Matt’s Book Review #9: Special Non-Fiction Edition

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So, my reading has slanted more towards nonfiction stuff since the last time I did one of these, which means all of you are now getting an extra special non-fiction edition of Matt’s Book Review! For those scoring at home, this is only the 2nd exclusively non-fiction edition of Matt’s Book Review in history. And I’m going to just save the few novels I’ve read for the next Matt’s Book Review. Because you have to have something to look forward to in life, right? And off we go:

1) Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin: Ok, so I admit it I had never actually read a proper history book for pleasure before this book and the only reason I ever dared marching through these 800 pages is because Kyle gave me the book several years ago for Christmas while we were still roommates and I felt compelled to give it a go one day. But it’s actually good. Really good. Since all the “history” I’ve ever been exposed to in school is just a composition of facts, it’s easy to forget that behind the “facts” that you learn in school is a real history of people and their decisions and really studying how the events unfold in a detailed way is an incredibly fascinating experience. Now, before everyone runs out and buys this book based on my recommendation, I will say that this is a very detailed multi-person biography and it probably isn’t really suited to just dive into if you don’t already have an interest in history or the Civil War era of American politics. Granted, I just dove into it and I enjoyed it greatly, but I don’t necessarily recommend doing that.

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e: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";”>2) Awakenings by Oliver Sacks: This is a now rather dated memoir discussing the treatment of many victims of the 1920’s sleeping sickness and how they were awakened, at least briefly, some from near catatonic states. It is still a very fascinating book to read now over 30 years after the initial publication. I especially enjoy the way Sacks humanizes his patients and his thoughts on medicine and how people should be treated are still insightful and relevant today. And the recounting of the various “awakenings” the patients undergo and their varying responses is absolutely fascinating.

3) Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower by Cynthia Cooper: So the accountant in me has finally truly emerged – this is the first non-fiction book I’ve ever read about an accountant! And it’s a good one at that! This is the story of Cooper “blowing the whistle” on the Worldcom financial scandal from several years ago, which was a huge deal for the accounting industry (although I doubt many of you care a great deal about it). I actually got the chance to meet Cynthia, as she was a guest lecturer in one of my classes when I was getting my Masters degree several years ago. Nice lady. And this is a good book, with fun details about how things work in big business – though I’d only recommend it with caution to anyone who isn’t in the business world.

4) At Home in the World by Joyce Maynard: Maynard is the author of several novels, unread by me, but she is most well known for having a romantic relationship with the reclusive J.D. Salinger when she was 18 years old (and Salinger was 53) and I imagine the main appeal of reading this book for most people will be to see the dirt she spills on Salinger (and I admit, was one of the main appeals for me too). That said, there really isn’t that much dirt on Salinger and he doesn’t come across any creepier than he inherently already does for dating a girl 30+ years younger than him. The memoir as a whole is pretty decent though in a straightforward way – it’s not something I can wholeheartedly recommend, but I found reading it to be a pleasant experience. Even if it doesn’t have a lot of dirt.

5) The Woman Who Can’t Forget by Jill Price: An interesting memoir about a woman who has the ability to specifically and accurately recall events from every day of her life since she was 14. It’s a very interesting condition and perhaps most interesting is the way Price feels about it (she feels it’s overall more a curse than a blessing). It’s also revealing about the nature of memory and how having an amazing memory isn’t necessarily correlated with other forms of cognitive intelligence (Price is remarkably average in terms of intelligence outside of her memory).  Still, honestly you’d probably be just as well served to dig up an article describing the condition on the internet (and apparently there are several other people who have “come out” with having similar conditions since Price’s book was published), as the memoir itself is pretty dull when it strays away from discussing Price’s memory specifically.

6) The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood by Mark Twain: This is a collection of various works (mostly unfinished) by Mark Twain that he never allowed to see the light of day during his lifetime because of the reaction it would have caused. Most of the writings are comprised of Twain writing from the perspective of various biblical characters and going through what their day to day lives must have been like, which highlights the absurdity of biblical doctrine in a comical way. Overall, I did enjoy reading  this, though, again, it’s essentially just Twain leftovers and none of the stories amount to an actual finished product and they don’t form a cohesive whole. A lot of the same themes pop up in multiple stories too (again, Twain wasn’t intending for these to ever be published), so that gets a little repetitive.

7) Learning to Love You More by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher: This book is basically just selected exercises that various people completed in July and Fletcher’s art project “Learning to Love You More.” The project essentially lists 70 “assignments” for users to complete and submit to the learningtoloveyoumore.com website – again, the book is a compilation of various submissions. Examples of submissions include “Draw a scene from a movie that made you cry” or “Take a picture of the sun” etc. I can’t say that I’d really recommend forking over money to read through this, but it’s harmless and some of the assignments do produce some interesting results. I particularly enjoyed “Act out someone else’s argument.”

8) Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy is Wrong? by Various Authors: Reading this, I felt like a teacher who had assigned my English 1102 class to write an essay on Woody Allen films and now had to read through and grade the assignments. Which isn’t a good thing. Anyway, the book is just composed of essays on Allen’s work, each complete with much over-analysis. Woody Allen would hate this book if he knew it existed and I didn’t like it much myself. Go watch a Woody Allen movie and never go anywhere near this book.