All About Books discussion

Hello everyone,

Please list your nominations for the October non-fiction group read. The theme is autobiographies and biographies.

This nomination thread will be up for 2 weeks.

Thanks all:)

- Rowena

Girl Interrupted

Alannah wrote: "Girl Interrupted"

I've heard great things about this one, Alannah.

My pick is Goodbye to All Thatby Robert Graves.

-In praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work
by : Rita Levi-Montalalcini

-Things I've been silent about:Memories
by: Azar Nafisi

-The Prisoner's Wife: A Memoir
by: Asha Bandele

-In Our Time: A Memoir of A Revolution
by: Susan Brownmiller

-Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi
by: Mahatma Gandhi


-The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey
by: Ernesto Guevara

Girl Interrupted is really good, I would read that too but my pick will be Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad

@ Lara- Great list!

@ Birgit- I've always wanted to read Desert Flower.

Hey .. I just wanna ask something out of the subject please..
how can I put a cover of a book or a book link in a comment? :)

Lara wrote: "Hey .. I just wanna ask something out of the subject please..
how can I put a cover of a book in a comment? :)"

There should be a link above the comment box that says add book/author, click on that but please remember that one of the group rules asks that you link to book titles rather than just the covers so everyone can see them because not everyone uses a computer/laptop to access this group.

Alannah wrote: "Lara wrote: "Hey .. I just wanna ask something out of the subject please..
how can I put a cover of a book in a comment? :)"

There should be a link above the comment box that says add book/author..."

Thanks alot I appreciate it .. and of course I'll keep that in mind ..

Lara wrote: "Alannah wrote: "Lara wrote: "Hey .. I just wanna ask something out of the subject please..
how can I put a cover of a book in a comment? :)"

There should be a link above the comment box that says..."

No problem. :)

My mind's a bit of a blank at the moment in terms of new suggestions. Of the ones made so far, I like best Goodbye to All That and also The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey

I nominate:
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

One of my favorites, as it revolves around his self-discovery through his exotic travels , is michael crichton's TRAVELS...

Sciency (auto)biography to add to Lara's excellent nomination of In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field - quite funny!
Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA - quite sad, especially from women's prospective!

Rahat wrote: "I would like to nominate Srikanta. Its a semi autobiographical account of Sarat Chandra. Its very different from all those that have been nominated up till now and very interesting read."

Great suggestions everyone!

just for keeping an overview, right now we have:

Travels by Michael Crichton

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad by Waris Dirie

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

edit:The Praise of Imperfection My Life and Workby Rita Levi-Montalcini

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox

Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir by Clint Hill

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

My Grandmother: A Memoir by Fethiye Çetin

Can we 'second' nominations?

Absolutely!

Woo! I am allowed to vote right? I wasn't sure if Mods could? If I can, I would like to second Alannah's suggestion of Girl, Interrupted :-)

Oh great suggestions so far. I loved Girl, Interrupted but I'm going to nominate Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Is it one book nomination per person?

Elisa wrote: "Sciency (auto)biography to add to Lara's excellent nomination of In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field - quite funny!
Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA -..."

oh sorry Elisa, I hadn't seen your post before: same here, if you had to stick to one of your nominations which one would it be?

Becca wrote: "Woo! I am allowed to vote right? I wasn't sure if Mods could? If I can, I would like to second Alannah's suggestion of Girl, Interrupted :-)"

Absolutely you are!

Pink wrote: "Oh great suggestions so far. I loved Girl, Interrupted but I'm going to nominate Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Is it one book nomination per person?"

Yes, sorry, we hadn't specified that above, but we hadn't really anticipated that amount of activity ;)

There are a lot great choices on here.

I agree, I am already struggeling to decide for a favorite!

Since I'm not sure to be able of reading akso this I wont make any suggestion, but I'seen so many interesting titles that I sincerely hope to be able to be one of yoirs, whichevere the final decision will be! I LOVE biographies!

