Terminalcoffee discussion

Aynge wrote: "The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis was great."

yes, excellent!

I'm trying to decide what to read while I wait for my book to be recalled. I just don't know. I feel like something fun rather than something heavy. No French existentialists.

This book was fun: Bad Things Happen

So whodunnit, Michael?

I'll never tell!

So I'm ready to read a non-fiction book. What topics should I be considering? I'm really looking for topical recommendations rather than specific book recommendations.

I got into an art theft/forgery (with Nazis) reading jag awhile back. It started with In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin because I really like the author and think everything he has written is good. But then read The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century which lead to The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece whick was ok. But then had to do The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft. Finally bought Jonathan's book The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren which is on the bedside waiting for me while I finish up our library's winter reading program. It looks real good.

lg, I like non-fiction bird watching books too. And the lives of plants Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused and The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World which leads to coffee and spices. Which leads to colors and dyes A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire. This could go forever...

Thanks for the ideas, Cheri. Always welcome. I like learning about stolen art and forgeries. I also like tulips. I am extremely interested in color. As far as books go, it's all in the execution. I tend to be somewhat bored by microhistories (the history of the tulip....of cod....etc.)

I went with developments leading to the Third Reich as my topic. I just felt the pull of Central Europe.

I like most everything that W. Shirer writes The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany and http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

I like those micro histories by http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

I might read Shirer at some point.

I read Pretty Birds and was unhappy with the contrived ending. I liked Dispatches from the Edge somewhat better. I've not read much Central European history. Been to Kotar (Montenegro) and Dubrovnik. Very beautiful. What would you recommend?

What kind of history do you prefer: political, cultural, social, military, general? Recent, or old? Sad, or happy?

I like political and social history. Less so military history. NOT historical fiction like Girl With a Pearl Earring or The Other Boleyn Girl. I don't care how old or new. Not sure if history is sad or happy; it's history without judgement. Unless it is A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present. Which is very good.

Shirer is good because was a journalist with a keen eye.