Tag Archives: James Vlahos

Nonfiction November: My Year 2019 in Nonfiction

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Nonficnov2019

#NonficNov

Click on the logo to see the detailed schedule

As every year, a bunch of really cool bloggers are co-hosting Nonfiction November.

Here is the topic for Week 1 (Oct. 28 to Nov. 1):

YOUR YEAR IN NONFICTION

Hosted by Julz of Julz Reads
Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions:
What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?
Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year?
What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?
What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Here is the recap of the nonfiction I have read (the links will send you to my review when it’s posted).
So far, I have read or listened to 17 nonfiction, nice, compared to only 11 last year. And I plan to read at least 3 more before the end of the year.

Here are the titles:

Biographies/Memoirs:

  1. The Years, by Annie Ernaux
  2. Walden, by Henry David Thoreau – audio, classic

About travels:

  1. Are We French Yet?, by Keith Van Sickle
  2. Travels with Charley, by John Steinbeck – audio, classic
  3. The American Dream? A Journey on Route 66, by Shing Yin Khor
    – graphic “novel”
  4. Travels with a Donkey, by Robert Louis Stevenson – audio, classic

About technology:

  1. Talk to Me: How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think, by James Vlahos

About language/books:

  1. Dictionnaire des idées reçues, by Gustave Flaubert – audio, classic
  2. Book Love, by Debbie Tung – graphic “novel”

Other:

  1. Oh, the Meetings You’ll Go To!: A Parody, by Dr. Suits – graphic “novel”
  2. Secret Agent Brainteasers: More Than 100 Codebreaking Puzzles Inspired by Britain’s Espionage Masterminds, by Sinclair McKay

Orthodox spirituality:

  1. Prayers by the Lake, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
  2. Earthen Vessels: The Practice of Personal Prayer According to the Patristic Tradition, by Gabriel Bunge
  3. Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer, by Catherine de Hueck Doherty
  4. If You Love Me: Serving Christ and the Church in Spirit and Truth, by Matthew the Poor
  5. Elder Leonid of Optina, by Fr. Clement Sederholm
  6. Alexander Schmorell: Saint of the German Resistance, by Elena Perekrestov

I actually also reviewed a few cookbooks, but I don’t feel like it counts here.

***

What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?

The YearsThis is really hard,
there are so many on this list I loved a lot!

What nonfiction book
have you recommended the most?
Talk to me

Do you have a particular topic
you’ve been attracted to more this year?
Apart from books related to Eastern Orthodoxy, I notice a lot of travels!

What are you hoping to get out
of participating in Nonfiction November?
As usual, to get acquainted with more nonfiction readers
and good titles unknown to me.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE NONFICTION THIS YEAR?

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2019: August wrap-up

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AUGUST 2019 WRAP-UP

Another super busy reading/book month!
There was the awesome Bout of Books week, which was my 14th participation, and probably my best ever, as far as reading is concerned, with an average of 137 pages/day over a week.

I also FINALLY took time to go through all my reviews and check which ones I had forgotten to list on my Authors’ page recap. I haven’t entered the corrections yet, so be prepared to see one day that number of total reviews actually go much higher, about 70 more!! I usually add a title to that page each time I review a book, but there were some weeks when I totally forgot!

My biggest achievement was to FINALLY finish reading Don Quixote!
I realize I had forgotten to count Book 1 when I finished it in March, so I counted both books here, which makes my average slightly higher than what it should be.
I guess earlier on, I was planning on counting the 2 volumes of Don Quixote as 1 book, and wait for the end to list it. But now that I have read it all, I realize it makes much more sense to count it as 2 different books, as there were 11 years before the publication of volume 2.

I have also caught up a bit with reviews to write,
and I’m slowly but surely cleaning my Goodreads TBR shelf.

I was thrilled to have my review of Louise Penny’s latest book, A Better Man, be a featured review on Criminal Element.

So here is what I read in August:

13 books:
7 in print 
=  with 2,179 pages, an average of 70 pages/day
6 in audio
= 41H17, an average of 1H19
= this has to be my best audio time ever. I’m back to painting, that explains, as I like listening to audiobooks as I paint.
The total of books is also my highest of the year so far, even if I counted only 1 for Don Quixote.

7 in mystery:

  1. Central Park, by Guillaume Musso – French audio
  2. Goodbye Paris, by Mike Bond – for France Book Tours
  3. Un appartement à Paris, by Guillaume Musso French audio
  4. Diary of a Murderer, by Young-Ha Kim – ebook for review
  5. Le Mystère de la chambre jaune, by Gaston Leroux – audio, for Classics Club
  6. The Dark Lake, by Sarah Bailey
  7. Surface, by Olivier Norek – French audio

4 in literary fiction:

  1. Tales of Old Russia, by Paul Shukin – unpublished short stories by a friend of mine
  2. The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole – audio, for Classics Club
  3. and 4. Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, ebooks  for Classics Club

1 in manga/Film comic adaptation:

  1. The Secret World of Arrietty, vol. 1 by Hayao Miyazaki

1 in nonfiction:

  1. Dictionnaire des idées reçues, by Gustave Flaubert, French audio for Classics Club

MY FAVORITES IN AUGUST

Surface  Central Park

READING CHALLENGES & RECAP

Classics Club: 49/50 (until end of 2020)
2019 Calendar of Crime Challenge 15/12?
Where Are You Reading?: 21/50 – to be finished in ??
Total of books read in 2019 = 65/100
Number of books added to my TBR this past month= 18

BOOKS I REVIEWED THIS MONTH

I saw another book blogger including here reviews she wrote. As I often review books read months earlier, I think I’ll try.

A Better Man DonQuixote Diary of a Murderer The Sentence is Death  The Republic crimson lake Redemption Point Gomorrah Gambit

What do you think? Do you enjoy my list of recent reviews here?

GIVEAWAYS

The open giveaways are on my homepage

MOST POPULAR BOOK REVIEW THIS PAST MONTH

Rebecca

click on the cover to access my review

MOST POPULAR POST THIS PAST MONTH
– NON BOOK REVIEW –

Six Degrees of Separation:
from Versailles to Hacking

BOOK BLOG THAT BROUGHT ME MOST TRAFFIC THIS PAST MONTH

iRead Book Tours
please go visit

TOP COMMENTERS OF THE MONTH

Judy at Keep the Wisdom
Karen at Booker Talk
Silvia at Silvia Cachia

BLOG MILESTONES 

2,014 posts
over 4,890 subscribers
over 181,410 hits

*

Come back on Monday
to see the books I plan to read in September,
with a very special announcement,
and a treat coming!


Eiffel Tower OrangeEiffel Tower OrangeEiffel Tower Orange

How was YOUR month of August?

2019-Monthly-Wrap-Up-Round-Up_300

Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
 has created a Month In Review meme
where you can link your monthly recap posts
Thanks Nicole!

 

Book review: Talk to Me

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Talk to me

Talk to Me:
How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think
by James Vlahos
Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
03/26/2019
Nonfiction/Technology
336 pages
Goodreads

Buy the book

The title and subtitle give you an idea of the content. That’s exactly what it is, and much more.  
Talk to Me: How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think is a mine of information, and up to date.

Click to continue reading