Talk - Anything that is non fiction but not a book! > Likes and Comments

We, the moderators, decided that we wanted to have a separate folder for discussion and recommendations that didn't deal specially with books ... Put your communications dealing with magazine articles, documentary movies and television series, and even poetry here.

Many times these "non books" lead us to books, but they don't have to.

All,

My favorite leisure, non-book reading material is the Foreign Affairs magazine and online archive. With a subscription, you have access to all the articles they've ever published (90+ years). Further, their publication, and more extensively their website, has excellent non-fiction book reviews and recommendations by contemporary niches.

-Leo

I love PBS especially their documentaries. I recently watched The Queen's Garden which filmed Buckingham Palace's gardens and the wildlife over a year using stop motion technology. So interesting and beautifully filmed. This episode that was actually filmed in 2014 but I saw it recently on cable and know some libraries keep episodes in their collection.

I love the PBS American Experience. I hope to watch an episode tomorrow for the 4th. For non book reading, I'm not big on magazines but one in our house is Sports Illustrated. I try to get my kids to read the historical features in it to make it somewhat worthwhile.

This is a great idea- I will be back soon with some links!

My favorite documentary series were the Cosmos series hosted by Neil DeGrasse Tyson which originally aired in 2014. They are available now on Netflix and I have watched the entire series 3 times. Almost anything to do with space or astronomy fascinates me. Ironically I haven't yet read Carl Sagan's book Cosmos, but I need to move it up my TBR.

Leo wrote: "All,

My favorite leisure, non-book reading material is the Foreign Affairs magazine and online archive. With a subscription, you have access to all the articles they've ever published (90+ years)...."

Leo,

FOREIGN AFFAIRS is a great journal and great resource. I access it myself through EBSCOHost's Masterfile Premier collection of serials through online access to my public library. The Masterfile Premier collection contains FOREIGN AFFAIRS going all the way back to 1922 and also similar access to FOREIGN POLICY back to 1990. FOREIGN POLICY has a slightly more conservative bent to it than FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

I use the Masterful Premier collection for looking at articles for several periodicals, including SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and NEW SCIENTIST. For some periodicals, there is a delay of several weeks or several months. For others, they may not even have full text retrieval. So you do have to explore this digital database to see what is available. But it's great and it's free ... if your public library offers it. Similarly, look at ProQuest for free access to current and historical issues of newspapers.

Larry

Larry,

Thanks, I'll have to check that out.

-Leo

I love EBSCO but have had it through teaching. Now that I’ve retired I wish there was some kind of private accesss. I’m still so busy that my reading is done so early in the morning and late in the evening that public library access is difficult.

Nancy (NE) wrote: "I love EBSCO but have had it through teaching. Now that I’ve retired I wish there was some kind of private accesss. I’m still so busy that my reading is done so early in the morning and late in the..."

Nancy, I log onto EBSCO from home though my public library website ... it just asks for my library card number. I'm not sure that all libraries have enabled access like that, but mine did probably ten years ago.

Thanks Larry - that's interesting - I'll check it out. I've never had to worry about access until now!

I love BBC Earth's shows. The Supervet is fantastic, so does Trust Me, I'm a Doctor.

There are a series of lectures called Great Courses, available in audio, or in some cases video, format. Are you folks familiar with these?

John wrote: "There are a series of lectures called Great Courses, available in audio, or in some cases video, format. Are you folks familiar with these?"

John,

I subscribe to the add on channel of the Great Courses on Amazon Prime Video. This is the so-called Signature Selection of the Great Courses. I don't think it has anything like the complete collection of the Great Courses, but it does have a lot of good ones.

My public library also has a pretty good collection of Great Courses CDs and DVDs. I've checked some of these out also. I need to look at the ones that can be checked out and downloaded to my iPad through RBDigital.

