Thursday, September 10, 2009

Booking Through Thursday: Recent Informative

This week's Booking Through Thursday question (What’s the most informative book you’ve read recently?) is a little hard for me to answer. I mean, all books are informative in one way or another, aren't they? And even though I don't read much nonfiction, I feel that I learn something from most of the books I do read.

Several of the books I've read this year showed that their authors had done quite a lot of solid research on their subjects before writing. I'm thinking especially of The Longshot by Katie Kitamura, The Book of God and Physics by Enrique Joven, Angels & Insects by A.S. Byatt, and The Master by Colm Toibin; all of these were explorations of subjects I knew very little about when I started reading.











Recently, though, one of the books that impressed me the most was Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant. Her descriptions of life in a 16th Century Italian convent were fascinating and seemed chillingly real. I had never really given much thought to what that life must have been like, particularly if you were a young woman sentenced to a life shut up behind convent walls, against your will. It's a great story that really kept me turning the pages, but also taught me a lot. And isn't that what a good historical novel should do?

9 comments:

  1. There have been a lot of very positive reviews of Sacred Hearts lately...it's on my wish list. Renectly discovered Toibin with Brooklyn and now I want to read The Master, too.

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  2. You chose so well. I do like fictions which are informative too.

    Weekly Geeks: Reviewing and rating

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  3. I had a quick peek at your review actually of Angels and Insects. I've read Possession and it looks like that is similar in that it requires a certain level of awareness (or that it helps to have that!). Perhaps that means it makes you want to find information rather than being informative!!

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  4. Alfred Chester Beatty, From Miner to Bibliophile by Charles Horton is the most recent informative book I've read. I knew him as an industrialist and engineer, but did not know about his extensive book collection.

    What a great question! And here's one for you: What's on your desk?
    (http://theraabereview.com/2009/09/08/)

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  5. I have had my eye on Sacred Hearts. Great choices!

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  6. You have some great picks there. I tend to read Historical Fiction primarily, and of course those are always informative. So I chose the Historical Non-Fiction that I've read.. most recent, though not quite recent. Made me realize that I am bust doing too much reviewing of new books and not digging into my own library of non-fiction of which I am so enthralled. I also really enjoyed Sacred Hearts as well, that was a read that was full of delicate prose and silent questions about how faith fits into everyone's life. Loved it.

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  7. Second mention of Sacred Hearts I've seen today - now I'm really getting interested!
    BTT

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  8. I absolutely loved Sacred Hearts. What a great book!

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  9. I can't believe how many people listed this book as the most informative, myself included. It really did convey a lot of historical context that was fascinating.

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