Books: Part III

This time I decided to pick five books of non-fiction. I'll admit, I don't read nearly as much non-fiction as fiction, nor do I read nearly as much as I probably should. But here are some that I picked at random while looking at my bookshelf. Don't worry, I spared you the boring ones like Mussolini's autobiography and the Marquis De Sade's Philosophy in the Bedroom and Other Writings, which is not nearly as interesting as it may sound. Here goes!

Kabul Beauty School
(Deborah Rodriguez)

I randomly picked this book up last minute when I was checking out at Borders with about half a dozen other books. I saw the cover and just grabbed it. I actually do this quite often - especially with music. I'll hear something in a TV show or in a store and I'll just buy it right that moment. But, anyway.

This is Deborah's personal account of going over to Afghanistan and starting a school there to teach women how to run their own salons. Deborah, an American hairdresser, left her abusive husband to go on a mission to Kabul. Upon discovering that she was the only hairdresser among nurses, doctors and engineers, she decided to take on this enormous project herself. After numerous trips between the US and Afghanistan, she finally established a school that could train women to have a profession in a culture where it is hard for women to do anything at all. This book is a mix of personal stories, a little bit of history and the telling of how she trained many successful classes of women to be self-sufficient, despite the odds against her.

Into Thin Air
(Jon Krakauer)

This might possibly be my favorite non-fiction book. I love Krakauer's writing - it is clean, to the point, and very compelling. He is very good at bringing clarity to extremely complex and confusing situations, such as the Mt. Everest disaster of 1996 that he happened to be on the mountain for. On May 10th, 1996, eight people died attempting the summit, including two guides of expeditions, when a storm rolled over the mountain. Krakauer, an experienced mountaineer, was in one of those expeditions. He begins the book by explaining some of the history behind Everest climbs and moves into talking about his own experiences in his team, and the decisions leading up to the summit attempt and deaths of those 8 people. He handles a hard situation very well and, although received backlash for some of his commentary about the others on the mountain at the time, appears to explain things very clearly and unbiasedly. This is a very, very good book.

The Mother Tongue
(Bill Bryson)

This is a very quick, fun read that gives a light account of the history of the English language. Bryson is a decent writer and can be witty, explaining things with passion and vim. My personal opinion, having studied this topic more in-depth, is that he fudges the facts a little, but it is a fairly accurate read and is interesting enough to make you want to read further about the topic.

The Prince
(Niccolo Machiavelli/Harvey Mansfield)

I've read The Prince twice now, and this struck me as the better translation by far. It is a little dry, primarily because many of the direct examples Machiavelli uses are not translatable to today's world, but the themes and general goals of the his writing come through even still. This book is about more than 'the ends justify the means', as there is more to Machiavelli's philosophy than that, and it is interesting (in the same way it is interesting to read Mein Kampf) to study the work of this kind of mind.

Geisha, A Life
(Mineko Iwasaki)

Skip Memoirs of a Geisha and go directly to this book. Although both are compelling and full of drama, Geisha, A Life is the autobiography of Mineko Iwasaki (she was the most successful geisha of all time) and is, therefore, real and all the more interesting because of it. It even includes photos of her! The life of a geisha is extremely heart-wrenching - sometimes enviable, sometimes not so much. This is an extremely well-written account and I couldn't put it down.