Tag Archives: Year of Magical Thinking

Armchair BEA Day 4- Ethics & Non Fiction

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armchairbea21

At Armchair BEA today’s topic is Ethics.  We were given prompts to the discussions that asked us to give recommendations to new bloggers to ensure credit is give where it tis due.  This is a topic that interests me a great deal, as I have only been blogging 3 months, and wonder this myself.  So rather than write about a topic I do not have much knowledge on, I am instead going over to Armchair BEA at http://www.armchairbea.com and read what more seasoned bloggers had to say.

Our genre today is NON FICTION.

Uh oh, I thought, I’m not going to have much to say on this since I read mostly fiction.  Then I rethought it, and am going to give it a shot!

Is there any specific type your prefer or dislike?

Well, I thought, I don’t like memoirs, but then I remembered I read The Glass Castle  I really enjoyed it.  Then I thought-one of my favorite books was The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.  If you have ever lost anyone close to you-you have to read this.  Ms. Didion is an amazing writer and really describes what I thought was indescribable.   I also enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (though I did like the eat and love part more than the pray-just saying).

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Do I like true crime– goodness no!  But wait, I did read

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In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and really liked it.  Oh yeah- and recently I read

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In the Garden of Beast, by Erik Larson, about the American ambassador and his family living in Nazi Berlin right before WWII, which was AWESOME!!

I also read The Lost Dogs- Michael’s Vicks Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant.  It was a well written book of a horrible story.

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As for historical non fiction, well, I do enjoy it, but can’t for the life of me think of one book right now, which is a little embarrassing since I was a History major, and taught U.S. History in high school.

Finally, biographies?  NO, I do not read them.  Wait- that’s right- I loved 6900Tuesdays with Morrie– but wasn’t that more a memoir?

Well, I guess I do read non fiction, and enjoy it quite a bit!

What non fiction would you recommned for me?

Top Ten Tuesday # 3

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toptentuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish.  It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely ladies over there give us book bloggers wonderful and fun topics to create our lists!  Check out what others have posted by going over there! http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com

This weeks topic is-

TOP TEN BOOKS DEALING WITH TOUGH SUBJECT

 1.  The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

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If you  lost someone close to you, Didion description of dealing with grief is dead on.

2.  The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wall

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3.  Little Bee by Chris Cleave

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4.  Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

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Lehane is amazing-couldn’t put it down.

5.  The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

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Not graphic-thank god- but sometimes that can be even harder.

6.  Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

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I can’t not help but imagine the small closet whenever I think of this book.

7.  The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

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Very hard- abuse, rape.

8.  The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

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Anything with dogs getting older, etc-makes  me cry.

9.  The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

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10.  The Lost Dogs- Michael Vick’s Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant

7816264This book was SO difficult for me to read. I can’t even write about it.