Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

Eileen & Carol,

For me this will be a re-reading. And I am just as excited to re-read the book as I was to read it in the first place ... particularly with others to share the experience.

I have enjoyed watching Mary Beard on several videos over the past few years as she talks about Rome and its citizens.

Why read Mary Beard’s SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome?

Well, in one word … historiography. I'll get to that in a moment.

But first to the story she tells. To give you a flavor of what she focuses on … it really is not just emperors. I’ll steal these two sentences from a review of the book in The New Republic: “Though she here claims that 50 years of training and study have led up to SPQR, Beard wears her learning lightly. As she takes us through the brothels, bars, and back alleys where the populus Romanus left their imprint, one senses, above all, that she is having fun.” So it’s about the emperors, and the armies, and the Senate, but a lot about the people of the Republic and of the Empire.

And now back to that historiography, or the study of historical writing. She actually makes historiography fun. She actually only uses that word three times in the book, and never with reference to what she’s doing. But what she is doing in this book is not just telling us the story of Rome but answering these questions. How do we know what we know about Rome? What are we sure of when it comes to that knowledge, and what do we just have a reasonable belief about? She explains all that and more.

Comments about this book go in this thread.

In The Museum Of Lost Objects
by Rebecca Lindenberg

You’ll find labels describing what is gone:
an empress’s bones, a stolen painting

of a man in a feathered helmet
holding a flag-draped spear.

A vellum gospel, hidden somewhere long ago
forgotten, would have sat on that pedestal;

this glass cabinet could have kept the first
salts carried back from the Levant.

To help us comprehend the magnitude
of absence, huge rooms

lie empty of their wonders—the Colossus,
Babylon’s Hanging Gardens and

in this gallery, empty shelves enough to hold
all the scrolls of Alexandria.

SOURCE: Poetry Foundation | 2012

Ron wrote: "I've officially started both EMDR books. I'm told that I should wait until after my therapy session to read about them, but I'm the type of person that needs to learn and understand the things I de..."

I'm that kind of person also. But not always. When my wife was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer three and half years ago, our internist suggested not reading about it online and just putting ourselves in the hands of a great oncologist she found for my wife. I think I followed that advice for about six months. When I later read about the expected life expectancy after the time of diagnosis, I know why our internist said that. On average, it was nine months. But three and half years later, my wife is essentially cancer free (after chemo, surgery, chemo again and now a daily pill that's a PARP inhibitor that really targets and kills any new cancer cells). All that sounds easy, but it's not ... monthly blood work reveals a lot including if the PARP is having too much of an effect ... it was for awhile and meant that she had to go off of it and then have the dosage adjusted downward. Life is hard ... and life can be wonderful.

"In my own life I see now how my mind is stuck in that state that can't move past certain situations, therefore it makes it hard to get over.

I've tried to avoid a certain situation in my life, but now because of therapy, I'm bound to have to relive it again so it's coming back to the forefront of my head."

Ron, I find my mind often returning to things in the past that are both pleasant and unpleasant. I guess to some degree that's natural ... but it is a matter of degree.

As for therapy, I worked with a therapist over a period of time twice (probably abut one and a half years of weekly session saltogether) dealing with my depression ... same therapist in both cases. Just talk therapy. She was very good. She seemed to have a hard time believing some of the things that I brought up dealing with some situations relating to my job. But that didn't limit the effectiveness of the therapy.

John, a hard decision but one that I know was made with real love. I’ll be thinking of you today as you move ahead without Maverick in your home.

I almost always feel better after reading a poem by Billy Collins.

Carbon Dating

He tried it once
as a last resort

but most of the women
were a million years old.

SOURCE: Collins, Billy. Musical Tables (p. 15). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

That Slate article is shocking for who it reveals--beyond Ambrose--who have been guilty of plagiarism recently.

I did reveal her name to another friend, Mimi, who came to dinner about six months ago. We were talking about Mimi's hobby (She has actually published some articles related to that hobby) and I asked if she had ever used one of this author's books. She had indeed and then I told my story to her. I don't know why some successful people lie and steal. Most don't. And some of the ones who do really don't need to to be succcesful. There is the well documented case of Stephen Ambrose's plagiarism (for one look at it, see this Slate article: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2... ). I've enjoyed Stephen Ambrose's books a lot. I think that they are often a good introduction to a particular subject. I still recommend them to some people, with a caveat about his plagiarism. We all have clay feet, but his clay feet are pretty large.

Ron wrote: "Cynda, those sound like some interesting books. I keep trying to get into books like those, but have not had the time.

Lately my area has been psychology and feminism. I have a couple of books th..."

Ron, those look like great books.

