozen to 10 non-fiction books of substance (as in excluding crafting or decorating themed books) in any given year.  But, looking at my personal 2020 read challenge challenges I can see I already have 5 non-fiction books queued up or already in progress so this should give me a jump on doing 12 non-fictions with an open theme.

1. Outback: The Amazing Animals of Australia: A Photicular Book by Dan Kainen.  A very short book but one I recommend if you're fascinated by Australia's unique wildlife.  Great book for kids, the 3-D images are delightful, the descriptions short and interesting.  My favorites were the wombat and the echidna.

2. Rendezvous With Oblivion: Reports From a Sinking Society by Thomas Frank (audiobook).  A collection of opinion essays read by the author.  While I agree with some of the views expressed, disagreed with just about as many, mostly this was an annoying audiobook to listen to because the narration was snarky in tone and the views universally negative with no fixes, just criticisms.  If I could compliment the author on any aspect of his book it would be he was an equal opportunity critic.  He was as condemning of liberals as he was of conservatives.  

3. Speed Bumps on a Dirt Road: When Old Time Music Met Bluegrass by John Cohen  This book was very disappointing, which I put on the publisher and book organizer.  The premise of the book is a collection of photos taken by the author in the late 50s and early 60s documenting "old time music" performers who would be the foundation of what would become known as Bluegrass.  There is no forward, no introductory comments, just photos which may or may not be identified with the name(s) of those in the picture, where it was taken, what year it was taken; but no context of how that photo figures in the history of this uniquely American music style.  When you get to the end of the book you then get several pages of short rememberances of John Cohen and you quickly realize that these short stories tie to the photos but there is no link to what stories go with what photos. These photos and stories would have told a much better story if they'd been organized better to tell the story illustrated by the photos. 

4. c/o Postmaster by Corporal Thomas St. George.  This was an impulse buy off the FOL shelf because the title intrigued me and the author's rank being included with his name.  So, so glad I bought it, I enjoyed it so much.  It is the personal account of a young man who joined the army in the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  It starts with St. George finishing his basic training and being sent off to he knows not where before he ends up in Australia.  The book tells, in near real time as this book was published the year of his deployment to Australia - which I found astonishing considering the censorship taking place while the war was waged, of his journey across the US, to a port, the sailing, arrival in Australia and his experiences of adapting to both military and Australian culture.  This book was over and over again, laugh out loud funny.  I think much of the humor may be lost on those without experience of the military and Australia - but fortunately I have both of.  

5. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly.  Excellent story that alternately inspired and outraged me.  A remarkable collection of women hidden behind the scenes of some our nation's greatest achievements.  While the stories told were excellent the way they were told could be a bit distracting as the narrative jumped around quite a bit.

6.  Three Women by Lisa Taddeo.  Hmm, not sure what to say about this book.  Listened to the audiobook as one of my reading challenges.  Not the worst book but not particularly enjoyable.  The three woman profiled were not terribly sympathetic figures and their stories were told at almost a soft porn level.   

7. Picturing Apollo 11: Rare Views and Undiscovered Moments by J. L. Pickering and John Bisney.  A bit dry but interesting as it showed pictures that were not widely or even publically distributed over the years.  A lot of behind-the-scenes moments.

8. Ute Indian Prayer Trees of the Pikes Peak Region by John Anderson.  I've mentioned this book in other threads in the CMT forum.  The subject was very interesting to me personally as I've seen these trees in hikes and not known what they were until I found this book.  But the book was so badly written and had so many factual errors it was a slog to get through.  

9. Mitch, Please! by Matt Jones.  I'm thinking this may be the best book I've read so far this year and the best political book in years.  Matt Jones is an attorney and sports commentator and this is hit commentary on the legacy of Senator Mitch McConnell on the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  Matt Jones, seriously considering a run for McConnell's senate seat, joined up with one of his best friends and set out across every county in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to see what the people of Kentucky thought of their long serving - 36 years! - senator.  What resulted was a repeatedly laugh-out-loud book that is seriously funny, entertaining and a brutal takedown not just of McConnell but the entire political system.  Not just one party, but both parties fall into Jones's crosshairs as he highlights how these parties have forsaken their base with elected representatives who focus almost exclusively on raising money to maintain their incumbency than representing what is best for their country and their constituents.  It is also, unquestionably, a love letter by Jones to Kentucky and its people.