Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven. Fascinating read about fundamentalist religious sects/movements woven with equally fascinating Morman history.
@Sebastian 🙂 a few more from my this year favourites… Behind the beautiful forevers… When breath becomes air, the sixth extinction and Rebecca Solnit books.
The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks. It’s about her struggle with Schizophrenia. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. It’s about her stay at a mental hospital. Girl in the Dark (can’t remember who it’s by at the moment and my cat is laying on me so I can’t go look) it’s about a girl who is allergic to light, both natural and artificial. Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is good too.
I’m reading The Circus Fire by Stewart O’nan. It’s about the disastrous Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus fire in 1944. Chock full of info I never knew. Circus fires were so common.
Also reading Topsy by Michael Daly. It’s about a circus elephant who was electrocuted by Thomas Edison on Coney Island in 1903. I know the circus is a weird topic but I’ve really been interested in the release of the elephants from the circus due to ill treatment. I had only read fiction about it before and wanted to dig for the truth.
The Devil In the White City and Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson, Krakatoa: the Day the World Exploded, Simon Winchester,…. Omg!, The Lost Airman: The True Story of Escape from Nazi Occupied France /Meyerowitz, and of course, Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand, another OMG!
The New Kings of Nonfiction edited by Ira Glass…Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall…The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson …The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People by Susan Orlean…Polio: An American Story by David M Oshinsky…The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich…Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation by John Carlin…The Accidental President of Brazil by Fernando Henrique Cardoso…Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio…Shakespeare in Kabul by Stephen Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar…The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombi, and Magic by Wade Davis….Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan…Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds by Bernd Heinrich….Is Paris Burning? By Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins…Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell…Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finley…The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester …This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitan…
Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion that Opened Up the West William Hogeland. The story bristles with larger-than-life characters, chief among them George Washington, not just as a general and politician but as a self-interested land speculator who needed his investments protected; the relentless American Indian military leaders Little Turtle and Blue Jacket; a scheming and power-hungry Alexander Hamilton; and Mad Anthony, who finally succeeded at war after having failed at virtually everything else.
If you like History/Biographies, anything by Doris Kern Goodwin is wonderful.
Any particular subject?
I’ve read a variety I’m looking for anything new to me
Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven. Fascinating read about fundamentalist religious sects/movements woven with equally fascinating Morman history.
Deadly outbreaks by Alexandra M Levitt
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Dead Mountain (about Dyatlov Pass). Sophia by Anita Anand. The Pinecone by Jenny Uglow.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Coming Plague by by Laurie Garrett
Radium Girls
The Last Child by John Hart, then the follow upThe Hush
Any of Malcolm gladwell books..I have read outliers and David and goliath.. Superb ones
I’ve read half of outliers lol good choices
@Sebastian 🙂 a few more from my this year favourites… Behind the beautiful forevers… When breath becomes air, the sixth extinction and Rebecca Solnit books.
Anything by Eric Larson
The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks. It’s about her struggle with Schizophrenia.
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. It’s about her stay at a mental hospital.
Girl in the Dark (can’t remember who it’s by at the moment and my cat is laying on me so I can’t go look) it’s about a girl who is allergic to light, both natural and artificial. Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is good too.
Hillbilly Elegy, Educated, Into Thin Air, The Boys in the Boat
Empire of the Summer Moon, Thunderstruck, In The Garden of Beasts
I’m reading The Circus Fire by Stewart O’nan. It’s about the disastrous Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus fire in 1944. Chock full of info I never knew. Circus fires were so common.
Also reading Topsy by Michael Daly. It’s about a circus elephant who was electrocuted by Thomas Edison on Coney Island in 1903. I know the circus is a weird topic but I’ve really been interested in the release of the elephants from the circus due to ill treatment. I had only read fiction about it before and wanted to dig for the truth.
Sex Crimes by Alice Vachss. It will change your life.
Just finished When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Highly recommend.
Sons of Mississippi.
Killers of the Flower Moon! Or the Pulitzer prize winner, Prairie Fires.
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall,
Quiet by Susan Cain,
Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, Truman by David McCullough
The Devil In the White City and Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson, Krakatoa: the Day the World Exploded, Simon Winchester,…. Omg!, The Lost Airman: The True Story of Escape from Nazi Occupied France /Meyerowitz, and of course, Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand, another OMG!
All by Bill Bryson
Manhunt: the 12 Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L Swanson
Educated by Tara Westover. Excellent
Where no fear was by A C Benson, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
Just Kids, Patti Smith
One year off by Cohen, tales of a female nomad by gelman, sound of gravel, glass castle,
Educated
Educated by Tra Westover.
Probably too obvious, but Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain 🙂
The life and times of the the thunderbolt kid
Elias Canetti, Mass and power. Svetlana Alexievich, the end of the red man. William Vollmann, poor people.
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
I bought this recently to listen to on an upcoming roadtrip. Looking so forward to it.
Mythology by Stephen Fry
Under the Banner of Heaven and Into the Wild, both by Jon Krakauer.
Into the Wild is a great read!
The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers
The New Kings of Nonfiction edited by Ira Glass…Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall…The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson …The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People by Susan Orlean…Polio: An American Story by David M Oshinsky…The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich…Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation by John Carlin…The Accidental President of Brazil by Fernando Henrique Cardoso…Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio…Shakespeare in Kabul by Stephen Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar…The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombi, and Magic by Wade Davis….Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan…Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds by Bernd Heinrich….Is Paris Burning? By Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins…Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell…Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finley…The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester …This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitan…
The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs by Steve Brusette and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson are fascinating, well-written science books.
Robert Caro’s series on LBJ starting with Path to Power.
Salt
Loved it.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara.
Educated by Tara Westover
A new book: Milk! : a 10,000-year food fracas by
Mark Kurlansky and his books are fascinating
Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion that Opened Up the West William Hogeland. The story bristles with larger-than-life characters, chief among them George Washington, not just as a general and politician but as a self-interested land speculator who needed his investments protected; the relentless American Indian military leaders Little Turtle and Blue Jacket; a scheming and power-hungry Alexander Hamilton; and Mad Anthony, who finally succeeded at war after having failed at virtually everything else.
Anything by David McCullough.