Audiobook: Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 065

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. A review of William Carlos Williams’ “Kora in Hell” by Robert McAlmon is one of several selections devoted to literature and learning. Others are H. P. Lovecraft’s “Literary Composition;” George Herbert Betts’s “The Mind and Its Education;” William Wells Newell’s “Michelangelo as Poet;” and Thoreau’s “Wild Apples.” Humor receives its due in “The Methods of Mr. Sellyer: A Book Store Study” (Stephen Leacock); “The Plumber” (Charles Dudley Warner); “The Yawn of the Computer Age” (NSA Cryptolog); and an unnamed boy’s “Essay on Girls.” Innovation and inquiry are treated in a 17th century study “Of a Deaf Man’s Capacity to Speak;” a 1794 description of color blindness (John Dalton); and an 1896 exposition on scientific kite flying. Historical topics include the status of Palestine and Syria in the 1920’s; democratic socialism (Victor Considerant); Letters to Muriardachus (11th century, Anselm of Canterbury), and an Illinois flour mill’s change over from horse team to gas powered delivery truck in 1913. Politics meet history in readings of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee death notification letter and two selections from the 2019 Mueller Report–the executive summaries from volumes 1 and 2. Finally, for those with the munchies or a sweet tooth, Vol. 65 has recipes from Maria Parloa’s “Chocolate and Cocoa and Homemade Candy Recipes.” Summary by Sue Anderson.