Larry

Ann wrote: "Laurie wrote: "My favorite documentary series were the Cosmos series hosted by Neil DeGrasse Tyson which originally aired in 2014. They are available now on Netflix and I have watched the entire se..."

Showing my age here, but when you said "Cosmos" I thought of the show back in the early '80s hosted by Carl Sagan. "Billions and billions of stars"was his catchphrase. Never have seen the Neil deGrasse Tyson show

Lance, we just loved the Sagan COSMOS show. We watched the first episode of the Tyson update. It was good, and we'll probably go back to it.

Jane 2017
This is a wonderful documentary on Jane Goodall who was sent to record and document the lives of chimpanzees in Tanzania. I knew a little about her before seeing this film but I was blown away with all the work she did with chimpanzees. She met her husband through her work when he came to photograph her work and her son was raised in Gombe among the apes. Highly recommended.

I understand there are companion books available, but I really liked Simon Schama's documentary series on the history of Britain.

Another series that I believe was never released on DVD, just VHS, was Robert Hughes' on the history of America through art.

Won't You Be My Neighbor
This is the wonderful DVD about Mr. Rogers and his show. I was too old when his show first came out but I remember watching with my oldest daughter. There wasn't much on TV then. PBS is where you would go to see quality kids' TV unless you wanted to watch cartoons. By the time my second kid came around 8 years later, there was cable and we spent a lot of time on Nickelodeon and we watched a lot of Blues Clues and there was so much more in children's programming-good and bad. But getting back to this movie- this was a wonderful film on Mr. Rogers and his effect on the world and children. I bawled through a lot of it. What a very nice man he was and so into kids' feelings. What a great loss!

Obit. Life on Deadline
2017
Wonderful documentary on the people who work and write the obituaries of the world's movers and shakers at The New York Times. They discuss the process and the pitfalls of being obituary writers including who they are going to remember, the process of writing and it also discusses the famous biography files they keep on popular and newsworthy people.

Sonia Shainwald Orbuch
1925-2018
Orbuch survived the Holocaust by joining a resistance group during WWII and wrote her autobiography which tells of her story in Here, There Are No Sarah's: A Woman's Courageous Fight in the Soviet Partisons and Her Bittersweet Fulfillment of the American Dream.

https://www.apnews.com/527b3b8abc0849...

For music fans that also like movies, there are a couple of bio pics coming out soon that may be of interest. One is "Bohemian Rhapsody" about Freddie Mercury of Queen (November 2 - already marked on my calendar) and the other one is on Elton John titled "Rocket Man"

I can't wait to see the Bohemian Rhapsody film. Speaking of music related films, I'm going tomorrow night to see a one time screening of Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda. He is known for so many things, but most recently the score to the movie The Revenant which was quite haunting. I am anticipating a wonderful experience.
Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl-pK...

Raye Montague
1935-2018
Navy's "Hidden Figure"
https://www.essence.com/culture/raye-...

Just watched the film Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. He is the man who was Deep Throat and instrumental in bringing Nixon down and sacrificed his career to do so. I enjoyed it. Liam Neeson plays Felt.

Currently reading a photo essay (my first time, I think) titled London's Overthrow. A very good social critique on how a city development alienate its people.

Also available for free online here: http://www.londonsoverthrow.org/

Julie wrote: "Just watched the film Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. He is the man who was Deep Throat and instrumental in bringing Nixon down and sacrificed his career to do so. I enjoyed it..."
is this on Netflix?

Silvana wrote: "Currently reading a photo essay (my first time, I think) titled London's Overthrow. A very good social critique on how a city development alienate its people.

Also available for fr..."

I don't know if it is on Netflix!

Silvana wrote: "Currently reading a photo essay (my first time, I think) titled London's Overthrow. A very good social critique on how a city development alienate its people.

Also available for fr..."

Silvana, I immediately noticed that the photo essay is by China Mieville, the great SF writer! He seems to deal with alienation in his fiction writing also.

