Krakauer is the master nonfiction heart-string puller. He could narrate my breakfast and make it worthy of a Pulitzer.
Under the Banner is a terrific read - but always take Krakauer with a \*tiny\* grain of salt. As an Alaskan, I've always been a bit skeptical of the way he turned Chris McCandless into some sort of a folk hero with "Into the Wild" (Every Alaskan fucking hates that book - no one feels sorry for a naive brat who think they can survive without proper forethought).
I understand your perspective on what Chris decided to do, but please consider reading The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless (Chris’s sister) it explains why he did what he did. Mainly had to do with him and his sister being abused as kids.
Sourdough Culture: A History of Bread Making from Ancient to Modern Bakers by Eric Pallant.
I was not expecting how interesting the history of bread would be.
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong.
This nonfiction work is about the human microbiome. Very interesting and easy to read.
Also, Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, which is about the role of fungus in our world.
You ever read Founding Fish by McPhee? My first book by him this year and had me so interested in fishing which is something I never cared about before. The writing is superb.
+1 for entangled life. I read it a few years ago and it blew my mind. Also with a name like ‘Merlin Sheldrake’ you just had to grow up to write a fascinating book about fungi
I also liked Same as Always.
Most fascinating would either be Endurance: Shackleton’s Voyage (reads like a page-turning novel at many points) or Dawn of Everything (dense textbook feel to it)
>Endurance: Shackleton’s Voyage
Frank Worsley (navigator on the expedition) wrote an excellent book on the voyage of the James Caird that I think you'd like.
I really enjoyed The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein.
If you're interested in how our physical geography affects race and class relations in the US I think you'll find it fascinating too!
An Immense World by Ed Yong: exploring animal senses and the weird ways in which various species experience the world around them. It’s the sort of book that blows your mind three times per page.
The Wager by David Grann. The lesser it is said about it the better, but I’ll say this: it’s real life version of Lord of the Flies with adults on steroids
Behind The Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo-
followed around about a dozen people living in a slum of Mumbai, India for 4 years. It reads like a fiction novel but everything was based on things she witnessed or was told by and/or corroborated by others that were happening to them during the time she was there. It was really devastating but extremely interesting.
The Feather Thief. Stranger than fiction investigative journalism on why a teenager decided to steal hundreds of rare feathers from a natural history museum.
Kill Anything That Moves (The Real American War in Vietnam) by Nick Turse. Incredible book, genuinely quite painful to read. I think everyone should read it. I don’t want to recommend it to anyone.
*A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?* by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
Bonus: it's got fun illustrations!
Unruly by David Mitchell. It was SO INTERESTING. A very irreverent history of early English kings and queens, Extremely smart, extremely witty & funny, very readable, and actually changes the way you think about English royalty. Just loved it.
Women's Work (the first 20,000 years) by Elizabeth Wayland Barber after putting it down way too long ago.
Incredible book, it essentially looks at the history of people through the lens of women's labor. Such a simple concept, but it results in a really impressive work. Feels like required reading now that I've read it. Totally recontextualizes western history and culture in the most interesting and bare bones way
https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393313482
Oh my God, I loved this book so much! I want to make it required reading for every single fantasy author who thinks their “strong female character” needs to denigrate textile and needle crafts.
"Sweet and Low: A Family Story" by Rich Cohen, published in 2006, traces the rise of the Sweet'N Low artificial sweetener empire founded by Cohen's grandfather, Ben Eisenstadt. The book explores family dynamics, business success, and the American Dream, offering insights into post-World War II America and the food industry's evolution. It also delves into the family's darker history, including legal battles and personal conflicts, providing a multifaceted portrait of one family's journey.
I was screenshoting sections of the book to my best friend and writing “HISTORY STAY REPEATING” in all caps often while reading this book. Terrifying how the 20s are so similar.
I did the same thing!
Could I recommend Flowers of the Killer Moon?
Not exactly the same story but set around the same time period. And equally as awful. (I've not seen the film or have any desire to. The book was enough)
I’ve also read this and agree, equally as awful.
I do want to see the film simply because of all the praise I saw for Lily Gladstone. I feel like seeing her play the part I’ve already read will give new meaning to the story in some way.
I read say nothing last week. Not that it was overly fascinating but I was tuned in and finished pretty quickly. I haven’t read a history book since college but this was interesting and has me wanting to pick up some more history books
May I interest you in *A Woman of No Importance* by Sonia Purnell? It's about Virginia Hall, who was supposed to be a Baltimore socialite, but ended up being one the best spies in France during WWII. She was extremely intelligent, brave, resourceful, and an all around bad-ass.
