I’m trying to be better about reading non-fiction – aside from Jen’s memoirs (cuz I’ve read them all) hit me with your favorites!
I’m trying to be better about reading non-fiction – aside from Jen’s memoirs (cuz I’ve read them all) hit me with your favorites!
David McCullough writes excellent history books. The Great Bridge was very good, about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. And I liked his book on John Adams
Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that won’t stop talking (Susan Cain).
A House in the Sky
I just finished this yesterday. Such a powerful book.
I’ve been reading the radium girls off and on. It’s an interesting story but it makes me mad so I have to keep putting it down.
Me too!!!
Educated by Tara Westover.
Such a great book!
Big fan of Anne Lamott!
If you need something to completely blow your mind on how other people live, read Escape about the FLDS polygamous cult. Could not stop reading it. Also, Troublemaker by Leah Remini about Scientology. Not the best book ever written but fascinating
Escape was just and eye-opener!
@Madalene yussssss!
@Sara scary too.
Have you read Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt? Crazy eye opening too! So good but so sad 🙁
I’m obsessed with FLDS books! Polygamist Daughter, Sound of Gravel, Shattered Dreams….to name a few ?
Ooh, if you are interested in FLDS, read Under the Banner of Heaven.
@Kelly I tried to listen to it and it was a really hard listen for me. I vowed to check it out and read it (it had so many mentions of this person married that person I felt being able to go back a reread would be helpful)
Oh yeah – I think the audio book might be tough for this one.
Madam Secretary: A Memoir by Madeline Albright was interesting. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a year of food life by Barbara Kingsolver was interesting too.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and Devil in the White City by Eric Larson.
Two of my all time favorites!
YESSSSS!! ❤️❤️❤️ both of them!!!
Yes to both of these excellent books!
Radium Girls
Glass castle
I just watched the movie on Amazon. It has been so long since I read the book, I didn’t remember the story.
Yes! This is one of my favorite books!
Loved the book. The movie, not so much.
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Sooooo good!
All Over but the Shouting, Rick Bragg.
Troublemaker by Leah Remini, The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner, Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt, Every Day I Fight by Stuart Scott, I’m Fine…and Other Lies by Whitney Cummings, The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, Where Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union
The worst hard time
The warmth of other suns.
Seconded. It’s a favorite.
The Boys in the Boat
Loved that book. Facinating. I want to go to a competition now!
@Madalene I never expected to love a book about rowing so much!
I read this one because of Unbroken.
@Kristin Me either! Just couldn’t get over the intensity and desire of the teams!
The undoing project
Educated
I loved this book so much! It was so interesting. Also “first they killed my father” is an amazing account of the Cambodian genocide through the eyes of a child.
White trash
Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain, Wine and War – Donald Kladstrup, Tulipomania – Mike Dash, Ghost Soldiers – Hampton Sides, In a Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson.
Anything Bryson!! One Summer is one of my favorites.
so far I’ve only read his Notes from a Small Island – but LOVED it.
@Synova oh my gosh keep going!! You are in for such a treat!
Yep – love Bill Bryson!
I do a lot of memoirs/biographies/personal essays and true crime.
I really like David Sedaris and Ann Patchett.
It seems to me a lot of actors are writing memoirs so maybe look into some of your favorites.
Born a crime by Trevor Noah, wild Swans – a long read but covers 3 generations before and after China’s cultural revolution, and a long way gone, memoirs of a boy soldier are all books that stick with me.
I’m not sure what your interests are, but Clint Hill (former secret service who protected Jackie Kennedy) has written a few books, and they’re absolutely fascinating.
All 3 of Andy Cohens’s, both of Rob Lowe’s, both of Mindy Kahling, Tina Fey’s Bossy Pants, Rick Springfield’s Late Late At Night if you’re an 80s kid, Leah Remini’s Troublemaker. ?
Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller – Marshall Chapman
You won’t regret it.
Etched in Sand, Maude
Loved this.
