Need a book for my club that is Non-Fiction Historical. Like “Unbroken”. Not World War II based.
I need help!
I am looking for my choice for my book club this year!
“Choose a book that is Non-Fiction Historical”
I would really like a book that reads like a story, like “Unbroken”. Not World War II based.
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Excellent choice
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Yes, this one.
The Hemings of Monticello; Seven Years A Slave
Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Devil in the white city
I second Devil in the White City
LOVED! Devil in the White City
Team of Rivals by Doris Kerns Goodwin
Anything Doris Kearns Goodwin is great. They all read like novels.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Not really historical, but an important story.
Great book!
read
Code girls. Although it is ww2, it is not battles, but the role of the women who worked in intelligence.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Also liked Revolution Song, which reads like fiction.
Anything by Sarah Vowell! Assassination Vacation or The Wordy Shipmates
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. One of the best book I ever read.
Yes. Totally agree.
The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich….The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede …Polio: An American Story by David M Oshinsky…Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation by John Carlin…The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe…Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America’s Wild Frontier by Stephen Ambrose …Liar, Temptress, Solider, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott…
LOVED The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander Newfoundland by Jim DeFede.
Rumor of War. Vietnam.
Little Princes by Conor Grennan
Before I ask my lovely friends “The book I would have to read” first I need to learn English, as much as possible. You can’t imagine how my English level is low.
When I see some of friends speak and communicate each other with fabulous and professional English I will become a little bit jealous and more happy for their language achievement.
I’m 20 years boy who Born and raised up very devastated country. So it wasn’t possible to get enough and quality education + any international language like English. Now my educational target is beyond only learning a language like English but there was a time my big target was only learning “How to communicate an English speaker” now I’m beyond that. Much than that time.
Dear English be easy please, please and please. I beg you being easy. Dear English hope you will be easy and one day i could write hundreds of lovely massages using you”English.”
I Love happiness and like being happy at all time. The majority of this beautiful universe don’t speak my beautiful native language. So how can i spread the happiness massages that I would like to share the world while I don’t know you well “English.”?
Dear English I’m asking you that question. Hope I will get your answer back.
#MuchLoveForAllLivingBeing.
Salt by Mark Kurlansky, The History of salt. Really good! The Warmth of Other Suns, Devil in the Grove (about Thurgood Marshall).
Salt was amazingly interesting!
http://www.warmthofothersuns.com/
Teddy Roosevelt and the river of doubt. Son of the morning star (great, interesting book about Custer)
“Arthur and George” by Julian Barnes. Arthur is none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A lot of folks thought he was as smart as Sherlock and often asked him to help solve crimes. This wonderfully written book is about one of those crimes and how he helped to solve it.
How about The Queen’s Conjurer – about Dr John Dee.
“Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson.
Good choice. The Heart of the Sea, also.
Radium Girls!!!!!!
Seabiscuit.
Laura Hilldebrand. Same author as Unbroken. What an author. I bet she could write a book about ingrown toe nails and I’d be riveted:)
read both
Stiff – the curious lives of human cadavers by Mary Roach. My book club read this year and had some sketchy looking body part type treats ? we liked it!
John Adams by McCulluogh. Read like a novel
Ghosts of the Tsunami, by Richard Parry. It’s one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read recently. I’ve learned so much about modern Japan and of course, the effects in the aftermath of the horrible tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. Just excellent, start to finish and it almost reads like a novel.
Sapiens might fit that category 🙂
Devil in the White City By Larson
Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s about the murder of the Osage people to get the rights to their oil-rich land, and the formation of the FBI. Fabulous piece of American history I had never even heard of before reading!
I just finished this and I’m an Oklahoman now days. We live a couple hours from the area. I really want to go small town back roading around Pawhuska and see the sights from the book ❤️
Oh such good suggestions! I’m gonna keep track too! My vote as I’ve just read it is Killers of the Flower Moon ❤️
The Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan about the Dust Bowl.
I did consider this one.
That book! Wow! A sobering read on Caucasian stewardship of our natural resources. Deeply sobering.
