My 2019 Non- Fiction Reads - Includes Five Best

My 2019 Non-Fiction Reading List

1. Sea People - The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson, 2019, 362 pages -"From the very start I loved this marvelous book.  It is the epitome of the very best narrative non-fiction"
2. At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell. -2016 "As I read though this much admired book I recalled works I read in the long long ago.  For sure I would recommend At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell to anyone wanting to learn about Existentialism.  When I last read these works I did not know the  God father of Existentialism, Martin Heidigger was an active supporter of Nazism and admired Hitler.  This gives me serious pause to wonder what this may reveal about the movement."

3. Late Victoria Holocausts by Mike Davis - 2002. An eye opening work
4. Bury Me Standing The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca.  The best book on the Roma
5. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 
6. George Washington A Biography by Ron Chernow
7. J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys: The Real Story Behind Peter Pan by Andrew Birkin - 1979 with a new introduction by the author in the 2003 Yale University Press Edition. A pure delight
8. Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist by Anne Boyd Rioux - 2016. Essential reading for all seriously into American Literature
9. Wilde's Women: How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped by the Women He Knew by Eleanor Fitzsimons - 2015.  If you love Oscar Wilde, then this is a book for you
10. A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and The Birth of America by Stacy Schiff, 2005,528 pages. An early American essential
11. The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple -2019 - 520 pages
12. The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave Breeding Industry by Ned and Constance Sublette - 2015 - 752 pages.  A great book. Must reading
13. Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser - September, 2019. A first rate literary biography- 
14. The American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph. Ellis -1997- considered one of the top 100 books on The American Revolution.
15. A People’s History of the American Revolution - How Common People Shaped and Fought for Independence by Ray Raphael - 2001.  A must for American Revolutionary era buffs
16. A Rich Brew How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture by Shachar Pinsker - 2019.  A valuable Ashkenazi culture work. Anyone into Yiddish Literature Will love this book
17. War at the End of the World: Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight For New Guinea, 1942-1945  by James P Duffy - 2016 - p 488. Vital work on W W Two in the Pacific
18. The Montreal Shtetl- Making Home After the Holocaust by Zelda Abramson and John Lynch - 2019
19. The Montreal Shtetl- Making Home After the Holocaust by Zelda Abramson and John Lynch is a groundbreaking essential work, both for content and methodology.  It is a study of the immigration of Eastern European Jews into Montreal and their integration into Canadian society, after the Holocaust
20. City of Rogues and Schnorrers: Russia’s Jews and the Myth of Old Odessa by Jarrod Tanney - 2011- 288 pages
21. Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl - Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America by Alice Nakhimovsky and Roberta Newman, 2014, 248 pages, Indiana University Press.  A pioneering work
22. Yiddish Empire: The Vilna Troupe,Jewish Theater and The Art of Itinerancy by Debra Caplan - 2019. An important work of Theatrical History
23. Wild Heart Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris by Suzanne Rodriguez - 2002. A delightful book focusing on legendary literary lesbians
24. Suzanne's Children - A Daring Rescue in Nazi Paris by Anne Nelson - 2017 - 336 Pages
25. A Roll of the Dice - A Story of Love, Loss, and Genetics by Mona Dash - 2019.a very informative and moving memoir
26. The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons- October, 2019- prize winning biography of an important writer
27. Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk by Elissa Bemporad - 2013
28. Rush: Revolution, Madness and The Visionary Doctor Who Became A Founding Father by Stephen Fried - 2018 

About half these books I received as review copies.


My top five Narrative Nonfiction Works for 2019


1. Sea People - The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson, 2019, 362 pages -"From the very start I loved this marvelous book.  It is the epitome of the very best narrative non-fiction
2. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.  
3. The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave Breeding Industry by Ned and Constance Sublette - 2015 - 752 pages.  A great book. If you read only one, this is my top nonfiction work for 2019.
4. J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys: The Real Story Behind Peter Pan by Andrew Birkin - 1979 with a new introduction by the author in the 2003 Yale University Press Edition. A pure delight
5. Late Victoria Holocausts by Mike Davis - 2002. An eye opening work

I have posted on all these works on my blog.

Please share with us your best narrative non.fiction from 2019