A friend and I started a challenge to read a non-fiction book every month. Recommendations?
Hi fellow readers 🙂
A friend and I started a challenge to read a non-fiction book every month since we both want to “step out of our comfort zone”. Wanted to ask for some recommendations. Thank you 🙂
The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife.
Erik Larson has written several excellent narrative nonfictions. I’ve loved them all, but I highly recommend The Devil in the White City or Dead Wake. I also find that microhistories make really interesting nonfiction reads, so I’d recommend anything by Mark Kurlansky!
Some I love…Educated, Just Mercy, Evicted, Same Kind As Different As Me.
The good neighbor- King
Biography of Mr. Rogers
excellent read what an amazing man!!
@Nettie Yes!
Girls of Atomic City, Unbroken, Boys in the Boat
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Educated by Tara Westover! I am not a nonfiction reader either, but this girl‘s life story is crazier than fiction!
A Child Called It by Dave Pezler is my all time favorite. It’s very hard to read (as the content is about child abuse) but it’s so incredible!
‘Evicted’. Forgot the author, but it’s a good reads that helps explain WHY poor people stay poor…or descend into homelessness.
Wesley the Owl.
Radium Girls, The Hidden Kennedy, Five Days at Memorial, Unbroken, Killers of the Flower Moon, Glass Castle,
The Warmth of Other Suns – reads like a novel but is very interesting nonfiction
@Kathleen my best book ever
Eric Hansen is a hugely entertaining travel writer. Try The Bird Man and The Lap Dancer.
Also, anything by Anne Fadiman. Her main book is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, but she has wonderful essay collections as well.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
An Ordinary Man
The Year We Disappeared
In the Garden of Beasts
Smartest Kids in the World
First They Killed My Father
The Other Wes Moore
Columbine
Night
Call the Midwife
Devil in the White City
We Should Hang Out Sometime
The Day the World Came to Town (Jim DeFede)
@Olga currently reading
Also Upstairs in the White House by J.B. West. An interesting read and a stunning contrast to what is going on now.
The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko. The Colorado River, the Grand Canyon and so much more.
Born a Crime
Into Thin Air
When Breath Becomes Air
The Glass Castle
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson and Brain On Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan.
Unbroken
The Disappearing Spoon
Hidden Figures
Escape From Shangri-La and anything by Erik Larson!
Eating Animals. Especially with the new US government climate report just being released, the intersection of climate and our food is so important to understand.
MEMOIR: Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert…Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl…Losing Mum and Pup by Christopher Buckley…Becoming by Michelle Obama…
BIOGRAPHY: The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A Caro…
AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Personal History by Katherine Graham…Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin…
LEGAL: Becoming Justice Blackmum: Harry Blackmum’s Supreme Court Journey by Linda Greenhouse
MEDICAL: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder…Polio: An American Story by David M Oshinsky…The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medicine by Barron H Lerner
POLITICAL: The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency by Chris Whipple
MUSIC: Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon–and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller
TRAVEL: The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux…Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney
GARDENING: My Garden by Jamaica Kincaid
RELIGION: The Search For God at Harvard by Ari L Goldman…Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup…
AMERICAN HISTORY: 1776 by David McCullough…Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin…Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America’s Wild Frontier by Stephen Ambrose …Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle..Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell…
WWII: Is Paris Burning? by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins…We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan by Elizabeth M Norman …
WORLD HISTORY: How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It by Arthur Herman…The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding by Robert Hughes…The Accidental President of Brazil by Fernando Henrique Cardoso…
SPACE: .The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe..Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz…Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shatterly….
SPORTS: The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb…Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall…Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand…Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation by John Carlin…Or I’ll Dress You in Mourning by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre…
thank you for such a detailed and valuable list!
Wow, this list is amazing. Thank you very much!
I have never read a book by either Michael Lewis or Tracy Kidder that I didn’t love. Lewis’s most recent is The Fifth Risk. Kidder started with Soul of a New Machine in the 80s, House was fantastic (about a house being built from the points of view of the owner, the architect and the builder.) More recently, Mountains Beyond Mountains and A Truck Full of Money were wonderful. Paul Theroux’s travel books, while some may be dated, are just great. Malcolm Gladwell’s books are always a delight. David and Goliath is the newest, I believe. Matt Taibbi’s books are always eye-openers. Hannah Holmes’s Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn is fun.
And Now We Have Everything by Meaghan O’Connell. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. The Shift by Theresa Brown. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. Night by Elie Wiesel. There, that is quiet a variety for you 😛
I really liked that Ronson book. Have you read The Psychopath Test?
