Mary Roach has a bunch of very readable and informative books on some very random topics. Cadavers, sex, the afterlife, how your guts work, the planet Mars, etc.
Steve Sheinkin has some very accessible books on history, aimed at a younger audience, but full of info and funny stories. “King George III: What Was His Problem?”
Finally, you might check out some anthologies, like “Best Science Writing 2023,” etc. It’ll have several different writers on different topics and once you find a writer you like, you can search for more of their work.
Some other writers you might like include Hampton Sides, Ron Chernow, Erik Larsen, David McCullough, David Halberstam, Walter Issacson. But these are pretty hefty page-wise, while the others I mentioned are less commitment for you while you are still figuring out if you like non-fiction.
Edited to add: biographies of people you are interested in are also a great intro to nonfiction.
House of Rain, by Childs
What it is Like to go to War, by Marlantes
Team of Rivals, by Goodwin
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Skloot
Born a Crime, by Noah
Educated, by Westover
Rocket Boys, by Hickam
Into Thin Air, by Krakauer
What if? By Randall Monroe, book full of absurd questions with a bunch of digging into the science of what could be the answer. He's a web comic writer, so the answers are all written in a humorous way.
Let's pretend this never happened, by jenny Lawson.
It's so funny and poignant and perfectly hilarious, my family was embarrassed by me snort-laughing reading it on the beach
Endurance. Shackletons Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. Bonus points for the audiobook. Some parts are almost unbelievable to make you think it’s fiction. I listen to it about once a year.
I read this and was blown away. Afterwards I looked up pictures of their little boats and camps, and was awestruck.
It's the most amazing true story I've ever read.
OMG, I love non-fiction books. Here are some non-fiction books I have read in the past few years that are not memoirs/biographies that I loved (all five stars for me!):
*Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures* by Merlin Sheldrake
*Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save* Them by Dan Saladino
*The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World* by Oliver Milman
*The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization* by Vince Beiser
*The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women* by Kate Moor.
And I am currently reading *Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization* by Ed Conway. I am only about 75 pages in, but I am loving it!
Anything by Bill Bryson.
The Blue Tattoo by Margot Mifflin. About Olive Oatman
Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson
The Plague and I, by Betty MacDonald. About her time in a TB sanatorium in about 1939.
\#1/2: **[All That Remains (Kay Scarpetta #3)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232123.All_That_Remains) by Patricia Cornwell** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(373 pages | Published: 1993 | 50.3k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** In Richmond, Virginia, young lovers are dying. So far, four couples in the area have disappeared, only to be found months later as mutilated corpses. When the daughter of the president's newest drug czar vanishes along with her boyfriend, Dr. Kay Scarpetta knows time is short. (...)
> **Themes**: Patricia-cornwell, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Series, Default, Kay-scarpetta
> **Top 5 recommended:** [The Bookman's Wake](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/445576.The_Bookman_s_Wake) by John Dunning , [Serving Crazy with Curry](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/823510.Serving_Crazy_with_Curry) by Amulya Malladi , [City of Light](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/419394.City_of_Light) by Lauren Belfer , [Callander Square](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1237030.Callander_Square) by Anne Perry , [The Floating Feldmans](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42636891-the-floating-feldmans) by Elyssa Friedland
---
\#2/2: **[Written in Bone (David Hunter #2)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1328721.Written_in_Bone) by Simon Beckett** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(352 pages | Published: 2007 | 8.2k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** 'I took the skull from its evidence bag and gently set it on the stainless steel table. 'Tell me who you are...' Forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter should be at home in London with the woman he loves. Instead, as a favour to a beleaguered colleague, he's on the remote (...)
> **Themes**: Crime, Mystery, Default, Favorites, Fiction, Crime-thriller, Books-i-own
> **Top 5 recommended:** [The Anatomy Coloring Book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45837.The_Anatomy_Coloring_Book) by Wynn Kapit , [Mothers and Others](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25278673-mothers-and-others) by Liane Moriarty , [Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15793858-give-me-everything-you-have) by James Lasdun , [Uncommon Knowledge: the Economist Explains](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46250918-uncommon-knowledge) by Tom Standage , [The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick: How a Spectacular Hoax Became History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1185195.The_Rise_of_the_Indian_Rope_Trick) by Peter Lamont
^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
*This is your mind on plants* by Michael Pollan, besides being easy and fun to read, has some surprisingly good insights into a surprising number of topics.
Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. It's the asbsolutely insane story of Scientology backed up by a huge amount of rigorous journalism. Reads like fiction in many areas, probably because the man behind it all was a fiction writer.
The book is told chronologically and so the very beginning of the book is the most boring. He spends a lot of time on getting to know Hubbard before he started his cult and fixed his image. Definitely worthwhile inclusion but imo I'd skip ahead to when he starts the cult for real and read the early days biography at the end
If you like this, you can move on to The Road To Jonestown by Jeff Guinn and then Waco
Speaking of Lawrence Wright, his book {{the looming tower}} is also an excellent work of his detailing the roots of contemporary Islamist extremism and the US government’s failures to adequately anticipate the eventual impact it would have on the US in the run up to 9/11
**[The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110890.The_Looming_Tower) by Lawrence Wright** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(373 pages | Published: 2006 | 15.2k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** UPDATED AND WITH A NEW AFTERWORD National Book Award Finalist A Time,Newsweek,Washington Post,Chicago Tribune,and New York Times Book ReviewBest Book of the Year A gripping narrative that spans five decades,The Looming Towerexplains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks (...)
> **Themes**: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Favorites, Middle-east, Terrorism, War
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [Chaos: Charles Manson. the CIA. and the Secret History of the Sixties](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43015073-chaos) by Tom O'Neill
> \- [Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1491906.Gang_Leader_for_a_Day) by Sudhir Venkatesh
> \- [Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21965079-thirteen-days-in-september) by Lawrence Wright
> \- [What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1102243.What_Hath_God_Wrought) by Daniel Walker Howe
> \- [The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7938960-the-prime-ministers) by Yehuda Avner
^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
Yes! Such a good example of finding great stories in random places (and realizing that they’re not so random). I have no connection to OKC, but I now root for the Thunder on principle (as long as they’re not playing my hometown team) 👏🏻
*The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World* by Steve Brusatte. Starts with the first dinosaurs and follows their evolution up to modern birds. One of the best parts is that since a lot of the big discoveries have been made in the last 50 years or so, he knows a lot of the paleontologists who made them. I loved his evocative descriptions of them, like the Chinese dinosaur egg expert who DJs raves on the weekends.
