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Nonfiction Books
Quid
Definitely not a bananaRegistered User regular
Definitely not a bananaRegistered User regular
Its high time I start reading something besides epic fantasy on my business trips and make better use of my reading time with some nonfiction. My main issue is that I have zero idea as to what's good in my areas of interest: China, gender, politics, history, drugs, social studies in general, animals, and history off the top of my head. I've also had a number of those interests kicked off simply because on the rare occasion I did read a nonfiction book it was well written enough that I stayed interested. So a book doesn't necessarily have to fall in to that category either, those are just subjects I know I could read about even with dry writing.
Nonfiction I've read and liked:
Twinkie Deconstructed
Generation Me
America: A Citizens Guide to Democracy
... And that's actually about it.
Did not like:
Guns, Germs, and Steel. Dead boring and I only made it through because it was an audio book and I was driving.
The only subject matter I specifically avoid is anything especially gruesome in detail. My imagination runs away with me plenty so stuff about Unit 731 or details of concentration camps etc I'd rather avoid.
Nonfiction I've read and liked:
Twinkie Deconstructed
Generation Me
America: A Citizens Guide to Democracy
... And that's actually about it.
Did not like:
Guns, Germs, and Steel. Dead boring and I only made it through because it was an audio book and I was driving.
The only subject matter I specifically avoid is anything especially gruesome in detail. My imagination runs away with me plenty so stuff about Unit 731 or details of concentration camps etc I'd rather avoid.
Quid on
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Salt and Cod by Mark Kurlansky, both are about the history of a specific food item and how it shaped the exploration and development of the modern world
Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks. Dr Sacks (the neurologist behind the book/movie Awakenings) writes about brains how they process music, and various anecdotes about his patients with neurological disorders
The Mystery of Metamorphosis by Frank Ryan, the physiology of metamorphoses in insects and marine life
Every Living Thing by Rob Dunn, the history of species classification and the diversity of life on Earth
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, is about the story of a young woman who died of cancer in the 50's, and the cells taken from her tumor that became an immortal cell line. The cells were used, and continue to be used, in hundreds of incredibly important medical experiments, and are still thriving 60 years after the patient they came from died.
Homage to Catalonia by Orwell
Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker, which is a neat assessment of medication and psychiatry in America
Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, about the 2008 Republican presidential candidates
The Media Relations Department of Hezbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday is a really great book about middle eastern society from a more on-the ground perspective in addition to a geopolitical one and if i had to reccomend anything on this list it'd be that, because it's just a great human look at other people.
Maximum City by Suketu Mehta is about the recent history of Mumbai and it's absolutely awesome. One of the most fascinating books I've read in a long time, I actually read it three times which is really rare for me with nonfiction.
More serious history, of various levels of density:
Days of the French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert.
Nixonland by Rick Perlstein (and also his earlier book about Goldwater, Before the Storm).
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley K. Martin.
Team Of Rivals and No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin, in the order in which you prefer Lincoln or FDR.
The Fall of Yugoslavia by Mischa Glenny.
If you have a lot of time on your hands, Richard J. Evans' trilogy on the Third Reich (The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power, and The Third Reich at War) are all great, but again, more than a tad on the grim side.
Less serious history:
Men Of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones.
Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster by J.T. English.
The Lost City of Z by David Grann, about various doomed expeditions to find a fabled lost city in the Amazon
Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock, about early 20th Century medical scams, border blaster radio stations, and goat testicles.
Nixonland and Team of Rivals are also good.
Robert Caro's biographies of Robert Moses (The Power Broker) and of Lyndon Johnson are really good. Master of the Senate is the best of the Johnson books.
Cradle to Cradle is a pretty neat read.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan for something on the development of human intelligence
The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark also by Carl Sagan for a look at science and religion.
River Town by Peter Hessler is a look at rural china right after it opened up to the West in the 90's, and a pretty engaging read.
I'll go way back and say an old one, Propaganda by Edward Bernays - The father of modern propaganda discussing its methods and uses from 1928. A lot of it is very applicable to the way things are done in modern society.
Highly entertaining; full of real life crime stories and anecdotes mixed in with non-dry scientific explanations of what poisons were popular and why. And although it concentrates on New York, it explains the implications the forensics work done had on the rest of America, too.
The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins.
Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould
I have, in fact. But literature itself doesn't interest me that much and while I can appreciate something like The Pearl I don't particularly care for it.
And now to dig through this metric fuckton of suggestions. Awesome sauce. Thanks to everyone who's put in so far.
My girlfriends summary "He's one of those people who is just sickeningly good at anything and everything he does, but he is too likable to hate for it."
A chinese PhD student, at a party several years ago, told me that Postcards from Tomorrow Square by James Fallows is supposedly a very accurate description of China. I havn't read it yet myself but he was quite enthusiastic about it.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
His writing style is really engaging, but not sensationalistic. In the Garden of Beasts is the story of the American Ambassador to Germany during Hitler's rise to power. Devil in the White City is two stories, one is about the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago and the other is about America's "first" Serial Killer who was living in Chicago during this time.
They are both really good, but shouldn't set off your gruesome meter, even the serial killer one.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a great book about the history of science and the people involved.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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Biological warfare from the early 1900s and onwards.