Trying to add some non-fiction into my reading list. What are some books you have loved?
Trying to add some non-fiction into my reading list. What are some books you have loved?
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The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks…
The movie was terrible, the book was amazing
This was an amazing book.
I agree! Really good book!
This was my first suggestion as well! Also, “One Drop” by Bliss Boyard.
We Were the Lucky Ones. It might be billed as fiction but it’s a true story. It was beyond amazing
Glass Castle, Educated
the roanoke girls
The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald. It would be way too implausible as fiction, but it’s an incredibly engaging read about price fixing, of all things.
That was excellent!
Yes! And set in my hometown of Decatur, IL!
I recently read Killers of the Flower Moon and it was amazing.
This!
Now I really want to read The Lost City of Z!
Currently reading the Joni Mitchell biography “Reckless Daughter” by David Yaffe. Fantastic.
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby, One Day We Will All Be Dead and None of this will matter by Saachi Koul, So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo, We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union… all recent faves!
I like try crime books, like anything by the late, great Ann Rule
Kathryn Casey is another excellent true crime writer. Her books are on par with Ann Rule’s.
Anything by Erik Larson
Endorse.
Devil in the White City is my favorite!
Thunderstruck, by Erik Larson (also Devil in the White City)
I’ll be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara
My current read; but just started it. Literally. Like 5 mins ago
Lab Girl!!!!
That’s in my “To Be Read” stack!!
Chrissy Metz This Is Me
I just started it and I’m loving it
Eviction
David Sardis!! He is a great funny writer
Bomb and Most Dangerous by Steve Sheinkin
Happiness – it’s a memoir and so moving.
-Juniper the happiest Fox! ?
-The Perfect Horse
-Anything written by Mary Roach like Spook, Bonk, etc
Hillbilly Elegy
Furiously Happy and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson. Bastards by Mary Ann King. Potty Mouth at the Table by Laurie Notaro. A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer.
Anything by Malcolm Gladwell
I also enjoyed Following Foo by B.D. Wong.
At Least in the City Someone Will Hear You Scream by Wade Rouse (just about any of his non-fiction books are really funny), The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap by Wendy Welch, and I agree, anything by Laurie Notaro and David Sedaris.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
I loved all of Mary Roach’s books… she writes about the “curious science” of things. They can be kind of gross at times, but they’re also super fascinating.
“I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” by Michelle McNamara
“Dead Wake” by Erik Lawson
“Forgiveness” by Mark Sakamoto
Glass Castle. Brain on Fire. I literally read Brain on Fire in a day!
Any Candice Millard especially this one about President Garfield’s assassination. She really tells the story of the technology beginning at the time of the shooting. Fascinating and educational!
Check out Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10335318
It was good, but River of Doubt was my favorite by her
@Meridith Agreed! I just felt Destiny was a little more of an easy read. River is a better book but not as easy.
EMPTY MANSIONS!!
I am currently reading Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover. It is NOT a comedy.
Loved that one
I listened to this one – it was excellent.
The Seasons of My Mother by Marcia Gay Harden. It’s just come out and I loved every page.
Braving the Wilderness Brene Brown. 🙂
I’m a fan of anything by Jon Krakauer: Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Missoula are my favorites. Celebrity memoirs are fun for light nonfiction: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Lauren Graham, and Leah Remini all wrote entertaining books.
YES to Jon Krakauer.
I’m looking forward to starting Beauty in the Broken Places, a true story about a young couple. He has a debilitating stroke when she is five-months pregnant but survives. The author(and wife and mother) is Allison Pataki, who writes historical fiction, so another wife who has been through a similar thing tells her to write down what is happening and share it with her husband who has severe memory loss issues. This is how he recovers.
That DOES sound intriguing!
On my list already!! ?
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley
An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff
A Girl Walks Out of a Bar by Lisa F Smith
The Very Worst Missionary by Jamie Wright
Invisible thread!
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher was good. I didn’t expect to like it, but really enjoyed it.
Princess Diarist was good too
When Breath Becomes Air. The End of Your Life Book Club. Books for Living. What’s great about the last two, both by Will Schwalbe, is that they include excellent recommendations for other books. Anything by Nora Ephron, Mary Roach, Laurie Notaro, Celia Rivenbark, Caroline Knapp, Abigail Thomas.