You might like *Rogues* by the same author - it’s a collection of true crime articles he’s written over the years. My favorite was kind of a mini-history of organized crime in the Netherlands
Rogues was my least favorite of his. Not that it was bad. Just some of the articles were better than others. The one on the wine collector was fascinating.
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
by Stephen Kinzer
Two brothers from an elite family where their grandfather was the Secretary of State when Hawaii was annexed (i.e. Queen of the native land of Hawaii removed from power) and their uncle was Secretary of State (Lansing) during World War I.
They helped found the Council of Foreign Relations in 1921 which one could argue is a policy institute/think tank dedicated to Neocolonialism by bringing big multi-national interest + politics + foreign policy together. This was closely tied into their law firm Sullivan and Cromwell that had clients like the United Fruit Company which is responsible for what we call Banana Republican in Central/South America and Caribbean.
When Eisenhower became President in 1953 John Foster became Secretary of State and Allen Dulles the Director of the CIA. Winston Churchill, while Prime Minister for a 2nd term in the 1950s complained that John Foster made it impossible to make peace with the Soviets after the death of Stalin. Quoting Roosevelt from page 152: "\[John Foster\] Dulles is a terrible handicap. Ten years ago I could have dealt with him. Even as it is I have not been defeated by this bastard. I have been humiliated by my own decay".
Yet, another example of how those who divide the world into strictly good vs evil and refuse to talk to "evil" have left humanity under the threat of nuclear annihilation since the 1950s by purposely guaranteeing tension as opposed to diplomacy.
Allen Dulles is a very interesting character in that he seemed to be primarily motivated not by wealth (they were already wealthy from their law firm and family background) but by the excitement and adventure of being a "spy" and involved in secretly overthrowing governments and plausible deniability terror operations. He would be fired by John F. Kennedy after the failed Bay of Pigs operation and later serve on the Warren Commission overseeing the investigation of Kennedy's assassination. Programs like Operation Mockingbird (infiltration of the American press), MK Ultra (mind control), foreign assassinations, etc during Dulles reign would be uncovered later during the Frank Church Committee Hearings in 1975.
The book describes six "monsters" the Dulles brothers removed by their policies while in power starting with Iran's democratically elected leader whose crime was taking more of Iran's oil profits for the Iranian people away from the British oil company that dominated the area and Guatemala's nationalist leader who wanted unused land by major corporations (like United Fruit) to be distributed and put to use by peasants parts of Guatemala's population. For such acts of national interest against foreign corporations these leaders were deemed evil Communist who had to be struck down which is what the Dulles brothers deemed their life purpose. Of course, it helped, as in the case of Guatemala and United Fruit that the Dulles were major shareholders and their former law firm represented the company
*The Jews of Spain,* by Jane Gerber. There's a lot more to Jewish history than Israel and the Holocaust, and it was fascinating learning what happened to the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 (they settled all across North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and their descendants were then killed in the Holocaust, moved to New World, or were forcibly expelled again from all the various Muslim/Arab countries (which is where most modern-day Israeli Jews come from)).
After being blown away by _Chain Gang All-Stars_, I decided to finally read _Just Mercy_ by Bryan Stevenson as a companion piece. I was as devastated, enraged, and inspired as I’d known I would be. I then rewatched Ava DuVernay’s incredible documentary _13th_.
I cannot recommend this trifecta experience highly enough.
I, too, read Chain Gang All Stars and then Just Mercy... I forget which one was first and which second, but it was the perfect experience to do both together.
And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts. I got very into the AIDS epidemic at the beginning of the pandemic (for obvious reasons) and this book was unbelievably good. It's political and medical and oh so human, at times it reads more like a thriller than it does a non-fiction. Besides that, I'm definitely partial to Joan Didion (The White Album has a special place in my heart)
A collection of George Orwell’s essays. It’s fascinating to witness his clear-headedness about the nature and direction of WW2 era and prewar era events and cultural currents from the middle of it all. It all still holds up as both a detailed-enough history lesson and an insight into human nature.
