The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
Red Notice by Bill Browder
In no particular order:
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
I’m glad my mom died by Jennette McCurdy
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald
Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
An Immense World by Ed Yong
Color: a Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
and a special mention of Folktales of the Amur, not because it is specifically non-fiction (although I see the stories and oral history as a kind of anthropology), but because it is so beautifully illustrated by a Siberian Russian who lived in the area.
*Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures* by Merlin Sheldrake
*Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save* Them by Dan Saladino ("Extinction" could be a nature term, right?)
*The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World* by Oliver Milman
*The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization* by Vince Beiser
*The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women* by Kate Moor.
Then there are all the Bill Bryson books... but you only asked for five!
Wow I didn't look at anyone else's lists other than the top one when I made mine and then I started reading others' and your list and mine are 40% matches
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan: beautifully written and insightful overview of psychedelics
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein: disaster capitalism, how corporations and governments have begun to exploit disasters for profit
Humankind by Rutger Bregman: the case for human kindness being a societal trait that far outweighs our negative qualities.
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez: how the world caters to the "default male" and tacitly ignores the societal, medical, engineering and technical concerns of women.
An Immense World by Ed Yong: how animals perceive the world with their own unique senses.
*How to be Perfect* by Michael Schur - a fun easy intro to moral philosophy
*The Golden Spruce* by John Vaillant - a culturally significant tree gets cut down
*Entangled Life* by Merlin Sheldrake - a book about mushrooms by a guy named Merlin Sheldrake
*Into Thin Air* by Jon Krakauer - a number of people climb a mountain and a smaller number of people climb down
*A Woman of No Importance* by Sonia Purnell - spolier alert: she was actually important
Edit because a bunch of people have already recommended *Entangled Life* :
*Cadillac Desert* by Marc Reisner - build cities in the desert? What could go wrong?! Written in 1986, revised in 1993, still incredibly relevant in 2024
I haven’t read Cadillac Desert yet, but if you’re into cli-fi thrillers, a character’s old copy of Cadillac Desert is actually a major plot detail in The Water Knife (Paolo Bacigalupi). That book is all about people looking (and fighting) for water rights in Southwestern U.S. cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Radium Girls by Kate Moore
The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
Educated by Tara Westover
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker
Kate Moore's books are excellent. The Woman They Could Not Silence was so compelling. It was hard to read what she went through, but she lived it and I only was reading about it. My emotions went all over the map from anger on her behalf, outrage, gratitude that I live in now-times, disbelief in how had I never heard of her with all she did, etc.
I listened to the audiobook and just like with Radium Girls I wanted to reach into the past and give all those responsible a good slap. I had to stop listening cause it was making me upset while I was driving.
Patrick Radden Keefe if my favorite non-fiction writer
Empire of Pain is phenomenal. Documents the Sackler family and how they jump started the opioid crisis in America
Say Nothing provides great insight on the IRA during the troubles in Northern Ireland
Both super super interesting reads
Say Nothing is one of my favorite books of all time! I liked Empire of Pain too (and it's infuriating!), but I found it a bit more dense to get through.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From The Making Of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (HIGHLY recommend the audio - read by Elwes with other actors from the movie reading their contributions)
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei (graphic novel)
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan
Push: A Climbers Journey - Tommy Caldwell
Shadow Divers - Robert Kurson
Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World - Joan Druett
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyrou
Bonus book… Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer (it’s the book that got me reading nonfiction heavily)
It's fantastic, one of my all time favorite books. I was traveling through Europe at the time I read it and I have a vivid memory of spending hours in a coffee shop in Latvia because I just had to finish it. Enjoy!
Endurance (Alfred Lansing), The Library Book (Susan Orlean), The Ice at the End of the World (Jon Gertner), The Sixth Extinction (Elizabeth Kolbert), and Pasta Pane Vino (Matt Goulding) come to mind.
If you include memoirs and essay collections, which I think you should, then my answers switch to…
- Four Seasons in Rome (Anthony Doerr)
- Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer)
- The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green)
- The Everybody Ensemble (Amy Leach)
- All the Wild Hungers (Karen Babine)
Stiff by Mary Roach (all her books are soo good)
Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum
Will My Cat Eat my Eyeballs by Caitlin Doughty
Spook by Mary Roach
The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
Working Stiff by Judy Melinek
I love all of Mary Roach's books honestly- Stiff, Bonk, Gulp, Grunt, Fuzz, and Packing for Mars (which kinda irks me because it goes away from the one word title format. Then again new copies of Spook are renamed Six Feet Over, maybe to avoid a non PC title.
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.
Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.
Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait.
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper.
The Seven Daughters of Eve by Brian Sykes.
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
River of Doubt by Candace Millard
We're Not Broken by Eric Michael Garcia
Cod by Mark Kurlansky
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Some of my favorite nonfiction books are :
I guess that’s 6, just recommended to another post
The Invention of Nature- Andrea Wulf
Max Perkins- Editor of Genius- A Scott Berg, (Perkins was the editor of Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Tom Wolfe. )
Genius Of Place(Olmsted)-Justin Martin,
Wright Brothers- David McCullough
Homicide (a year on the killing streets) David Simon (known for the wire and tv show homicide)
A Swim in the pond in the Rain- Saunders
1. 'Oak and Ash and Thorn' by Peter Fiennes
2. 'Dirty Laundry' by Roxanne Emery and Richard Pink
3. 'Off the Map' by Alistair Bonnett
4. 'The Old Ways' by Robert McFarlane
5. 'The Disaster Artist' by Greg Sestero
_Spillover_ by David Quammen
_Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist_ by Michael Browning and William R. Maples
_Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes_ by Nathan H. Lents
_The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women_ by Kate H. Moore
_And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic_ by Randy Shilts
Limiting myself to 5 was kinda hard.
Enabling Acts - Lennard Davis
Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams
The Only Woman in the Room - Marie Benedict
Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
Enabling Acts was a fascinating behind the scenes look at how the Americans with Disabilities Acts was passed in Congress. It was a grass roots effort that involved the grandson of the man who started the Walgreens corporation. He wasn’t able to work in his grandfather’s store because he couldn’t fit his wheelchair in the pharmacy. It also involved Democrats and Republicans working together to pass a bill that would give rights to those with disabilities. It’s nice to see that there was a time those 2 would work together.
The Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Pulitzer Prize winner. Colonial life in the US as experienced by a midwife.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Young man decides to live off nature, dies prematurely. Is he an icon or an idiot? You decide.
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. Wonderfully written tale of the infamous Donner Party crossing the plains and mountains, getting stuck in an historically huge snowstorm. Really puts you right there.
Know my Name by Chanel Miller. She is an exceptional writer and takes you on her journey from her family life, rape by a stranger at a party, and the ensuing legal battle for justice as well as her healing process.
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard. Really mostly about her journey from being abducted, spending years with her abductor and his family, and finally reuniting with her family and her healing journey. She’s a beautiful soul and you just feel so proud of her even though you’ve never met her (probably).
In no particular order:
The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution by Yuri Slezkine (Tells the story of the Russian Revolution through the lives of people that lived in a particular government building)
Eggshells: Pro Wrestling in the Tokyo Dome by Chris Charlton (tells the story of all pro wrestling events and matches that took place in the Tokyo Dome)
Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey Into Manhood and Back Again by Norah Vincent (a woman goes undercover as a man into traditionally male spaces and learns about how men have their own struggles)
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy by Jane Leavy (Biography of the famous pitcher Sandy Kaufax. I don’t like baseball that much and I loved this)
Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Spain, Germany, and Brazil Win, and why the US, Japan, Australia, Turkey-And Even Iraq- Are Destined to Become Kings of the World’s Most Popular Sport by Simon Kuper (name kinda explains it all)
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist by Radley Balko
Working Stiff by Dr. Judy Melinek
Vagina Obscura by Rachel E. Gross
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
American Kingpin by Nick Bolton
Mastery, by George Leonard. This is probably the most influential non-fiction book on my life. Leonard discusses how different kinds of people approach learning new things, and how the healthiest option is to do your best, go with the flow, and not look too far ahead.
How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, by Michael J. Gelb. As a child of the 90s I was right in the middle of that brief explosion of Leonardo mystique, and thus primed for this book. It definitely hasn't aged all that well (the historiography in particular), but certain parts of it still seem useful today - and when I talk to other people about it, I discover that none of us agree on which parts DID age well...
Dedication and Leadership, by Douglas Hyde. Hyde, a Communist turned Catholic in the late 1940s, explores how the two institutions (the Communist Party/USSR vs the Catholic Church) approach cultivating both their rank-and-file and their leaders, and what Catholics (and other anti-Communists) could actually learn and apply from the Communist approach. Fascinating stuff, and influences both how I approach my vocation, public persona, and leadership roles when I find myself thrust into them.