I'd like to recommend Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - I've been dying to read it for ages now!

I'd like to nominate The Zanzibar Chest. It fits in with the sea theme as well as Zanzibar is an island...

I'd like to nominate Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal.

Jenny wrote: "Great suggestions everyone!

just for keeping an overview, right now we have:

Travels by Michael Crichton

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Goodbye to All Tha..."

OK. I'll nominate

The Praise of Imperfection My Life and Work

I second the nomination for Rosalind Franklin, The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox. I was about to nominate this book but found it there already.

Alright guys, we already have plenty of nominations which I will keep updating in my overview-post above, but Rowena and I thought to keep the thread open for a few more days for other people to have a chance to nominate as well. The books with the most mentions will move into the poll, so feel free to second books!

@Lara: thank you. I edited it in the post above.

@Elisa: since it has been second Correen already I added Rosalind Franklin as your one nomination. If you would like to pick another one let me know and I will edit it!

By the way: forgive the German :) is it seconded by or second by ?!?? (as in it has been ..... by)

Pink wrote: "Oh great suggestions so far. I loved Girl, Interrupted but I'm going to nominate Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Is it one book nomination per person?"

I'd like to second Pink's choice of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?.

Re
In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work I thought this looked interesting, so looked it up. I may have missed something, but it doesn't look like it's in print currently. I may be wrong about this specific book, but it did get me thinking that in general we need to be choosing between books that are reasonably easily available, in print form and/or as ebooks/audio versions.

Gill wrote: "Re
In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work I thought this looked interesting, so looked it up. I may have missed something, but it doesn't look like it's in print currently. I may be wrong abou..."

So, In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work is quite an old book, but apparently it is being reprinted or whatever - probably because Rita Levi Montalcini died last december (at 103 years!) so they want to do some commemorative thing... Too bad!

If I had to pick one I'll go for Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA because I think that the way in which Watson, Crick and Wilkins (Nobel prize winners for discovering the structure of DNA) treated Franklin in a shameful way, and people should know this story.

Still, if you are interested in getting to know one the craziest Nobel prize winners (he went to a striptease club to celebrate the victory announcement, and now he pretty much just surfs), put on your to-read list the small and hilarious Dancing Naked in the Mind Field

I'd like to second Goodbye to All That. Been collecting dust on my shelf for too long.

Jenny wrote: "Alright guys, we already have plenty of nominations which I will keep updating in my overview-post above, but Rowena and I thought to keep the thread open for a few more days for other people to ha..."

It has been seconded. Thank you for your work.

Fantastic choices everyone! I think I'm going to add several of them to my TBR shelf regardless of whether they are chosen :)

This may not be similar to the books others have nominated, but I'd like to nominate

Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir by Clint Hill

Thank you Correen! Seconded it is ;)

Thank you Elisa and Elizabeth, I edited yours into the overview ;)

I would like to second Into the Wild, if it hasn't been seconded already.

I would like to nominate Srikanta. Its a semi autobiographical account of Sarat Chandra. Its very different from all those that have been nominated up till now and very interesting read.

Thank you Rahat, this looks very interesting, I've edited it into the the overview.

Although it sounds interesting, isn't Srikanta a novel?

I would like to nominate "Catherine The Great" a portrait of a woman by Robert K Massie.

Girl, Interrupted

looks interesting!

Petra wrote: "Although it sounds interesting, isn't Srikanta a novel?"

Petra it looks like you are right, I might have been slightly blinded by that the fact that the German amazon site review focusses in very much on the actual person...the more I look around here though it looks pretty clearly like the fictionalized account though.

@Rahat, I will remove it from the list, but maybe you have another book you'd like to nominate.

Paige wrote: "I would like to nominate "Catherine The Great" a portrait of a woman by Robert K Massie."

thank you for your nomination, I have added it!

My nomination is My Grandmother: A Memoir.