Palatine Library's Non-Fiction Book Discussion

Pictures from our most recent book discussion

2011-01-17T13:19:00.002-06:00

Usually pictures of our book discussion wouldn't be all that exciting. Sure, we all have a good time and talk and laugh and (eventually) discuss the book, but this time we had winged visitors! Mark Spreyer, director of Stillman Nature Center in South Barrington brought two owls to our discussion of Wesley the Owl. Check it out! - http://www.flickr.com/photos/palatinepubliclibrary/sets/72157625845294522/

2010-12-09T12:33:00.003-06:00

The image to the left is a bar code that can be read by taking a picture with your internet-ready phone using the appropriate QR Code app. It will take you directly to a video introduction to Wesley the Owl, or you could type http://bit.ly/4p0QT1 (but what fun would that be?).

Next book discussion in January

2010-11-18T16:08:00.002-06:00

The next non-fiction book discussion will be Thursday, January 13 from 1:00-2:30. The book we will be reading is Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl, by Stacey O'Brien. As part of this discussion, Mark Spreyer, Executive Director of Stillman Nature Center in South Barrington (http://www.stillmannc.org/) will be bringing at least one owl. It should be a great discussion. Hope to see you there! Copies of the book will be available starting Dec. 9.

October 14- Hiroshima by John Hersey

2010-10-12T09:05:00.002-05:00

The detonation of the atomic bomb is seen through the stories of six survivors.
This is our non-fiction classic for this year.
Hiroshima first appeared as an article in The New Yorker August 31, 1946 and filled the entire issue. It has remained in print ever since.

That was fun!

2010-09-14T09:55:00.003-05:00

Seven patrons and your humble moderator met on Thursday, Sept. 9 to discuss Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry to much laughter. The consensus was that this book was funny and touching. Join us for the next discussion, Thursday, October 14 when we will be talking about Hiroshima by John Hersey. Copies of Hiroshima are available at the Reference Desk on the second floor.

First discussion of the season

2010-09-07T15:13:00.002-05:00

The first non-fiction book discussion of the year is Thursday, September 9, 1:00-2:30. That's really short notice if you haven't read the book yet, but you really should consider reading Truck: A Love Story, by Michael Perry. He chronicles a year in his life including his quest to restore his 1951 International Harvester pickup truck, his war with the squirrels over his garden, and his new relationship.

Titles for the next year

2010-04-15T16:30:00.002-05:00

We are combing through book catalogs and looking at what book clubs are reading to come up with our non-fiction book discussion titles for the coming year. Does anybody have suggestions? Although we usually include one classic, we generally choose a book no longer than 300 pages and no older than, oh, let's say five years. Who has a favorite that would make for a good book discussion?

Discussion Question

2010-02-06T15:21:00.003-06:00

What do you think of the title Silent Spring? Did Rachel Carson choose the best title? Why or why not?

Silent Spring

2010-01-21T16:48:00.002-06:00

The beginning of the book starts out with the fable of a town affected by pesticide use. What do you think about Carson's use of this fictional town?

February 11, 2010--Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

2010-01-13T17:52:00.009-06:00

This is our classic non-fiction selection. Carson used the results of hundreds of scientific studies in which she described the serious dangers to life resulting from the reckless use of DDT and other toxic chemicals that accumulate in air, water, and soil, entering the food chain and poisoning animals and humans.

Available January 14.

The Disposable American

2009-10-30T11:30:00.004-05:00

Why do you think Uchitelle wrote this book?
It was written in 2006. How does it respond to the current economic climate?

November 12, 2009--The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences by Louis Uchitelle

2009-10-13T16:49:00.008-05:00

Uchitelle’s account of layoffs in America addresses their necessity, overuse, and impact on workers. Uchitelle mentions three myths. Myth 1: Layoffs promise a payoff--a "revitalized corporate America," job security, full employment, and increased incomes. Myth 2: The people who are laid off must save themselves. They are to blame if they do not take the right actions to make themselves more valuable. Myth 3: The reasons for layoffs are entirely measured in dollars with out regard to the emotional and mental tolls on those laid off and those still on the payroll.

September 10, 2009: The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson

2009-08-11T15:48:00.006-05:00

Before the Great War tore England apart and changed the way people lived forever, there was the glorious summer of 1911, when the country seemed full of promise and blissfully unaware of the coming storm. The Perfect Summer is Juliet Nicolson's portrait of that sunlit season, transporting us to a time nearly a century ago to experience the sights, sounds, and feelings of a society on the brink of a changing world. Drawing on rarely seen sources from royal and private archives, Nicolson reconstructs the lives of many key individuals and events in novelistic detail."--BOOK JACKET.

Book available August 13

An Infinity of Little Hours

2009-04-24T12:31:00.002-05:00

Have you ever dreamed of a hermitage? What would it look like? Why would you go? What would you hope to find there? How long might you stay?

An Infinity of Little Hours - A video on a Carthusian Monastery

2009-04-15T16:44:00.007-05:00

Einstein's Brain - a documentary featuring Thomas Harvey

2009-04-09T12:17:00.003-05:00

Einstein's Brain, is a documentary about Kenji Sugimoto, a Japanese math and science professor, who embarks on a quest to find Albert Einstein's brain. His journey eventually leads him to Thomas Harvey in Lawrence, Kansas, where Harvey gives Sugimoto a small section of the brain for his very own.

Released in 1994 and filmed by British documentation Kevin Hull, this film is an interesting look into one man's obsession with Einstein and indicates a greater cultural fascination with the genius.