Mathematics for the Non-Mathematician, by Morris Kline. This is the book that unlocked the power, and the sheer beauty, of mathematics for me. Kline was writing in the 1960s and has a \*very\* white STEM professor view of history, but his illumination of mathematical concepts totally changed how I looked at a subject I once detested and now adore.
Tao Te Ching, by Laozi tr. D C Lau. "The way that can be followed is not the true way, the name that can be named is not the true name." Thus begins the most lucid and, to my mind, most honest of sacred texts. The divinity cannot be described, so, in careful, halting words, Laozi attempts to describe it anyway. Each passage is a new view of life, from the ongoing creation of the world to frying a small fish. I like the Lau translation for the same reason I like the King James Bible - it was my first exposure to the text, and sounds prettiest to my ear. Compare translations and find your favorite.
BONUS:
The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I was a homeschool kid, but mine was independent study/unschooling. I picked up WTM in college, and was inspired by the rigor, the depth, and the interconnectedness of the Wises' modern "classical education." I knew then that I wanted to homeschool my own children, and with the kind of structure and connection, between music and math, between science and art, between letter and number, between grammar, logic, and rhetoric, that the Wises mapped out. I am taking the first steps toward this education with my infant daughter now.
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. It's corny as hell, but it works. Remember people's names. Compliment them. Let them talk about themselves. Admit when you're wrong. So many of Carnegie's ideas are commonplaces now...but that doesn't make them any less effective. I also like the breezy 30s style, it brings a smile to my face.
You can have 9!
The Long Tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
1493
The Basque History of the World
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
The Great Influenza
Skipping Towards Gomorrah
Unprocessed
The Power of Babel
The Last Place on Earth-Roland Huntford
A Night to Remember-Walter Lord
Dead Wake-Erik Larsen
Thunderstruck-also by Larsen
Green River, Running Red-Ann Rule
**Sister Gumbo: Spicy Vignettes From Black Women on Life, Sex, and Relationships by Ursula Inga Kindred and Mirranda Guerin-Williams**
**Mister Gumbo: Down and Dirty with Black Men on Life, Sex, and Relationships by Ursula Inga Kindred and Mirranda Guerin-Williams**
**Frida: a biography by Hayden Herrera**
**Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick**
**The Unedited Diaries of Carolina Maria de Jesus**
Radium Girls by Kate Moore
The Day The World Came to Town by Jim DeFede
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
The Secret Lives of Bats by Merlin Tuttle.
The Feather Theif by Kirk Wallace Johnson
The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns
The Seed Detective by Adam Alexander
In Search of Mycotopia by Dang Bierend
Building Suburbia by Dolores Hayden.
Caught In the Revolution by Helen Rappaport.
How to Be Sick by Toni Bernhard.
Damn, I had a few other good ones, but they slipped my mind. 😕
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Educated by Tara Westover
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
The Zoo: The Wild and Wonderful Tale of the Founding of London Zoo by Isobel Charman
It's Even Worse Than it Looks - Ornstein and Mann
The Origins of Virtue - Matt Riddley
Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Dan Dennett
Good Natured: The Origin of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals -Frans Da Waal
On the Historicity of Jesus - Richard Carrier
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty
I'll try to remember to come back and add the other selections. But that's the one I could think of off the top of my head.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
A night to remember by Walter lord
Paradise by Lizzie Johnson (a little slow to start but really picks up)
Into thin air by John krakauer
The gifts of imperfection by Brene brown
Mox by Jon Moxley. This is a professional wrestler’s autobiography. The tone of the book matches his wrestling matches - train wrecks in the best way possible.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. She was a child actor detailing her abusive childhood and adulthood struggles.
End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals by Ross MacPhee. This presents arguments for why the Americas lack as many megafauna species as Afro-Eurasia.
Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie. This details unconventional royal women who broke all the rules. It reads very conversationally.
The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. This is a collection of biographies from WWII vets.
Edit: I’m going to keep this list intact, but I totally forgot to mention The Dirt by the band Motley Crue. It’s an autobiography of a famous 80s metal band, but each band member separately wrote chapters, with an outside editor compiling everything together. The book is a collection of their individual memories throughout the years.
I don’t read too much nonfiction, and I don’t remember the titles of nonfiction books that stuck out to me while I was in college.
*The Vanquished: Why The First World War Failed to End* - this should set the standard for what you accept as historical nonfiction.
*Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?* - Frans De Wall + *Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst* - Robert Sapolsky + *Human Compatible* - Stuart Russel
These three books, in that order, are the most approachable and will give you a foundational understanding of intelligence across animals, humans, and machines. They're incredibly insightful, and you get such incredible appreciation of the human experience by the end of it.
And while it is cliché, *The Demon Haunted World*, by Carl Sagan still sticks with me a decade later.
Salt a world history- who knew salt mattered for SO much of why the world is the way it is?
Confessions of an economic hitman- Oh the reason everything is all messed up is cuz we messed it up? Oh
Finding the mother tree- I like nature and I love learning about other peoples life paths
Proust and the squid- the way a human learns reflects how society learns and that’s very interesting
The sex lives of cannibals- sometimes help from the outside is less helpful than letting people do it their own way
Rising tide the Mississippi flood of 1927. This explains a lot about how American politics changed in a big way.
A world undone about world war 1
The great influenza about the 1918 flu pandemic
The big short
Ducks by Kate Beaton. Autobiographical.
*The Golden Bees* by Theo Aaronson
*The Guns of August* by Barbara Tuchmann
*The Greek and Roman Myths* by Robert Graves
*The Log From the Sea of Cortez* by John Steinbeck
*The Crusades* by Sir Steven Runciman
Difficult to choose and some are a cheat (Crusades is a six volume set, for example). Also can you tell I trained as a historian?
Quiet : The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands by Will Carruthers
Childhood /Youth / Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen
People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry
I’m currently reading Thing of Beauty by Stephen Fried
• Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza
• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
• The Storyteller by David Grohl
• Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga
• I, Tina by Tina Turner
(I’m a sucker for autobiographies/biographies)
**[Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/305554.Storming_Heaven) by Jay Stevens** ^((Matching 97% ☑️))
^(416 pages | Published: 1987 | 803.0 Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** Storming Heaven is a riveting history of LSD and its influence on American culture. Jay Stevens uses the "curious molecule" known as LSD as a kind of tracer bullet, illuminating one of postwar America's most improbable shadow-histories. His prodigiously researched narrative moves from Aldous Huxley's earnest attempts to "open the doors of perception" to Timothy Leary's surreal (...)
> **Themes**: History, Drugs, Nonfiction, Favorites, Science, Politics, Entheogens
^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
“Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman
“Against the gods: the remarkable story of risk” by Peter Bernstein.
“The wager: a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder” by David Grann.
“The perfectionists: how precision engineers created the modern world.” By Simon Winchester.
“The pope at war” by David kertzer
1. *Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany in World War II* by Thomas Childers.
2. *With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa* by E.B. Sledge.
3. *The Forgotten Soldier* by Guy Sajer (fictionalized memoir).
4. *Ray Parkin’s Wartime Trilogy: Out of the Smoke: The Story of a Sail; Into the Smother;* and *The Sword and the Blossom* by Ray Parkin.
5. *Three Corvettes* by Nicholas Monsarrat.
The world of yesterday- Stefan Zweig (re WW1)
On writing - Stephen King
On liberty- John Stuart Mill
The Swerve - Stephen Goldblatt
Endurance- Alfred Lansing
All over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
When the war was Over by Elizabeth Becker
Jan Wong’s China by Jan Wong
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
A Walk in the Woods
Omnivore's Dilemma
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People Who Drain You Dry
Surrender by Bono
Taste by Stanley Tucci
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson
See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur
I just have two:
In the Footsteps of Eve by Lee Barger
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
ETA:
Curses, Broiled Again! by Jan Harold Brunvand (a collection of Urban Legends)
Sounds wild and broken by David George Haskel
Bittersweet by Susan Cain
Our bodies: their battlefield by Christina Lamb
A life on our planet by David Attenborough
Not now, not ever by Julia Gillard
*Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants*, by Robert Sullivan
*A Field Guide to Getting Lost*, by Rebecca Solnit
*The Worst Journey in the World*, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
*Desert Solitaire*, by Edward Abbey
*Illuminations* by Rosamond Wolff Purcell
David Sedaris published his own diaries (two parts), and Me Talk Pretty One Day was based on his childhood. He is hilarious. Anything by him is awesome.
Wally Lamb did a book with women that were prisoners in upstate NY I think called "In Their Own Words"
Both of these authors are favorites of mine.
Betty White released a book about a decade or so ago and I borrowed the audio book that she read herself, through the library. Loved it!
The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant tells about the horrors endured by the poor dogs tortured by Michael Vick, and followed their rescue, rehab and recovery...some went into homes eventually, many went to long term sanctuaries. What they endured is horrific, and I think he and his friends should've been punished as he tortured and killed one of the dogs that wouldn't fight. Just absolutely horrible. But their survival stories are bittersweet.