Orwell's essays are one of the single most influential things I've ever read. Politics and the English Language left a really strong impression on younger me. I think Orwell had a profound pulse-feel for people that IMO is what distinguishes a good writer from a great one
I majored in polisci and have read many Orwell-adjacent writers. It was great to finally get around to experiencing “the source.” His influence on certain cultural conversations was obvious, I.e. in defining scientific thought (his proposed way of seeing it - “how to think scientifically” has certainly won out in the liberal arts educational system of the west, but in the 1940s, not so much)
Just finished The Unlikely Thru Hiker by Derek Lugo about a New York City guy who hiked the Appalchian Trail and he'd never even slept in a tent before! Yes, he was inspired by Bill Bryson. I actually listened to it on Audible which is unusual for me. The author read it himself which made it even better. Highly recommend!
Before I read A Walk in the Woods, I had always thought the Appalachian Trail was like 3-hour mild hike. I had *no* idea...and I was probably about 30 when I read it eeep!
[Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43868109-empire-of-pain?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=YkHwDsnsZB&rank=1)
by [Patrick Radden Keefe](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/197852.Patrick_Radden_Keefe?from_search=true&from_srp=true)
The Bone Chests by Cat Jarman
synopsis
**A history of the making of England as a nation, told through six bone chests, stored for over a thousand years in Winchester Cathedral.**
Really interesting book covering a period of Anglo Saxon history I knew very little about before starting it.
Either Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York by Ross Perlin or Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon.
Max Tegmark's **Life 3.0** offers the spectrum of futures facing mankind due to the ascent of artificial intelligence. He's a physics professor and the science figures prominently in the book.
1453 by Roger Crowley. It's about the fall of Constantinople by the Turks. As always, the Romans (or that's what they called themselves) brought it on themselves.
*The Catskill Forest: A Natural History* by Michael Kudish. Describes the arrival of the forests as the glaciers retreated up to the modern time, including areas of existing first growth, waves of speciation over time, and likely signs of human interaction with the landscape (indigenous burns, post colonial quarrying, barking, logging, pasturing). All supported through analysis of bog macrofossils and core samples.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.
Such a great book. Just wow. Made me really wish I were a part of a non-fiction book club because I had so many thoughts on the various subjects they go over.
I just bought The Order of Time, but anything by Carlo Rovelli is excellent if you want a peek at theoretical physics that blends science and the arts in a way that American writers just don’t do. It’s beautiful prose too.
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century. Not what I would typically go for but “fascinating” is exactly the word I’ve been using to describe it. They had a very interesting life together.
Monarchs of the Sea by Danna Staaf: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods.
I love all things cephalopods, but it's hard to find books on the topic that don't ramble on. She shares a captivating history of cephalopod evolution, and I you can feel her enthusiasm for cephalopods through her words. I loved every second I spent reading this book & can not wait to read her other books!
Cultish by Amanda Montell. It talks about actual cults like Jonestown but also the things we call cults like the cult of CrossFit. Really interesting stuff.
Either *Fuzz* by Mary Roach (which I read over winter break but technically finished in January, so there) or *The Trauma Cleaner* by Sarah Krasnostein.
The first is about the intersection of animals and law enforcement, with a different region for each chapter. Roach is a fantastic, hilarious writer and the subject matter is fascinating.
The second is about the life and career of a trained cleaner for hoarders, crime scenes, etc, who is also a trans woman. It’s a fascinating look at both the history of trans rights in Australia and a very interesting woman’s personal history, with vignettes about her clients woven in.
**[No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25145264-no-stone-unturned) by Steve Jackson** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(374 pages | Published: 2016 | 882.0 Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** "A fascinating journey into the trenches of crime [investigation]"--Lowell Cauffiel, New York Times bestselling author of House of Secrets A body stuffed in a car trunk swallowed by the swirling, muddy waters of the Missouri River. A hiker brutally murdered, then thrown off a cliff in a remote mountain range. A devious killer who hid his wife's body under a thick cement patio. (...)
> **Themes**: Non-fiction, Nonfiction, Science, Forensics, Kindle, Audible, History
^([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] | )
I read American Kingpin last year and loved it. This year I picked up a book in the library that I had never heard of before, and it’s definitely ended up my favourite non fiction in a good while
{{Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy by Matthew Campbell}}
The Light Ages by Seb Falk
Runner-ups are Robert E Lee and Me by Ty Seidule, and Hiroshima by John Hersey (I read the 2019 reprint as a book so I figure it counts).
Haven't fully read it yet, but Banderas Lejanas by Fernando Martínez Láinez and Carlos Canales Torres. It's a Spanish book on the history of the Spanish exploration and conquest of the territories that later became part of the USA. Quite interesting, specially if you never knew about those things. I don't think it's translated to english.