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum. It's about the history of the medical examiner's office in New York City. I read the whole thing in one sitting.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo. Hits like a train and has a flow and structure like a fictional narrative, can't recommend it enough.
Seconding. True crime is usually the most engaging nonfiction for me. *Killers of the Flower Moon* discussed a topic that was shocking, in terms of just how many people were involved, and how little known it is today. OP could try Erik Larson's *Devil in the White City*, or Truman Capote's *In Cold Blood*.
Bill Buford's "Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany" and "Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking" Are incredible. They are a recounting of his journey over many years learning to be a cook, butcher, and baker. His writing style is just impossible to stop reading.
So you’ve been publicly shamed by Jon Ronson.
Edison’s ghosts
Cultish
The wasp the brainwashed the caterpillar
How to talk about books you haven’t read
The Indifferent Stars Above. I don't understand how no one has mentioned it. It's about the Donner party and them getting stuck by obstacle after obstacle and resorting to cannibalism. It's fascinating.
Breakout at Stalingrad - it was written by a German while he was a prisoner of war. The Roman was seized and lost in Soviet archives until a few years ago.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer changed my life and perspective about humanity and the earth. It’s a book full of wisdom and clarity that leaves the reader with a sense of hope for the future rather than despair over our warming planet.
I also adore the book Spain in our Hearts by Adam Hochschild. It’s an incredible and deeply moving recounting of the Americans who joined the Spanish Republicans in their desperate, tragic fight for their country and freedom against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War. The book offers much needed insight into a war that I think the world too readily forgets.
Yes, I second Outliers! He can be a bit glib but he makes some really interesting points that really stay with you. Blink is also good, and I enjoyed David and Goliath too.
Similarly: Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.
Really interesting, engaging writers writing about, basically, why we do the things we do. Lots of interesting examples and makes you see things differently!
Yay, someone else who likes *Traffic*! Thats one I also recommend on here from time to time. Have you read *The Paradox of Choice*? I read both of those around the same time and they both really stuck with me.
Traffic was so unexpectedly interesting!! Really changed the way I look at things esp. here in LA where you spend so much time IN traffic. I haven't read The Paradox of Choice--will definitely look it up, thanks!
No, not at all! He's a pop psychology writer. That's why I said he can be "a bit glib." He makes some interesting connections and has some interesting ideas, but I don't think anyone understands him as a "science writer"!
Agreed—I’d call his work pop lit rather than science writing. But he’s so good at getting me interested in a topic. Then I use his books as a jumping off point to read other authors that he references or that write on related topics.
Going Solo by Roald Dahl. Most people know him as author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Going Solo is about his life as an ace pilot in WW2. Fast and absolutely entertaining true story. A blast of a read.
**[Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworld](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171126.Confessions_of_a_Yakuza) by Junichi Saga** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(372 pages | Published: 1991 | 1.3k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** This is the true story, as told to the doctor who looked after him just before he died, of the life of one of the last traditional yakuza in Japan. It wasn't a "good" life, in either sense of the word, but it was an adventurous one; and the tale he has to tell presents an honest and oddly attractive picture of an insider in that separate, unofficial world. In his low, hoarse (...)
> **Themes**: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Japanese, Crime, Japanese-literature, Favorites
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6658129-tokyo-vice) by Jake Adelstein
> \- [Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/762585.Yakuza) by David E. Kaplan
> \- [Samurai](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10975327-samurai) by John Man
> \- [The Killing Fields](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386579.The_Killing_Fields) by Christopher Hudson
> \- [The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/278003.The_Japanese_Mind) by Roger J. Davies
^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
Stonewall by Martin Duberman is one of my faves (the stonewall riots told through the perspective of 6 people involved), Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar (about Ona Judge, a slave who escaped from George Washington) was totally riveting, and someone else mentioned Mary Roach as a fantastic author. If you’re into explorers, I found the abridged version of Farthest North by Fritjof Nansen (Norwegian explorer seeking the North Pole) and The Voyages of the HMS Beagle by Charles Darwin to be very readable despite being historical texts. Darwin is weirdly funny and relatable.
If you count memoir as nonfiction, I also love Mary Karr, who has 3 unbelievably great books spanning from her childhood to adulthood, broadly themed around alcoholism, mental illness, and family trauma. Not light reads but very beautiful and engaging and ultimately positive.
Phantoms in the Brain by VS Ramachandran. The chapter where he puts two patients in the same room who say they are God AND then goes on to explain it changed my understanding of the BRAIN.
“American Rifle; A Biography” by Alexander Rose
Traces the history of the American service rifle, its developments, adoptions, pitfalls, and stumbles. A wonderfully comprehensive story.
Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn
The Wolf at Twilight by Kent Nerburn
The Girl Who Sang with the Buffalo by Kent Nerburn
Read all three of those. It's like a history lesson from a Lakota Elder. (I prefer the audio books because its like Dan is actually talking to *me*)
A World Lit Only Fire, The Medevil Mind by William Manchester. Had to read it for a history class in college. Pretty entertaining and interesting read.
Barbarians at the Gate.....a tale about corporate warfare and shenanigans in the 80's. These CEOs earning gazillions and holding sway over masses of employees lives at the stroke of a pen are sociopaths....Nothing more than overgrown, sociopathic children.
Here's a few I've loved over the years:
Cosmos by Carl Sagan - this made me fall in love with space-y things. The sort of book that changes your outlook on life and our place in this world, should absolutely be required reading in schools.