Isaac’s Storm
oh, yes!
Naomi’s book is very short and it is available in English
Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores by Elaine Forman Crane has always been one of my favorites. Although I’m a historian, so my taste in non-fiction Historical is a bit more dry.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12699565
What does that mean, ” a bit more dry?”
It might be more factual, and not so much a “story” if that makes sense. A lot of my favorites I discovered doing research for my masters so they tend to be more textbook than book.
@Jessi, thanks, I get it. I think I probably prefer historical fiction. I do love history, which is why I asked.
Empire of the summer moon by S. C. Gynne.
About the American Indians during the
expansion into Texas by white menwhich the various Tribes lived and hunted in.
Manhunt about the Lincoln assassination. I forget who the author is. Really great and reads like a novel.
The Magdalen Girls by V.S. Andrews
Bonus it comes with a readers guide and questions at the end perfect for a book club
The Devil in the White City
The Professor and the Madman
Endurance, by Caroline Alexander
Next of Kin, by Roger Fouts
Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick
❤️ the Mayflower!
Prairie Fires…very good.
Killers of the Flower Moon maybe? Our book club all loved it.
The Boys in the Boat
I agree with this one! Boys in the Boat!
Corpses, Coffins and Crypts A history of Burial by Penny Colman.
Killer of the Flower Moon
The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam
The Graves are Walking by John Kelly
Dead Wake by Erik Larson
Killers of the Flower Moon was wonderful!
The Two Princes of Calabar, by Randy Sparks
Boys in The boat
best book ever! It is WWll though
Oops sorry..you want non WW2? Both my suggestions were ww2..guess I need to pay attention mire..sorry just got home from work after 9 hours my brain is fried.
All but My Life..Gerda Weissman Klein
Return to Auschwitz by Kittie Hart.
Some books I can think of :
(1) The Story of Art by E.H.Gombrich
(2) Guns, Germs, and Steel : The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
(3) Marriage, a History : How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz
(4) Natasha’s Dance : A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes
(5) At Day’s Close : A History of Nighttime by A. Roger Ekirch
(6) A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Happy Reading!
#6 is fab!
Yes, totally agree, @DeeDee!
The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck. An engaging book with a lot of historical facts.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson is fascinating and life changing. Won just about every award a nonfiction book can win. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8171378-the-warmth-of-other-suns?ac=1&from_search=true
This. Reads like a novel and leads to great discussion. Also, every American should read it.
@Anne Agree 100% !!!
Radium Girls ???
This would make for AMAZING conversation
How about WW1? This is a really good one. It’s so fascinating to see how everything came to be because everyone knows about WW2, but not this one. In the 2nd one all of the countries were at their peak, but this book tells you how they rose to that status. Due to how well it’s written, every page is a crisp step back in time.
That’s on my tbr list. I think it’s the next book I’m going to read
@Ali Great
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
I just started reading a book by Dan Jones. He writes Medieval nonfiction history. I’m reading his book on the Magna Carta right now. So far I really like him. Next on my list are his books on the Plantagenets and the Wars of the Roses.
The Killer Angels: a Novel of the Civil War by Michael Shaara
Not non-fiction. ?
I LOVED The Radium Girls but Kate Someone. It reads like fiction, so engaging and illuminating.
I was going to say this!
I’m putting this one on my list!
I’m being lazy and not reading 70 comments. Did anyone suggest n Erik Larson book?
Yes, several.
Seabiscuit or Devil in the White City
Claude and Camille about Monet.
? a novel
Oops
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks grabbed me on multiple levels
Read this
Perfect!
WHITE CARGO: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S WHITE SLAVES IN AMERICA by DON JORDAN and MICHAEL WALSH.
“Hitler: My part in his downfall” by Spike Milligan.
Equally insightful as to the life of a British squaddie, the roots of classic British comedy, and the causes of what has come to be known as PTSD (which manifested in Mr Milligan as bipolar disorder).
He wrote multiple subsequent volumes regarding his WW2 experience, each bleaker than the last – “H,mpihd” is the first and certainly the funniest (very black humour, but what do you expect?).