@Denise Yes I did! That was the first of his that I read. I have only done those two so far!
Me, too.
Under the Banner of Heaven
Excellent!
I gave that book to several people after I read it, then went through a phase of books on crazy cults!
Uneducated
Rosiland Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox.
The Wicked Boy: An Infamous Murder In Victorian London by Kate Summerscale. Surprised By Oxford by Carolyn Weber
I’m reading The Worst Journey in the world by Cherry Garrad at the moment. He was on Scott’s final journey for the Antarctic. I can’t put it down.
@Emma-Dawn I read Shackleton’s Forgotten Men which I thought must be the worst Journey. Now I have to read the actual The Worst Journey.
Devil in the White City
“Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” by Katherine Boo.
Reads like a novel. Stunning.
A natural woman by Carole King
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
The Knife Man
American Wolf and Educated
the radium girls
Into Thin Air
this reads like a novel. It’s fabulous.
Educated by Tara Westover
Shoe Dog
Ditto to Educated by Tara Westover! The Glass Castle, I Have a Right, My Name is Malala, Just Mercy, Unbroken
What is your comfort zone?
@Altyn all kinds of fantasy, sci-fi and crime
Unbroken, The Boys in the Boat, Whistlestop
Any book by Mary Roach. She writes about scientific subjects in an approachable and often amusing way. My favorite is “Packing for Mars.”
Love Mary Roach!
In the Garden of Beasts. The Boys in the Boat. Educated. Infidel. The Zimmerman Telegram.
Being Mortal- Atul Gawande – a MUST! Then “When Breath Becomes Air” -Paul Kalanithi .
The Last Girl by Nadia Murad. The book is her story of being captured and held by ISIS in Iraq. It’s amazing & you won’t look at the world the same.She recently won the Nobel Peace Prize.
I know that somehow I am going to get this book read because of you, Katy. I don’t know when, but I will.
The mold in dr. Florey’s coat. (I think that’s what it’s called)
It’s about the discovery of penicillin
Right now I’m reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot and finding it fascinating!
I can’t recommend The Displaced enough
Following this.
I am reading “Becoming”, Michele Obama’s memoir…very good! Also “Boys in the Boat “, and “Killers of the Flower Moon” are both good.
I am reading Belonging now also , loving it, well written!!
Dead Wake: the last crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
His books are fascinating.
It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree by A.J. Jacobs. It is a different (ie humorous) look at all the current interest about DNA and genealogy.
I Was Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, A History of the World in Six Glasses.
My book group did both of those. Good choices!
These probably have a fairly narrow audience, but they are among the best non-fiction I’ve read: The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman (everything you ever wanted to know about birds ;)) and Barbarian Days; a Surfer’s Life by William Finnegan (everything you ever wanted to know about waves ;)). A wonderful series of memoirs is by Alexandra Fuller starting with Don’t Let’s go to the Dogs Tonight.
@Lynn The genius of birds is on my TBR list.
@Elaine OMG how I loved that book! I’ll never look at a bird the same ☺️. Enjoy it!
@Lynn moving it up higher on my list. TY ?
@Lynn So did you ever read Lab Girl? I enjoyed that too.
@Elaine Yes and I really enjoyed it also.. Now I won’t ever look at a tree the same way either ?. I won 4 “science” books in a raffle, G of Birds (which I’d already read) and LabGirl among them. Also Spying on Whales and Spineless, both of which I couldn’t get into but will try again later.
@Lynn I love winning things, winning books is even better.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Barbarian Days.
@Therese I know! Being from So. Cal originally, recognizing a lot of the places mentioned helped, but basically I think he’s just a wonderful writer ?.
I love Jennifer Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses. She has such an engaging way about making you feel like you are in nature, or want to go see it.
@Caryn I’ll have to check that one out. Thank you!
Oh my god. Thank you all so much for the recommendations <3 This is simply awesome. I will put them all on small pieces of paper, put them in a jar and pull one everytime we finished one. So looking forward to this ?
Open by Andre Agassi, All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg, A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout, Doctored by Sandeep Jauhar, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs, Getting Life by Michael Morton, Dry by Augusten Burroughs, I Feel Bad About my Neck by Nora Ephron.
Agree about Robert Peace. It was … “wonderful” doesn’t sound right :/. Perfect for a reading group; so thought-and-discussion-provoking!
A House in the Sky was very, very good.
Rush (Benjamin Rush) By Stephen Fried
Educated by Tara Westover, The Library Book by Susan Orleans, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. I can’t say enough about all of them!