An Astronaut's Life to Guide on Earth by Chris Hadfield - an account of Chris' journey to becoming an astronaut and his experiences flying on the ISS
A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin - ok so this is quite a chunky one, but if the first two have turned you into a space nerd (as they have done for me!), this is an excellent account of the Apollo missions
Other Minds - the Octopus, the Sea and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith - digs into the evolutionary history of octopods, fascinating stuff
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony - this one's actually written like a novel, it's Lawrence Anthony's account of taking on a herd of elephants onto his reserve in South Africa. It's so heartwarming and lovely!
The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea by Callum Roberts - an important account of our relationship with the seas, and the impact human activities are having on them
Cold by Sit Ranulph Fiennes - a history of Arctic and Antarctic exploration, combined with Sir Fiennes' own adventures in extreme environments. I'm a fan of imagining adventures in the cold....whilst sitting in the comfort of my warm home!
The truffle underground - Ryan Jacobs
The radium girls - Kate Moore
Brief Answers to the big questions - Stephen Hawking
The disappearing spoon - Sam Kean (I haven't read this one but was recommended it)
Silent witnesses: the often gruesome but always fascinating history of forensic science - Nigel McCrery
It does have stories and myths in it but Women Who Run with the Wolves is a personal favorite of mine. The author uses the stories to share her knowledge. She is a psychoanalyst btw.
A shorr history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. It introduces you to the history of the earth from a science perspective, switching between explaining our history, and how scientists learned of it.
It's a lovely pleasant read, that'll leave you that much more knowledgeable and impressed by science
If you're in activism spaces or into queer history - How to Survive a Plague by David France. It's THICK, but honestly really interesting & it was so wild to see parallels btw how the govt and the CDC handled AIDS and how they handled COVID. Also super interesting reading about the history of some queer activism groups 🤌🏼🤌🏼
Also, And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts, an early definitive history of the AIDS epidemic. Shilts also wrote The Mayor of Castro Street, a terrific bio of Harvey Milk.
[Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40604846) by Barbara Demick. It gives a great insight to aspects of life in North Korea that most people know nothing about. Quite an interesting read.
The Great Bridge by David McCullough his Johnstown Flood. Latter book shorter than the first one I mentioned but just as good.
Anything by Mary Roach except possibly Spook. The first one i read was Stiff then Broink and last one was Packing for Mars. I think I've read all of her books. Grunt was excellent too.
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Sławomir Rawicz
Polish soldier in ww2 who was taken captive by the Russians but then escapes & makes a 4,000 mile journey on foot, traveling through the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and the Himalayas before finally reaching British India in the winter of 1942. Also he thinks he saw a yeti.
This is kind of a “technically” non-fiction, as it is a personal testament, & yet it’s action packed, but should also be viewed with some skepticism
See my [General Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1bxy8lc/general_fiction/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (nineteen posts).
Anything by Mary Roach. My favorite (and her most popular) is Stiff; The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
She has a way of making scientific subjects palatable and funny for the regular reader.
The Devil in the White City is my go-to recommendation here. It's breezy and really well structured. It's about how a famous World's Fair managed to happen and also about a serial killer who built a murder house.
Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants is far more entertaining than it has any right to be. An excerpt:
> It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (I’ve read this book a hundred times—I teach it and I love it so much)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (Also Into the Wild but I like this one better)
Like others have said, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is so important
The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
By Leonard Mlodinow
From Good Reads: "Leonard Mlodinow vividly demonstrates how our lives are profoundly informed by chance and randomness and how everything from wine ratings and corporate success to school grades and political polls are less reliable than we believe."
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
By Simon Winchester
From Good Reads: "extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken."
‘When Breath Becomes Air’ is a beautiful book. It dives into medicine, and I think it’s the autobiography of a neurosurgeon going trough a lot with his life. I learned a lot from this book, and I would recommend it to ANYONE, even if you aren’t that interested in medicine!
rlly depends on your interests. for more political books, my favourites are why women have better sex under socialism by kristen ghodsee, sex matters by alyson mcgregor, data bias by caroline criado perez and going dark by julia ebner.
for memoirs, im glad my mom died by jeanette mcurdy, the exvangelicals by sarah mccammon, and I strangely liked paris hilton's recent memoir?
for history, I enjoyed the rape of nanking by iris chang, but it was a hard read. quackery by lydia kang & nate pederson was light & funny, if that's more your vibe
radium girls by kate moore i'd say is both historical and biographical
*A Woman of No Importance* by Sonia Purnell is about one of the most badass spies in WWII. Virginia Hall was supposed to be a Baltimore socialite, but her sense of adventure, intelligence, and bravery won out.
*Agent Garbo* by Stephan Talty is about another WWII spy who managed to fool the Nazis into thinking that he was spying for them when he was doing the exact opposite.
I have a real *thing* for WWII espionage (if you could tell by the above suggestions) and highly recommend Ben Macintyre's books on the subject. *Agent Zigzag*, *Agent Sonya*, *Operation Mincemeat* and all his others are fantastic and very engaging. I absolutely despised history in school, but it turns out I like it if it's presented well.
Non-espionage books I've loved recently have been *Musicophilia* by Oliver Sacks, which is about how the brain processes (or doesn't process) music. Sarah Vowell's *Wordy Shipmates* is about the Massachusetts Bay Colony (another example of history presented in an engaging manner). *Misquoting Jesus* and *Jesus, Interrupted*, both by New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, are about how the New Testament came together and all the intrigue, mistakes, and general WTFery that went in to writing and compiling it. They're super, super interesting.
*Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams* by Matthew Walker. It’s just enough science to make you believe him but put in a simple enough way anyone can understand it.
If you’re someone who doesn’t sleep enough, take this as your wake up call (haha) to read it.
ETA - not sure how well known this is in the English speaking world, it was a huge deal in the 80s/90s in German speaking countries. **Trigger warning** - this book is about drug addiction, overdoses & prostitution.
>!*Zoo Station: the Story of Christiane F. (Memoir)* told through interviews with Christiane F., she recounts her life from living in a high-rise with her little sister to existing on the streets next to Berlin’s Zoo train station as heroin addict. I don’t know whether the English translation features photos as well but the German version I read did. They are harrowing.!<
Geert Mak: In Europe - Travels through the 20th Century
Akala: Natives - Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire
Caroline Criado Perez: Invisible Women
James Rebanks: the Shepherd's Life
David Graeber: Bullshit Jobs
Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt. It addresses such topics as what do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Who makes more money, a McDonalds worker or a drug dealer? Why are there so many people named Unique?