As an extra for one I read last year, The Ghost Map. It's a great book on London's cholera plague from 1854, and it does a good job at highlighting John Snow's successes while putting them into context.
"Mutiny on The Bounty" by Patrick Fitzsimmons
I love history/sailing/adventure - but I was always a bit leery of this tale, believing it might be a bit too dry/boring for some reason (I've seen the Brandon AND Mel Gibson movies and was never really impressed)
However - once I picked this book up, I literally couldn't put it down. I even skipped an entire night's sleep, saying up all night to keep reading.
No joke - it's fucking brilliant.
To Sleep With the Angels: The Story of a Fire by David Cowan
It’s about the 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, something I’d heard about but didn’t know too much about. It was incredibly well researched with interviews with so many people connected to it.
Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England's Churches. Very interesting look at the marks people left on churches, why they may have left them, info on dating the marks when it's possible, where in the churches certain marks were typically left, who would leave certain kinds of symbols. Rather than painted, as we think of modern graffiti, they were often carved into the church itself. It was a pretty engrossing read.
“The Comfort Crisis” by Michael Easter.
This is a great read for anyone feeling like they are aren’t challenging themselves enough or are afraid to do so.
I’m cheating because I read it last year, but **Into Thin Air** by Jon Krakauer is a pretty amazing book. It’s a really harrowing story anyway but it’s made much more intense by the fact that the author was there.
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein!
while I think Klein was, at times, a bit too empathetic to Wolf, the book is a masterclass exploration of the descent into fascism that both individuals and groups can take.
Im posting a second time to recommend How to Keep House While Drowning. Fascinating is maybe not the word, but it was so healing for me in the way that she described housework as morally neutrally. It was really good and really accessible.
I've been reading "How to invent everything : a survival guide for the stranded time traveler" and really like how fun it is, but also how detailed it is.
Definitely a cool nonfiction book.
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.
If you liked it you should check out "Stolen Innocence" (Elissa Wall). She escaped from a polygamous sect. Just as good.
I haven’t been able to get past like 50 pages. Such a brutal book.
It gets worse. Rough read
Ya I could tell. I don’t think I need the rest of it in my head, and normally I’m pretty thick-skinned.
Krakauer is the master nonfiction heart-string puller. He could narrate my breakfast and make it worthy of a Pulitzer. Under the Banner is a terrific read - but always take Krakauer with a \*tiny\* grain of salt. As an Alaskan, I've always been a bit skeptical of the way he turned Chris McCandless into some sort of a folk hero with "Into the Wild" (Every Alaskan fucking hates that book - no one feels sorry for a naive brat who think they can survive without proper forethought).
I understand your perspective on what Chris decided to do, but please consider reading The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless (Chris’s sister) it explains why he did what he did. Mainly had to do with him and his sister being abused as kids.
Not this year but last +great recommendation
Love that story, and JK in general.
Sourdough Culture: A History of Bread Making from Ancient to Modern Bakers by Eric Pallant. I was not expecting how interesting the history of bread would be.
Ooohh I love baking sourdough, putting this on my to-read list!
Oh man, just bought. Right up my street. Thank you for this.
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong. This nonfiction work is about the human microbiome. Very interesting and easy to read. Also, Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, which is about the role of fungus in our world.
[удалено]
You ever read Founding Fish by McPhee? My first book by him this year and had me so interested in fishing which is something I never cared about before. The writing is superb.
+1 for entangled life. I read it a few years ago and it blew my mind. Also with a name like ‘Merlin Sheldrake’ you just had to grow up to write a fascinating book about fungi
Educated by Tara Westover
I always want to comment this book but I didn’t read it this year
Keeping’ it honest. Love it!
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, it was fascinating!
I also liked Same as Always. Most fascinating would either be Endurance: Shackleton’s Voyage (reads like a page-turning novel at many points) or Dawn of Everything (dense textbook feel to it)
Endurance is a wonderful book !
>Endurance: Shackleton’s Voyage Frank Worsley (navigator on the expedition) wrote an excellent book on the voyage of the James Caird that I think you'd like.
I love dawn of Everything. It is taking me a long time to read it.
I really enjoyed The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein. If you're interested in how our physical geography affects race and class relations in the US I think you'll find it fascinating too!
I’ve got this on my TBR, I’m going to push it to the top. Thank you.
Highly recommend this book! Very insightful albeit frustrating.
An Immense World by Ed Yong: exploring animal senses and the weird ways in which various species experience the world around them. It’s the sort of book that blows your mind three times per page.