Killers of the flower moon is very good.
A Boy Called It.
Sapiens
read every one of his books!
YES! I’ve been scrolling down to see if anyone has recommended it before I add it to the list ?
U can read biographies or autobiographies about people like u like or admire.
She Has Her Mother’s Laugh by Zimmer.
When Breath Becomes Air by Kalanithi.
White Like Her by Lukasik.
If you like Killers of the Flower Moon and want to read a more personalized account, try Deaths of Sybil Bolton by McAuliffe
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston; THe Immortal @Alanfe of Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks book is great
The Hot Zone was well written and a great story.
Evicted by Matthew Desmond. God Save Texas by Lawrence Wright
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson…so interesting and really really funny. The Lost City Of Z is also a compelling read.
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.
being mortal atul gawande and When books went to War Molly Manning.
Bill Bryson, Mark Kurlanski, Food narratives like Heat.
Bill Bryson is a favorite of mine.
Sorry I am late to this conversation, as nonfiction is almost all I have been reading! No one has suggested John Adams by David McCullough, often considered THE best presidential biography. I credit the Adamses for that because they kept extensive journals and letters, and didn’t burn everything at the end of their lives like many early presidents. Really, anything by McCullough is going to be good, and he doesn’t only do biography.
But for a little more unconventional suggestion: Try The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, by Jack El-Hai. It is equal parts sad, scary, and mystery.
Born a Crime
The Glass Castle
American Fire
Glass Castle, Educated, Killers of the Flower Moon, John Adams, Boys in the Boat ……
Into Thin Air, Educated.
Lost in Shangri-la
Hi, @Kristena!
@Beckie ? Hello!
Far From the Tree, by Andrew Solomon. Terrific book.
Agent Zigzag
Anything by Ta-Nehisi Coates. “Pure Land” by Annette McGivney. Jeanette Walls’ books.
The Underground Girls of Kabul was excellent.
The radium girls
Look at Erik Larson’s books, whatever sounds appealing…
– Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History.
– The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America.
– Thunderstruck.
– In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin.
– Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.
All wonderful reads.
My brother-in-law reads no fiction. Years ago my sister told me that he liked books about how the world got to be as it is. I found this to be a fascinating category, so in buying gifts for him I found some good ones for myself. COD, for example. I’m
Boys in the Boat, Undaunted Courage, Lincoln, Lost In Shangrila ,
Oooops forgot – Any of Bill Brysons travel books – fun, funny, interesting!
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz, Other Powers by Barbara Goldsmith, song of the Dodo by David Quammen
Krakatoa, The Great Influenza, Rising Tide, The Transparent Self, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Lost on the Appalachian Trail
Anything by Brene Brown
A Murder in Music City by Michael Bishop. True story and a page turner
Manic, Born a Crime, River of Doubt
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggars.
Michael Lewis Books: “Moneyball”, “The Big Short”, etc. he has a new one out, don’t know the name
@Jennifer The Fifth Risk. It’s excellent.
Manic Kingdom by Dr. Erin Stair- it’s Biographical Fiction, but close enough.
The Johnstown Flood by McCullough is wonderful, better than it sounds and reads like a novel.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail -Cheryl Strayed, Desert Solitaire- Edward Abbey, and The End of Night -Paul Bogard.
Oh yes, Wild was good.
Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean, if you’re a dog person.
Great Plains by Ian Frazier
Another McCullough which is one of my all time favorites: “The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris”. From the book jacket: “…the story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.”
The Soul of an Octopus St Montgomery
I’ve always been fascinated by octopuses and this was well written
I think I just bought that. Glad to hear it’s good.
@Denise it’s local to us in parts too
I read this this year! Definitely some fascinating information!
Loved that book … I found parts of it very touching.
You will enjoy anything by John McPhee, a terrific writer who makes science truly understandable and a pleasure to read.
Yes! My favorite of his is The Control of Nature. But really, they’re all good.
Right now I am reading “The Best Cook in the World” by Rick Bragg. It is a wonderful Story interspersed with great old Southern recipes.
It’s on my hold list.
I just finished Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and it was phenomenal.
Agree!
Devil in the white city. Eric Larson
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Elliot and Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
Great suggestions!
Stupid auto correct Not Elliot , Skloot
The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson.
Becoming by Michelle Obama and A Mind Unraveled by Kurt Eichenwald.
Anything by Michael Lewis, like Liar’s Poker, The Big Short, or Moneyball.
Blood and Thunder the life and art of Robert E Howard.