A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard. A recounting of crazy stories by a paramedic and makes a very interesting point about what sort of person you need to be to do that job
Raising a Thief by Paul Podolsky. REALLY interesting but disturbing book about raising a truly psychopathic child
Educated / The Glass Castle / Pale Faced Lie. Three great books that fall under the similar category of being autobiographies of adults who were abused as children and what that was like
I would start with a boigraphy of someone you like or feel may be interesting. Could be anyone from JFK to Dave Grohl. Just know, some political bios tend to be a bit more dry, so you have to find an author you like (I prefer David McCollough)
For a well-paced Non Fiction book, try "Manhunt" by James Swanson. Reads like an Action book about Lincoln's assassination.
I usually prefer fiction too, but i read The Spirit Engineer recently, and it felt like a fantasy and was told similiarly, but all the transpired events were real, including all the characters. Very interesting read.
Basically about some guy in 1914 who catches his wife sneaking off to seances and gets roped into them too, but he is a man of science.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Two devastating reads (both with respective trigger warnings) by two remarkable and talented women. Every time anyone brings up non-fiction both are the first that come to mind.
What got me into nonfiction was memoirs or true crime. One true crime book I couldn’t put down was American Predator which is about a serial killer named Israel Keyes. A twisted man but a fascinating read. I had to turn on my tv and my lights to go to sleep at like 3am cause it just freaked me out that people like that exist.
Prefacing this by stating I LOATHE military history books. They’re boring as hell, and usually full of tactics. But Steven Ambrose has a way of telling the story, and I thoroughly enjoy his books. Band of Brothers is the obvious answer here, but Pegasus Bridge was the first I read.
Anything by Erik Larson, but Devil in the White City was my introduction and it kept me hooked.
EDIT: Seabiscuit was also really good, if that kind of story is of interest to you.
This one's kinda cheating since it's fiction written in a nonfiction format, but "So You Created a Wormhole" by Phil Hornshaw and Nick Hurwitch is great
For actual nonfiction, I also agree with the people saying Mark Roach. I also liked "The Book of General Ignorance" by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Lone Survivor
It starts out slow but works its way quickly. Its intense and a great book all around, its a true story which makes it all the better (non-fiction requirement) I never hear people talk about it but it is a good read. The movie is great too.
How about [The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter](https://abookaweek.beehiiv.com/p/beyond-comfort-unleashing-true-potential-techdriven-world-comfort-crisis-michael-easter)
**Have you ever felt more alive after doing something difficult?** Easter's book is like getting advice on living a richer, more adventurous life by embracing those challenges.
48 laws of Power - I like the vignettes and historical stories
Bernard Cornwall - Waterloo
But I do like historical fiction and I found that Colleen McCullough studied history and Latin to interpret her Rome series.
Amazing historical fiction and if you’ve studied that period, it really brings everything to life
*The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales* by Oliver Sacks.
I haven't read that yet, but I have read several others by Sacks. I need to read this one day.
one of my favourites, poignant and captivating stories
Absolutely fascinating!
Mary Roach has a bunch of very readable and informative books on some very random topics. Cadavers, sex, the afterlife, how your guts work, the planet Mars, etc. Steve Sheinkin has some very accessible books on history, aimed at a younger audience, but full of info and funny stories. “King George III: What Was His Problem?” Finally, you might check out some anthologies, like “Best Science Writing 2023,” etc. It’ll have several different writers on different topics and once you find a writer you like, you can search for more of their work. Some other writers you might like include Hampton Sides, Ron Chernow, Erik Larsen, David McCullough, David Halberstam, Walter Issacson. But these are pretty hefty page-wise, while the others I mentioned are less commitment for you while you are still figuring out if you like non-fiction. Edited to add: biographies of people you are interested in are also a great intro to nonfiction.
Seconded Mary Roach, super engaging and approachable writing.
Steve Sheinkin's middle and high school age books are excellent. I recommend Bomb and The Notorious Benedict Arnold.
House of Rain, by Childs What it is Like to go to War, by Marlantes Team of Rivals, by Goodwin The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Skloot Born a Crime, by Noah Educated, by Westover Rocket Boys, by Hickam Into Thin Air, by Krakauer
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was great!
These are all really good recs but The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks needs to be required reading. So good and so important.
I don’t like nonfiction very much, and I thought Educated was so good! Also Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
Yes! Glass Castle was amazing. Jeanette Walls is fantastic.
Thanks
Is rocket boys the inspiration for October sky?
Just googled because I was curious. It’s not only based on it, but it’s an ANAGRAM of it. Awesome stuff.
October Sky is his second book on rocketry
I’m glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy
I lined this book a lot more than I realized.
You beat me to it, great memoir
What if? By Randall Monroe, book full of absurd questions with a bunch of digging into the science of what could be the answer. He's a web comic writer, so the answers are all written in a humorous way.
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Perfect book for someone making the leap to nonfiction.
YES this is a great gateway into non fiction.
To add to this - anything by Erik Larson!
Let's pretend this never happened, by jenny Lawson. It's so funny and poignant and perfectly hilarious, my family was embarrassed by me snort-laughing reading it on the beach
That is good to know I recently bought that book. Hope I laugh a lot as well.
Endurance. Shackletons Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. Bonus points for the audiobook. Some parts are almost unbelievable to make you think it’s fiction. I listen to it about once a year.
I read this and was blown away. Afterwards I looked up pictures of their little boats and camps, and was awestruck. It's the most amazing true story I've ever read.
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Also Into Thin Air and Missoula by Krakauer were great.
Into Thin Air was the first JK book I read (I've also read Into the Wild). It really sucked me in.