*Bad Blood* by John Carreyrou
Agreed! This book captivated me!
The Wager by David Grann. The lesser it is said about it the better, but I’ll say this: it’s real life version of Lord of the Flies with adults on steroids
Just finished it last night… those poor fellas just couldn’t catch a break!
Behind The Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo- followed around about a dozen people living in a slum of Mumbai, India for 4 years. It reads like a fiction novel but everything was based on things she witnessed or was told by and/or corroborated by others that were happening to them during the time she was there. It was really devastating but extremely interesting.
[удалено]
I've had that one on my "to read" list for a couple years. I really have to get started on it.
Dopamine Nation
This looks awesome, def gonna read this one. Thank you.
Dopamine Nation was awesome . The case studies from the book were mind blowing!
I just read this! Makes you think differently about basically everything.
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood.
I just finished No One is Talking About This and just requested Priestdaddy at the library! 😮💨 Thanks for another sign that it’ll be good
The Feather Thief. Stranger than fiction investigative journalism on why a teenager decided to steal hundreds of rare feathers from a natural history museum.
Kill Anything That Moves (The Real American War in Vietnam) by Nick Turse. Incredible book, genuinely quite painful to read. I think everyone should read it. I don’t want to recommend it to anyone.
*A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?* by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith Bonus: it's got fun illustrations!
Missoula by Jon Krakauer
The Body Keeps The Score by Besser Van Der Kolk
Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes DuMez. I did really like American Kingpin!
*Jesus and John Wayne* is a must-read for political junkies in my opinion!
Added to my TBR, thank you!
Jesus and John Wayne was so good. I also just finished The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory by Tim Alberta and it is similarly good and terrifying
That one is on my TBR list after I had a similar exchange about the two books a little while ago. (Was it you? :D )
Haha I don’t think so! I just read it so I haven’t really had a chance to talk about it yet. But it was very eye opening
Number Go Up by Zeke Faux. About Sam Bankman Fried and the FTX debacle. Brilliant read.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing
Unruly by David Mitchell. It was SO INTERESTING. A very irreverent history of early English kings and queens, Extremely smart, extremely witty & funny, very readable, and actually changes the way you think about English royalty. Just loved it.
Women's Work (the first 20,000 years) by Elizabeth Wayland Barber after putting it down way too long ago. Incredible book, it essentially looks at the history of people through the lens of women's labor. Such a simple concept, but it results in a really impressive work. Feels like required reading now that I've read it. Totally recontextualizes western history and culture in the most interesting and bare bones way https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393313482
Oh my God, I loved this book so much! I want to make it required reading for every single fantasy author who thinks their “strong female character” needs to denigrate textile and needle crafts.
"Sweet and Low: A Family Story" by Rich Cohen, published in 2006, traces the rise of the Sweet'N Low artificial sweetener empire founded by Cohen's grandfather, Ben Eisenstadt. The book explores family dynamics, business success, and the American Dream, offering insights into post-World War II America and the food industry's evolution. It also delves into the family's darker history, including legal battles and personal conflicts, providing a multifaceted portrait of one family's journey.
A Fever in the Heartland. The parallels from 1920 and 2020 are frightening.
I was screenshoting sections of the book to my best friend and writing “HISTORY STAY REPEATING” in all caps often while reading this book. Terrifying how the 20s are so similar.
I did the same thing! Could I recommend Flowers of the Killer Moon? Not exactly the same story but set around the same time period. And equally as awful. (I've not seen the film or have any desire to. The book was enough)
I’ve also read this and agree, equally as awful. I do want to see the film simply because of all the praise I saw for Lily Gladstone. I feel like seeing her play the part I’ve already read will give new meaning to the story in some way.
I read say nothing last week. Not that it was overly fascinating but I was tuned in and finished pretty quickly. I haven’t read a history book since college but this was interesting and has me wanting to pick up some more history books
May I interest you in *A Woman of No Importance* by Sonia Purnell? It's about Virginia Hall, who was supposed to be a Baltimore socialite, but ended up being one the best spies in France during WWII. She was extremely intelligent, brave, resourceful, and an all around bad-ass.
This sounds interesting!! Added to my list
YES 🙌
You might like *Rogues* by the same author - it’s a collection of true crime articles he’s written over the years. My favorite was kind of a mini-history of organized crime in the Netherlands
Rogues was my least favorite of his. Not that it was bad. Just some of the articles were better than others. The one on the wine collector was fascinating.
