January - 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #31: Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind

Joe Pace

Jan 31, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #31: Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind

I actually listened to this as an audiobook a few years ago when I was still running. I have vivid memories of listening to Harari's fascinating prose while logging miles in Washington State in the spring and summer of 2015. In particular, I recall one warm May afternoon when I got lost in the outskirts of Spokane and found myself among a clustered homeless community under the Sandifur bridge and jogging aimlessly through an endless cemetery. "Sapiens" takes us on a tour of o

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #30: Lights and Sirens, The Education of a Paramedic

Joe Pace

Jan 30, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #30: Lights and Sirens, The Education of a Paramedic

There's something ineffably rewarding and challenging about reading the published works of someone we know. It can be a bit awkward at first, especially if the author is someone we've known from childhood, trying to separate the boy we once knew from the man speaking to us from the page. But if the author has any talent, we swiftly graduate from "hey, this is Kevin's book!" to "hey, this book is pretty good!" Kevin Grange was a classmate and teammate of mine from nearly thirt

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #29: Franklin Pierce

Joe Pace

Jan 29, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #29: Franklin Pierce

A BOGO today because Peter Wallner's biography of Franklin Pierce runs to two full volumes. The first covers Pierce's pre-presidential years, and is an engaging look at antebellum NH politics and the concurrent social life of that city of northern charm and southern efficiency, Washington D.C. The second book tackles Pierce's widely-criticized Presidency, shedding some light on the challenges he faced and the deck that would have been stacked against any incoming chief execut

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #28: A Sea of Words

Joe Pace

Jan 28, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #28: A Sea of Words

I'm finding myself in a bit of a reference kick right now - I'm sure we'll get back to narratives, memoirs, and traditional histories soon. But I've been listening to O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series on audiobook, and my mind is full this morning of phrases and jargon from the age of sail, tempting me to strap back into the all-but-finished sequel to Lost Harvest. Between the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Hornblower books, O'Brian's work is one of the great inspirations for the

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #27: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Joe Pace

Jan 27, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #27: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

I've always enjoyed collecting quotations. Since the advent of writing, humanity has managed to articulate just about every concept, thought, emotion, or aspiration imaginable, often with a poetry or pith that I know I struggle to attain. I love quotations so much that I even began my own collection of them in high school, which some of my contemporaries will recall with mixed approval. So one of my most cherished volumes is this 1955 edition of Bartlett's famous aggregation

Joe Pace

Jan 26, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #26: Castle

I could have just as easily listed MacAuley’s “Pyramid” here. Both of these books loom large in my memories of childhood. There are others, too, depicting with MacAuley’s meticulous and signature style the inner workings of subways, cathedrals, and other complex human endeavors, and they’re all priceless. But this is the one I remember the most clearly, the book I remember using a template for my own earliest attempts to draw crenellations and mortared window frames, parapets

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #25: Black Jacks, African American Seamen in the Age of Sail

Joe Pace

Jan 25, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #25: Black Jacks, African American Seamen in the Age of Sail

I had the great good fortune during my time at UNH to study under some splendid faculty in the political science department. I'm sure I'll mention some of them as this series wears on. I was equally as fortunate to encounter some of the truly world-class professors in our history department. I'll mention Professors McMahon and Sitkoff later, but today I'm excited to talk about Professor Jeff Bolster, and one of his books that remains a favorite of mine to this day. Bolster wa

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #24: Guadalcanal Diary

Joe Pace

Jan 24, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #24: Guadalcanal Diary

Like so many before me, I read this book many times as a kid. Tregaskis's simple, elegant prose captures in such stark detail the conditions endured by the men who fought under our flag in the Pacific. First published in 1943, it chronicles the first-hand experiences of embedded journalist Richard Tregaskis living alongside US Marines - sleeping in the mud, taking enemy fire, going hungry. This is the guy supposed scud-stud Wolf Blitzer and his ilk think they are. Humble and

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #23: All Politics is Local, and Other Rules of the Game

Joe Pace

Jan 23, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #23: All Politics is Local, and Other Rules of the Game

On the day I'll be returning to my roots of municipal government here in NH and filing for a term on the Kensington Select Board, it seems wholly appropriate to write a little about one of the best political books ever written, with a title so absolutely accurate that it's become axiomatic. For the record, I adore Tip O'Neill's memoir "Man of the House" too - he was one of the old-time pols, a neighborhood shoe-leather and constituent service guy, and his career spanned the l

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #22: A Civil War, Army vs Navy

Joe Pace

Jan 22, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #22: A Civil War, Army vs Navy

I got to know sportswriter John Feinstein a little bit a few years back when his daughter attended the private school where I worked in Maryland (thanks to an intro from the great Andrew Ship). And by got to know, I mean in the "hey" with a brisk man-nod sense. His most famous work has probably come from the worlds of tennis and golf (including his most celebrated book, "A Good Walk Spoiled"), but his interests and scribblings have been broader than that. I've read a lot of h

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #21: Race Matters

Joe Pace

Jan 21, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #21: Race Matters

Once upon a time at UNH, I was on the Martin Luther King, Jr Day committee as a student member. (Yes, it speaks volumes about 1990s UNH that a straight white dude was a student rep on that committee. I like to remain optimistic that it speaks a little about me, too.) At the time, NH was one of two states in the US that did not acknowledge MLK Day. The other was Arizona, and when the state stood to lose out on hosting Super Bowls because of a threatened boycott by black NFL pl

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #20: The Road to Middle-Earth

Joe Pace

Jan 20, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #20: The Road to Middle-Earth

I love Tolkien. We all do. Well, not all, I suppose. I remember a middle school English teacher once who claimed he was lousy and derivative. She wouldn't listen to my argument that where he was derivative it was intentional, and most of modern fantasy is essentially derivative of his work. I wonder what she thinks of Rowling. Anyway, this book goes into great - almost achingly great - detail of Tolkien's personal background, his professorial and academic mind, his laborious

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