@Kimberly, both?
Etched in Sand. It’s incredible. Almost as good as The Glass Castle.
The Glass Castle
A Girl Named Zippy
Good Wives
The Other Wes Moore
Murder of the Century
The Poisoner’s Handbook
Born a Crime
I second that!
@Rachael oh, did you listen? Did you love it? Is that a CD? What decade is this?? ?
@Cathy Do you ever get tired of hearing me tell you how right you are? I got this bad boy home from my fave library and discovered I have no CD player. So I brought it into work with me today to debate whether I’ll play it on my computer while I’m working (I won’t) or return it.
Audible here I come!
@Rachael I mean, in general, no. Mostly I just have the memory of a gnat and have been recommending this book to everybody. Now I can’t remember who has read it, who had listened to it and who hasn’t got it yet. I do love Audible, though!
Mary Karr’s Cherry, Lit and The Liar’s Club
I have the Liars Club on a shelf. Will give it a go!
Devil in the White City, Sin in the Second City, For the Thrill of It (about Leopold and Loeb). I’m sure you see a trend here, lol. Change of topic, Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel.
Oooh I read Sin in the Second City too! And one about New Orleans. The title escapes me at the moment. I will think about it.
It was Empire of Sin by Gary Krist.
Thanks!
Educated; anything by Mary Roach (I liked Stiff and Packing for Mars); The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston is really great-it’s totally true but reads like an Indiana Jones movie.
Love the Monkey God! So interesting.
I second “anything by Mary Roach”!
Mary Roach is a non-fiction GODDESS!!! 🙂
Double Pregnant by Natalie Meisner.
Devil in the White City, Thunderstruck, and In the Garden of Beasts all by Erik Larson. Fantastic writer!
YES. And Isaac’s Storm!
Oh! I have Garden of the Beasts. Haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
The Glass Castle, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, A Higher Loyalty.
Educated
Betty White’s Autobiographies, Carol Burnett has written a few, Kristen Chenowith, Tim Conway.
I am ?LOVING? Parker Posey’s You Are on an Airplane!!!!
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, Drift by Rachel Maddow, and Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
Hillbilly Elegy
Coming clean by Kimberly Rae Miller
In the Garden of Beasts, Killers of the Flower Moon, anything by Bill Bryson or Anthony Bourdain
A walk in the woods by bill bryson! Hilarious and educational
Anything by Candice Millard. The Ghost Map
I loved the one about AG Bell and Garfield.
@Karen Destiny of a Republic!
@Carol yep! I can never remember the name!
Following
The Glass Castle and The Sound of Gravel are two of my favorite memoirs.
Loved them both. They actually read like fiction.
The Lives They Left Behind
It is SO good!
My Year of Running Dangerously
The husband loves Erik Larson books.
On Fire by John O’Leary. One of most inspiring things I’ve ever read!
Between the World and Me
I loved When Breath Becomes Air, The Other Wes Moore and The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace
Oh man, yes. I loved the Robert Pease book.
If you haven’t read The Other Wes Moore check it out very similar read it’s excellent too
@Jennifer I’ve read The Other Wes Moore but not the other. What’s the title?
Oh never mind. I see it. I’ll check it out.
@Karen Yeah, that was my fault – replying error on my part ?
