What are some of your favorites non-fiction? Girls Like Us – Weller, Stealing Secrets – Winkler, Will’s Red Coat and Finding Atticus – Ryan thats mine
We don’t talk much about non-fiction. I love reading it as much as fiction. What are some of your favorites?
Here are some of mine:
Girls Like Us – Weller – This is about Carol King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. If you want to understand what life was like for women in the sixties, this is the book to read.
Stealing Secrets – Winkler – The story of female spies in the American Civil War
Will’s Red Coat and Finding Atticus – Ryan – These two books are about Tom Ryan and the amazing dogs he has had. Finding Atticus is about Tom and his dog climbing the mountains of New Hampshire. Will’s Red Coat is about saving an older dog who had been abused and was an old crabby guy and how love transforms us all.
The Passage of Power – Cato One of his volumes on Lyndon Johnson. This one concentrates on him becoming president. Johnson is a complex person and his biographer manages to let you see that.
Instant Replay – Kramer – One of my favorite books of all time. It is a diary kept during the season the
Green Bay Packers won the first Super Bowl.
Understanding Exposure – Peterson – A must read for any photographer
The Artist’s Way – Cameron – A must read for any creative person especially if you are feeling creatively stuck. Use her techniques. They work.
The Only Woman in the Room – Gordon – A fascinating book about post WWII Japan and how women got rights in the new Japanese constitution.
Slacks And Calluses – Reid – The true story of women working to build aircraft during WWII
The Making of a President 1960 – White – Learn how Presidential politics manipulate us. Even more relevant today.
Conspiracy of Fools – Eichenwald – The story of the Enron. How it got so big and why it fell apart so fast. Again, very relevant in today’s business environment.
The Cookoo’s Egg – Stoll – The story of a man assigned to find an error of less than a dollar in billing for computer time and how it led to finding hackers stealing government secrets. The technology is out of date, the story is not.
The Day the Wold Came to Town – Defede – The story of how Gander in Canada opened their hearts and houses to people stranded after immediately 9-11 when the international flights were not allowed in the US.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – Shirer – How Hitler came to power and how atrocities became accepted.
Sisters in Law – Hirshman – The stories of the first two female US Supreme Court Justices, one conservative and one liberal.
Tough as Nails – Dwyer -The West Point experience as told by someone in the second class to admit women. This was one of those Kindle books on sale cheaply one month and we took a chance on it. It was one of the most fascinating and memorable reads I ever had.
I don’t read much non-fiction but really enjoyed investigative journalist Jon Robson’s The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats.
Sorry, should be Ronson!
I like Jon Ronson too, also enjoyed ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamef.’
i read history a lot, but as i get older my attention span isn’t what it used to be. it takes me longer than fiction. reading hannah arendt about dictatorship and totalitarianism.
Girls Like Us sounds good! I’ll have to check it out!
It really will make you realize how far women have come since then.
Read it and it was good. I listened to these ladies for years.
Just Finished The Sun Does Shine about a man who was wrongly held on death row for 30 years. Excellent read.
As I get older I prefer non-fiction. Thid is one of my favorites. http://www.kingsolver.com/images/large_covers/animal-vegetable-miracle.jpg
A Fine Romance – Candace Bergen
Yes! Have you read any of her other books? I have not, but want to read Prague Winter.
Both are amazing
I haven’t read this one. I will put it on my list.
I am going to start this one next. Curiosity piqued after visiting Chicago for the first time last week.
I enjoyed this one. I read it while living in Chicago. It had some interesting history about the World Fair.
Love this book. I took the classes in about 2002 and they still resonate today
I noticed you read The Passage of Power. I read this book and the two of them together made sense to me.
I prefer non fiction.
I loved Girls Like Us!!
I just started She’s Got Her Mother’s Laugh. It’s just the kind of book I like.
I am reading Hunting Eichmann by Neal Bascomb. Very good so far.
I read The Winter Fortress by him. Also very interesting.
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger is one of the best books I have ever read.
Dead Wake : The last crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
Stoned by Aja Raden. No, not about drugs. About gems.
At the risk of repeating myself, Touching the Void by Joe Simpson, Skeleton’s of the Zahara by Dean King, Seabiscuut by Laura Hillenbrand, Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum, and Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, to name a few.
Seabiscuit is one of my favorites! I love horse racing. ?
@Anne the last book I finished. Hillenbrand has the singular ability to make history come alive for me. Not a book I would have chosen on my own, although I like animals, this book was a delicious ride from start to finish – not a slow spot in it.
@Jed have you read Unbroken?