Julie wrote: "Silvana wrote: "Currently reading a photo essay (my first time, I think) titled London's Overthrow. A very good social critique on how a city development alienate its people.

Also ..."

Julie & Silvana, see the following: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/ma...

Silvana, I don't know how the Justwatch site handles Indonesia ... whether it detects your location and adjusts its query return accordingly. Worth a try!

Larry wrote: "Julie wrote: "Silvana wrote: "Currently reading a photo essay (my first time, I think) titled London's Overthrow. A very good social critique on how a city development alienate its ..."

Thanks for the link!

Read Time magazine tributes to President Bush. Thought they were done tastefully.

"Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House"

The movie is about the FBI associate director who was Deep Throat.

The White House (Nixon) was determined to whitewash and cover up the Watergate break-in, and tried to shut down the FBI investigation. (This sounds so much like Trump and his cohorts!!)

Mark Felt, who had been passed over for promotion.....and was disgusted with the complicity of the new FBI director …… wasn't having it. Bravo!!! 😊 💖💋 Liam Neeson is good in the role of Mark Felt. Very dignified.

That said, the movie wasn't that easy to follow. It had a lot of characters and too much going on....but it's worth watching.

I have long been fascinated by the relationships between science and art. This article discusses one of those relationships - the neuroscience behind the way we see and appreciate art. It comes from one of my favorite non-fiction magazines, Nautilus.

http://nautil.us/issue/69/patterns/gu...

Mary wrote: "I have long been fascinated by the relationships between science and art. This article discusses one of those relationships - the neuroscience behind the way we see and appreciate art. It comes fro..."

great article, thanks for sharing. Love that painting alot!

We went to see They Shall Not Grow Old this weekend. WWI film footage from Britain’s Imperial War Museum was not stored correctly and Peter Jackson of Lord of The Rings was asked to restore the film and make it into a movie before it was completely destroyed. Very interesting. There is also a 30 minute separate film after the movie which showed how the film was restored which was also interesting.
https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews...

Julie wrote: "We went to see They Shall Not Grow Old this weekend. WWI film footage from Britain’s Imperial War Museum was not stored correctly and Peter Jackson of Lord of The Rings was asked to restore the fil..."

Julie,

I really want to see this film. I've seen a trailer for it that also explained the project. So moving.

Larry

Larry wrote: "Julie wrote: "We went to see They Shall Not Grow Old this weekend. WWI film footage from Britain’s Imperial War Museum was not stored correctly and Peter Jackson of Lord of The Rings was asked to r..."

We really enjoyed this but I was surprised not more of the audience stayed for the film on the restoration afterwards.

Another group I'm in had Becoming listed as a group read, so was given access to this letter. I thought some folks here might be interested.

An Exclusive Letter from Michelle Obama to Her Readers on Goodreads

Former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama is a powerful advocate for women and girls around the world, and now she's a bestselling author with her memoir, Becoming. Here she shares an exclusive letter to Goodreads members about the journey of writing her memoir and the power and influence of book clubs.

Because Michelle Obama loves hearing from readers and book groups, she is also inviting Goodreads members to ask a question or share their thoughts on Becoming. Don't miss out on your chance to connect!

***************************************************

When I began the process of writing my memoir, my goal was to write something meaningful not just for me, but for others as well. I didn't start out with a chapter-by-chapter plan or a laundry list of historical moments to describe.

I hoped that if I could open myself up and feel my way through the process—starting with my earliest dreams and carrying on through every twist and turn of the sometimes-rocky road I traveled to today—then I might be able to come up with something that made me proud.

That process, though, was complicated by the fact that the previous decade of my life was something of a blur. From the moment my husband decided to run for president until our family left the White House, my life moved with a speed and urgency I'd never experienced before—State Dinners and State of the Union speeches, jumping in and out of motorcades, and jumping rope with kids on the lawn of the White House.

