Most of my reading is fiction. I can’t help it, it’s a
coping thing, escaping reality and all that.
BUT as I am a mercurial creature with a capricious
temperament, my fickle tastes can change with the wind. Because I am at heart a
scholar/academic nerd, I will be overtaken by the need to learn something, and
will NEED hit up Amazon/Barnes & Noble/the library for some Nonfiction.
This doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens enough that I think it might
make for a nice little recurring feature here.
Here’s what in The Nonfiction Nook for April
2017
As any English teacher will tell you, there is a secret,
unspoken rule that we must all attempt to get our students to if not read, be
aware of the importance of the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.
This has always been so and will always be so. But besides being an English
teacher, I love Shirley Jackson. I think she’s fallen tragically out of fashion
in both the recreational and academic reading, and that she never really got
the attention she deserved as a writer beyond “The Lottery”. So when this book
was announced I knew I had to have it and read and love it… but it cost a
ridiculous amount for a biography so it’s been languishing on my Wishlist since
it came out… UNTIL NOW! I found a copy in excellent shape in a local used
bookstore and bought it right up.
Confession time… I have and will probably always weigh my
Saturday night plans against whether or not I will be home in time to watch the
live broadcast of SNL. So it has been
since I was about 12 years old. I was unaware of this book when it came out,
but this newest edition, which includes interviews with newer cast members (I
believe it has rosters all the way up through Shasheer Zamata), and that is
definitely something I am interested in. I bought this book in part because I’m
working on a project that requires me to have a fairly thorough knowledge of SNL history. The other part is my desire
to read some of the dishier stories about the show’s early years.
This is another book that’s been hovering around the top of
my wishlist since it was announced, but again its price coupled with the fact
that I didn’t have an immediate need for such a book. I’m fascinated by weird
things, I love strange places (The House on the Rock in Spring Green, WI is one
of my Top Five Places on the Planet… you know just for reference) and while I
currently don’t have the means to physically travel the world, I did have a
$20.00 Amazon giftcard. I haven’t had the chance to really sit down with this
one yet. But I can’ wait to give it a good going over.
So there you have it, the nonfiction books that have piqued
my curiosity this month.
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