If I had the time...

My latest list of newly-received non-fiction which I'd read...if I had the time:

Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family’s Schizophrenia
by Patrick Tracey (a journey to trace his two sisters’ illness)

Alphabet Juice: the Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences: with Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory by Roy Blount Jr. (witty, punny wordplay)

Fabergé’s Eggs: the Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire by Toby Faber (the tale of the czar’s 49 bejeweled eggs)

Getting Into Guinness: One Man’s Longest, Fastest, Highest Journey Inside the World’s Most Famous Record Book by Larry Olmstead (why do people do this? Olmstead explains the obsession.)

The Big Necessity: the Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters by Rose George (Sanitation as a central challenge to human development)

Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces by Robert Clark (Story of the 1966 flood in Florence which killed 33 and damaged over 14,000 artworks.)

The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez (Bio of a phony paintings peddler and his Nazi ties)

Unforgettable Walks to Take Before You Die by Steve Watkins & Clare Jones (I’ve done two of them!)

Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life by Christina Marsden Gillis (a summer resident of Gotts Island, SW of Mt. Desert, for 40+ years)

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein (originated as zany schtick on NPR’s Weekend Edition)