Friday would come and I'd forget what had happened on Tuesday. And during those years, I was almost never alone long enough to collect my thoughts. What kept me afloat was my support structure—my girlfriends from college and from Chicago; the women I met in Washington; my mother, my brother, and, of course, my husband.

And so, as I began the process of writing my memoir, I turned back to them—the people who could remind me of who I was and who I'd become, the people who centered me and pushed me out of my comfort zone. They not only helped me sort through the past decade, but they helped me recall memories from long ago.

And more importantly, they helped me see my experiences through a new perspective, connecting the dots between where I'd been and where I'm going. Without their support, my memoir just simply wouldn't have been possible.

I know that those kinds of connections are made every day, whether or not you're writing a book. Each of you has that best friend you call when you've had a bad day, or the mom or sister who's known you since you were a baby. And I know that whether you meet once a month like clockwork or gather sporadically because of the craziness of your lives, so many of you find comfort and meaning in sorting through life in book clubs.

Book clubs are a way we fill our spirits and stimulate our minds. I'm so thrilled that so many of you have chosen to read and discuss Becoming with those closest to you. Hearing about the ways you've seen your stories in mine has been a real joy for me—a fulfillment of my original goal in writing this book.

And that's why, in the coming months, I'd like to engage with you all more fully. I'm hoping to hear more about what you and your book clubs have been discussing. What issues did you focus on? What did you wish I'd written more about? And what does becoming mean for you—and how has that changed at different points in your lives?

I hope you'll ask me a question or share some of your insights with me here on Goodreads or on social media using #IAmBecoming.

It's one way I hope to keep opening myself up to my own story—and to yours as well. Because as I see it, we've always got more growing to do. I'm looking forward to doing some of that growing together.

You can ask Michelle a question here:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/2338...

Wow, that is a great opportunity, thank you for sharing, Barbara!

Barbara, I totally agree with Silvana!

You're welcome Silvana and Larry. 😊🌸🌻

Boy Erased
Fictional version of a true life story of a young man whose parents sent him to a conversion therapy program when they believed he was having relations with a boy. This is based on the memoir Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family by Garrad Conley. I thought this was well done but it was disturbing the lengths his parents took to change his behavior.

I love to Journal it is what I have loved since I was kid. I love to now Journal with my son in our shared journals. To see how he has changed over the years and myself to is funny and inspiring. Now I create my own journals. My son and I will continue to do this hopefully forever no matter his age.

Erica wrote: "I love to Journal it is what I have loved since I was kid. I love to now Journal with my son in our shared journals. To see how he has changed over the years and myself to is funny and inspiring. N..."

Is it the same as writing a diary?

Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper
by Liz Garbus
This is actually a documentary with and about Gloria Vanderbilt and her son-Anderson Cooper. Gloria discusses life and its ups and downs as a Vanderbilt with the help of her son. If you haven't seen it-it definitely is a must see. Fascinating! Now I need to find a book about them!

Halston
This was a really interesting CNN documentary on the rise and fall of Halston, the fashion designer. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/hal... I did not know much about him but I remember when he signed up with JC Penney's to sell his creations which led to his downfall.

Thanks for sharing, Julie!

The Professor and the Madman
This is the film based on the book-The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. Starring Mel Gibson (as the professor) and Sean Penn. I loved the book but I found the film was not bad but not as good as the book. Sean Penn did put in all of his acting skills in portraying Dr. William Minor who was institutionalized in a mental hospital. In real life, Minor actually did contribute 10,000 entries while in hospital.

Rita wrote: "Julie wrote: "The Professor and the Madman
This is the film based on the book-The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary b..."

I don't think it ever made it to the theaters. I saw it on DVD.

Unlocking the Cage
Fascinating true story/documentary of the animal rights lawyer-Steven Wise who with the help of others got the courts to acknowledge that “cognitively complex” animals have limited legal rights. While the film centers on chimpanzees, the law also envelopes whales, dolphins and elephants.