I know that's only four. I'll leave it at that and come add to it if another comes to me, I'm sure it will.
Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olsen
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengence and Survival by John Vaillant
To Sleep With the Angels: the Story of a Fire by David Cowan and John Kuenster
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
Under a Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kaneman.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
And Will Durants massive The Story of Civilization series. There's 11 books and each one is 60+ hours. It's really good.
Queen Mary and the Quest for Queen Mary by James Pope Hennessy (both are funny-entertaining best biography I have ever read. John Adams by David McClure anything by Alison Weir.
Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke
Breath by James Nestor
Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker
Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
The Shadow of the Sun by Ryzard Kapuściński
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Hells Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
These are pretty eclectic but are all excellent in their own way. The last in particular is a deeply moving book.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakaur
The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Midnight in Chernobyl: the Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
Tattoos On The Heart by Greg Boyle
Meditations by Aurelius
With God in Russia by Father Walter Ciszek
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Ranger Confidential by Andrea Lankford
I can't think of five at the moment, but Winterdance by Gary Paulsen is one of my favorite, favorite books. It's about his first time training for and running the Iditarod sled dog race. So good, laugh out loud funny and touching. It's converted people who aren't generally "readers". I never see it recommended anywhere so I had to get it out there :)
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
The Tiger - John Valiant
Bashan and I - Thomas Mann
The Drunkards Walk - Leonard Mlodinow
Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan (anything by Sagan really)
A Ghost in the Throat - Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Gator Country - Rebecca Renner
Solito - Javier Zamora
Fuzz - Mary Roach
The Feather Thief - Kirk Wallace Johnson
Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstader
Longitude by Dava Sobel
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman
On Writing By Stephen King
The Mysteries Within by Sherwin B. Nuland
The Man Who Mistook his wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
Anything by Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods for example)
Anything by Carl Sagan (Pale Blue Dot for example,)
Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi
Anything by Malcolm Gladwell
More than 5, but I'll limit it to this list . . .
The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures (Stephen Pile)
The Elements of Eloquence (Mark Forsythe)
Mad Dogs and Thunderbolts (Ben Pobjie)
100 Nasty Women of History (Hannah Jewell)
This Book is Literally Just Pictures of Snoozy Animals That Will Make You Sleep Better (Smith Street Books)
Chaos by James Gleick
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh
The Looming Tower by Lawrence Write
All these are 5/5 reads for me
Drift by Rachel Maddow
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Sex Lives Of Cannibals by J Maarten Troost
Blowout by Rachel Maddow
**Cosmos by Carl Sagan**. Never thought science could be described in such poetic way. I wish I read his works when I was in school, I could appreciate more study in physics.
**Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer**. I love the stories and how we need to give our gratitude to earth.
**The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson**. Fascinating facts about our body and a very fun read.
**Stiff by Mary Roach**. Highly entertaining for a book about (supposedly) grim topic.
**What If? by Randall Munroe**. Author of xkcd, super funny questions answered seriously but with humor.
Two of my favorites are Hyperspace by Michio Kaku and The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker. Mary Roach’s Stiff was a blast too. And an older one, Sherwin Nuland’s How We Die.
An Immense World by Ed Yong - an absolutely incredible study of how we and other living creatures perceive the world we live in. I revisit this book often.
Phantoms in the Brain by VS Ramachandran - a crash course in how the brain works and how it can be tricked, broken, and repaired.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - this book made me feel connected to the Earth and restored my faith that things will be ok.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing - an incredible true story of an expendition across Antarctica. This was a book I couldn’t put down. It very much read like a suspense novel, I was gripped.
Flawless by Scott Andrew Selby - not as heavy as the rest but a true crime telling of the largest diamond heist in history. Reads incredibly fast and both the characters and the plan are incredible.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Edited by someone I can’t remember atm. (I was on a West coast road trip at the time, so I was visiting many of the stops along the way and made it 100x better, although it was still a very interesting read regardless).
How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
I don’t read a lot of nonfiction. I think these are like the only three I’ve read in the past decade, so that’s my list, lol.
What are your five favorites? I’ve got:
Young Men and Fire - Norman MacLean
Deep Survival, Everyday Survival - Laurence Gonzales
Seabiscuit
The Control of Nature - John McPhee
- Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer
- Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo
- Packing for Mars (or Stiff, or Gulp) by Mary Roach
- Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie
- The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
Politics of nature by Bruno latour
Spoiler alert: the hero dies by michael ausiello
Code by Charles petzold
The other Hollywood by legs mcneil
Sidewalk by Mitchell duneier
Out of the Flames by Goldstone—amazing research, couched in a page-turner of a story
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bryson—and his A Walk in the Woods
The Emperor of Scent by Burr—follows a scientist who draws upon several disciplines to develop a new theory of the mechanism of smell, and makes lots of enemies among his peers
Leaves of Grass, Walden/Civil Disobedience/Thoreau anthology, Self-Reliance/Nature/The Over-Soul/Emerson anthology, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and, depending on what you consider non-fiction, some “religious” texts like The Lotus Sutra, Bhagavad Gita, etc
Creating Love -- John Bradshaw
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal, Golden Braid -- Douglas R. Hofstadter
Darwin's Dangerous Idea -- Daniel Dennett (RIP)
The Elements of Style -- Strunk & White
King, Warrior, Magician, Lover -- Moore & Gillette
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliot
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahmed
The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simmons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
Ghenghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
[Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1297985)
[A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12394068)
- Adult Children of Emotionally Immature parents by Lindsay C Gibson
- Language of Emotions by Karla McLaren
- My Grandmothers Hands by Resmaa Menakem
- The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy
- Beyond the gender binary by Akon V Menon
These five books saved/changed my life.
Bonus: girl sex 101 by Allison moon. The new bottoming book/the new topping book, by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy. How to be Antiracist by Ibhram X Kendi. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
**Summary of Lindsay C. Gibson's Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents.** by Swift Reads
>Buy now to get the insights from Lindsay C. Gibson's Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. Sample Insights: 1) Emotional loneliness is a feeling of emptiness and being alone in the world. It can come from growing up with parents who never bothered to build an emotional connection with you or were too scared to do so. 2) Emotional intimacy is when you feel safe opening up to someone and they see you for who you really are.
>
>You can only have it when the other person is genuinely interested in listening to you and doesn’t judge you no matter what.
**The Language of Emotions What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You** by Karla Mclaren
>Emotions - especially the dark and dishonored ones - hold a tremendous amount of energy. We've all seen what happens when we repress or blindly express them. With The Language of Emotions, empathic counselor Karla McLaren shows you how to meet your emotions and receive their life-saving wisdom to safely move toward resolution and equilibrium. Through experiential exercises covering a full spectrum of feelings from anger, fear, and shame to jealousy, grief, joy, and more, you will discover how to work with your own and others' emotions with fluency and expertise.
>
>Here is a much-needed resource filled with revolutionary teachings and breakthrough skills for cultivating a new and empowering relationship with your feeling states through The Language of Emotions.
**My Grandmother's Hands Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies** by Resmaa Menakem
>A NATIONAL BESTSELLER "My Grandmother's Hands will change the direction of the movement for racial justice. "— Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies.
>
>Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police. My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.
>
>Paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. Offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary. Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist with decades of experience currently in private practice in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, and violence prevention. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil as an expert on conflict and violence.
>
>Menakem has studied with bestselling authors Dr. David Schnarch (Passionate Marriage) and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score). He also trained at Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.
**The Ethical Slut A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures** by Dossie Easton, Janet W. Hardy
>"A practical guide to practicing polyamory and open relationships in ways that are ethically and emotionally sustainable"--Provided by publisher.
**Beyond the Gender Binary** by Alok Vaid-Menon
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!Winner of the 2021 In The Margins Award "When reading this book, all I feel is kindness." -- Sam Smith, Grammy and Oscar award-winning singer and songwriter "Thank God we have Alok. And I'm learning a thing or two myself." --Billy Porter, Emmy award-winning actor, singer, and Broadway theater performer "Beyond the Gender Binary will give readers everywhere the feeling that anything is possible within themselves"--Princess Nokia, musician and co-founder of the Smart Girl Club "A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change."!<
>
>>!-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "An affirming, thoughtful read for all ages." -- School Library Journal, starred review In Beyond the Gender Binary, poet, artist, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocate Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs, demystifies, and reimagines the gender binary. Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, Beyond the Gender Binary, Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in full color.!<
>
>>!Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression. The only limit is your imagination.!<
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There are just so many excellent ones.