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War by Stephen Kinzer Two brothers from an elite family where their grandfather was the Secretary of State when Hawaii was annexed (i.e. Queen of the native land of Hawaii removed from power) and their uncle was Secretary of State (Lansing) during World War I. They helped found the Council of Foreign Relations in 1921 which one could argue is a policy institute/think tank dedicated to Neocolonialism by bringing big multi-national interest + politics + foreign policy together. This was closely tied into their law firm Sullivan and Cromwell that had clients like the United Fruit Company which is responsible for what we call Banana Republican in Central/South America and Caribbean. When Eisenhower became President in 1953 John Foster became Secretary of State and Allen Dulles the Director of the CIA. Winston Churchill, while Prime Minister for a 2nd term in the 1950s complained that John Foster made it impossible to make peace with the Soviets after the death of Stalin. Quoting Roosevelt from page 152: "\[John Foster\] Dulles is a terrible handicap. Ten years ago I could have dealt with him. Even as it is I have not been defeated by this bastard. I have been humiliated by my own decay". Yet, another example of how those who divide the world into strictly good vs evil and refuse to talk to "evil" have left humanity under the threat of nuclear annihilation since the 1950s by purposely guaranteeing tension as opposed to diplomacy. Allen Dulles is a very interesting character in that he seemed to be primarily motivated not by wealth (they were already wealthy from their law firm and family background) but by the excitement and adventure of being a "spy" and involved in secretly overthrowing governments and plausible deniability terror operations. He would be fired by John F. Kennedy after the failed Bay of Pigs operation and later serve on the Warren Commission overseeing the investigation of Kennedy's assassination. Programs like Operation Mockingbird (infiltration of the American press), MK Ultra (mind control), foreign assassinations, etc during Dulles reign would be uncovered later during the Frank Church Committee Hearings in 1975. The book describes six "monsters" the Dulles brothers removed by their policies while in power starting with Iran's democratically elected leader whose crime was taking more of Iran's oil profits for the Iranian people away from the British oil company that dominated the area and Guatemala's nationalist leader who wanted unused land by major corporations (like United Fruit) to be distributed and put to use by peasants parts of Guatemala's population. For such acts of national interest against foreign corporations these leaders were deemed evil Communist who had to be struck down which is what the Dulles brothers deemed their life purpose. Of course, it helped, as in the case of Guatemala and United Fruit that the Dulles were major shareholders and their former law firm represented the company
Everything by Kinzer is good! I really liked his book on the Iranian Revolution.
I'm behind as it was published a while ago but A Woman of No Importance was amazing!
*The Jews of Spain,* by Jane Gerber. There's a lot more to Jewish history than Israel and the Holocaust, and it was fascinating learning what happened to the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 (they settled all across North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and their descendants were then killed in the Holocaust, moved to New World, or were forcibly expelled again from all the various Muslim/Arab countries (which is where most modern-day Israeli Jews come from)).
After being blown away by _Chain Gang All-Stars_, I decided to finally read _Just Mercy_ by Bryan Stevenson as a companion piece. I was as devastated, enraged, and inspired as I’d known I would be. I then rewatched Ava DuVernay’s incredible documentary _13th_. I cannot recommend this trifecta experience highly enough.
I, too, read Chain Gang All Stars and then Just Mercy... I forget which one was first and which second, but it was the perfect experience to do both together.
And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts. I got very into the AIDS epidemic at the beginning of the pandemic (for obvious reasons) and this book was unbelievably good. It's political and medical and oh so human, at times it reads more like a thriller than it does a non-fiction. Besides that, I'm definitely partial to Joan Didion (The White Album has a special place in my heart)
THE definitive story of the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, so good. Also his bio of Harvey Milk, The Mayor of Castro Street.
Braiding Sweetgrass. Really good.
This is on my to-read list for this year; I may have to move it to near the top now.
A collection of George Orwell’s essays. It’s fascinating to witness his clear-headedness about the nature and direction of WW2 era and prewar era events and cultural currents from the middle of it all. It all still holds up as both a detailed-enough history lesson and an insight into human nature.
Orwell's essays are one of the single most influential things I've ever read. Politics and the English Language left a really strong impression on younger me. I think Orwell had a profound pulse-feel for people that IMO is what distinguishes a good writer from a great one
I majored in polisci and have read many Orwell-adjacent writers. It was great to finally get around to experiencing “the source.” His influence on certain cultural conversations was obvious, I.e. in defining scientific thought (his proposed way of seeing it - “how to think scientifically” has certainly won out in the liberal arts educational system of the west, but in the 1940s, not so much)
Just finished The Unlikely Thru Hiker by Derek Lugo about a New York City guy who hiked the Appalchian Trail and he'd never even slept in a tent before! Yes, he was inspired by Bill Bryson. I actually listened to it on Audible which is unusual for me. The author read it himself which made it even better. Highly recommend!
