tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.comments2022-03-24T05:14:32.847-07:00Mississauga Library System Nonfiction Book BlogJames Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07499772794701306694noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-54023078534189350402016-01-30T14:16:23.787-08:002016-01-30T14:16:23.787-08:00These are great questions. I'm taking them to ...These are great questions. I'm taking them to my personal book group. Thanks!<br />Constancehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16047309488322433912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-66518039596689577962016-01-30T04:23:45.618-08:002016-01-30T04:23:45.618-08:00This sounds like a very interesting book, and it&#...This sounds like a very interesting book, and it's great to see graphic nonfiction reviewed here!<br /><br />It also sounds like the author either doesn't understand how the US political system really operates or conveniently omits major factors from consideration. <br /><br />"More liberals" is not a solution when corporate money controls both parties. Progressives do assert themselves, but they are ignored. laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-70885296197462922662015-12-17T14:50:33.823-08:002015-12-17T14:50:33.823-08:00I've seen so many reviews on this, they are al...I've seen so many reviews on this, they are all over the place. But could be a great look into this type of life in America right now. I have been into a lot of reads like this, into something that I have never seen where I am from. I am reading right now a book on a woman's life from Vietnam, her growing up there. Red Blood, Yellow Skin by Linda L.T. Baer, a fantastic read!Heather Hicksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-78874699475050531912014-05-17T22:15:13.273-07:002014-05-17T22:15:13.273-07:00A friend recommend this to me. This is a must read...A friend recommend this to me. This is a must read for lovers of all types of music as well as musicians.Alaska Fishing Sitka AKhttp://www.kingfishercharters.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-15823734240592667292014-02-02T20:24:50.488-08:002014-02-02T20:24:50.488-08:00This is a great book! Caitlin Moran does a great j...This is a great book! Caitlin Moran does a great job of bringing the humorous side to some serious topics, while still maintaining their gravity. She is hilarious and I you should absolutely ready it.LHI search engine optimization Seattle websitehttp://www.seattlesearchengineoptimization.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-78036277672361914112013-11-29T02:04:19.891-08:002013-11-29T02:04:19.891-08:00I visit the library 3x a week. When I pass by I wi...I visit the library 3x a week. When I pass by I will definitely look into this book!Justinhttp://www.websitetoon.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-36454346799031231672013-10-28T05:45:04.416-07:002013-10-28T05:45:04.416-07:00Hey James: To answer your #8 question: yes, it wa...Hey James: To answer your #8 question: yes, it was a great adventure story to me.<br />In the same venue is "Into Africa..." by Martin Dugard. I have a long list of adventure books posted on Amazon.com site as a listomania. Many from this list are in library:<br /><br />http://www.amazon.com/Men-Wars-Adventure-Survival-and-the-Sea/lm/R1WK7LMX1ZZBTH/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-8162430115364711372013-07-11T00:31:30.774-07:002013-07-11T00:31:30.774-07:00I appreciated your professional way of writing thi...I appreciated your professional way of writing this post thanks.garage door opener repair oakvillehttp://www.portesgaragedoorrepair.ca/ontario/oakville-garage-doors/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-33506979956680035032013-03-10T20:19:25.317-07:002013-03-10T20:19:25.317-07:00My latest "reading assignment" is finall...My latest "reading assignment" is finally to read all the books I have about islands. The Mississauga Library System does not have these books in its collection, so I will have to delve deeper into my personal blog's vault to find archived reviews of nonfiction books that are available in the library for the public to borrow. <br /><br />The brief profile I have posted for myself here provides a link to my personal blog. There one can read recent reviews of books about the Channel Islands, Tristan da Cunha (my travel destination this summer) and the Åland Islands. I am currently reading another islands book, and over the course of this year will post more reviews about the following: the Faroe Islands, Tuvalu, Newfoundland, Corsica, the Isles of Scilly, Sable Island, Pitcairn Island, and the islands of the Great Lakes.<br /><br />I was on a "fiction kick" about three years ago, wherein I finally got around to reading almost all the novels I had accumulated yet, for a lengthy number of reasons, never read. Currently there are less than a dozen novels on my shelves that I have to read, compared to ten times that number of NF books covering a wide variety of topics. Craig Rowlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13954928815256542369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-36184763638931103062013-03-10T18:07:07.593-07:002013-03-10T18:07:07.593-07:00I listened to this book about three years ago, and...I listened to this book about three years ago, and it was one of the first nonfiction books that I read for pleasure. Another one that also helped was Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink." Which I will also post one day on this blog. I first started reading these two books to acquire information about their respective subjects, but then they proved fun to read for their own sake - i.e. they were enjoyable beyond the expected acquisition of knowledge that I would gain from them. My ratio of nonfiction to fiction reads in say a one month period is about 1:4 (nonfiction:fiction) - especially if the nonfiction book turns out to be both interesting in content, but dry in delivery (I will be posting about one such book soon). But regardless of type, if I don't like a book and I know that I don't want to bother posting about it, then I will not finish it.