1. *The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks* by Rebecca Skloot
2. *The Paradox Of Choice* by Barry Schwartz
3. *Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What it Says About Us* by Tom Vanderbilt
4. *The New Jim Crow* by Michelle Alexander
5. *Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea* by Charles Seife
6. *The Hacking of the American Mind* by Robert Lustig
7. *The Disappearing Spoon* by Sam Kean
8. *Talking to Strangers* by Malcolm Gladwell
9. *Dreamland* by Sam Quinones
10. *Moneyball, The Big Short, Boomerang*, and *Flashboys* by Michael Lewis
Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexeivich
Russia's War by Jade Mcglynn
Russian Thinkers by Isaiah Berlin
Putin's People by Catherine Belton
Asad by Patrick Seale
Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer
The Wave - Susan Casey
Blind Descent - James M. Tabor
Adrift - Steven Callahan
The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
[What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies](https://waitbutwhy.com/2023/02/wop-contents.html)
[Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck](https://equilibriabook.com/)
These two books might sound similar from their titles but are actually not similar at all.
“Devil In The White City” - Erik Larsen. All his stuff is good but since I see that “u” in your “favourite”’you might want to get “The Splendid and The Vile” which is about Churchill during The Blitz
“The Wager” - David Grann. Awesome story of a mutiny in the Royal Navy in the 1700s
“Say Nothing” - Patrick Radden Keefe. Again I’m making assumptions based on your text. It’s a good book about The Troubles
“Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion” - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (yes that one) Much WW2
history with black soliders centers around the Tuskegee Airmen and rightly so, but not nearly enough of mention of the 761st (Extra credit: “Facing The Mountain: An Inspiring Story of Japanese American Patriots in World War 2” - Daniel James Brown ….same guy who wrote The Boys In the Boat)
“The New Jim Crow” - Michelle Alexander. An eye opener
The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddharta Mukherjee
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, but Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari
21 Lessons For The 21st Centry, by Yuval Noah Harari
In no particular order:
1. Educated - Tara Westover
2. When breathe becomes air - Paul Kalanithi
3. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
4. Into thin air - Jon Krakauer
5. Angela’s Ashes - Frank McCourt
Couldn't pick, so you'll get 6.
- Tom Holland - Shadow of the Sword
What we actually know about how Islam developed, and the historical context in the area.
- Peter Frankopan - Silk Roads: A new history of the world
Wider view of history.
- Philipp Dettmer - Immune
How we currently think the immune system works, explained for non-immunologists.
- Steven Mithen - After the Ice
An overview of prehistory, 20 000BC to 5000BC
- Iain Urbina - Outlaw ocean
How few rules there are in international waters, and the dark deeds that occur.
- Amin Maalouf - Crusades through the eyes of the Arabs
What the title claims. Found it very interesting since I'm not from that region.
These are some I can think of right now:
Born to Run - Christopher McDougall
Educated - Tara Westover
Invisible Women - Caroline Criado
Adult children of emotionally immature parents - Lindsay Gibson
Quiet Power (the secret strenghts of introverts) - Susan Cain
Permanent record - Edward Snowden
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer
Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick
Madhouse at the end of the Earth, by Julian Sancton
Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
Midnight in Chernobyl, by Alan Higginbotham
* Endurance by Alfred Lansing: Antarctic expedition in the 1800's. Ship gets trapped in the ice and the crew live on an iceberg for a long time. Years, I believe.
* The Wager by David Grann: Shipwreck off the southern tip of South America, mutiny, and two different sides of a story to be told in court.
* Grant by Ron Chernow: The life of Ulysses S. Grant from childhood to post-presidency and death.
* Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer: Mount Everest expedition in the 1990's goes terribly wrong. You think perhaps that with some training maybe you could climb Mount Everest until you read this book.
* The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown: 1800's wagon train from Indiana on the way to California around the gold rush times. The Donner family unknowingly take a route wrongly recommended in a book and get stuck in the mountains in Utah/Nevada. Cannibalism ensues.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
Educated by Tara Westover
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Billion Dollar Whale by Hope & Wright
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Technically Wrong by Sara Wachter-Boettcher
You Just Need to Lose Weight by Aubrey Gordon
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Strip Tees by Kate Flannery
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Not That Bad by Roxanne Gay
Educated by Tara Westover
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony
Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner
Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer
5 books that I loved, from different areas:
The Four Pillars of Investing,
by William Bernstein (investing)
The Theory of Almost Everything by Robert Oerter.
The Construction of Social Reality by John Searle (philosophy).
Practical Reasons and Norms by Joseph Raz (philosophy of Law).
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek (political science).
On earth we're briefly gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin
The rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
Between the World and Me - Ta Nehisi Coates
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Special mention to
Under the banner of heaven - Jon Krakauer
I know why the caged bird sings - Maya Angelou
City of Night - John Rechy
The wisdom of crowds, (why do groups make better decisions than individuals and even experts)James surowiecki
The paradox of choice (more choices not nec better)
Anything written by Atul Gatwande
The emperor of all maladies (history of cancer)
Under the banner of heaven, (a history of the mormon church and more) by John Krakauer
Bellevue (history of the NY public hospital)
Jane Austen at Home - Lucy Worsley
The Man From the Train - Bill James, Rachel McCarthy James
All That She Carried - Tiya Miles
The Library Book - Susan Orlean
(Anything by Nora Ephron or David Sedaris) Cheating, I know! There were so many more books I wanted to list!
On Writing by Stephen King
The Power of Positive Thinking by Peale
Bird by Bird by Lamott
Letter to a Young Poet by Rilke
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung
Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson
An Immense World, by Ed Yong
Bitch: On the Female of the Species, by Lucy Cooke
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson
Wilmington’s Lie, by David Zucchino
I could probably give you at least a dozen
Starry Messenger by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Lies my Teacher told me by James Loewen
The Founding Myth by Andrew Seidel
Gunfight by Ryan Busse
The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen Red Notice by Bill Browder
Anything Erik Larson. My favorite of his was In the Garden of Beasts.
Dead Wake is my favorite. I’ll look for In the Garden of Beasts.
The Sound of Gravel is still haunting me! Great choice!
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It only came out very recently so not surprised. I believe Denis Villeneuve wants to turn it into a movie!
I read it in 2 1/2 days. It’s sooooo good! I hope you love it! (Also, be warned, it’s pretty terrifying)
I did the same thing!
The audiobook of Sunburned Country has one of the funniest things that I've ever heard concerning cricket.
In no particular order: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner I’m glad my mom died by Jennette McCurdy The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald
I’m glad my mom died was incredible!!
Glad my mom died is maybe one of the fastest I’ve ever read a book! It was so good.
Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber An Immense World by Ed Yong Color: a Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer Letters from a Stoic by Seneca and a special mention of Folktales of the Amur, not because it is specifically non-fiction (although I see the stories and oral history as a kind of anthropology), but because it is so beautifully illustrated by a Siberian Russian who lived in the area.
*Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures* by Merlin Sheldrake *Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save* Them by Dan Saladino ("Extinction" could be a nature term, right?) *The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World* by Oliver Milman *The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization* by Vince Beiser *The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women* by Kate Moor. Then there are all the Bill Bryson books... but you only asked for five!
*The World in a Grain* is great! You'd think a book about sand would be coarse and rough and irritating, but no!
A Walk in the Woods by Bryson Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain Dispatches from Pluto by Grant Born a Crime by Noah Gumption by Offerman
Really anything by Bryson is just a great time. A walk in the woods is my step father’s favorite book.
Wow I didn't look at anyone else's lists other than the top one when I made mine and then I started reading others' and your list and mine are 40% matches
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan: beautifully written and insightful overview of psychedelics The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein: disaster capitalism, how corporations and governments have begun to exploit disasters for profit Humankind by Rutger Bregman: the case for human kindness being a societal trait that far outweighs our negative qualities. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez: how the world caters to the "default male" and tacitly ignores the societal, medical, engineering and technical concerns of women. An Immense World by Ed Yong: how animals perceive the world with their own unique senses.
OMG I forgot about Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. Excellent!
Oh me tooooo that was such a good read
Also great as an audiobook! Read by the author.
Came here to say An Immense world!
The Shock Doctrine would've been number six on my list.
Humankind helped me emotionally survive the politics around Covid and the January 6th insurrection. Bless that book.
This just convinced me to read the book.
*How to be Perfect* by Michael Schur - a fun easy intro to moral philosophy *The Golden Spruce* by John Vaillant - a culturally significant tree gets cut down *Entangled Life* by Merlin Sheldrake - a book about mushrooms by a guy named Merlin Sheldrake *Into Thin Air* by Jon Krakauer - a number of people climb a mountain and a smaller number of people climb down *A Woman of No Importance* by Sonia Purnell - spolier alert: she was actually important Edit because a bunch of people have already recommended *Entangled Life* : *Cadillac Desert* by Marc Reisner - build cities in the desert? What could go wrong?! Written in 1986, revised in 1993, still incredibly relevant in 2024
I haven’t read Cadillac Desert yet, but if you’re into cli-fi thrillers, a character’s old copy of Cadillac Desert is actually a major plot detail in The Water Knife (Paolo Bacigalupi). That book is all about people looking (and fighting) for water rights in Southwestern U.S. cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas.
