{"id":323,"date":"2009-01-07T08:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-07T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbicmsblog.reedbusiness.com\/elogic_660000266\/2009\/01\/07\/your-favorite-non-fiction-answering-when\/"},"modified":"2009-01-07T08:10:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-07T08:10:00","slug":"your-favorite-non-fiction-answering-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=323","title":{"rendered":"Your Favorite Non-Fiction Answering "WHEN?""},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re on Day 3 of a 7-day non-fiction stretch! Yesterday was "WHAT?<\/a>" Monday was "WHO?<\/a>" Today is "WHEN?" which means it’s your turn to rave about your favorite non-fiction books about history. OR about the subject of time, I suppose. (Though I might call that "WHAT?" or "HOW?" or "HUNH?" because it’s such a mind-bending concept. Read Einstein’s Dreams<\/a><\/em> by Alan Lightman if you know not of what I speak.)<\/p>\n

Let me briefly remind you that tomorrow is WHERE? and Friday is HOW? and Saturday is WHATEVER! (meaning any non-fiction, period) and Sunday is HOLE DAY, when we fill the non-fiction holes of the publishing world.<\/p>\n

For those of you wondering where "WHY?" is in all this, the honest to goodness truth is that I FORGOT TO INCLUDE THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION when I laid out the plan for the week and wrote the week’s first post!! (Picture me smacking my own forehead. HARD.) But, we can pretend that the reason "WHY?" doesn’t appear here is because EVERY book should speak to that question or at least leave readers asking it. Right? Doesn’t that make sense? Therefore EVERY book belongs in the "WHY?" category — even those that leave us wondering WHY they were published in the first place!<\/p>\n

Now back to "WHEN?". Once again I could list some ridiculous number of favorite books but I will instead list TWO and let the rest of you list as many as your little non-fiction-loving hearts desire!<\/p>\n

First I choose… a NEW favorite.<\/p>\n

‘Twas the Day Before Christmas : The Story of Clement Clarke Moore’s Beloved Poem<\/a><\/em> by Delana Bettoli, illustrated by Brenda Seabrooke (Dutton, September 2008)
I was unexpectedly charmed by this new holiday-themed non-fiction book, which turns out to contain a captivating story depicting, of all things, THE WRITING PROCESS! (Huzzah!) In this story we learn what prompted Clement Clark Moore to write his classic Christmas poem, and watch as the ordinary bits and pieces of his day become key words and images in the final product. Seabrooke’s bright, folksy illustrations beautifully evoke the world of Manhattan Island in 1822.<\/p>\n

Next I choose… a newISH favorite.<\/p>\n

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball<\/a><\/em> by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion, January 2008)
We knew the man could paint like nobody’s business, but isn’t it humbling to observe that Kadir Nelson can also write with such precison? I love the engaging tone of this book, the interesting facts in this book, the very human way it expresses the voices and thoughts and beliefs of a chapter in history and an empire in American sports. And then there are the paintings. OH, the paintings. I would have bought this book for those alone. But how nice that all the non-illustrated pages in this book are more than worth having too!<\/p>\n

And now it’s your turn! So far this week there have been relatively few folks chiming in with suggestions, but let me just say that those of you who have been commenting have been supplying some truly great suggestions. I hope those of you NOT commenting have at least been taking notes!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re on Day 3 of a 7-day non-fiction stretch! Yesterday was “WHAT?” Monday was “WHO?” Today is “WHEN?” which means it’s your turn to rave about your favorite non-fiction books about history. OR about the subject of time, I suppose. (Though I might call that “WHAT?” or “HOW?” or “HUNH?” because it’s such a mind-bending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}