Target: 50 non-fictions next year. Any suggestions?

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

The 900 Days, which is a history of the siege of Leningrad.

[Barbara]

Oh my, Martha, I absolutely agree about Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight An African Childhood. What an amazing book! Her next one, Scribbling The Cat, was almost as good though not quite.

[Martha]

That's always the case with second memoirs, isn't it? Mary' Carr's second two are purported to be very good, but lacking the punch of The Liars' Club. Same with Frank McCourt's 'Tis.

I have a theory about why that may be: children don't remember much, but they remember what's important, even if they don't know why it's important, and they remember those things in excruciating details (size, shape, color, time, etc.). When we move into events in our teen years and beyond, we start remembering less those very specific moments, but rather longer stretches of time and broader concepts. Without that vulnerable pinpoint that serves as a symbol for what was really going on, the story loses focus.

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

I thought Angela's Ashes was one of the best books I'd ever read, fiction or non-fiction. I didn't read 'Tis because I didn't want to break the spell of magic the first book wove.

For the classical music lovers among us, Hector Berlioz's Evenings With the Orchestra is fantastic.

[Carol]

I loved the going to Italy in Angela's Ashes. I read Tis, It was not as spell bounding as his first. But it was ok.