Nonfiction

Into Thin Air : A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer.

I highly recommend this book about the climbing disaster in March 1996 when eight people died in a storm on Mount Everest. This is the sort of book you stay up all night to finish. Jon Krakauer, a journalist on one of the expeditions, survived the trip, but was left with personal guilt he tries to exorcise through this book. You can almost feel the cold and lack of oxygen as you read this book.

A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr. I expected the worst when I grabbed this book at the airport between flights, but it turned out to be a gripping page-turner. This true story details the lawsuit between W. R. Grace and Beatrice foods, whose toxic waste contaminated the water supply of Woburn, MA, and a group of citizens whose children died of cancer. The book centers around the plaintiff's lawyer, Jan Schlictmann who starts out flamboyant and free-spending, and ends up nearly destroyed by the case. The book bogs down a bit at the end as the case goes into Dickensenian appeals, and it's not completely convincing that the companies' contamination really did cause the cancer. However, after reading this book, you may never drink tap water again.

Class : A Guide Through the American Status System by Paul Fussell.

This cynically amusing look at America's class structure skewers everyone from rich to poor. This book is hardest on the tackiness of the lower middle class, but there's something to offend everyone in this book. What the "Preppie Handbook" does for the upper-middle class, this book does for all classes. You can use the test in back to determine your class from your living room decorations.

Ken Shirriff: shirriff@eng.sun.com This page: http://www.righto.com/books/nonfiction.html Copyright 1998 Ken Shirriff.

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