Anyone prefer to read nonfiction? What are some books that you love in that genre?
Anyone prefer to read nonfiction? What are some books that you love in that genre?
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I love books about advertising and the human response. One recent favorite is , “Cinderella ate my daughter” by Peggy Orenstein, (a study about marketing to little girls) absolutely fascinating!
Oh man, about 90% of what I read is nonfiction. I’ll have to give a list when I’m not about to put my sick kiddo back to bed though!
Can’t wait to see your list. Love to your kiddo!
Thank you Cricket!
I like a little of everything in the nonfiction genre so bear with me with this list of SOME of my favorite books through the years:
Anything by Erik Larson, my favorite are:
– The Devil in the White City
– Dead Wake
– Isaac’s Storm
Candice Millard has always been a winner for me. her three books are:
– Destiny of the Republic
-The River of Doubt
– Hero of the Empire
David McCullough books. some favorites include:
– John Adams
– 1776
– The Wright Brothers
– Truman
Other nonfiction I love (a mix of history, memoirs, biographies, science, etc):
– Autobiography of a Fat Bride by Laurie Notaro (or really any of her stuff)
– Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones
– Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
– Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
– A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (another author where all his stuff is good)
– What Unites Us by Dan Rather
– Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
– The Black Penguin by Andrew Evans
This Time Together by Carol Burnett
– Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams
– All the Things We Never Knew by Sheila Hamilton
– Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
– The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
– Bellevue by David M. Oshinsky
– Stiff by Mary Roach (another fantastic author, all good books)
– Dinosaurs in the Attic by Douglas Preston
– Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
– When Breath Becomes Air by Kalanithi
– Columbine by Dave Cullen
– A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming
– The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
And I’ll stop there, so I don’t torment you having to read an even larger list from me. I could probably go on and on and on and…
Can’t wait to check some out!
More votes for White City, River of Doubt, Truman, Unbroken, and Flower Moon.
Leah I think our bookshelves are filled with many of the same selections. So good to see someone else reading some of my favorites. I get a lot of eye rolling at work.
I love Ann Rule, she wrote true crime. Small Sacrifices, The Stranger Beside Me, Green River Running Red are all great.
Jon Krakauer writes really compelling nonfiction. My favorites of his are Under the Banner of Heaven and Into Thin Air.
I have read both of those and they were really good. I am into some renaissance history specifically the Medici family. They have a Netflix series too. I did my senior capstone on Alessandro who was most likely the first black ruler of a free land in Europe. His sister became the Queen of France.
I loved Under the Banner of Heaven
Killers of the Flower Moon was a favorite this year
This is what I was going to suggest.
A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jamestown
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Depends on the nonfiction. I read memoirs, but also books on science, economics, psychology, marketing, etc. Anything interesting is fair game.
Fireball- its about Carole Lombard’s plane crash has a little bit of Hollywood biography and a little bit of the accident recovery efforts and trying to figure out why the plane crash happened. It was one of the best books I’ve read in the past few years.
Was for me
My favorites this year have been:
– Radium Girls
-the stranger in the woods
-evicted
-make your bed
-this is me
-educated
-beautiful boy
-short and tragic life of Robert peace
Loved Educated!
Following
Mayflower was excellent
F
Anything by Candice Millard, The 57 Bus, Engineering Eden, The Poisoner’s Handbook, Packing for Mars, Pictures at a Revolution, Hillbilly Elegy, Educated. What topics do you like?
Though he writes a lot of fiction, Dave Eggers has good nonfiction books, too. In particular, I liked A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Zeitoun.
I really like AJ Jacob’s books: Know It All, Drop Dead Healthy, Year of Living Biblically. He takes on various social experiments and writes about his experience.
Also Paco Underhill: Why we Buy, Call of the Mall, What Women Want. All about the business of shopping.
The Freakonomics books are really good. Malcom Gladwell’s books too.
And I just picked up Grocery: The buying and Selling of Food in America.
If you like books about words … Word by Word The Secret Life of Dictionaries was good, also Between You and Me Confessions of a Grammar Queen.
Paco Underhill is great!
I make an effort to go back and forth between fiction and nonfiction. Recently I read “What the Eyes Don’t See” (by the doctor who discovered the lead in Flint’s water), “Educated” by Tara Westover, Hillbilly Elegy, Killers of the Flower Moon. I have “Dopesick” on my nightstand right now and the book about the golden state killer on my kindle. I think it all depends what you are interested in! Memoirs are a good way to get started with reading non fiction.
I love memoirs all the better if they are audiobooks that the author reads!!
Educated, When breath becomes air.
Hidden Figures was so good
these are all YA. but seriously three of my all time faves:
– Chasing Lincoln’s Killer- story of John Wilkes Booth. Full of old photographs. Way cool
– Long Walk to Water- about a Sudanese refugee
– Rose’s and Radicals- about women’s suffrage
I love memoirs and Glass Castle is one of my favorites.
@Anna I LOVED Glass Castle!!
Omg I read glass castle a year ago and I still think about it.