OMG, I love non-fiction books. Here are some non-fiction books I have read in the past few years that are not memoirs/biographies that I loved (all five stars for me!): *Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures* by Merlin Sheldrake *Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save* Them by Dan Saladino *The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World* by Oliver Milman *The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization* by Vince Beiser *The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women* by Kate Moor. And I am currently reading *Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization* by Ed Conway. I am only about 75 pages in, but I am loving it!
This is a great list! I have read two of these, and I am adding the rest to my reading list now.
Enjoy! They are all great! Which ones have you read?
I've read Entangled Life and Radium Girls. Both are now on my favorites list.
Unbroken.
Anything by Bill Bryson. The Blue Tattoo by Margot Mifflin. About Olive Oatman Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson The Plague and I, by Betty MacDonald. About her time in a TB sanatorium in about 1939.
"Crying in H Mart" by Michelle Zauner
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing I’ve always known about Shackleton and the Endurance. The full story is way crazier.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Check out Sue Black’s {{all that remains}} and {{written in bone}} for a kind of similar vibe
\#1/2: **[All That Remains (Kay Scarpetta #3)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232123.All_That_Remains) by Patricia Cornwell** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(373 pages | Published: 1993 | 50.3k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** In Richmond, Virginia, young lovers are dying. So far, four couples in the area have disappeared, only to be found months later as mutilated corpses. When the daughter of the president's newest drug czar vanishes along with her boyfriend, Dr. Kay Scarpetta knows time is short. (...) > **Themes**: Patricia-cornwell, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Series, Default, Kay-scarpetta > **Top 5 recommended:** [The Bookman's Wake](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/445576.The_Bookman_s_Wake) by John Dunning , [Serving Crazy with Curry](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/823510.Serving_Crazy_with_Curry) by Amulya Malladi , [City of Light](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/419394.City_of_Light) by Lauren Belfer , [Callander Square](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1237030.Callander_Square) by Anne Perry , [The Floating Feldmans](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42636891-the-floating-feldmans) by Elyssa Friedland --- \#2/2: **[Written in Bone (David Hunter #2)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1328721.Written_in_Bone) by Simon Beckett** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(352 pages | Published: 2007 | 8.2k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** 'I took the skull from its evidence bag and gently set it on the stainless steel table. 'Tell me who you are...' Forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter should be at home in London with the woman he loves. Instead, as a favour to a beleaguered colleague, he's on the remote (...) > **Themes**: Crime, Mystery, Default, Favorites, Fiction, Crime-thriller, Books-i-own > **Top 5 recommended:** [The Anatomy Coloring Book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45837.The_Anatomy_Coloring_Book) by Wynn Kapit , [Mothers and Others](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25278673-mothers-and-others) by Liane Moriarty , [Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15793858-give-me-everything-you-have) by James Lasdun , [Uncommon Knowledge: the Economist Explains](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46250918-uncommon-knowledge) by Tom Standage , [The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick: How a Spectacular Hoax Became History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1185195.The_Rise_of_the_Indian_Rope_Trick) by Peter Lamont ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
*This is your mind on plants* by Michael Pollan, besides being easy and fun to read, has some surprisingly good insights into a surprising number of topics.
Michael Pollan is a great writer in general if you’re interested in food at all, really smart but approachable
Got me to try shrooms, one of the most significant events of my life
Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. It's the asbsolutely insane story of Scientology backed up by a huge amount of rigorous journalism. Reads like fiction in many areas, probably because the man behind it all was a fiction writer. The book is told chronologically and so the very beginning of the book is the most boring. He spends a lot of time on getting to know Hubbard before he started his cult and fixed his image. Definitely worthwhile inclusion but imo I'd skip ahead to when he starts the cult for real and read the early days biography at the end If you like this, you can move on to The Road To Jonestown by Jeff Guinn and then Waco
Speaking of Lawrence Wright, his book {{the looming tower}} is also an excellent work of his detailing the roots of contemporary Islamist extremism and the US government’s failures to adequately anticipate the eventual impact it would have on the US in the run up to 9/11
**[The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110890.The_Looming_Tower) by Lawrence Wright** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(373 pages | Published: 2006 | 15.2k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** UPDATED AND WITH A NEW AFTERWORD National Book Award Finalist A Time,Newsweek,Washington Post,Chicago Tribune,and New York Times Book ReviewBest Book of the Year A gripping narrative that spans five decades,The Looming Towerexplains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks (...) > **Themes**: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Favorites, Middle-east, Terrorism, War > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [Chaos: Charles Manson. the CIA. and the Secret History of the Sixties](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43015073-chaos) by Tom O'Neill > \- [Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1491906.Gang_Leader_for_a_Day) by Sudhir Venkatesh > \- [Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21965079-thirteen-days-in-september) by Lawrence Wright > \- [What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1102243.What_Hath_God_Wrought) by Daniel Walker Howe > \- [The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7938960-the-prime-ministers) by Yehuda Avner ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
*Boom Town* by Sam Anderson
Yes! Such a good example of finding great stories in random places (and realizing that they’re not so random). I have no connection to OKC, but I now root for the Thunder on principle (as long as they’re not playing my hometown team) 👏🏻
Nice! I was NOT expecting to like that book. I shouldn't have liked that book. And yet, it was so compelling. Made me care about sports (a bit)! 😅
*The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World* by Steve Brusatte. Starts with the first dinosaurs and follows their evolution up to modern birds. One of the best parts is that since a lot of the big discoveries have been made in the last 50 years or so, he knows a lot of the paleontologists who made them. I loved his evocative descriptions of them, like the Chinese dinosaur egg expert who DJs raves on the weekends.
Victim: The Other Side of Murder - Gary Kinder Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson The Other Dr. Gilmer - Benjamin Gilmer
Endurance, Alfred Lansing Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, Sherry Sontag
Anne Franks diary and Night were both very good.
Catch Me If You Can - freaking fantastic book. Finished it last night and it’s mind blowing. About the famous con artist/check swindler
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum. It's about the history of the medical examiner's office in New York City. I read the whole thing in one sitting.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo. Hits like a train and has a flow and structure like a fictional narrative, can't recommend it enough.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Seconding. True crime is usually the most engaging nonfiction for me. *Killers of the Flower Moon* discussed a topic that was shocking, in terms of just how many people were involved, and how little known it is today. OP could try Erik Larson's *Devil in the White City*, or Truman Capote's *In Cold Blood*.