@Anne I did. Read that first and then Seabiscuit was highly recommended. I wasn’t disappointed!
Girls like us and stealing secrets sound really good!
When Breath becomes air
Is an amazing book! ❤
I am a big music fan and love to read music autobiographies. Just finished Natural Woman by Carole King. Amazed by the amount of songs she had co written for other musicians.
proof of heaven by eben alexander
The Swerve, Or How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt is a particular favorite of mine. Also The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and Wild Horses by Jeanette Walls.
Catherine the Great by Robert Massie
I will add this to the TBR
Also if you like science, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebekah Skloot and Darwin’s Ghosts by Rebecca Stott are very good.
Henrietta Lacks reads like a novel. Also includes institutionalized racism, and a variety of cultural issues.
Victoria by Julia Baird
Finally, a short memoir that absolutely blew me away: the Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey.
Loved Girls like Us! I loaned it to a coworker and never got it back.
I’ve been reading this and it is a great read so far, very informative on a subject you don’t think of too much
I seen many recommendations for this book, is on my TBR pile
On my list.
Now on TBR.
Loved that book!
On my list.
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C Gywnne and the extended title is: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. It is magnificent! I enjoyed reading it so much. The other book I loved is The Warmth of Other Suns, historical story of about 5 southern African American families who “went north” during the impossible times for them down south. Sometimes risking their lives to leave from the early 1900s thru to 1950 or so.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Nicholas_and_Alexandra.html?id=zyqpTQ1AewQC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button Another favorite
This book is FANTASTIC!!!!! Such great story-telling. The cast of characters is incredible!
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson about the injustice of the criminal justice system.
The More of Less: finding thecLifecYou Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker about
what to do with all the “stuff” we accumulate
Behind the Beautiful Forevers about the homeless families who live in shacks by the airport in Mumbai
How Dare the Sun Rise about a refugee family that survived a massacre and came to the US
Quiet: The Powe of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
Toxic Charities: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help
I Am Malala; The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Anything by John McPhee.
No good men among the living —- I can’t remember the author currently
Hot Zone! It made me want to spray people with bleach
I just finished Killer’s of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. I found it a little slow and dry at times, but interesting story.
So good, but disturbing, so much of our history I didn’t know…
I agree. Reminds me of the movie Rabbit Proof Fence, which chronicles the treatment of the Aborigines by the Australian government. I just realized it is based on a book, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, by Doris Pilkington, which is her personal account of the forced removal of mixed-race children from their families in the 1930’s. Must put it on my TBR list. Has anyone else read it?
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah too. Listened to it, thought I knew about apartheid but no…adding Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence.
Anything by Mary Roach; anything by Caitlin Doughthy.
One of my favorite books is Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall. I don’t even really run! The writing and story kept me engrossed from beginning to end.
Radium Girls
I love memoirs. Also I am now reading the Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington, A Brief History of Time by Hawking, Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung, the Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin and The Rules of Life by Richard Templar.
Oooohhh, thank you for taking the time to type that all out!!!
Ditto
I read “girls like us”; that was good
I like non-fiction too. Warmth of Other Suns, Just Mercy, The New Jim Crow. Emperor of All Maladies, The Gene, Radium Girls, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Salt, Cod and Paper by Mark Kurlansky. Anything by Mary Roach my favorite Packing for Mars, Eleanor and Hick, Born A Crime, The Glass Castle, Sisters-in-Law, Just Kids, anything by Erik Larson, The Devil in White City is my favorite.
Those are some great book choices!
@Leah Thanks!
Some of my favorite nonfiction:
– An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny by Laura Schroff
– What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism by Dan Rathers
– Seabuscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
– Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
– Until I Say Goodbye: A Book about Living by Susan Spencer
– Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
– Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
-Anything by Bill Bryson
-Anything by Erik Larson
-Anything by Mary Roach
-Anything by David McCullough
-Anything by Candice Millard
And the list goes on and on.
Wow! Great list! Currently reading Paper by Mark Kurlansky, started with Salt, then Cod…
He’s great at microhistory. He has a new one out next month.
@Leah Great! I will look that up. He made me interested in salt…
I just have to say that this thread makes me ridiculously happy. Carry on!
Woooow amazing thread. Thnk u all.
Oh goodness me! There goes my TBR list! I’ve not really been a fan of biographies etc. But a few of your selections look really intriguing. Thank you!
