Non-Fiction

Losing Mum and Pup
A Memoir
by Christopher Buckley

It doesn't matter what your political views are. This book is a personal memoir by Christopher Buckley who lost both his parents in one year.  Christopher, an only child, was 55-years-old
at the time - not your usual vision of an orphan
 but, technically, that he had just become.
 And his parents were not your everyday folks. His father, William F. Buckley Jr., was the founder of the conservative "National Review" and founder and host of "Firing Line," the American
 television public affairs show (1966-1999).
He also wrote over 50 books. 
Christopher's mother, a New York socialite and sometimes viper,
provides never-ending wit and vehemence in the book. 
She was originally from Vancouver,  British Columbia, Canada.

Christopher remembers them and all their foibles with touching stories filled with humor, sarcasm, and reverence. His parents hung out with celebrities of all types: Henry Kissinger, David Niven, Ronald and Nancy Regan, Walter Cronkite, and Truman Capote.... among thousands of others.

It's a great read.

The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion

 227 pp. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. $23.95. ISBN 1-4000-4314-X

Winner of The National Book Award


©Photo by Robert Birnbaum

Dressing Room Stories

The amazing story of a
theatre actor who played Lucky in the 1955 New York premiere of "Waiting for Godot,  the Fool in Orson Well's "Lear" and  Clov in the American premier of Beckett's "Endgame."

by David Gilmour


The perfect book for all film buffs...
You will experience a nostalgia
for all the best films you've ever seen,
and you will discover some you
may have inadvertently missed.

Hong Kong - Portraits of Power
by Evelyn Huang and Lawrence Jeffery
November 1995
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

With formal, posed portraits by Lord Snowdon, this book presents the lives Hong Kong's elite leaders. Twenty-six interviews present exceptional people - how they became who they are,  and what they thought would happen after the transition to Chinese rule in Hong Kong. 
The book appeared before the 1997 change of power.

Humans of New York
Stories
by Brandon Stanton

Based on the blog with more than four million loyal fans
a beautiful, heartfelt, funny, and inspiring collection
 of photographs and peoples' stories capturing the spirit of
New York
A must read/see

Little Humans

Stanton features children this time.

His books are labeled as children's books,
but everyone, any age, will love reading them.

Intern
A Doctor's Initiation
by Sandeep Jauhar

Dr. Sandeep Jauhar writes about his residency
 at New York Hospital. 
What is interesting about the book is that Jauhar writes about his weaknesses as well as his strengths.  He explains his feelings about being a medical student in an honest and straightforward way.  This helps the reader to understand more clearly what is involved with being a medical doctor in a large hospital. Not everything goes well, and not all patients can be cured.
The doctor also has a lot to learn from his patients.
Sometimes it's the patients who cure themselves
 and the doctor merely assists in facilitating this.

Jauhar survived his early years as a medical student and is now
Director of Heart Failure, Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Drama: An Actor's Education
by John Lithgow

An excellent read - following the development
of a very talented actor - spanning many decades,
from a small-town banker in "Terms of Endearment"
to a very creepy serial killer in "Dexter."
The characters he creates take him everywhere.
In one film, he's a transsexual, in another,
 he's a football player.

Before the End of the Day:
Stories from a Doctor's Journal
by Michael Malus

Still a family doctor, Michael Malus lives in Montreal
 with his wife and two children.
He teaches Family Medicine at the Herzl
Family Practice Centre at the Jewish General Hospital
 in Montreal and at McGill University.
He continues to work with the Inuit in
Hudson Bay communities on a regular basis.

    Downtown: My Manhattan
by Peter Hamill



The Man Who Loves A City
by Jerry Tallmer

The Seventeen Traditions
by Ralph Nader

Nader grew up in a small town in Connecticut. He writes about the influence his parents had on him and his siblings and how the restaurant his father owned became a gathering place for talk about politics and government.  Thinking, questioning and reading was a central part of his childhood, as well attending town meetings. These early impressions forced upon him the importance of having a say in how
one's city is run.

Look Me in the Eye
My Life with Asperger's
by John Elder Robison

A must-read for anyone who is interested in this variety of Autism that victimizes very smart people who can't relate to others.  Their world is one of confusion, and they are constantly made fun of as children.

John Elder Robison gives an honest look into his life with Asperger's and how he has dealt with it.  He designed light-emitting and smoking guitars for Kiss, worked on video games and is now  a successful small business owner repairing high-end cars.

His brother is Augusten Burroughs, author of  the bestselling memoir
Running with Scissors

The Prodigy
A biography of
William James Sidis

The story of a boy genius gone wrong.
His controlling parents destroy his life.
A victim of media hype, Sidis drops out
to take a series of menial jobs.
He doesn't like pressure. And he doesn't like
being a genius in the eyes of the press.

Amy Wallace is the daughter of best-selling novelist Irving Wallace.
 

Her Again
Becoming Meryl Streep
by Michael Schulman

Born on a Blue Day
A Memoir of Asperger's and An Extraordinary Mind
by Daniel Tammet

It difficult to imagine what it's really like having Asperger's.
Daniel Tammet gives the reader a look inside his high-functioning mind.
He describes numbers as colors and how these visions are special and pleasurable for him.
His unusual ability to remember numbers in order is beyond what we can comprehend.
Tammet set a European record in 2004 when he recited
the famous mathematical constant Pi (3.141...)
to 22,514 decimal places from memory in 5 hours, 9 minutes.

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