Here is part one of the film:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

May 14: An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order by Nancy Klein Maguire

2009-04-07T15:53:00.009-05:00

In 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster, the largest center of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behavior and lifestyle since its foundation in 1084. An Infinity of Little Hours is a uniquely intimate portrait of the customs and practices of a monastic order almost entirely unknown until now. It is also a drama of the men's struggle as they avoid the 1960s—the decade of hedonism, music, fashion, and amorality—and enter an entirely different era and a spiritual world of their own making. After five years each must face a choice: to make "solemn profession" and never leave Parkminster; or to turn his back on his life's ambition to find God in solitude. A remarkable investigative work, the book combines first-hand testimony with unique source material to describe the Carthusian life. And in the final chapter, which recounts a reunion forty years after the events described elsewhere in the book, Nancy Klein Maguire reveals which of the five succeeded in their quest, and which did not.

Publicaffairsbooks.com

Infinity of Little Hours is available April 8.

More Unconventional Travel Narratives

2009-03-19T16:06:00.005-05:00

Enjoying the quirky road trip in Driving Mr. Albert? Interested in more odd travel adventures? Let us suggest some more non-fiction books that describe equally unique travels.

The following list is copied from "Off the Beaten Track: Unconventional Travel Narratives" by Dan Forrest.

In a classic of travel writing during the period between the world wars, The Road to Oxiana, Robert Byron and a friend venture by car into the heart of Southwest Asia (Iran and Afghanistan), then as now an unsettled and largely unknown place.

Eric Newby felt a similar wanderlust in 1950s London. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush recounts the author's woefully unprepared trip to the Himalayas in Afghanistan. The British gift for wry understatement is applied to the amazing country he traveled through as well as to his misadventures.

Last Chance to See is as funny as travel writing can be but with a serious purpose. The late sf writer Douglas Adams and zoologist Mark Carwardine traveled the world searching out endangered species in their diminishing natural habitat to call attention to the fragility of their existence.

Travel writer Tim Cahill may explore exotic places around the world, but his experiences and reactions will be familiar to anyone who has survived a long family car trip. A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg is a collection of his misadventures from the Americas to Asia and beneath the sea.

Assassination Vacation combines Sarah Vowell's love of travel and U.S. history as she visits the locations and sheds light on the personalities connected to the assassinations of presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.

Food and travel collide in Stuart Stevens's Feeding Frenzy as three New Yorkers set themselves the daunting task of driving across Europe in a red Mustang and eating at all 29 Michelen three-star restaurants in 29 days.

As the result of an ill-considered bar bet, British actor/author Tony Hawks spends 30 days going Round Ireland with a Fridge meeting many eccentric characters (eccentric even for someone traveling with a large household appliance) and even becoming a minor media celebrity.

Forrest, Dan. "Off the Beaten Track: Unconventional Travel Narratives." Library Journal 131, no. 20 (December 2006): 183-183. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 19, 2009).

April 9: Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti

2009-03-12T18:09:00.008-05:00

The pathologist who notoriously stole Einstein’s brain decides to relinquish it to the scientist’s family, forty-two years later. Journalist Michael Paterniti is along for the ride and looks back not only Einstein’s life but also the broad spectrum of post-atomic America.

"By the time Driving Mr. Albert hits the twin peaks of its two surprise endings, you realize that this book is really not the tale of just one brain, but three: Einstein's, Harvey's and Paterniti's own, which is not an inconsiderable creative device. It's a brain, in fact, that I'd be happy to travel with again."
-From the New York Times review, "Not As Swift As Light."

Driving Mr. Albert is currently available to check out.

Unquiet Mind Discussion Questions

2009-02-04T14:10:00.002-06:00

Jamison (Philadelphia Enquirer, 9/18/95) says, "My major goal has been to really try and make a difference in how the illness is seen and treated." Has she succeeded in your eyes? Which of your preconceptions were changed by reading her account? Please comment.

March 12: An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison

2009-01-20T18:37:00.017-06:00

In An Unquiet Mind, psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison has written an extraordinary account of her experience with manic-depression (the term she prefers to bipolar disorder). For more than three decades, Dr. Jamison has lived with this "quicksilver" illness, with its mercurial moods, and with its "peculiar kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror." No reader will be untouched by her memoir, which is inarguably one of the most powerful, insightful, and eloquent depictions of life with this illness.

Reviewed by Diane T. Marsh, Barbara Pilvin, and Judith Tydings, for the NAMI Literature Committee.

Kay Redfield Jamison: A profile in courage. BP Hope Winter 2009

Book will be available February 12.

February 12: A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman

2009-01-08T12:30:00.001-06:00

"The five senses not only serve biological functions, they also are inextricably a part of our culture. Award-winning poet Ackerman celebrates the senses by examining their biological bases and the various and bizarre ways we have come to indulge them. Her catalog of the senses is itself a sensuous journey, with prose rich in imagery and rhythm. Ackerman’s book is a provocative and entertaining treat whose details will bestir the reader’s imagination. Consider, for example, the guest whose pleasure for fragrance led to an untimely death in a shower of rose petals at a Roman feast, or the diner whose thrill at exciting the palate proved deadly upon tasting the poisonous puffer fish. Unlike the fish, this savory delight is recommended for general readers."

Bartolini, L. (1990, May). A Natural History of the Senses (Book). Library Journal, 115(8), 108-108. Retrieved January 8, 2009, from MasterFILE Premier database.

This book is currently available to check out.