Trying to give you true non-fiction or memoir with a deeper point:
Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis (a guy enters the world of competitive Scrabble and learns that it’s an entire lifestyle)
The Monopolists by Mary Pilon (a biography of the board game Monopoly; should never work. Really does)
The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup by Susan Orlean (Orlean is a journalist who writes about whatever interests her. This is an older collection of short pieces that appeared in the New Yorker and Esquire but they stand the test of time. All her stuff is good)
Fastest Thing on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood by Terry Masear (part rehabber memoir, part hummingbird education)
Judging a Book by Its Lover by Lauren Leto (Leto’s opinion on literature and reading. Helpful advice on how to pretend you’ve read Tolstoy at cocktail parties. Fun)
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi (A memoir of a devout Muslim’s conversion to Christianity but also a fair and kind explanation of Islam and many of its core tenets)
A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War by Joseph Loconte (explores the friendship between Tolkien and CS Lewis, why they each wrote their epic series and how WWI affected them, their friendship, and their writing)
The Story of Charlotte’s Web by Michael Sims (a biography of EB White with special emphasis on the writing of Charlotte’s Web)
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (Nature writer wants to learn more about octopuses so she does and so do we)
Going Gray by Anne Kreamer (one woman’s decision to stop dying her hair and the cultural havoc that ensues because she embraces aging. Thought provoking book)
Holding Her Head High by Janine Turner (the actress profiles 12 single mothers who changed history through their devotion to their children)
The Year of Learning Dangerously by Quinn Cummings (the child actress who has become a very smart woman and an excellent writer chronicles her decision to homeschool)
The Gospel According to Coco Chanel AND How to Hepburn both by Karen Karbo (both books look at how following the examples of Chanel and Hepburn can change how you walk through the world)
A Round-Heeled Woman by Jane Juska (a senior citizen decides she’s done with long-term relationships but not with sex and places a personal ad in a literary magazine saying essentially “I’m old but I still want to get it on. Any takers?” Memoir for sure but really explores the idea of sexuality post reproduction)
The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker (de Becker holds that our gut instincts are correct well over 90% of the time but because women in American culture are taught to be nice, we are also taught to ignore our instincts. He believes that most crimes against women could be stopped if women listened to their instincts and the book reminds you how. One of the most important books I ever read).
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Lab Girl by Hope Jahrens
The Feather Thief
Must read for female book lovers: How to Be a Heroine: Or, What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much https://g.co/kgs/cYni5P
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
In The Garden of Good and Evil
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened
The Lost City Of Z
The Lost Dogs ( extremely difficult to read because of the subject matter but I think it’s so important to educate ourselves and speak out ).
On my TBR pile
River of Darkness
Sixth Extinction
Into Africa
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
So good!!!!
Sisters-in-Law,. About Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sandra Day O’Conner
If you like funny memoirs, anything by Chelsea Handler.
I enjoyed My Horizontal Life and Are You There Vodka It’s Me Chelsea
David Sedaris
I highly recommend Zach Anner’s book: If at Birth You Don’t Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster and Destiny. It was a hoot!
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer. Frozen in Time, Mitchell Zuckoff. Devil’s Teeth, Susan Casey. Tiger, John Vaillant. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt. The Liverpool books by Helen Forrester. Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T E Lawrence. Howard’s End Is On The Landing, Susan Hill. Between You and Me, Mary Norris. Anything by Jimmy Carter.
Candice Millard biographies, especially River of Doubt. She gives an all encompassing look at what is going on in the world while zeroing in on the subject. Love love love.
Me Talk Pretty One Day or Bossypants.
I would not have expected myself to be so drawn in but Fever Season by Jeanette Keith was incredibly compelling … about the yellow fever outbreak in Memphis in 1878. Centers on public health (relatable today) as well as issues of class and race. Not my typical read but I was very much drawn in by the human stories and how she put it all together.
Different format from lot of these but I really enjoy Rejected Princesses
Anything by Malcolm Gladwell
I’m just glad to be here was really great
Travels, Michael Crichton .
Since my granddaughter has type 1 diabetes, I read Breakthrough. The story about the discovery and development of insulin. Very interesting.
Provence 1970
Amity and Prosperity
“Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance!!!
Also, The Girls Who Went Away about women who gave up children for adoption in the 50’s-70’s
Thank you everyone! I have added sooooo many things to my to read list!
Ooooooh I forgot one that I just LOVED: Detroit, An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff.
^^oh man, yes. It was excellent!
@Kelly it’s one of those books that I feel like is a little bit overlooked, but definitely shouldn’t be. I recommended that book for months after I read it.