Nonfiction November - week 3

We have reached week 3 in Nonfiction November, hosted by Katie at Doing Dewey This is all about being the expert, asking the expert or becoming an expert. There are three ways to approach this week.

• Be the Expert: Share three or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend
• Ask the Expert: Put a call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read
• Become the Expert: Create your own list of books on a topic that you would like to rea

Can I be so bold as to use all three of the options? It is rewarding to be an expert, fantastic to be able to ask and expert, which will, hopefully, made you become an expert.

My main interest in nonfiction is history. Although it seems to take a lesser part in the educational flow (at least in Sweden), I think it is important to know and remember our history. The German philosopher Friedrich Hegel said: "The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."  Another philosopher, George Santayana, said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." How true are not those reflections?

To be the expert of the Brontës

While living in Brussels I was a member of the Brussels Brontë Group. Charlotte and Emily Brontë spent some time there in order to study to become teachers. They wanted to open a school of their own. That was not to be. Instead they became world famous writers, still tremendously popular. I read a lot about them and have read all their books (except the Juvenilia, but I will do). Here are three of their books (one from each of them) and three books about them, that I like very much. I can recommend them all. The nonfiction ones will make you an expert in not time at all.

Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre
Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights
Anne Brontë - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The Brontës by Juliet Barker is THE biography of the family. A thick book with everything connected to them. Excellent read and you get to know it all.
The Brontës in Brussels by Helen MacEwan. If you are interested about their stay in Brussels, and want to follow in their footsteps, this is the guide to where they lived and enjoyed life in Brussels. Helen is the founder of the Brussels Brontë Group, which has researched the sisters stay in Brussels, and given it another angle, as well as highlighted the influence their stay had on their writing, Charlotte especially. Her book Villette is about her stay there, and Villette is a synonym for Brussels. Emily was not as easily influenced by anything except her beloved moors.
Charlotte Brontë's Promised Land and The Pensionnat Revisited (More light shed on the Brussels of the Brontës) by Eric Ruijssenars are two books going into details about Charlotte's and Emily's life at the pensionnat. Well researched, it gives you everything you need to know about how it was to live in Brussels at the time, and how they spent their time in the school and surroundings.

Ask the expert about the Congress of Vienna

This is an interesting Congress, held from November 1814 to June 1815, where the great powers of the day met to provide a longterm peace plan for Europe. It took place in the aftermath of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Participants were Austria, Britain, Russia, Prussia and France.

It would be interesting to read more about the political situation and the implications of the decisions made by the congress. Interested in anything you can recommend.

After reading your suggestions I hope to become the expert.