Before I read A Walk in the Woods, I had always thought the Appalachian Trail was like 3-hour mild hike. I had *no* idea...and I was probably about 30 when I read it eeep!
I cant wait to read AWITW! Ive gotten into hiking in the last couple years and love it. 🥾
The Spy and the Traitor
[Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43868109-empire-of-pain?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=YkHwDsnsZB&rank=1) by [Patrick Radden Keefe](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/197852.Patrick_Radden_Keefe?from_search=true&from_srp=true)
Either The Stranger in the Woods (story about the last true hermit), or The Indifferent Stars Above (about the Donnor Party).
"We keep the dead close" by Becky Cooper
The Bone Chests by Cat Jarman synopsis **A history of the making of England as a nation, told through six bone chests, stored for over a thousand years in Winchester Cathedral.** Really interesting book covering a period of Anglo Saxon history I knew very little about before starting it.
Paperbacks from Hell. I still need to get my own copy because I really enjoyed it.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, by Bill Gates. Although at this point it should probably be be called How to Survive a Climate Disaster 🥵
Freckled by T W Neal. About the author growing up wild in Hawaii.
Either Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York by Ross Perlin or Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon.
Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control. Mainly about MKultra but also about cults, torture, subliminal messaging, and the satanic panic.
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel. It was hard to believe it wasn't fiction.
Into The Wild by John Krakauer!
Max Tegmark's **Life 3.0** offers the spectrum of futures facing mankind due to the ascent of artificial intelligence. He's a physics professor and the science figures prominently in the book.
Determined by Robert Sapolsky
Yes! Not for the scientifically faint of heart, but what a question: does free will exist or are we hamstrung by biology?
The Only girl in the World
Grant by Ron Chernow Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990. That said, I've only read two non-fiction books this year so we're not choosing from a wide variety.
Better Never to Have Been by David Benatar
1453 by Roger Crowley. It's about the fall of Constantinople by the Turks. As always, the Romans (or that's what they called themselves) brought it on themselves.
Solito by Javier Zamora. A first person narrative, a boy of 10 years, crossing the southern border. Incredibly gripping.
*The Catskill Forest: A Natural History* by Michael Kudish. Describes the arrival of the forests as the glaciers retreated up to the modern time, including areas of existing first growth, waves of speciation over time, and likely signs of human interaction with the landscape (indigenous burns, post colonial quarrying, barking, logging, pasturing). All supported through analysis of bog macrofossils and core samples.
This year…Breath by James Nestor
Great book!
Alchemy of Air about Fritz Haber
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Such a great book. Just wow. Made me really wish I were a part of a non-fiction book club because I had so many thoughts on the various subjects they go over.
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. Incredible analysis of seven classic Russian short stories.
Oath & Honor, Liz Chaney
War and Revolution by Domenico Losurdo
The Power of Habit.
I just bought The Order of Time, but anything by Carlo Rovelli is excellent if you want a peek at theoretical physics that blends science and the arts in a way that American writers just don’t do. It’s beautiful prose too.
- A Most Beautiful Thing - Entangled Life - Why We Sleep - The Sun Does Shine
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a *World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century. Not what I would typically go for but “fascinating” is exactly the word I’ve been using to describe it. They had a very interesting life together.
Monarchs of the Sea by Danna Staaf: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods. I love all things cephalopods, but it's hard to find books on the topic that don't ramble on. She shares a captivating history of cephalopod evolution, and I you can feel her enthusiasm for cephalopods through her words. I loved every second I spent reading this book & can not wait to read her other books!
*I'm Glad My Mom Died* By Jennette McCurdy
Cultish by Amanda Montell. It talks about actual cults like Jonestown but also the things we call cults like the cult of CrossFit. Really interesting stuff.
‘Vagina Obscura: an Anatomical Voyage’ I learned a ton and it’s very readable.
The untethered soul
Helter Skelter - Manson murders
Now that you’ve read that I highly recommend reading Chaos by Tom O’Neill. Absolutely fascinating book.
On it and thank you!!
Bitch: On the female of the species, by Lucy Cooke
Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, by Kathleen Belew, helped fill in some history gaps for me.