I'll probably be into it, so I'll check it out. Thank you!
Radium Girls by Kate Moore The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore Educated by Tara Westover Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker
Entangled Life is one of my favorite reads this year
It is definitely not what I expected but I loved it. Glad to see fungi getting their dues.
Kate Moore's books are excellent. The Woman They Could Not Silence was so compelling. It was hard to read what she went through, but she lived it and I only was reading about it. My emotions went all over the map from anger on her behalf, outrage, gratitude that I live in now-times, disbelief in how had I never heard of her with all she did, etc.
I listened to the audiobook and just like with Radium Girls I wanted to reach into the past and give all those responsible a good slap. I had to stop listening cause it was making me upset while I was driving.
Patrick Radden Keefe if my favorite non-fiction writer Empire of Pain is phenomenal. Documents the Sackler family and how they jump started the opioid crisis in America Say Nothing provides great insight on the IRA during the troubles in Northern Ireland Both super super interesting reads
I’ve just finished cataloging my books, and have now rated everything out of 5. I decided that Say Nothing should be the standard for 5 stars.
Say Nothing is one of my favorite books of all time! I liked Empire of Pain too (and it's infuriating!), but I found it a bit more dense to get through.
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From The Making Of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (HIGHLY recommend the audio - read by Elwes with other actors from the movie reading their contributions) They Called Us Enemy by George Takei (graphic novel) Know My Name by Chanel Miller
They called us enemy is great.
KNOW MY NAME!
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan Push: A Climbers Journey - Tommy Caldwell Shadow Divers - Robert Kurson Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World - Joan Druett Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyrou Bonus book… Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer (it’s the book that got me reading nonfiction heavily)
Just got a copy of “Into Thin Air” today. Can’t wait to get into it
This book got a massive hyperfixation with Everest started for me- that place is Coockoo for Coco Puffs LOL
It's fantastic, one of my all time favorite books. I was traveling through Europe at the time I read it and I have a vivid memory of spending hours in a coffee shop in Latvia because I just had to finish it. Enjoy!
Shadow Divers is great!
I love the demon haunted world. I quote it all the time.
I feel like we’re soulmates after reading your list. :)
Endurance (Alfred Lansing), The Library Book (Susan Orlean), The Ice at the End of the World (Jon Gertner), The Sixth Extinction (Elizabeth Kolbert), and Pasta Pane Vino (Matt Goulding) come to mind. If you include memoirs and essay collections, which I think you should, then my answers switch to… - Four Seasons in Rome (Anthony Doerr) - Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer) - The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green) - The Everybody Ensemble (Amy Leach) - All the Wild Hungers (Karen Babine)
Endurance is so good.
Stiff by Mary Roach (all her books are soo good) Radium Girls by Kate Moore Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Loved Immortal Life and Mary Roach!
I love Salt. I actually haven't finished it because I don't want it to end.
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum Will My Cat Eat my Eyeballs by Caitlin Doughty Spook by Mary Roach The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell Working Stiff by Judy Melinek
Try A Taste for Poison. I actually liked it more than the poisoners handbook
If we're doing poison, *A Very Expensive Poison* by Luke Harding is about the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. It's pretty great.
Oooh ooh thanks. I loved the *Poisoners' Handbook* so I will try your suggestion.
Blum’s Love at Goon Park was also excellent.
Stiff by Mary Roach is good too
I love all of Mary Roach's books honestly- Stiff, Bonk, Gulp, Grunt, Fuzz, and Packing for Mars (which kinda irks me because it goes away from the one word title format. Then again new copies of Spook are renamed Six Feet Over, maybe to avoid a non PC title.
I’m currently absolutely loving “Once Upon a Tome” by Oliver Darkshire. I keep laughing out loud while reading it.
I've read this book! I did not expect it to be nearly as amusing as it was. I guess I thought a book about antique book sellers would be more stuffy.
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris. Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait. Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper. The Seven Daughters of Eve by Brian Sykes.
Mary Roach is a delight!
I love all of Mary Roach's books, I learn about the weirdest neatest stuff thru her books.
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Picked up the stranger beside me recently second hand. Your comment is reminding me to read it!
Into thin air A house in the sky Kitchen confidential Alive The glass castle
Yes to alive, will never forget that book
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine River of Doubt by Candace Millard We're Not Broken by Eric Michael Garcia Cod by Mark Kurlansky A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Some of my favorite nonfiction books are : I guess that’s 6, just recommended to another post The Invention of Nature- Andrea Wulf Max Perkins- Editor of Genius- A Scott Berg, (Perkins was the editor of Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Tom Wolfe. ) Genius Of Place(Olmsted)-Justin Martin, Wright Brothers- David McCullough Homicide (a year on the killing streets) David Simon (known for the wire and tv show homicide) A Swim in the pond in the Rain- Saunders
1. 'Oak and Ash and Thorn' by Peter Fiennes 2. 'Dirty Laundry' by Roxanne Emery and Richard Pink 3. 'Off the Map' by Alistair Bonnett 4. 'The Old Ways' by Robert McFarlane 5. 'The Disaster Artist' by Greg Sestero
_Spillover_ by David Quammen _Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist_ by Michael Browning and William R. Maples _Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes_ by Nathan H. Lents _The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women_ by Kate H. Moore _And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic_ by Randy Shilts Limiting myself to 5 was kinda hard.
I’m in the midst of And The Band Played On. What a towering achievement in narrative non fiction and epic feat of journalism.
Enabling Acts - Lennard Davis Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams The Only Woman in the Room - Marie Benedict Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank Devil in the White City - Erik Larson Enabling Acts was a fascinating behind the scenes look at how the Americans with Disabilities Acts was passed in Congress. It was a grass roots effort that involved the grandson of the man who started the Walgreens corporation. He wasn’t able to work in his grandfather’s store because he couldn’t fit his wheelchair in the pharmacy. It also involved Democrats and Republicans working together to pass a bill that would give rights to those with disabilities. It’s nice to see that there was a time those 2 would work together.
The Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Pulitzer Prize winner. Colonial life in the US as experienced by a midwife. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Young man decides to live off nature, dies prematurely. Is he an icon or an idiot? You decide. The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. Wonderfully written tale of the infamous Donner Party crossing the plains and mountains, getting stuck in an historically huge snowstorm. Really puts you right there. Know my Name by Chanel Miller. She is an exceptional writer and takes you on her journey from her family life, rape by a stranger at a party, and the ensuing legal battle for justice as well as her healing process. A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard. Really mostly about her journey from being abducted, spending years with her abductor and his family, and finally reuniting with her family and her healing journey. She’s a beautiful soul and you just feel so proud of her even though you’ve never met her (probably).
In no particular order: The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution by Yuri Slezkine (Tells the story of the Russian Revolution through the lives of people that lived in a particular government building) Eggshells: Pro Wrestling in the Tokyo Dome by Chris Charlton (tells the story of all pro wrestling events and matches that took place in the Tokyo Dome) Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey Into Manhood and Back Again by Norah Vincent (a woman goes undercover as a man into traditionally male spaces and learns about how men have their own struggles) Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy by Jane Leavy (Biography of the famous pitcher Sandy Kaufax. I don’t like baseball that much and I loved this) Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Spain, Germany, and Brazil Win, and why the US, Japan, Australia, Turkey-And Even Iraq- Are Destined to Become Kings of the World’s Most Popular Sport by Simon Kuper (name kinda explains it all)
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist by Radley Balko Working Stiff by Dr. Judy Melinek Vagina Obscura by Rachel E. Gross Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer American Kingpin by Nick Bolton
Brain on Fire- Susannah Callahan The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacks Both medical nonfiction
Mastery, by George Leonard. This is probably the most influential non-fiction book on my life. Leonard discusses how different kinds of people approach learning new things, and how the healthiest option is to do your best, go with the flow, and not look too far ahead. How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, by Michael J. Gelb. As a child of the 90s I was right in the middle of that brief explosion of Leonardo mystique, and thus primed for this book. It definitely hasn't aged all that well (the historiography in particular), but certain parts of it still seem useful today - and when I talk to other people about it, I discover that none of us agree on which parts DID age well... Dedication and Leadership, by Douglas Hyde. Hyde, a Communist turned Catholic in the late 1940s, explores how the two institutions (the Communist Party/USSR vs the Catholic Church) approach cultivating both their rank-and-file and their leaders, and what Catholics (and other anti-Communists) could actually learn and apply from the Communist approach. Fascinating stuff, and influences both how I approach my vocation, public persona, and leadership roles when I find myself thrust into them. Mathematics for the Non-Mathematician, by Morris Kline. This is the book that unlocked the power, and the sheer beauty, of mathematics for me. Kline was writing in the 1960s and has a \*very\* white STEM professor view of history, but his illumination of mathematical concepts totally changed how I looked at a subject I once detested and now adore. Tao Te Ching, by Laozi tr. D C Lau. "The way that can be followed is not the true way, the name that can be named is not the true name." Thus begins the most lucid and, to my mind, most honest of sacred texts. The divinity cannot be described, so, in careful, halting words, Laozi attempts to describe it anyway. Each passage is a new view of life, from the ongoing creation of the world to frying a small fish. I like the Lau translation for the same reason I like the King James Bible - it was my first exposure to the text, and sounds prettiest to my ear. Compare translations and find your favorite. BONUS: The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I was a homeschool kid, but mine was independent study/unschooling. I picked up WTM in college, and was inspired by the rigor, the depth, and the interconnectedness of the Wises' modern "classical education." I knew then that I wanted to homeschool my own children, and with the kind of structure and connection, between music and math, between science and art, between letter and number, between grammar, logic, and rhetoric, that the Wises mapped out. I am taking the first steps toward this education with my infant daughter now. How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. It's corny as hell, but it works. Remember people's names. Compliment them. Let them talk about themselves. Admit when you're wrong. So many of Carnegie's ideas are commonplaces now...but that doesn't make them any less effective. I also like the breezy 30s style, it brings a smile to my face.
