Reality Check: Nonfiction Books

Posted Monday, August 2, 2010

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Escape from the usual landscape of summer fiction for the excitement of the real world. Consider these new non-fiction books for summer reading: A colorful and unlikely memoir on the underbelly of high-stakes sports betting; a portrait of one of the fastest growing enterprises in a down economy - bilking the working poor. And here's a topic everyone has first-hand experience at...being wrong. A new book says there's a bright side to making mistakes. A checklist might help. Mike McIntyre talks about all that with a few professional book-lovers ...and you Monday, starting at 9am on 90.3.

Guests

Dave Ferrante, Owner, Visible Voice Books
Parul Sehgal, Nonfiction Reviews Editor, Publishers Weekly
Patrick Manning, Nordonia Hills Branch Manager, Akron-Summit County Public Library

Additional Information

Books Selected by Patrick Manning:
-The Invisible Gorilla; And Other Ways Our Intuition Deceives Us, by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons
-Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family’s Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time, by Lisa Tracy
-Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By, by Anna Jane Grossman
-Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music, by Greg Milner
-Consequential Strangers: Turning Everyday Encounters into Life-Changing Moments, by Melinda Blau
-It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life With Less Stuff, by Peter Walsh
-The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, by Jennifer Lee
-Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip, by Matthew Algeo
-Achtung Schweinehund: A Boy’s Own Story of Imaginary Combat, by Harry Pearson
-The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies, by Ed Epstein

Books Selected by Parul Sehgal:
Memoir:
-Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling by Beth Raymer (interview by Peter Siegel)
-Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave by Peter Heller
-Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man by Bill Clegg
-Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship by Grace Caldwell
-Composed: A Memoir by Roseanne Cash
-Mentor by Tom Grimes
-The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
Science & Social Science:
-Rational Optimists by Matt Ridley
-The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely
-Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Katherine Schultz
-Brilliant: The Evolution of Artifical Light by Jane Brox
-The Fever by Sonia Shah
-Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky
-Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissel
Suspenseful Nonfiction Narratives:
-Finding Chandra by Scott Higham and Sari Horowitz
-The Tiger by John Vaillant
-The Murder Room by Michael Capuzzo
Finances:
-Diary of a Very Bad Year by Anonymous, intro. By Keith Gessen
-The Cheapskate Next Door by Jeff Yeager
-Broke USA by Gary Rivlin
-Retirementology by Gregory Salsbury

Books Selected by Dave Ferrante:
-The Big Short-Michael Lewis
-Empire of the Summer Moon :Quanah Parker and The Rise And Fall Of The Comanche, The Most Powerful Tribe In America History: S.C. Gwynne
-The Death and Life of The American School System: Diane Ravitch
-Women, Food, and God: Geneen Roth
-The Icarcus Syndrome: A History Of American Hubris:Peter Beinart
-Oil: Tom Bower

Books Suggested by Listeners:
The Bridge, Iain Banks
Money Ball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Michael M. Lewis
Liar’s Poker, Michael M. Lewis
Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Financial Meltdown, David Wiedemer, Robert Wiedemer, Cindy Spitzer
Eye of the Albatross, Carl Safina
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
The Way We Eat: Why Our Choices Matter, Peter Singer, Jim Mason
Farms and Foods of Ohio, Marilou K. Suszko
Clublife, Rob the Bouncer
A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
Mycelium Running, Paul Stamets
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins

Please follow our community discussion rules when composing your comments.

Toni 10:39 AM 8/2/10

Because of my love for books and the library, this is one of my favorite programs. Thanks for all the suggestions. I enjoyed all of the Gladwell books so I will definitely read “Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error” by Katherine Schultz.

Some of the books that I read that I highly recommend is “Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability” by David Owen that I actually heard about last year. It is about sustainability and how eliminating your car is the best thing to do for our environment.

I also recommend “The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind”
by Barbara Strauch and “Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us” by Alyssa Katz about the housing crisis.