What are your favorite non-fiction books?

[luzula]

So my reading theme this year is non-fiction. I do have a large back-log of non-fiction books that I want to check out, but I figured I'd throw out a question too: what are your favorite non-fiction books that you think I might appreciate? It could be because you find the subject important or fascinating or amusing, or because the writing style is compelling.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

"The Guns of August" by Tuchman, about WWI

"Battle Cry of Freedom" about the US Civil War

"Taking the Leap" by Pema Chodron, about using Buddhist techniques to do better with addiction and compulsions.

"How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and LIsten So Kids Will Talk," which really helped me with parenting and just relationships in general.

[luzula]

Thanks for the recs! : )

[china_shop]

"Stet" by Diana Athill, because it's beautifully written.

"Packing for Mars" by Mary Roach, because it's hilarious.

"84 Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff, for her personality.

[luzula]

The Mars one sounds like fun! Thanks. : )

[china_shop]

Oh, I asked my partner, who reads tons of non-fiction, and he enthusiastically recced The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. That might be up your alley, too.

[rushthatspeaks]

The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages by Norman Cohn is both fascinating on its stated subject and is the most impressive, concise, brilliant, readable history I have ever encountered of the roots and traditions of anti-Semitism in several European cultures. Cohn's explanations of the ways changing technologies and social classes produced religious ferment, ethnic scapegoating, and a very specific kind of apocalyptic vision explained more about the modern world to me than any single other book ever has. I recommend the revised and expanded edition.

[luzula]

Huh, that does sound very interesting! Thank you.

[jesse_the_k]

Mmmm, that sounds wonderful! Thanks for the rec.

[seascribble]

Mary Beard's Roman book.

[luzula]

Thanks! That looks interesting; I had not heard of it. .

[skygiants]

I don't know if Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof will bring you to tears [like it did me] if you don't already have a million Fiddler on the Roof feelings, but I think it's probably still a pretty fascinating book in the way that it traces the impact a piece of media can have across different times and cultures.

[luzula]

Thanks for the rec! I am sadly uninformed about Fiddler on the Roof--I basically only know that it is a play, but I have no idea what it is about. *facepalm* I will at least check out the Wikipedia page?

[riverlight]

Ooh, pick me, pick me!! :)

Science: Definitely Norman Doige's The Brain That Changes Itself, about neuroplasticity. SO fascinating.

Essays: do essays count? These are sort of travelogues, I guess? Stories of place? Writing about natural landscape? I don't quite know how to qualify Robert MacFarlane's The Old Ways, but it is some of the most stunning writing I've ever read, and I wish I had the pleasure of reading it again just to get that feeling of shocked delight.

[luzula]

Oooh, The Old Ways sounds like something I would enjoy! Thanks for the recs. : )

[analise010]

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY BY ERIC LARSON

[luzula]

Thanks for the rec! : )

[tamsin]

Irvin D Yalom - Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

Tamim Ansary - Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes

Shirer, William L. - Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941

Hamann, Brigitte - The Reluctant Empress


Any areas you're especially interested in?

[auroracloud]

Can't resist jumping in to say that ooh, The Reluctant Empress is amazing. Elisabeth is such a fascinating personality, and that book is wonderfully written and researched. I should reread it some time.

[tamsin]

It's a great book! I also really liked Hamann's book about Bertha von Suttner. She's a very different personality from Elisabeth, but equally fascinating.

[luzula]

Thanks for the recs!

Hmmm. It's always hard to say, because sometimes you'll be carried away by something which is not at all what you thought you would be interested in. But at the moment one thing I'm interested in is environmental issues/economics/technology/society and how those things hang together, and books that come at those things from different angles.

[tamsin]

Do you know Charles Mann's "1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created"? It's about the influence Columbus had by carrying thousands of species across the ocean.

[luzula]

No, I don't! That does sound interesting, thanks.

[omens]

My fave nonfictions lately have been:

Consumed: food for a finite planet/ Sarah Elton (ultimately hopeful look at global food production)

In order to live/ Yeonmi Park (escaping North Korea, content note for non-con of all sorts of varieties, it's pretty hard in places but worth the read imo)

The inconvenient indian: a curious account of native people in north america /thomas king (maybe too NA-centric for you, but such a personable author, i super rec it)

Also reading Basic witches: how to summon success, banish drama, and raise hell with your coven/ Saxena&Zimmerman right now and it's light and silly but pretty heartwarming. :)

The rest of my nonfiction reading is all cookbooks/books about food & comic memoir & art books.