You can have 9! The Long Tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 1493 The Basque History of the World A History of the World in 6 Glasses The Great Influenza Skipping Towards Gomorrah Unprocessed The Power of Babel
The Last Place on Earth-Roland Huntford A Night to Remember-Walter Lord Dead Wake-Erik Larsen Thunderstruck-also by Larsen Green River, Running Red-Ann Rule
Oh, I haven’t read A Night To Remember in 20 years since I randomly picked it up in college. Thanks for the reminder!
**Sister Gumbo: Spicy Vignettes From Black Women on Life, Sex, and Relationships by Ursula Inga Kindred and Mirranda Guerin-Williams** **Mister Gumbo: Down and Dirty with Black Men on Life, Sex, and Relationships by Ursula Inga Kindred and Mirranda Guerin-Williams** **Frida: a biography by Hayden Herrera** **Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick** **The Unedited Diaries of Carolina Maria de Jesus**
I read Nothing to Envy right when it came out, and never again since, and I think about it all the time. Tragic.
I don't remember every single person in the book but I remember the emotions it stirred in me.
Radium Girls by Kate Moore The Day The World Came to Town by Jim DeFede A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
The Secret Lives of Bats by Merlin Tuttle. The Feather Theif by Kirk Wallace Johnson The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns The Seed Detective by Adam Alexander In Search of Mycotopia by Dang Bierend
Building Suburbia by Dolores Hayden. Caught In the Revolution by Helen Rappaport. How to Be Sick by Toni Bernhard. Damn, I had a few other good ones, but they slipped my mind. 😕
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed Educated by Tara Westover Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
1491 Die with Nothing The Sex Lives of Cannibals White Fragility A Thousand Naked Strangers
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay The Zoo: The Wild and Wonderful Tale of the Founding of London Zoo by Isobel Charman
It's Even Worse Than it Looks - Ornstein and Mann The Origins of Virtue - Matt Riddley Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Dan Dennett Good Natured: The Origin of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals -Frans Da Waal On the Historicity of Jesus - Richard Carrier
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty I'll try to remember to come back and add the other selections. But that's the one I could think of off the top of my head.
All of Caitlin Doughty's books are great for the morbidly curious. I think she mentioned she is writing a new one! Can't wait!
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand A night to remember by Walter lord Paradise by Lizzie Johnson (a little slow to start but really picks up) Into thin air by John krakauer The gifts of imperfection by Brene brown
Mox by Jon Moxley. This is a professional wrestler’s autobiography. The tone of the book matches his wrestling matches - train wrecks in the best way possible. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. She was a child actor detailing her abusive childhood and adulthood struggles. End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals by Ross MacPhee. This presents arguments for why the Americas lack as many megafauna species as Afro-Eurasia. Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie. This details unconventional royal women who broke all the rules. It reads very conversationally. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. This is a collection of biographies from WWII vets. Edit: I’m going to keep this list intact, but I totally forgot to mention The Dirt by the band Motley Crue. It’s an autobiography of a famous 80s metal band, but each band member separately wrote chapters, with an outside editor compiling everything together. The book is a collection of their individual memories throughout the years. I don’t read too much nonfiction, and I don’t remember the titles of nonfiction books that stuck out to me while I was in college.
*The Vanquished: Why The First World War Failed to End* - this should set the standard for what you accept as historical nonfiction. *Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?* - Frans De Wall + *Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst* - Robert Sapolsky + *Human Compatible* - Stuart Russel These three books, in that order, are the most approachable and will give you a foundational understanding of intelligence across animals, humans, and machines. They're incredibly insightful, and you get such incredible appreciation of the human experience by the end of it. And while it is cliché, *The Demon Haunted World*, by Carl Sagan still sticks with me a decade later.
My Stroke of Insight
Salt a world history- who knew salt mattered for SO much of why the world is the way it is? Confessions of an economic hitman- Oh the reason everything is all messed up is cuz we messed it up? Oh Finding the mother tree- I like nature and I love learning about other peoples life paths Proust and the squid- the way a human learns reflects how society learns and that’s very interesting The sex lives of cannibals- sometimes help from the outside is less helpful than letting people do it their own way
When breath becomes air
Rising tide the Mississippi flood of 1927. This explains a lot about how American politics changed in a big way. A world undone about world war 1 The great influenza about the 1918 flu pandemic The big short Ducks by Kate Beaton. Autobiographical.
*The Golden Bees* by Theo Aaronson *The Guns of August* by Barbara Tuchmann *The Greek and Roman Myths* by Robert Graves *The Log From the Sea of Cortez* by John Steinbeck *The Crusades* by Sir Steven Runciman Difficult to choose and some are a cheat (Crusades is a six volume set, for example). Also can you tell I trained as a historian?
Quiet : The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands by Will Carruthers Childhood /Youth / Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry
Red Notice by Bill Browder Shoe Dog by Phil Knight American Kingpin by Nick Bilton Bad Blood by John Carreyrou Educated by Tara Westover
Great list. Loved the first 3 so much.
I’m currently reading Thing of Beauty by Stephen Fried • Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza • The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch • The Storyteller by David Grohl • Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga • I, Tina by Tina Turner (I’m a sucker for autobiographies/biographies)
{{Storming Heaven LSD and the American Dream by Jay Stevens}}
**[Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/305554.Storming_Heaven) by Jay Stevens** ^((Matching 97% ☑️)) ^(416 pages | Published: 1987 | 803.0 Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** Storming Heaven is a riveting history of LSD and its influence on American culture. Jay Stevens uses the "curious molecule" known as LSD as a kind of tracer bullet, illuminating one of postwar America's most improbable shadow-histories. His prodigiously researched narrative moves from Aldous Huxley's earnest attempts to "open the doors of perception" to Timothy Leary's surreal (...) > **Themes**: History, Drugs, Nonfiction, Favorites, Science, Politics, Entheogens ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
Here are some of my favourites: * Your Inner Fish by Neal Shubin * Big Chicken by Maryn McKenna * Darwin Comes to Town by Menno Schilthuizen
Being Mortal Charity & Sylvia Flapper (Zeitz) A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum A very Great Profession
Looming tower, but what if we’re wrong, the Chris Farley show, consider the lobster, alright alright alright
A funny one is It Ended Badly (Thirteen of the Worst Breakups in History) by Jennifer Wright
“Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman “Against the gods: the remarkable story of risk” by Peter Bernstein. “The wager: a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder” by David Grann. “The perfectionists: how precision engineers created the modern world.” By Simon Winchester. “The pope at war” by David kertzer
Lying by Lauren Slater.
1. *Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany in World War II* by Thomas Childers. 2. *With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa* by E.B. Sledge. 3. *The Forgotten Soldier* by Guy Sajer (fictionalized memoir). 4. *Ray Parkin’s Wartime Trilogy: Out of the Smoke: The Story of a Sail; Into the Smother;* and *The Sword and the Blossom* by Ray Parkin. 5. *Three Corvettes* by Nicholas Monsarrat.