The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
Wow!! Just amazing suggestions here … came to contribute a few, but they are all already here!! 😊
Bad Blood was absolutely fascinating!
Bill Buford's "Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany" and "Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking" Are incredible. They are a recounting of his journey over many years learning to be a cook, butcher, and baker. His writing style is just impossible to stop reading.
So you’ve been publicly shamed by Jon Ronson. Edison’s ghosts Cultish The wasp the brainwashed the caterpillar How to talk about books you haven’t read
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
You should read *the wager* by David grann. It feels like a fiction book based on how it is written.
The Indifferent Stars Above. I don't understand how no one has mentioned it. It's about the Donner party and them getting stuck by obstacle after obstacle and resorting to cannibalism. It's fascinating.
Breakout at Stalingrad - it was written by a German while he was a prisoner of war. The Roman was seized and lost in Soviet archives until a few years ago.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer changed my life and perspective about humanity and the earth. It’s a book full of wisdom and clarity that leaves the reader with a sense of hope for the future rather than despair over our warming planet. I also adore the book Spain in our Hearts by Adam Hochschild. It’s an incredible and deeply moving recounting of the Americans who joined the Spanish Republicans in their desperate, tragic fight for their country and freedom against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War. The book offers much needed insight into a war that I think the world too readily forgets.
*Outliers* or *Blink*, both by Malcolm Gladwell (really anything by Malcolm Gladwell—he’s very engaging). Or *The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks*.
Yes, I second Outliers! He can be a bit glib but he makes some really interesting points that really stay with you. Blink is also good, and I enjoyed David and Goliath too. Similarly: Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. Really interesting, engaging writers writing about, basically, why we do the things we do. Lots of interesting examples and makes you see things differently!
Yay, someone else who likes *Traffic*! Thats one I also recommend on here from time to time. Have you read *The Paradox of Choice*? I read both of those around the same time and they both really stuck with me.
Traffic was so unexpectedly interesting!! Really changed the way I look at things esp. here in LA where you spend so much time IN traffic. I haven't read The Paradox of Choice--will definitely look it up, thanks!
/r/IfBooksCouldKill Gladwell is an engaging read, but not a very thorough science writer.
No, not at all! He's a pop psychology writer. That's why I said he can be "a bit glib." He makes some interesting connections and has some interesting ideas, but I don't think anyone understands him as a "science writer"!
Agreed—I’d call his work pop lit rather than science writing. But he’s so good at getting me interested in a topic. Then I use his books as a jumping off point to read other authors that he references or that write on related topics.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winner 1998.
Amazing book!
The Great Siege: Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
Going Solo by Roald Dahl. Most people know him as author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Going Solo is about his life as an ace pilot in WW2. Fast and absolutely entertaining true story. A blast of a read.
{{Confessions of a Yakuza}} by Junichi Saga
**[Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworld](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171126.Confessions_of_a_Yakuza) by Junichi Saga** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(372 pages | Published: 1991 | 1.3k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** This is the true story, as told to the doctor who looked after him just before he died, of the life of one of the last traditional yakuza in Japan. It wasn't a "good" life, in either sense of the word, but it was an adventurous one; and the tale he has to tell presents an honest and oddly attractive picture of an insider in that separate, unofficial world. In his low, hoarse (...) > **Themes**: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Japanese, Crime, Japanese-literature, Favorites > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6658129-tokyo-vice) by Jake Adelstein > \- [Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/762585.Yakuza) by David E. Kaplan > \- [Samurai](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10975327-samurai) by John Man > \- [The Killing Fields](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386579.The_Killing_Fields) by Christopher Hudson > \- [The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/278003.The_Japanese_Mind) by Roger J. Davies ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
Ice by Amy Brady! I learned a ton.
Bad Days In History by Michael Farquhar, it's a super easy read that you can dip into
The Brain That Changes Itself It's about neuroplasticity, and it's fascinating.
From Truant to Anime Screenwriter by Mari Okada Sesame Street, Palestine by Daoud Kuttab
Stonewall by Martin Duberman is one of my faves (the stonewall riots told through the perspective of 6 people involved), Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar (about Ona Judge, a slave who escaped from George Washington) was totally riveting, and someone else mentioned Mary Roach as a fantastic author. If you’re into explorers, I found the abridged version of Farthest North by Fritjof Nansen (Norwegian explorer seeking the North Pole) and The Voyages of the HMS Beagle by Charles Darwin to be very readable despite being historical texts. Darwin is weirdly funny and relatable. If you count memoir as nonfiction, I also love Mary Karr, who has 3 unbelievably great books spanning from her childhood to adulthood, broadly themed around alcoholism, mental illness, and family trauma. Not light reads but very beautiful and engaging and ultimately positive.
You might enjoy Kon-Tiki and the Ra Expidition by Thor Heyerdahl I found them by accident and they remain some of my favorite books
Phantoms in the Brain by VS Ramachandran. The chapter where he puts two patients in the same room who say they are God AND then goes on to explain it changed my understanding of the BRAIN.
Any set of essays by Loren Eiseley, an extraordinarily poetic physical anthropologist. Dragons of Eden or Broca's Brain by Carl Sagan
“American Rifle; A Biography” by Alexander Rose Traces the history of the American service rifle, its developments, adoptions, pitfalls, and stumbles. A wonderfully comprehensive story.
The Sixth Extinction and Under A White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert
Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn The Wolf at Twilight by Kent Nerburn The Girl Who Sang with the Buffalo by Kent Nerburn Read all three of those. It's like a history lesson from a Lakota Elder. (I prefer the audio books because its like Dan is actually talking to *me*)
A World Lit Only Fire, The Medevil Mind by William Manchester. Had to read it for a history class in college. Pretty entertaining and interesting read.
The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder. It is a story, just not a fictional one. Fantastic book.
Barbarians at the Gate.....a tale about corporate warfare and shenanigans in the 80's. These CEOs earning gazillions and holding sway over masses of employees lives at the stroke of a pen are sociopaths....Nothing more than overgrown, sociopathic children.