Yes! Been a while since I’ve read Ephron, but i really enjoyed I Feel Bad About My Neck and the sequel (can’t recall the name of it).
@Angelic it is literally called I Remember Nothing.
Oh I loved “I Feel Bad About My Neck” ?
Anything by Mary Roach
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6493208-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks
Fantastic read! Reads like fiction. I couldn’t put it down!
I think this should be required reading in high school!
The Radium Girls. I forget the authir
Oh! And Augusten Burroughs! Love his stuff.
The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown.
84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff
I love this. Loved the movie version too.
Anything written by Sarah vowell. The best and funniest take on history.
Personal History by Katherine Graham, Anthony Bourdain’s memoirs, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I’ll Drink to That by Betty Halbreich, Cyndi Lauper’s memoir, But Enough About Me by Jancee Dunn
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (audiobook version is great), The Glass Castle
I second the audiobook for Born a Crime. SO GOOD.
i feel like the audiobook is the way to go with this one! I love Trevor Noah! Laughed out loud multiple times and also sat there with my mouth open other times. I can’t imagine growing up where your mom and dad cannot claim to be your parents in public. Fascinating book and hilarious at the same time!
The Future is History
Human Errors
The Boy who Loved Too Much
Born a Crime
I love Bill Bryson. A walk in the woods made me want to hike the Appalachian trail and I don’t camp. ?
Anything by David Sedaris. He’s hilarious ?
Prairie Fires!!
Anything by Jon Krakauer, Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris, Mary Karr, Joan Didion, Jeff Guinn.
Just finished When Breath Becomes Air, Wild by Cheryl Strayed was great, and Lucky by Alice Sebold was very good, but sad.
I was going to suggest Wild.
The Mockingbird Next Door; The Sound of Gravel; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Radium Girls
Still Points North. Excellent memoir
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Ruben
Anything by Agustin Burroughs
Heroine diaries nixxi sixx
Brain on Fire, Dark Money, A Mother’s Reckoning, Midnight Assassin, An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, Dead Wake, Bossy Pants.
Love is a strong word but I enjoyed these. I actually did love A Mother’s Reckoning actually.
Two very different books: Devil In The White City, and Bear In The Back Seat.
The Glass Castle and Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls. Excellent memoirs!
Rob lowes book was great, so was Keith Richards & Tatum O’Neal
Devil in the White City.
Good one.
Brain on Fire and The Glass Castle
The Emerald Mile.
I have yet to finish this but I loved what I already read.
@Debbie, it’s spellbinding.
Author please?
Kevin Fedarko
The Radium Girls was riveting and devastating.
Dust Tracks on a Road, Zora Neal Hurston’s autobiography, easy and captivating read. Such a fascinating woman.
Dinner with Edward
Life is so good. George Dawson.
If you like history, A Team Of Rivals is really good. Doris Kearns Goodwin- a lot of her biographies are just great.
Angela’s ashes and the sequel tis
Snakes in Suits
Just Mercy
I want to read the one about the octopus.
A mother’s reckoning
I will also add “Columbine” —
‘Left To Tell‘; ‘Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal’; ‘The Boys On The Boat’; ‘Two Kisses For Maddie’; ‘Rena’s Promise: A Story of Women in Auschwitz’. All great reads.
Listen to “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah. His autobiography prior to adult success. Read by him, growing up in South Africa pre- and post-Apartheid. Really good.
Wild by Cheryl Strayed. And I’m getting some great Recs from this post!
Hillbilly Elegy, quite the eye-opener.
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth, In Stitches by Anthony Youn, The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness by Paula Poundstone,
Killers of the Flower Moon was kind of shocking to me.
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
The Art of Making Money by Jason Kersten, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, Escape by Carolyn Jessop, When Men Become Gods by Stephen Singular, Retail Hell by Freeman Hall, History & Haunting of Lemp Mansion by Rebecca Pittman, Hidden Girl by Shyima Hall, The Wizard of Lies by Diana Henriques, Ordeal by Hunger by George Stewart, Rocket Boys/October Sky by Homer Hickam, and anything by Alexandra Robbins. I primarily read non-fiction, so I have tons of recommendations!