Where is your nonfiction section please.
I love narrative nonfiction, and in discussing this genre, two titles that inevitably come up as outstanding examples of nonfiction perfectly crafted into a narrative structure are Five Days at Memorial and In the Kingdom of Ice. Let's talk about them! Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink Physician and... Continue Reading →
Review: The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom (Amazon / Book Depository) Nothing had, at the moment I asked, been written about the lives of the people who lived there. The East was not too young for history; it was just that in the official story of New Orleans, its stories and people were relegated... Continue Reading →
Book review: American Prison, by Shane Bauer (Amazon / Book Depository) The United States imprisons a higher portion of its population than any country in the world. In 2017 we had 2.2 million people in prisons and jails, a 500 percent increase over the last forty years. We now have almost 5 percent of the... Continue Reading →
Book review: South and West, by Joan Didion I am trying to place myself in history. I have been looking all my life for history and have yet to find it. The resolutely "colorful," anecdotal quality of San Francisco history. "Characters" abound. It puts one off. In the South they are convinced that they are capable... Continue Reading →
Book review: Strangers in Their Own Land, by Arlie Russell Hochschild (Amazon / Book Depository) In the last decade, but especially the last few years, we've seen an especially polarizing shift between the American political left and right, culminating in the election of a previously non-politically-involved narcissistic billionaire (or is he?) bully with an inferiority complex. But even... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Fact of a Body, by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich Book Depository What is offered here is my interpretation of the facts, my rendering, my attempt to piece together this story. As such, this is a book about what happened, yes, but it is also about what we do with what happened. It is about a murder, it... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Axeman of New Orleans, by Miriam C. Davis Book Depository New Orleans is a city that incomparably fascinates. It holds such a strong allure - consistently drawing masses of tourists, both at Mardi Gras time and outside of it, to see what makes this lakefront city so special. Even following devastating natural... Continue Reading →
Book review: Murder in the Bayou, by Ethan Brown (Amazon / Book Depository) Between 2005 and 2009, eight women were murdered, their bodies discarded outdoors on roadsides and in the waters of the small town of Jennings in Jefferson Davis Parish, a county in the Louisiana bayou. The population of Jennings is only 10,000, so... Continue Reading →
What's Nonfiction? 