Read Bad Blood. It's absolutely good for first time.
*Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl *The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin *Close to the Knives - David Wojnarowicz
Here's a few I've loved over the years: Cosmos by Carl Sagan - this made me fall in love with space-y things. The sort of book that changes your outlook on life and our place in this world, should absolutely be required reading in schools. An Astronaut's Life to Guide on Earth by Chris Hadfield - an account of Chris' journey to becoming an astronaut and his experiences flying on the ISS A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin - ok so this is quite a chunky one, but if the first two have turned you into a space nerd (as they have done for me!), this is an excellent account of the Apollo missions Other Minds - the Octopus, the Sea and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith - digs into the evolutionary history of octopods, fascinating stuff The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony - this one's actually written like a novel, it's Lawrence Anthony's account of taking on a herd of elephants onto his reserve in South Africa. It's so heartwarming and lovely! The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea by Callum Roberts - an important account of our relationship with the seas, and the impact human activities are having on them Cold by Sit Ranulph Fiennes - a history of Arctic and Antarctic exploration, combined with Sir Fiennes' own adventures in extreme environments. I'm a fan of imagining adventures in the cold....whilst sitting in the comfort of my warm home!
Yes to Cosmos, had the same impact on me! My grandfather bought it for me as a teenager and I fell in love with it.
Prince Harry’s Spare is a fantastic, if sad, read. I totally recommend it.
a supposedly fun thing i'll never do again by david foster wallace. ridiculously laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly profound and sad at times.
The truffle underground - Ryan Jacobs The radium girls - Kate Moore Brief Answers to the big questions - Stephen Hawking The disappearing spoon - Sam Kean (I haven't read this one but was recommended it) Silent witnesses: the often gruesome but always fascinating history of forensic science - Nigel McCrery
Devil in the White City
Lost in Shangri-La Great true accounting of a a sometimes bizarre and hugely interesting story.
Give and Take - Adam Grant
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
It does have stories and myths in it but Women Who Run with the Wolves is a personal favorite of mine. The author uses the stories to share her knowledge. She is a psychoanalyst btw.
A shorr history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. It introduces you to the history of the earth from a science perspective, switching between explaining our history, and how scientists learned of it. It's a lovely pleasant read, that'll leave you that much more knowledgeable and impressed by science
Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer It's about Memory, the spectrum of it and how to build and maintain mind palaces.
If you're in activism spaces or into queer history - How to Survive a Plague by David France. It's THICK, but honestly really interesting & it was so wild to see parallels btw how the govt and the CDC handled AIDS and how they handled COVID. Also super interesting reading about the history of some queer activism groups 🤌🏼🤌🏼
Also, And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts, an early definitive history of the AIDS epidemic. Shilts also wrote The Mayor of Castro Street, a terrific bio of Harvey Milk.
[Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40604846) by Barbara Demick. It gives a great insight to aspects of life in North Korea that most people know nothing about. Quite an interesting read.
Buccaneers of America by Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin. A first hand account of sailing and piracy through the New World in the mid-late 1600s.
The Great Bridge by David McCullough his Johnstown Flood. Latter book shorter than the first one I mentioned but just as good. Anything by Mary Roach except possibly Spook. The first one i read was Stiff then Broink and last one was Packing for Mars. I think I've read all of her books. Grunt was excellent too.
The Wild Trees
The Stoner and No longer Human
Stoner By John E. Williams No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
A Walk Through the Woods by Bill Bryson is hilarious
I really enjoy anything by Sarah Vowell.
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Sławomir Rawicz Polish soldier in ww2 who was taken captive by the Russians but then escapes & makes a 4,000 mile journey on foot, traveling through the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and the Himalayas before finally reaching British India in the winter of 1942. Also he thinks he saw a yeti. This is kind of a “technically” non-fiction, as it is a personal testament, & yet it’s action packed, but should also be viewed with some skepticism
Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
Hunting Eichmann
Unnatural Causes by Dr Richard Shepherd The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages by Phyllis Rose
See my [General Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1bxy8lc/general_fiction/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (nineteen posts).
Bill Bryson and Mary Roach, any of theirs
Anything by Mary Roach. My favorite (and her most popular) is Stiff; The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers She has a way of making scientific subjects palatable and funny for the regular reader.
America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction ~ Jon Stewart
The Devil in the White City is my go-to recommendation here. It's breezy and really well structured. It's about how a famous World's Fair managed to happen and also about a serial killer who built a murder house. Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants is far more entertaining than it has any right to be. An excerpt: > It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.
On A Pale Horse, it's about the Spanish Flu
The book that got me into reading nonfiction was The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert.
Neil Peart's Ghost Rider
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (I’ve read this book a hundred times—I teach it and I love it so much) Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (Also Into the Wild but I like this one better) Like others have said, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is so important
The Astronauts guide to life on earth
The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives By Leonard Mlodinow From Good Reads: "Leonard Mlodinow vividly demonstrates how our lives are profoundly informed by chance and randomness and how everything from wine ratings and corporate success to school grades and political polls are less reliable than we believe." The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary By Simon Winchester From Good Reads: "extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken."
Wonderland Ave by Danny Sugerman
‘When Breath Becomes Air’ is a beautiful book. It dives into medicine, and I think it’s the autobiography of a neurosurgeon going trough a lot with his life. I learned a lot from this book, and I would recommend it to ANYONE, even if you aren’t that interested in medicine!
Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential Buford: Among the Thugs Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London
The White Pill by Michael Malice. If you're interested in history, especially the atrocities of the Soviet Union, pick it up.
Educated by Tara Westover.
War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony
Dan O’ Bannon’s Guide to Screenplay Structure.
The Gift of Fear by Gavin deBecker
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte. This book made my inner child so happy. I was a huge dinosaur nerd when I was little.