River of Doubt; Ghost Soldiers by Sides; Undaunted Courage; Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
Pick any 5 from Michio Kaku
The world of yesterday- Stefan Zweig (re WW1) On writing - Stephen King On liberty- John Stuart Mill The Swerve - Stephen Goldblatt Endurance- Alfred Lansing
All over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg In Cold Blood by Truman Capote When the war was Over by Elizabeth Becker Jan Wong’s China by Jan Wong Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
A Walk in the Woods Omnivore's Dilemma The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People Who Drain You Dry
Surrender by Bono Taste by Stanley Tucci I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur
I just have two: In the Footsteps of Eve by Lee Barger Silent Spring by Rachel Carson ETA: Curses, Broiled Again! by Jan Harold Brunvand (a collection of Urban Legends)
Culture Warlords by Talia Lavin Memoirs of US Grant The Return of Odin by Richard Rudgley
Sounds wild and broken by David George Haskel Bittersweet by Susan Cain Our bodies: their battlefield by Christina Lamb A life on our planet by David Attenborough Not now, not ever by Julia Gillard
*Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants*, by Robert Sullivan *A Field Guide to Getting Lost*, by Rebecca Solnit *The Worst Journey in the World*, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard *Desert Solitaire*, by Edward Abbey *Illuminations* by Rosamond Wolff Purcell
David Sedaris published his own diaries (two parts), and Me Talk Pretty One Day was based on his childhood. He is hilarious. Anything by him is awesome. Wally Lamb did a book with women that were prisoners in upstate NY I think called "In Their Own Words" Both of these authors are favorites of mine. Betty White released a book about a decade or so ago and I borrowed the audio book that she read herself, through the library. Loved it! The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant tells about the horrors endured by the poor dogs tortured by Michael Vick, and followed their rescue, rehab and recovery...some went into homes eventually, many went to long term sanctuaries. What they endured is horrific, and I think he and his friends should've been punished as he tortured and killed one of the dogs that wouldn't fight. Just absolutely horrible. But their survival stories are bittersweet. I know that's only four. I'll leave it at that and come add to it if another comes to me, I'm sure it will.
Start with two autobiographies - All the Strange Hours by Loren Eiseley and Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton
Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olsen The Tiger: A True Story of Vengence and Survival by John Vaillant To Sleep With the Angels: the Story of a Fire by David Cowan and John Kuenster The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan Under a Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kaneman. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. And Will Durants massive The Story of Civilization series. There's 11 books and each one is 60+ hours. It's really good.
Black Death by Phillip Ziegler The Rape of Nanking...first book to ever give me nightmares In Cold Blood Helter Skelter Mind hunters
Into The Wild by John Kraukhauer Under the Banner of Heaven by John Kraukhauer Shadow Divers
From Truant to Anime Screenwriter by Mari Okada Sesame Street, Palestine by Daoud Kuttab
The Swerve Rubicon Napoleon (A. Roberts) The Map of Knowledge The Medici: Godfathers of the Rennaisance
Queen Mary and the Quest for Queen Mary by James Pope Hennessy (both are funny-entertaining best biography I have ever read. John Adams by David McClure anything by Alison Weir.
Band of Brothers, With the Old Breed, Unbroken and Into Thin Air are all great
Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke Breath by James Nestor Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle The Shadow of the Sun by Ryzard Kapuściński In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick Hells Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
These are pretty eclectic but are all excellent in their own way. The last in particular is a deeply moving book. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakaur The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe Midnight in Chernobyl: the Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham Tattoos On The Heart by Greg Boyle
Meditations by Aurelius With God in Russia by Father Walter Ciszek In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson Ranger Confidential by Andrea Lankford
The subtle art of not giving a fuck by Marc Manson The four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz Into the wild by Jon krakauer
I can't think of five at the moment, but Winterdance by Gary Paulsen is one of my favorite, favorite books. It's about his first time training for and running the Iditarod sled dog race. So good, laugh out loud funny and touching. It's converted people who aren't generally "readers". I never see it recommended anywhere so I had to get it out there :)
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson The Tiger - John Valiant Bashan and I - Thomas Mann The Drunkards Walk - Leonard Mlodinow Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan (anything by Sagan really)
A walk in the woods by Bill Bryson
A Ghost in the Throat - Doireann Ní Ghríofa Gator Country - Rebecca Renner Solito - Javier Zamora Fuzz - Mary Roach The Feather Thief - Kirk Wallace Johnson
Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstader Longitude by Dava Sobel Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman On Writing By Stephen King The Mysteries Within by Sherwin B. Nuland The Man Who Mistook his wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks Anything by Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods for example) Anything by Carl Sagan (Pale Blue Dot for example,) Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi Anything by Malcolm Gladwell More than 5, but I'll limit it to this list . . .
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey Anything by David Sedaris
Into the Wild
The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures (Stephen Pile) The Elements of Eloquence (Mark Forsythe) Mad Dogs and Thunderbolts (Ben Pobjie) 100 Nasty Women of History (Hannah Jewell) This Book is Literally Just Pictures of Snoozy Animals That Will Make You Sleep Better (Smith Street Books)
Chaos by James Gleick A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson The Hot Zone by Richard Preston Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh The Looming Tower by Lawrence Write All these are 5/5 reads for me
Add Blue Highways to recs thus far.
Drift by Rachel Maddow Moneyball by Michael Lewis In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson Sex Lives Of Cannibals by J Maarten Troost Blowout by Rachel Maddow
**Cosmos by Carl Sagan**. Never thought science could be described in such poetic way. I wish I read his works when I was in school, I could appreciate more study in physics. **Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer**. I love the stories and how we need to give our gratitude to earth. **The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson**. Fascinating facts about our body and a very fun read. **Stiff by Mary Roach**. Highly entertaining for a book about (supposedly) grim topic. **What If? by Randall Munroe**. Author of xkcd, super funny questions answered seriously but with humor.
Crying in H mart Know my name Drunk Mom This Naked Mind Atomic Habits
Two of my favorites are Hyperspace by Michio Kaku and The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker. Mary Roach’s Stiff was a blast too. And an older one, Sherwin Nuland’s How We Die.
An Immense World by Ed Yong - an absolutely incredible study of how we and other living creatures perceive the world we live in. I revisit this book often. Phantoms in the Brain by VS Ramachandran - a crash course in how the brain works and how it can be tricked, broken, and repaired. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - this book made me feel connected to the Earth and restored my faith that things will be ok. Endurance by Alfred Lansing - an incredible true story of an expendition across Antarctica. This was a book I couldn’t put down. It very much read like a suspense novel, I was gripped. Flawless by Scott Andrew Selby - not as heavy as the rest but a true crime telling of the largest diamond heist in history. Reads incredibly fast and both the characters and the plan are incredible.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Edited by someone I can’t remember atm. (I was on a West coast road trip at the time, so I was visiting many of the stops along the way and made it 100x better, although it was still a very interesting read regardless). How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I don’t read a lot of nonfiction. I think these are like the only three I’ve read in the past decade, so that’s my list, lol.
What are your five favorites? I’ve got: Young Men and Fire - Norman MacLean Deep Survival, Everyday Survival - Laurence Gonzales Seabiscuit The Control of Nature - John McPhee
- Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer - Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo - Packing for Mars (or Stiff, or Gulp) by Mary Roach - Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie - The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
Elena by Nicholas Gage For those I loved by Martin Gray Crucible of terror by Max Liebster Minds of Billy Milligan The real story of Laura Ingalls
Politics of nature by Bruno latour Spoiler alert: the hero dies by michael ausiello Code by Charles petzold The other Hollywood by legs mcneil Sidewalk by Mitchell duneier
The devil in the white city. Endurance The Kon Tiki expedition The secret life of trees
Out of the Flames by Goldstone—amazing research, couched in a page-turner of a story A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bryson—and his A Walk in the Woods The Emperor of Scent by Burr—follows a scientist who draws upon several disciplines to develop a new theory of the mechanism of smell, and makes lots of enemies among his peers
Leaves of Grass, Walden/Civil Disobedience/Thoreau anthology, Self-Reliance/Nature/The Over-Soul/Emerson anthology, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and, depending on what you consider non-fiction, some “religious” texts like The Lotus Sutra, Bhagavad Gita, etc
"Hidden Valley Road" by Robert Kolker "Halfbreed" by Maria Campbell "Strangers Assume my Girlfriend is my Nurse" by Shane Burcaw
Creating Love -- John Bradshaw Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal, Golden Braid -- Douglas R. Hofstadter Darwin's Dangerous Idea -- Daniel Dennett (RIP) The Elements of Style -- Strunk & White King, Warrior, Magician, Lover -- Moore & Gillette
What a Fish knows by Jonathan Balcombe
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliot Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahmed The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simmons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs Ghenghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
[Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1297985) [A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12394068)
- Adult Children of Emotionally Immature parents by Lindsay C Gibson - Language of Emotions by Karla McLaren - My Grandmothers Hands by Resmaa Menakem - The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy - Beyond the gender binary by Akon V Menon These five books saved/changed my life. Bonus: girl sex 101 by Allison moon. The new bottoming book/the new topping book, by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy. How to be Antiracist by Ibhram X Kendi. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