<br /><br />I will continue to post about books I have read in the past that I feel would make good book club discussions, interspersed with ones I read currently.James Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499772794701306694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-84472320208214085142013-03-07T07:29:57.565-08:002013-03-07T07:29:57.565-08:00Before this book, you never read nonfiction for pl...Before this book, you never read nonfiction for pleasure? Is The Lost City of Z thus not a current read (it's actually a "listen")? How long ago did you read it? What is your ratio of nonfiction to fiction reads in a given period?Craig Rowlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13954928815256542369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-19624872728035456442013-02-04T12:47:03.693-08:002013-02-04T12:47:03.693-08:00Well ur books rockWell ur books rockAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-7830949354536564412012-09-11T06:19:56.110-07:002012-09-11T06:19:56.110-07:00It is my feminist opinion that more men should rea...It is my feminist opinion that more men should read about subjects that you describe them "visibly squirm[ing] away from". I always wonder why men cower and change the subject whenever an intimate women's health issue comes up in conversation. An education in women's health and anatomy is a edifying act of love a man could show his female partnerCraig Rowlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13954928815256542369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-45411459898995783142012-09-10T14:52:01.646-07:002012-09-10T14:52:01.646-07:00My wife bought this book while we were on vacation...My wife bought this book while we were on vacation. After finishing the novel I was reading, I picked it up because I had heard a lot about it, and I had a morbid curiosity about what the author would say. James Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499772794701306694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-42952598212975884522012-09-10T11:25:04.861-07:002012-09-10T11:25:04.861-07:00Why did you read it?Why did you read it?Craig Rowlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13954928815256542369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-21714804058004278802012-07-31T15:51:07.038-07:002012-07-31T15:51:07.038-07:00Anderson Cooper is the sexiest dude around on TV
b...Anderson Cooper is the sexiest dude around on TV<br />by far.<br /><br />FeliceAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-29909182729301371792012-07-21T17:28:42.614-07:002012-07-21T17:28:42.614-07:00I have noticed a big change in my ability to conce...I have noticed a big change in my ability to concentrate. Whether that is related to age or internet/computer activity is unclear. But I do recognize that I now find it more difficult to "commit" to a magazine or book. A newspaper article is more manageable and for longer form story telling I have recently become a fan of comics and graphic novels. Most of my physical book reading has come from reading with my son over the past 7 years. And as he happened to be a very good reader very early, I ended up not being the reader full-time for him much sooner than expected. Instead I find joy and fulfillment in being one doorway to his discovery of new and old books. He has a staggering capacity to read well beyond his years and ALSO be very computer oriented and tech savvy. Which is something I don't see in myself any longer.Simonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-78130242616897533002012-07-17T12:26:19.741-07:002012-07-17T12:26:19.741-07:00I haven't read the book, so I'll only obse...I haven't read the book, so I'll only observe that reading good blogs, which deliver content in short pieces, has made me intolerant of puffed-up monographs. In the era I grew up in - pre-Internet, post-TV - there were only two units of nonfiction content: the long-form magazine piece, and the book-length monograph. Of these two, the latter paid authors much more. Accordingly, many, many pieces with only enough ideas in them to be a magazine piece were turned into books. In the Internet era, a piece of writing published on the Web can be as long or short as is necessary to convey the idea at hand. From here on out, something should only be published as a book if it merits discussion at that length. Many things don't; the rise of blogs, with short-form content, is a Good Thing, as many ideas and developments only require short-form presentation.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12484383731257187085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2317961659292142390.post-6283145029411592772012-07-10T14:00:27.425-07:002012-07-10T14:00:27.425-07:00We did this at a recent Book Club; here's my p...We did this at a recent Book Club; here's my post from my personal blog.<br /><br />Our annual non-fiction pick for Book Club was inspired by a book review at my staff meeting. And with a very preggers Cyn around, who wouldn't want to read about "choosing boys over girls and the consequences of a world full of men"?<br /><br />Enter Mara Hvistendahl's Unnatural Selection. What began as a cultural study of why certain cultures continue to covet males over females turns into a statistical nightmare that reveals humanity's dirtiest secret: our technology has surpassed our ability to control the repercussions of using that very same technology.<br /><br />The crux of Hvistendah's is this: parents, even in modern-day societies, still have a "son preference' which leads to many families having babies until they have a bouncing baby boy. (Do a quick, informal survey of your own: who many families do you know that have the older-girl-younger-boy makeup? Look at single-child homes: how many are single boys versus single girls? How many families do you know where the son is the youngest of the brood? It's fascinating.) In fact, this trending towards having as many kids as possible until you have a son is what led to the one-child-rule in China and the scores of abandoned female babies in other countries.<br />Enter technology: amniocentesis and ultrasound. Now parents may choose to find out about any birth defects their children may have; and, if that defect happens to be the lack of a Y-chromosome, they often elect for late-term abortions.<br /><br />Let me be very clear here: Hvistendahl is not anti-abortion. The right to choose to abort a baby in the first trimester for a number of reasons (health, rape, age, etc.) is a separate issue from choosing to terminate a viable fetus well past the doctor-recommended 12-week period. It is this blatant sex selection that is now having alarming results, with ratios of boys outnumbering girls in many places as high at 150-100. That's a lot of frustrated men with absolutely no potential for a mate. What's a guy to do?<br /><br />Well.<br /><br />That's when the real scary begins. In this world, with few females, women are prized and commodified. They are abducted, forced into polyandry or prostitution, used as bartering chips and are generally in grave danger. (Would a world with significantly more females be better? Not really - that's where harems come in). Men with no mates take greater risks, join cults and gangs and terrorism cells. In essence, we become lawless.<br /><br />An absolutely riveting read that should spur tonnes of conversations. Much debate around whether sex-identification was neccessary or a luxury? And if it is a luxury, can the choice be taken away from parents in a democratic society? Many of us went home and asked our hippie-era parents about it and had interesting reactions. I think this is the perfect book for an intelligent Book Club.Malecastahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07445993221723421750noreply@blogger.com