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Great Nonfiction
squeefish
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Registered User regular
I've been on a nonfiction kick lately and I'm looking for some new reading material. Here are some books/authors I've enjoyed:
Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking
Linda Grant's The Thoughtful Dresser
Margaret Visser's The Rituals of Dinner
Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue (and Bryson in general)
Any suggestions? I just bought a used copy of The Geese of Beaver Bog by Berndt Heinrich, but I haven't started it yet. Wouldn't mind some more nature-related stuff. I'm also extremely interested in anything linguistics-related.
Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking
Linda Grant's The Thoughtful Dresser
Margaret Visser's The Rituals of Dinner
Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue (and Bryson in general)
Any suggestions? I just bought a used copy of The Geese of Beaver Bog by Berndt Heinrich, but I haven't started it yet. Wouldn't mind some more nature-related stuff. I'm also extremely interested in anything linguistics-related.
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This book is an excellent primer on all the stuff we know about science and, more interestingly, how we know it. It is an exceptional read.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
http://www.amazon.com/New-Kings-Nonfiction-Ira-Glass/dp/1594482675/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290125129&sr=8-1
Bother me on steam: kabbypan
And it may not be for everyone, but if you like reading about basically one of the last true unexplored places in our world that isn't the ocean, The Heart of the World by Ian Baker is fantastic.
Jonathan Kozol's The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America is a great, accessible read if you want to get your anger on about the absolutely abysmal state of education in America.
Kathryn Edin's and Maria Kefalas' Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage is a really compelling look into how the role of motherhood varies wildly for women of different socioeconomic class, and why.
Steve Coll's Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 should be mandatory reading for any American who wants to understand the absolute clusterfuck we've entered into with the war in Afghanistan.
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders is one of the most interesting books I ever read.
Yup! Also, Collapse by the same author.
Steam ID
For all the tea in china A great book about tea and industrial espionage back in the days of sail. It has asian pirates, The east india tea company and other neat stuff.
The omnivores Dilemma A great book about food and how and where it comes from. I never thought I would enjoy reading about corn as much as I did.
The lost city of Z Real world indiana jones goes missing. The amazon is a scary place. Much better in book form than not.
The invention of air One of my favorite books. Absolutely fascinating.
This one has me interested. Are any other books that are about lost exploration parties in general?
This was a fantastic book on what European colonization was really like. It also gives a really detailed history of the Congo and exactly why that country is so unbelievably fucked up now.
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
Oliver Sacks is the man, and a very personable and empathetic writer. His subjects are always fascinating.
My favourite of his is Musicophilia, which is about the importance and power of music.
On the same note are This is Your Brain on Music, which deals with the same themes, but in a more technical way. It really tries to get to the heart of what makes music, and why it's so unique and special. He did a followup titled The World in Six Songs, but I haven't read that yet.
Lastly, Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste is a book that tries to explore why people like the things they do and why other people hate those things, what it means to have good or bad taste, and why Celine Dion is so loved even though she's so terrible.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan, a history of the versailles peace conference set up to settle WW1.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs is worth reading if you're interested in the urban form of cities.
Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg is a history of 18 years in the USSR Gulag.
Homage to Catalonia In addition to writing 1984 and Animal Farm, George Orwell also fought in the Spanish Civil War.
River out of Eden by Richard Dawkins
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Also this guy.
This dude's pretty great too.
Why We Buy by Paco Underhill is pretty interesting.
River of doubt - story of Teddy Roosevelt's expedition to to map some uncharted amazon tributary
both excellent reads
Also, I can count to "boat".
Also this covers a ridiculous variety of topics that I found pretty engaging. It's definitely more quantity then quality, though.
I preferred the film adaption.
Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia
Havana Nights
Bill Buford's Heat
Marco Pierre White's White Heat/White Slave/Devil in the Kitchen (depending on where you live)
Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations
Havana Nights is pretty cool cause I'm watching Boardwalk Empire right now and since it's somewhat true to life you get to see more about Luciano and Rothstein's life.
Best thing about On the Road is if you really like it there are about a dozen other books from that same group that pretty much complete a good couple of decades of adventuring.
Cooking memoirs are always great.
Christopher Tyreman, God's War: A New History of the Crusades
Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror (about the Black Death and the 14th century in general)
Stephen Harris & Bryon Grigsby (eds.), Misconceptions about the Middle Ages
James Hannam, God's Philosphers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science
Some people take issue with him though.