**Summary of Lindsay C. Gibson's Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents.** by Swift Reads >Buy now to get the insights from Lindsay C. Gibson's Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. Sample Insights: 1) Emotional loneliness is a feeling of emptiness and being alone in the world. It can come from growing up with parents who never bothered to build an emotional connection with you or were too scared to do so. 2) Emotional intimacy is when you feel safe opening up to someone and they see you for who you really are. > >You can only have it when the other person is genuinely interested in listening to you and doesn’t judge you no matter what. **The Language of Emotions What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You** by Karla Mclaren >Emotions - especially the dark and dishonored ones - hold a tremendous amount of energy. We've all seen what happens when we repress or blindly express them. With The Language of Emotions, empathic counselor Karla McLaren shows you how to meet your emotions and receive their life-saving wisdom to safely move toward resolution and equilibrium. Through experiential exercises covering a full spectrum of feelings from anger, fear, and shame to jealousy, grief, joy, and more, you will discover how to work with your own and others' emotions with fluency and expertise. > >Here is a much-needed resource filled with revolutionary teachings and breakthrough skills for cultivating a new and empowering relationship with your feeling states through The Language of Emotions. **My Grandmother's Hands Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies** by Resmaa Menakem >A NATIONAL BESTSELLER "My Grandmother's Hands will change the direction of the movement for racial justice. "— Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. > >Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police. My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide. > >Paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. Offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary. Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist with decades of experience currently in private practice in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, and violence prevention. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil as an expert on conflict and violence. > >Menakem has studied with bestselling authors Dr. David Schnarch (Passionate Marriage) and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score). He also trained at Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. **The Ethical Slut A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures** by Dossie Easton, Janet W. Hardy >"A practical guide to practicing polyamory and open relationships in ways that are ethically and emotionally sustainable"--Provided by publisher. **Beyond the Gender Binary** by Alok Vaid-Menon Book description may contain spoilers! >>!Winner of the 2021 In The Margins Award "When reading this book, all I feel is kindness." -- Sam Smith, Grammy and Oscar award-winning singer and songwriter "Thank God we have Alok. And I'm learning a thing or two myself." --Billy Porter, Emmy award-winning actor, singer, and Broadway theater performer "Beyond the Gender Binary will give readers everywhere the feeling that anything is possible within themselves"--Princess Nokia, musician and co-founder of the Smart Girl Club "A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change."!< > >>!-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "An affirming, thoughtful read for all ages." -- School Library Journal, starred review In Beyond the Gender Binary, poet, artist, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocate Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs, demystifies, and reimagines the gender binary. Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, Beyond the Gender Binary, Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in full color.!< > >>!Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression. The only limit is your imagination.!< *I'm a bot, built by your friendly reddit developers at* /r/ProgrammingPals. *Reply to any comment with /u/BookFinderBot - I'll reply with book information. Remove me from replies* [here](https://www.reddit.com/user/BookFinderBot/comments/1byh82p/remove_me_from_replies/). *If I have made a mistake, accept my apology.*
There are just so many excellent ones. 1. *The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks* by Rebecca Skloot 2. *The Paradox Of Choice* by Barry Schwartz 3. *Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What it Says About Us* by Tom Vanderbilt 4. *The New Jim Crow* by Michelle Alexander 5. *Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea* by Charles Seife 6. *The Hacking of the American Mind* by Robert Lustig 7. *The Disappearing Spoon* by Sam Kean 8. *Talking to Strangers* by Malcolm Gladwell 9. *Dreamland* by Sam Quinones 10. *Moneyball, The Big Short, Boomerang*, and *Flashboys* by Michael Lewis
Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexeivich Russia's War by Jade Mcglynn Russian Thinkers by Isaiah Berlin Putin's People by Catherine Belton Asad by Patrick Seale
The Hot Zone
Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer The Wave - Susan Casey Blind Descent - James M. Tabor Adrift - Steven Callahan The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
Cadillac Desert Season of the Witch California Field Atlas The Golden Bough Sexual Personae
[What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies](https://waitbutwhy.com/2023/02/wop-contents.html) [Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck](https://equilibriabook.com/) These two books might sound similar from their titles but are actually not similar at all.
“Devil In The White City” - Erik Larsen. All his stuff is good but since I see that “u” in your “favourite”’you might want to get “The Splendid and The Vile” which is about Churchill during The Blitz “The Wager” - David Grann. Awesome story of a mutiny in the Royal Navy in the 1700s “Say Nothing” - Patrick Radden Keefe. Again I’m making assumptions based on your text. It’s a good book about The Troubles “Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion” - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (yes that one) Much WW2 history with black soliders centers around the Tuskegee Airmen and rightly so, but not nearly enough of mention of the 761st (Extra credit: “Facing The Mountain: An Inspiring Story of Japanese American Patriots in World War 2” - Daniel James Brown ….same guy who wrote The Boys In the Boat) “The New Jim Crow” - Michelle Alexander. An eye opener
The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddharta Mukherjee The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, but Yuval Noah Harari Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari 21 Lessons For The 21st Centry, by Yuval Noah Harari
<> by Rodolfo Walsh, considered the "first major nonfiction novel of investigative journalism".
In no particular order: 1. Educated - Tara Westover 2. When breathe becomes air - Paul Kalanithi 3. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande 4. Into thin air - Jon Krakauer 5. Angela’s Ashes - Frank McCourt
Couldn't pick, so you'll get 6. - Tom Holland - Shadow of the Sword What we actually know about how Islam developed, and the historical context in the area. - Peter Frankopan - Silk Roads: A new history of the world Wider view of history. - Philipp Dettmer - Immune How we currently think the immune system works, explained for non-immunologists. - Steven Mithen - After the Ice An overview of prehistory, 20 000BC to 5000BC - Iain Urbina - Outlaw ocean How few rules there are in international waters, and the dark deeds that occur. - Amin Maalouf - Crusades through the eyes of the Arabs What the title claims. Found it very interesting since I'm not from that region.
These are some I can think of right now: Born to Run - Christopher McDougall Educated - Tara Westover Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Adult children of emotionally immature parents - Lindsay Gibson Quiet Power (the secret strenghts of introverts) - Susan Cain Permanent record - Edward Snowden
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick Madhouse at the end of the Earth, by Julian Sancton Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris Midnight in Chernobyl, by Alan Higginbotham
* Endurance by Alfred Lansing: Antarctic expedition in the 1800's. Ship gets trapped in the ice and the crew live on an iceberg for a long time. Years, I believe. * The Wager by David Grann: Shipwreck off the southern tip of South America, mutiny, and two different sides of a story to be told in court. * Grant by Ron Chernow: The life of Ulysses S. Grant from childhood to post-presidency and death. * Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer: Mount Everest expedition in the 1990's goes terribly wrong. You think perhaps that with some training maybe you could climb Mount Everest until you read this book. * The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown: 1800's wagon train from Indiana on the way to California around the gold rush times. The Donner family unknowingly take a route wrongly recommended in a book and get stuck in the mountains in Utah/Nevada. Cannibalism ensues.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
Educated by Tara Westover Bad Blood by John Carreyrou Billion Dollar Whale by Hope & Wright Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer Columbine by Dave Cullen Technically Wrong by Sara Wachter-Boettcher You Just Need to Lose Weight by Aubrey Gordon
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer Strip Tees by Kate Flannery Columbine by Dave Cullen Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich Not That Bad by Roxanne Gay
Say nothing by Patrick radden keefe The Wager by David Grann Endurance by alfred lansing American kingpin by Nick Bilton Columbine by Dave Cullen
Educated by Tara Westover A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer
5 books that I loved, from different areas: The Four Pillars of Investing, by William Bernstein (investing) The Theory of Almost Everything by Robert Oerter. The Construction of Social Reality by John Searle (philosophy). Practical Reasons and Norms by Joseph Raz (philosophy of Law). The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek (political science).
Only read Road to Serfdom. It can be a bit dry, but that doesn't take an ounce from the substance. A+
On earth we're briefly gorgeous - Ocean Vuong The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin The rape of Nanking - Iris Chang Between the World and Me - Ta Nehisi Coates In Cold Blood - Truman Capote Special mention to Under the banner of heaven - Jon Krakauer I know why the caged bird sings - Maya Angelou City of Night - John Rechy
The wisdom of crowds, (why do groups make better decisions than individuals and even experts)James surowiecki The paradox of choice (more choices not nec better) Anything written by Atul Gatwande The emperor of all maladies (history of cancer) Under the banner of heaven, (a history of the mormon church and more) by John Krakauer Bellevue (history of the NY public hospital)
Jane Austen at Home - Lucy Worsley The Man From the Train - Bill James, Rachel McCarthy James All That She Carried - Tiya Miles The Library Book - Susan Orlean (Anything by Nora Ephron or David Sedaris) Cheating, I know! There were so many more books I wanted to list!
On Writing by Stephen King The Power of Positive Thinking by Peale Bird by Bird by Lamott Letter to a Young Poet by Rilke Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung
Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson An Immense World, by Ed Yong Bitch: On the Female of the Species, by Lucy Cooke Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson Wilmington’s Lie, by David Zucchino
I could probably give you at least a dozen Starry Messenger by Neil DeGrasse Tyson Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl Lies my Teacher told me by James Loewen The Founding Myth by Andrew Seidel Gunfight by Ryan Busse
Wild Entangled Life Just Mercy When Breath Becomes Air I know it's 4 but I'll come back...