Signor Marconi’s Magic Box and the invention of the radio. Africa In My Blood by Jane Goodall Life My War Brian Warpole . I actually couldn’t name all my favourites. Love non fiction be it Biographies or straight topic non fiction just love learning something I didn’t know yesterday
A few years ago I embarked on a journey into science, beginning with the cosmos and ending with quarks and DNA. I went in search of an answer and learned that my hypothesis was wrong. I have since returned, but I haven’t changed my bottom line: not having experienced it means you haven’t experienced it YET.
Love love love this list! I belong to a very esoteric book club and we gravitate to nonfiction. Thank you for these wonderful recommendations.
I looked on your page to see if I could learn more about your book club. First thing I saw was you are from Midland. How funny! I’m from Odessa. I promise I’m not a stalker!
Small world, Gail! I couldn’t wait to leave Midland but it was a great place to grow up. I don’t have any family left there but look forward to going back one day. My high school boy friend lives in Odessa….
The Hare with the Amber Eye. Wolves at the Door about a female resistance leader in France with a wooden leg. (The CIA just named a new building after her). West with the Night.
more please, Melissa!
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall down about the challenges of delivering healthcare to Hmong Immugrants.
The Last Days of the Incas by Kim Macquarie.
Desert Queen by Janet Wallace about an incredible woman who befriended sheiks, moved to Damascus and was pivotal in advising Britain about dividing up the Middle East.
Nathaniel’s Nutmeg by Giles Milton about the West Indies Spice Trade and how Manhattan got traded for $1.
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose about Lewis and Clark
Destiny of the Republic by Millard about President Garfield and the man who shot him
Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Chong
Thank you. I love nonfiction also.
Unbroken & Seabiscuit – both by Laura Hillenbrand, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, Night by Elie Wiesel, The Endurance by Caroline Alexander
Unbroken,
The boys in the boat,
The amazing life of Henrietta lack
Freakanomics
Prairie Fires
The Johnstown flood by David McCullough
All these books are fabulous and read like novels.
Freakanomics is on my TBR list!
LOVED The Boys in the Boat. My daughter was crew for the last half of her school years and it was fun to read about others’ travails. Henrietta Lacks was good, but the TV show (movie?) was terrible. Johnstown Flood was interesting and a few years after reading it I went there. It’s such fun to be personally involved with your pasttime.
? Henrietta
Nomadland, Hillbilly Elegy, Grandma GATEWOOD’S Walk.
What’s Nomadland about?
@Stacia, mostly retired people who found they can’t live on their pensions, etc and make homes in cars, SUV’s, RV’s, campers, etc. They travel the country taking part time jobs, seasonally to make ends meet. Sounds depressing, but is actually very inspiring. They do not consider themselves homeless, but houseless, and have found unique ways to live simply and help one another.
an Autobiography by Agatha Christie. Renoir, My Father by Jean Renoir. QUeen Victoria Was Amused by Alan Hardy. OUr Village by Mary Russell Mitford. Medieval Women by Eileen Power. LIfe in a Medieval Village by Frances and Joseph Gies. How to be a Tudor by Ruth Goodman. the Escape of Charles II by RichRd Ollard. Over a Hot Stove by Flo Wadlow. PErilous Question by Antonia Fraser. THe Debs of Bletchley Park by Michael Smith
Following. Non fiction is my favourite
My list of books to read has exploded. Love this!!!
Some good volumes here.
We Band of Angels by Elizabeth M. Norman. Servants by Lucy Lethbridge.
Our Mother’s War by Emily Yellin.
Call the Nurse by Mary J. MacLeod.
White Trash – Nancy Isenberg.
Land Girls by Joan Mant.
The Outfit by Gus Russo.
Ivory Vikings by Nancy Marie Brown.
The Women Who Wrote the War – Nancy Caldwell Sorel.
Caveat Emptor – Ken Perenyi.
The Forger’s Spell – Edward Dolnick.
Merle’s Door – Ted Kerasote.
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. So good, and I’m not a sports fan and knew nothing about rowing. Shaara’s trilogy of the Civil War, especially Killer Angels: “My favorite historical novel . . . a superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant.” Unbroken has been mentioned here many times.
Loved Killer Angels – my Bookclub made a field trip to Gettysburg after reading it.
Boys in the Boat was universally enjoyed by my book club.
Following
The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande.
Forty Autumns by Nina Willner.
Will never forget Rain of Gold. ‘an all-American story of poverty, immigration, struggle and success. It focuses on three generations of (author) Villaseñor’s kin, their spiritual and cultural roots in Mexico, their immigration to California and their overcoming the poverty, prejudice and economic exploitation. Warm-hearted, humorous and tragic.’
OMG. STOP!! My bank account is screaming!! LOL. I. MUST. GET. TO. BOOKSTORE! ❤️
Libraries can be our friends.