A few years ago, my older granddaughter want help with finding a book. It was a pleasure to take her to the information desk at our local library and watch and listen to her ask the librarian for what she wanted to find. And then watch the librarian take her to that book and help find some other books.

It's sort of a tautology, but half of librarians are below average. But even many of those that fall into that below average category can be quite helpful. I know some great librarians in our area.

Cynda wrote: "I will remember this--to ask for help. When doing my graduate work, I took a research course. We had to go find resources out professor just knew the campus library had. He gave us limited informat..."

Women are better at asking for help than men. Just like asking for directions. It took me decades before I got better at asking for help or directions.

Larry wrote: "That presents a real challenge because some of the really good resources are a little hidden, e.g. EBSCO and ProQuest. ..."

It surprises me how some extremely literate people don't know what's available in public libraries. One of my Facebook friends was a rather famous nonfiction author, whose name will remained unmentioned. I suggested one time that she might want to look at a Wall Street Journal article. She said that she didn't have a subscription. I suggested ProQuest and she replied that she didn't want to go to the library to use it. I told her then she could do it from home through the library's (she lives in Los Angeles) website. She never replied to that. I didn;t drop her as a Facebook friend because of the lack of gratitude ... I just got tired of her stealing my ideas and presenting them as her own. After that happened about five times, that was enough. :-)

Cynda wrote: "I do see that Perlego has a 7-day trial before I would be charged. If I find I need the heavier academic books, I will switch over to Perlego or maybe subscribe to both services.

I will read maybe..We have several--One Texas A&M campus and one main, soon two, academic libraries of the ever-growing community college Del Mar College. It is a serious institution. It is where I received my solid basic college education. For many years the faculty referred to the college as "Little Harvard by the Sea." "
The hidden truth about some community colleges is that they can be great institutions of learning. I have a Ph.D. From North Carolina State University, so you might think I'm biased toward four year colleges and universities. But I'm not. We recommended the local community college to our nephew, who is finishing up there and now has been accepted to George Mason University to continue his learning. Some of the best learning has taken place in libraries, but they are changing as they move toward digital resources. That presents a real challenge because some of the really good resources are a little hidden, e.g. EBSCO and ProQuest. Good librarians are a extremely valuable resource. Find a good librarian and ask what the resources are for your problem. You may be amazed. I also just like the atmosphere in some libraries. When my wife and I travel, and we haven't traveled much in the last three years, we try to stop at local libraries and see what they are like. Some smaller towns actually do a great job ... even with limited resources. One example is the public library in Abingdon, Virginia in Southwestern Virginia. It's a small but great little library.

And Saby, another entry point into nonfiction is through the various annual collections of short form pieces. One like these: The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022, The Best American Essays 2022, The Best American Travel Writing 2021, The Best American Food Writing 2022, etc. Even as periodicals struggle, there is great nonfiction writing to be found in them.

Saby~ wrote: "Cynda and Larry,
thank you both. I'll try joining the book club you suggested. Hopefully, I'll find a topic of interest. Again, thank you very much for your help!"

Saby, one other suggestion is to start with books like the Little History books. The first one, E.H. Gombrich's original one on World History, was written for children. But I can recommend it and really all the others ... like these A Little History of the World, A Little History of Philosophy, A Little History of Science, and especially A Little History of Art. These books can help you discover what you might want to pursue in more detail. There are similar books like A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters and the seemingly hundreds of book in the Very Short Introduction series, e.g. The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction. Take a look at Oxford University Press' page devoted to this series: https://global.oup.com/academic/conte...

Cynda wrote: "I am doing a multi-year study of civil rights. This year: black civil rights. Goal: 20 books.
I have already read
1. [book:Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantat..."

Cynda, so many books ... but such an important subject.

I remember telling a person in a weekly Bible study that I had read about 30 books, actually mainly parts of 30 books on the Exodus (the Biblical Exodus) over the last few months. I don't think that she believed me, but you and I can understand how you can use Scribd to dip into a book, read a few passages, or a few pages, or maybe a chapter, and then move onto the the next book. (without belaboring the point, Perlego is just as good as Scribd in allowing this ... and maybe beter when it comes to academic texts).

Cynda, I just made a comment after a very long time in that "Non Fiction -- but not a Book" thread. I'm glad you made me think of it.

Cynda wrote: "Saby,

This book club Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best may not be the best starting place for reading nonfiction. I suggest Non Fiction Book Club because it is a nonfiction group geared toward ge..."

Cynda,

I think you give good advice here. We're happy to have Saby here, but if you haven't read read a good bit of nonfiction it may not be the best place to start.

I don't participate much in the Non Fiction Book Club these days, but I actually started that thread, "Non Fiction -- but not a Book" when I was a moderator there.

Larry