Quick Review: Non-fiction

Today’s quick review is of two non-fiction books I recently picked up from the library.

• Floating City: A Rogue Sociologist Lost and Found in New York’s Underground Economy by Sudhir Venkatesh
• Rating: ★★★½ [ratings guide] 
• Venkatesh focuses his exploration on the sex trade in NYC and the connections formed in an underground economy, crossing dividing lines such as class and race. I liked the informal tone and the variety of people Venkatesh meets. I’m not usually too interested in books about the sex trade but I enjoyed this one because it’s a lot more about community, relationships, and a different system of economics than the actual in-and-outs of the sex industry. 
• I was surprised at the negative reviews of this book. It seems most reviewers didn’t realize what form this book was going to take The author’s note appearing at the very end of the book would have better served the reader if it had been at the beginning. In the note, Venkatesh describes the circumstances and time period that gave rise to this book, that it is a memoir and not appropriate for academic publications, and that identities and time frames have been altered to preserve the privacy of individuals. These were all things I wondered about while reading the book. Placing the author’s note at the beginning would give the reader better context for the story ahead.
• I’m not sure the self-exploration parts of this book are very convincing. They seemed unnecessary to me, like Venkatesh felt this was the sort of story where he should learn something about himself and not just about the people he studied, so he added some reflective passages. Thankfully, there weren’t too many of them. He does state that this is a memoir not suitable for academic publication,  yet at times it feels like a superficial memoir – like, since this isn’t an academic book he crafted it instead into a memoir rather than just leaving it as a ‘popular non-fiction’ book. 
• This GoodReads review does a great job of outlining what’s great about this book (lives explored) and what’s not so great (author inserted as character).
• Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen
• Rating: ★★★½ [ratings guide] 
• Good introduction for beginners who think they may have an interest in practising Buddhism (AKA not a scholarly book)
• For me, the first part of the book was a good recap while the second and third parts had some great writing on the practice and morality of Buddhism.
• The book is further divided into 12 chapters, with many small, manageable passages.
• I noted a few sentences as good reminders. I particularly liked the passage about a leaf falling from a tree.

Have you read any good non-fiction recently?