Stranger than Fiction

The book I chose for the 2023 NONFICTION READER CHALLENGE in the category Memoir/Biography is Maria Theresa of Austria: Full-blooded politician, Devoted wife and Mother-to-all , by Regine Neuhauser, 2015. This book is a biography of Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia in German), ruler of Austria and the Habsburg dominions from 1740 to 1780. The author writes in the introduction, “The focus of this book is primarily on the human side of the historical protagonists. This approach is to enable the modern reader to relate to these long-gone people. To allow for an immediate reading experience, I wrote the text in the present tense.” There were times when I found the use of the present tense confusing, but the historical information is certainly written in a conversational and accessible style. The author seems to have great regard for her subject, but there isn’t much support (in my view) for such admiration. Maria Theresa made very bad decisions regarding the military, choosing people s...

Ken Thompson writes a gardening column for the UK newspaper The Telegraph and was also a lecturer in the Dept. of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. This book (2015) is described as a collection of articles from The Telegraph . I have never read his column because I don’t have a subscription to this newspaper, but I came across this book in a British bookstore and the subtitle attracted me: The thinking person’s guide to good gardening. I’ve had a garden for only a few years and I can always use good advice. The reason he is “sceptical” is that he analyzes the science behind the claims made for plants and gardening to find out if the claims are credible. He explains what is supported by studies and what is nonsense. And it seems a lot of information I’ve read and heard is nonsense. For example, he takes a dim view of permaculture and planting by the moon. But, he gives practical information about wildlife in the garden, soil types, plants, wildflowers, veget...

The book I chose for the 2023 NONFICTION READER CHALLENGE in the category Sport is How the Hell Did I Get Here? by Pamela Lynch, 2019. For her 60 th birthday in 2013, Pam Lynch decided to celebrate by trekking to Mt. Everest base camp. Why and how a woman who was not a hiker and had never travelled alone would start such an adventure is the basis of this book. And it’s quite a story. Lynch describes her younger self as very shy and somewhat timid – never taking risks and not interested in trying anything different when she did travel. She married at 19, had two children, and lived a fairly conventional life in Australia. But when she turned 40, she started feeling restless and decided to enroll at university. Fifteen years later she had a PhD in Classics and Ancient History. Her focus on her studies strained her marriage, and she was divorced by the time she earned her degree. The experience increased her confidence, although she felt “there was still that niggle, the voice of ...