I just realised I haven't yet pointed you in the direction of some of the excellent non-fiction in the new issue of Shiny New Books. Very remiss of me, since I am the non-fiction editor. So here goes.
In fact I only reviewed one non-fiction book myself this time round -- I had another couple on the TBR but wasn't very excited by either of them. The one I did review is the one in the picture, The Nuns of Sant' Ambrogio. Sub-titled 'The story of a convent scandal', this is an extraordinary and fascinating read. As I said in my review,
Written by a celebrated German papal historian, it manages to combine highly academic ecclesiastical history with true crime and more than a smattering of frank sexual revelations.
Intrigued?
There are lots more, and I'd like to read several of them, so here are some links to whet your appetites:
Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris is described in Victoria's review as 'an outstanding work of cinema history'.
Annabel reviewed Andy Miller's The Year of Reading Dangerously, and found it 'very enjoyable and always entertaining'.
And one I'd love to read: Melanie Keen's Science in Wonderland: The Scientific Fairy Tales of Victorian Britain, of which our reviewer Helen Parry wrote 'science as rational magic, marvelous and fun'.