[luzula]

Thanks for the recs! : ) I've been reading about agriculture lately, maybe I'll check out that one.

[auroracloud]

I recently finished Esther Woofson's Field Notes from the Hidden City: An Urban Nature Diary which was really fascinating and beautifully written, observing nature in and around Aberdeen through one year. Currently, I'm reading Mary Shelley's letters from her travels in Germany, Switzerland, Italy etc. in the 1840s. I've generally got quite into travel writing and nature writing, so if you're interested in recs in that genre, I can hopefully give more later this year! I especially love reading old travel writing from times when people still got around by walking, taking boats and carriages, etc. rather than just hopping onto a plane.

[luzula]

Thanks for the rec! I like nature writing, so do share if you have other favorites. One classic I really love is A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold.

Haven't read much travel writing though. Or in a way maybe I have--I've read a lot of the journals from the old Arctic and Antarctic explorers.

[glitteryv]

I'm gonna sidestep autobiographies since the ones I love tend to be about actors or musicians and I'm not sure they'd interest you.

OK, so, Mary Roach is one of v. few my autobuys. So far she's written what happens to cadavers (Stiff), war (Grunt), space + space travel (Packing for Mars), sex (Bonk), the afterlife (Spook), and food (Gulp). Well-researched but with a friendly tone.

The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders deals with murder cases in Victorian England.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly focus on four African-American women whose work with NASA kick-started the US' involvement with space exploration.

Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy is about how women's involvement with the early 2000s raunch culture also exposed the heavy self-misogyny of it all. I found it v. thought-provoking.

If I can think of any other books, I'll add them. :)

[luzula]

Thank you! Mary Roach sounds good if I want some light reading. And I did enjoy the Hidden Figures movie!

[exeterlinden]

I really enjoyed Guy Deutscher's 'the unfolding of language' and 'through the language glass'... I have a vague recollection of having tried to pimp you these in person? Possibly several times? :)

[luzula]

You have indeed! : ) And the first of them is still on my list of books to read. I don't think you've mentioned the second one, though.

[jesse_the_k]

Too Late to Die Young by Harriet Johnson is a graceful essay collection about her life as a lawyer, Democratic party organizer, and spreader of wisdom to generations of disability rights activists.

Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould explores the almost-alien beasties excavated from the Burgess Shale in B.C., Canada. He's a fluent writer, and his case that we've arrived here not by any inevitable path but only through contingency is reassuring for revolutionaries.

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is a collection of essays organized around the elements. He writes from his successful position in Italy's literatti, and he often refers back to his experiences as a prisoner in Auschwitz. It's about science and politics, forgiveness and revenge.

Word by Word by Kory Stamper details the life of a lexicographer and is very very funny.

[luzula]

Thanks for the recs! I love Wonderful Life and have read it twice.

The Periodic Table sounds interesting. *notes down* And you've recced the book about words before, it sounds good for when I want light reading.

[oneiriad]

Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl. Now there's a non-fiction horror story if ever I read one.

[luzula]

Thanks! I have read it already, also the one about women in WWII. I plan to read the Time Second Hand one too some day.

[feroxargentea]

Random selection of readable books I could find after moving house (do let me know if you want any, I still have too many books!)

An African In Greenland - Tete-Michel Kpomassie (...which is what it says it is. Somewhat dated, but in an interesting way.)

H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald (autobiog/musings on identity & nature)

Consciousness, a Very Short Introduction - Susan Blackmore (where philosophy & neuroscience meet and fail - it made me go "huh?" a lot)

Travels with a Tangerine - Tim Mackintosh-Smith (middle east travelogue with a worthwhile companion)

Feeding Nelson's Navy - Janet Macdonald (examines the evidence for rum, weevils etc, & I like it for doing exactly what it sets out to do)

Being Mortal - Atul Gawande (the struggle of medics to accept senescence and death - not really detailed enough & too US-centric but still interesting)

[luzula]

Thanks for the recs! I've been recced H is for Hawk multiple times, so probably I should actually read it some time.