This post makes me so happy! Thanks, @Judith!
I love non-fiction. If well written it can be as compelling as any fine novel. I recommend Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the birth of the FBI by David Grann. It really stirred up my anger over injustice. Hillbilly Elegy has been mentioned, so I’ll just add it was eye opening and helped me understand why some people embrace politics that seem to be antipathetic to their best interests. I also loved The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck. Lab Girl, a memoir by Hope Jahren takes you inside a female scientist’s life and struggles, as well as her remarkable friendship with a difficult man.
– Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain
– Born a Crime, Trevor Noah (great audiobook & and fascinating life)
– The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida (Author), KA Yoshida (Translator)
I love non-fiction. I particularly love a good narrative about the history and technological and cultural evolution of object or concept. Polio: An American Story by David M Oshinsky…Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finley [as a sometimes artist this was riveting and great writing]…Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World by Simon Garfield [the discover of aniline dyes, literally why we have so many colors to wear]…Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick…The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson [how many of us think about the art of obituary writing and yet they are something we read on a regular basis] …Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamar, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World By Richard Rhodes…This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitan…The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester [about the writing of the Oxford Dictionary, fascinating]…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….Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall…
What a fascinating list! I need to make a list from your list. My son-in-law just gave me another interesting title. Tobacco: a cultural history of how an exotic plant seduced civilization, by Iain Gately.
And no, I’m not nor ever have been a smoker. ?
@Elaine looks very interesting…
@Elaine Thanks. I took a number of graduate courses in Science and Technology Studies (STS) at Virginia Tech and it was such a treat to do so. Fascinating books are on any reading list from a good college program in STS.
@Lynne My father was a chemist with a love of history. My mother is an artist with a Masters in English. We had vacations where we saw museums, battlefields, caverns instead of amusement parks. This childhood upbringing has made me love reading about a wide range of subjects. I retired after nearly 20 years at a library where I was fortunate enough to be in book selection. I miss that treat the most of all.
@Elaine Sounds a lot like like my upbringing. My father was a physician and my mother an elementary school teacher and later worked with computers for IRS. Both my grandfathers were agricultural professors. Everyone read; books of all kinds and topics. We went to museums, zoos, and Civil War battlefields every year. My mother disliked amusement parks. It helped growing up most of my childhood only 70 miles from DC and the Smithsonian. I love now that I live in Virginia Beach going to the Chrysler Museum which is free seeing all the families there as I know it is creating children interested in art, history, science, and technology who will become literate adults.
@Lynne My mother took us out of school to see the National Gallery of Art in DC and at another time to the Metropolitan museum of art in NYC. My husband teases me that I can’t pass a bookstore, a museum or a palace (or castle) by when we travel. Lol
I’m from Wilmington Delaware originally.
@Elaine I don’t understand; why would [how could] anyone pass up a bookstore, museum, historic landmark, botanical garden, etc. when traveling?! Isn’t that the whole point of traveling [other than exquisite little restaurants]? lol…
@Lynne lol. You have that right. So much to see so little time. Sigh.
There are so many posts to this I can’t keep up. I guess we do need to talk about nonfiction more often.
Agreed.
I find that I most frequently have 1 nonfiction going along with 1 fiction when I’m reading. Seems sometimes history etc makes for more drama than ever is found in fiction.
True and it sometimes a whole lot quirkier…
I usually read at lunch and again before bed (well often more than that, too) and for awhile I found it a great pattern to read nonfiction at lunch and fiction at night when I was more tired.
Wine & war: The French, the Nazis and the battle for France’s greatest treasure by Donald Kladstrup and Petie Klafstrup was a fascinating read.
Alex, the Life of a Child by Frank Deford, Eric by Doris Lund, The Chicken Who Saved Us by Kristin Jarvis Adams, and The Mockingbird Next Door by Marja @Holly
Ohhh, Alex, the life of a child! What a powerful book by a great writer. It could make anyone count their blessings.
I read Alex as a teenager and it still sticks with me!
@Melissa having read Alex, I think you would find The Gene to be an interesting read.
@Karen I’ll check it out!
Far From the Tree!
Anything by Doris Kerns Goodwin
Saving this post!
Anything by Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short and Moneyball.
Productivity for writers by Kristina Adams! Lol (yes I’m a writer). Memoirs of my body by Shreya Sen Handley is pretty great.
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough was chosen by my book club and I grumbled to myself “I already know as much as I want to know about those brothers.” Boy was I wrong! It is so well researched and reads like a novel. I knew NOTHING about their fascinating family and now I highly recommend it.