Glass Castle was sooo good. It broke my heart but also taught me valuable lessons about my life.
I love nonfiction!! One of my favorites is Five Days at Memorial (about Hurricane Katrina) it’s long and has lots of information, but it’s surprisingly easy to read. It also brings out some major emotions!!
I also loved Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain but it has a lot of profanity in case that’s offensive to someone
I love nonfiction so much. All mentioned here I either loved or have on a list. Adored STRAPLESS. A true story about how artist John Singer Sargeant began in early Louisiana times and got censored in Paris because he painted Madame X with her strap falling off her black velvet dress. Anything by Walter Isaacson (Einstein et al), the research in Cleopatra by Sher is astounding. So many more. Great fiction is fine but nonfiction is my favorite
Dreamland
Bill Bryson
I loved Ghettoside by Jill Leovy. Also, East of Eden. And, of course, David Sedaris.
Meeeee toooooooo
Educated and Hillbilly Elegy.
Business scams, like Bad Blood.
I love bouncing back and forth. I read so many about many different things. I adored Stiff. Anything American Revolution or Tudor England.
Loviolations
Michael Lewis. ❤️ Flash Boys is an amazing book he’s just a fantastic writer. Bill Bryson of course. I also am an aspiring yogi, and there’s a book called Do Your Om Thing that is really great in learning all about the background of yoga. But that’s not everybody’s jam! That’s the beauty of nonfiction, soo much to learn!
You may want to pick this one up
Wanderlust: A Modern Yogi’s Guide to Discovering Your Best Self https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623363500/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Tv4SBb2TKS79J
@Kristin OMG THANK YOU! ??
@Kelli it’s one of my favorite books
If you’re looking for a light, fun read, Andy Cohen’s books are great. Brene Brown hasn’t been mentioned so I’ll throw her on the list.
I only read nonfiction and nothing else!
Michelle McNamara
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
I go back and forth in phases. The biggest nonfiction standout for me this year that I read so far is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Startup.
I’m a fan of the “I used to be in a weird religious movement and now I am not” genre.
Leah Remeni’s book!
Run Hide Repeat : A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by Pauline Dakin
Ironically, I’m not a big fan of nonficiton.
I tend to read two books – one audio book in the car, and one Kindle. One will be fiction, one nonfiction. My nonfiction interests vary tremendously depending on my current interests. I’ve been reading a lot of books about the Supreme Court and various Justices the past year; also, a lot about Ecuador and South American history.
The Widow Cliquot, (about the champagne), Terrible Typhoid Mary, Boys in the Boat, Never Caught: the Washington’s relentless pursuit of their runaway slave, Ona Judge, Blood at the Root, No One Cares about Crazy People. All compelling!
Boys in the Boat is great, even for folks who don’t usually read nonfiction. Astoria is another good one I read last year.
I’ve been listening to a lot of memoirs lately – Judy Collins, Carly Simon, Penny Marshall, Steve Martin
I loved Penny Marshall’s book!
Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the suggestions. ❤️
I read all books. I have 3 fiction and 2 non fictions I’m reading right now
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah and Yes Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
I loved Yes Chef; I have Born a Crime in hold.
I love Marcus and Yes Chef
And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts.
Educated by Tara Westover.
Recently finished this and enjoyed it
This was a great non-fiction for me:
Hi Erica!
I loved Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. This quote by Christopher McCandless, “Happiness Only Real When Shared” is one of my favorite quotes.
Sticking with the theme of the outdoors for a moment, I also enjoyed The Hungry Ocean – A Swordboat Captain’s Journey by Linda Greenlaw. She’s now a lobster fisherman in Maine (she adamantly refuses to be called a fisherwoman and is quite a resilient woman!) It was interesting to hear the perspective of a woman being out on a boat in the water.
Brené Brown books are wonderful – my favorite book of hers is The Gifts of Imperfection. Rising Strong is a close second. She also has a new book being released on October 9th – Dare to Lead.
David Foster Wallace is one of my all-time favorite authors – his books of essays are thought-provoking and entertaining at the same time. My favorite is A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. His book This is Water is the transcript of his commencement speech to Kenyon College students – he delivers such an incredible message. Here’s a link to the YouTube too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI
Happy Reading! ?
Brain on Fire was a good one
Mary Karr…..Cherry, The Liar’s Club, Lit…memoirs
One Summer America 1927
I love non fiction, I read a lot of history books, medical memories or medical books and funny memories
The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper & Gloria Vanderbilt
Brain on Fire
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. 2 deep sea divers who risk all to solve the mystery of a German U-boat sunk 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey that is not on any official records from either country. So good! Reads like a novel. Also second the thumbs up for And The Band Played On, Into Thin Air and Seabiscuit.
I don’t normally like nonfiction but my local book club just read a memoir I liked: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. It’s even been made into a movie, though I didn’t watch it. The audio book is read by the author.
I read nonfiction almost exclusively. Lots of historical biographies, books on painting and fashion….the library has everything!
The Book of Joy
We are like the same person. ?