Ordeal by Hunger by George Stewart is the story of the Donner Party
Boys in the Boat, about the college rowers who won the gold in the 1936 Olympics.
A lot of people in a book club i was in liked Killers of the Flower moon. It wasnt my favorite but i was in the minority. Also, I’ve heard Educated is really good and reads like fiction. I purchased it based on a friend’s recommendation but havent started it yet.
I can’t say Educated reads like fiction. It’s first person narrated so it definitely has the memoir feel.
Loved both The Boys in the Boat and Seabiscuit —- stories were incredibly engaging and the descriptions of what our country was going through (and the impacts on citizens) were very moving. You cannot go wrong with either book!
“Team of rivals” by Doris Kerns Goodwin
On my tbr list.
I was going to suggest Lost in Shangri-La but that is WWII. But I highly recommend it for the future if you love narrative nonfiction about historical events!
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Henrietta Lacks !
I really enjoyed Sir Richard Francis Burton – it read like an adventure novel. Also, Seabiscuit, particularly the chapter on the dangers of being a jockey and the physics of riding. A Rumor of War – excellent piece on Vietnam and that period in general.
Also, don’t know if it is still in print, but I like Blood in the Forum. Full disclosure, friend of mine wrote it. She hates the title, finds it sensational, but I know the level of research she’s done about the Roman Republic. Walking with her through the Forum was one of the most interesting trips I’ve ever taken. Her level of knowledge is encyclopedic. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2898363-blood-in-the-forum
Daring to Drive : A Saudi Woman’s Awakening is a fantastic, riveting read. You’ll finish it in less than a week as it is so well-written and the story is so compelling.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates seems like a NF historical book every American should read. Wow, was it ever powerful!
I’m hearing raves about a book called Bad Blood. It’s about a woman who was the first female Bernie Madoff. All kinds of important men promoted her company to other important men and it was a big lie.
Infidel is a fascinating and controversial nonfiction book.
A book I think everyone should read. Excellent recommendation.
Nicholas and Alexandria by Robert Massie what fantastic storytelling about history new to most Westerners. Huge recommend!
Gosh, I read that book years ago and loved it. He had a way of making history read like a novel, just as Erik Larson does.
@Susie agreed! I haven’t read his latest history of Catherine the Great, but I bet it’s fantastic.
@Karen It was very good. Try reading Victoria by Julia Baird.
A book I am dying to read that everyone says is fascinating is Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. How well thought of is this book? He is the youngest winner of the National Book Award in thirty years for nonfiction. The book is a history of racist ideas. People say it reads easy.
The Empire of the Summer Moon and The Warmth of Other Suns.
Killers of the Flower Moon about the Cherokee Indians early in the 20th century
I read that. Good story but reads like a textbook – IMO.
Team of Rivals
The Last Duel. Totally reads like non fiction. Moves along at a really good pace. I was surprised at how quickly I wanted to get to the duel at the end! Plus a cliffhanger cause you didn’t know who was going to win…
the warmth of other suns or sea biscuit
Read both!
Erik Larson. Isaac’s Storm, The Devil in the White City…his books are great.
The alienist
Boys in the Boat
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Motorcycle Diaries
Life on the Color Line
The Perfect Storm
Botany of Desire
A Long Way Gone
+ Night by Elie Wiesel. I know you said you don’t want WWII, but I can’t bring myself to leave it off the list.
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
I think that’s a novel.
its based on real people and circumstances with fiction written into it. You can google it and see. It’s excellent!
Our book club loved “West with the Night” by Beryl Markham, she was the first female pilot in Africa
Circling the Sun was well written histotical fiction about Beryl
The revenant
The Boys in the Boat
Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey
by Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. I don’t read a lot of NF, but this book is fascinating and easy to read. (Not dense and factual. Just factual.)
Devil in the White City.. Erik Larson. reads like a thriller.
Erik Larson is great
Following
The Radium Girls By Kate Moore
PErilous Question by Antonia Fraser