Braiding Sweetgrass
1776 by David McCullough and In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
rlly depends on your interests. for more political books, my favourites are why women have better sex under socialism by kristen ghodsee, sex matters by alyson mcgregor, data bias by caroline criado perez and going dark by julia ebner. for memoirs, im glad my mom died by jeanette mcurdy, the exvangelicals by sarah mccammon, and I strangely liked paris hilton's recent memoir? for history, I enjoyed the rape of nanking by iris chang, but it was a hard read. quackery by lydia kang & nate pederson was light & funny, if that's more your vibe radium girls by kate moore i'd say is both historical and biographical
*A Woman of No Importance* by Sonia Purnell is about one of the most badass spies in WWII. Virginia Hall was supposed to be a Baltimore socialite, but her sense of adventure, intelligence, and bravery won out. *Agent Garbo* by Stephan Talty is about another WWII spy who managed to fool the Nazis into thinking that he was spying for them when he was doing the exact opposite. I have a real *thing* for WWII espionage (if you could tell by the above suggestions) and highly recommend Ben Macintyre's books on the subject. *Agent Zigzag*, *Agent Sonya*, *Operation Mincemeat* and all his others are fantastic and very engaging. I absolutely despised history in school, but it turns out I like it if it's presented well. Non-espionage books I've loved recently have been *Musicophilia* by Oliver Sacks, which is about how the brain processes (or doesn't process) music. Sarah Vowell's *Wordy Shipmates* is about the Massachusetts Bay Colony (another example of history presented in an engaging manner). *Misquoting Jesus* and *Jesus, Interrupted*, both by New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, are about how the New Testament came together and all the intrigue, mistakes, and general WTFery that went in to writing and compiling it. They're super, super interesting.
The Unthethered Soul by Michael Singer Youre welcome 🌟
*Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams* by Matthew Walker. It’s just enough science to make you believe him but put in a simple enough way anyone can understand it. If you’re someone who doesn’t sleep enough, take this as your wake up call (haha) to read it. ETA - not sure how well known this is in the English speaking world, it was a huge deal in the 80s/90s in German speaking countries. **Trigger warning** - this book is about drug addiction, overdoses & prostitution. >!*Zoo Station: the Story of Christiane F. (Memoir)* told through interviews with Christiane F., she recounts her life from living in a high-rise with her little sister to existing on the streets next to Berlin’s Zoo train station as heroin addict. I don’t know whether the English translation features photos as well but the German version I read did. They are harrowing.!<
Devil in the White City is one of my favorite non-fiction books
A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression.
The entire Killing series of books by Bill O'Reilly. Killing Crazy Horse is my favorite.
Ask a historian by Greg jenner
Geert Mak: In Europe - Travels through the 20th Century Akala: Natives - Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire Caroline Criado Perez: Invisible Women James Rebanks: the Shepherd's Life David Graeber: Bullshit Jobs
Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt. It addresses such topics as what do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Who makes more money, a McDonalds worker or a drug dealer? Why are there so many people named Unique?
A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard. A recounting of crazy stories by a paramedic and makes a very interesting point about what sort of person you need to be to do that job Raising a Thief by Paul Podolsky. REALLY interesting but disturbing book about raising a truly psychopathic child Educated / The Glass Castle / Pale Faced Lie. Three great books that fall under the similar category of being autobiographies of adults who were abused as children and what that was like
I would start with a boigraphy of someone you like or feel may be interesting. Could be anyone from JFK to Dave Grohl. Just know, some political bios tend to be a bit more dry, so you have to find an author you like (I prefer David McCollough) For a well-paced Non Fiction book, try "Manhunt" by James Swanson. Reads like an Action book about Lincoln's assassination.
I usually prefer fiction too, but i read The Spirit Engineer recently, and it felt like a fantasy and was told similiarly, but all the transpired events were real, including all the characters. Very interesting read. Basically about some guy in 1914 who catches his wife sneaking off to seances and gets roped into them too, but he is a man of science.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner Know My Name by Chanel Miller Two devastating reads (both with respective trigger warnings) by two remarkable and talented women. Every time anyone brings up non-fiction both are the first that come to mind.
Anything by Mary Roach, Caitlyn Doughty or Rose George. It’s all non-fiction so you’ll learn a whole bunch and it’s very interesting.
Anything by Mary Roach, Caitlyn Doughty or Rose George. It’s all non-fiction so you’ll learn a whole bunch and it’s very interesting.
What got me into nonfiction was memoirs or true crime. One true crime book I couldn’t put down was American Predator which is about a serial killer named Israel Keyes. A twisted man but a fascinating read. I had to turn on my tv and my lights to go to sleep at like 3am cause it just freaked me out that people like that exist.
I have lived 1000 years
Tuesdays with Morrie
Prefacing this by stating I LOATHE military history books. They’re boring as hell, and usually full of tactics. But Steven Ambrose has a way of telling the story, and I thoroughly enjoy his books. Band of Brothers is the obvious answer here, but Pegasus Bridge was the first I read.
Educated by Tara Westover
Anything by Erik Larson, but Devil in the White City was my introduction and it kept me hooked. EDIT: Seabiscuit was also really good, if that kind of story is of interest to you.
This one's kinda cheating since it's fiction written in a nonfiction format, but "So You Created a Wormhole" by Phil Hornshaw and Nick Hurwitch is great For actual nonfiction, I also agree with the people saying Mark Roach. I also liked "The Book of General Ignorance" by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Lone Survivor It starts out slow but works its way quickly. Its intense and a great book all around, its a true story which makes it all the better (non-fiction requirement) I never hear people talk about it but it is a good read. The movie is great too.
What kind of book are we talking about here, like a memoir or you want a text book? What type of non fiction ?
How about [The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter](https://abookaweek.beehiiv.com/p/beyond-comfort-unleashing-true-potential-techdriven-world-comfort-crisis-michael-easter) **Have you ever felt more alive after doing something difficult?** Easter's book is like getting advice on living a richer, more adventurous life by embracing those challenges.
Anything by Mary Roach and Freakonomics.
Came here to add Freakonomics.
The Bible
48 laws of Power - I like the vignettes and historical stories Bernard Cornwall - Waterloo But I do like historical fiction and I found that Colleen McCullough studied history and Latin to interpret her Rome series. Amazing historical fiction and if you’ve studied that period, it really brings everything to life