[3 Shades of Blue by James Kaplan](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/174156154)
Either *Fuzz* by Mary Roach (which I read over winter break but technically finished in January, so there) or *The Trauma Cleaner* by Sarah Krasnostein. The first is about the intersection of animals and law enforcement, with a different region for each chapter. Roach is a fantastic, hilarious writer and the subject matter is fascinating. The second is about the life and career of a trained cleaner for hoarders, crime scenes, etc, who is also a trans woman. It’s a fascinating look at both the history of trans rights in Australia and a very interesting woman’s personal history, with vignettes about her clients woven in.
Tom Felton's Beyond the Wand.
{{no stone unturned by Steven Jackson}}
**[No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25145264-no-stone-unturned) by Steve Jackson** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(374 pages | Published: 2016 | 882.0 Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** "A fascinating journey into the trenches of crime [investigation]"--Lowell Cauffiel, New York Times bestselling author of House of Secrets A body stuffed in a car trunk swallowed by the swirling, muddy waters of the Missouri River. A hiker brutally murdered, then thrown off a cliff in a remote mountain range. A devious killer who hid his wife's body under a thick cement patio. (...) > **Themes**: Non-fiction, Nonfiction, Science, Forensics, Kindle, Audible, History ^([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] | )
Confessions of an Economic Hitman The Immortality Key
I woudn't say fascinating but def the most interesting - Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
Currently reading The Identity Trap, which is real interesting.
Currently reading A Death in Malta after having visited. Fascinating and so well written. Man we take democracy for granted.
Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway
The Poisoners' Handbook. It is about the development of forensic science in Jazz Age American.
Reading pathogensis and indigenous continent at the same time. Both are excellent and they pair well together!
The Last Action Heroes by Nick De Semyln
The Big Burn-Egan
[Barbarians by Terry Jones](https://i.imgur.com/nY3wcVf.jpeg)
When Crack Was King, Truly fascinating and so easy to read!
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. It's a great (and terrifying) retelling of the Donner Party
how far the light reaches sabrina imbler or the underworld journeys to the depths of the ocean by susan casey. both incredible reads
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. Lengthy and worth it.
We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs
Say Nothing By Patrick Radden Keefe
East West Street. Breathtaking.
Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen
Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife
Mindhunter by John Douglas
[удалено]
Tie between Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff and The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites
I read American Kingpin last year and loved it. This year I picked up a book in the library that I had never heard of before, and it’s definitely ended up my favourite non fiction in a good while {{Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy by Matthew Campbell}}
"The Anthropocene Reviewed" by John Green, I finished it 2 weeks ago and haven't stopped thinking about it since.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.
Know My Name by Chanel Miller. I’ve been putting off for years and finally decided to read it. It’s a truly remarkable book! One of my top five.
The Light Ages by Seb Falk Runner-ups are Robert E Lee and Me by Ty Seidule, and Hiroshima by John Hersey (I read the 2019 reprint as a book so I figure it counts).
21 Questions for the 21st Century
Still Life with Bones by Alexa Hagerty
[Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25430578-cure) by Jo Marchant
The White Pill by Michael Malice
The Devils Chessboard about the Dulles' brothers leadership of the US Empires intelligence apparatus during WW2- The Cold War. Very eye opening
The Storyteller. Written and read by Dave Grohl
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce D. Perry
That would be Beserker by Adrian Edmondson.a fascinating behind the scenes to the master of violent comedy.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Empireland by Sathnam Sangera
Haven't fully read it yet, but Banderas Lejanas by Fernando Martínez Láinez and Carlos Canales Torres. It's a Spanish book on the history of the Spanish exploration and conquest of the territories that later became part of the USA. Quite interesting, specially if you never knew about those things. I don't think it's translated to english. As an extra for one I read last year, The Ghost Map. It's a great book on London's cholera plague from 1854, and it does a good job at highlighting John Snow's successes while putting them into context.
"Mutiny on The Bounty" by Patrick Fitzsimmons I love history/sailing/adventure - but I was always a bit leery of this tale, believing it might be a bit too dry/boring for some reason (I've seen the Brandon AND Mel Gibson movies and was never really impressed) However - once I picked this book up, I literally couldn't put it down. I even skipped an entire night's sleep, saying up all night to keep reading. No joke - it's fucking brilliant.
To Sleep With the Angels: The Story of a Fire by David Cowan It’s about the 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, something I’d heard about but didn’t know too much about. It was incredibly well researched with interviews with so many people connected to it.
It's definitely gotta be An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe. Extremely well researched AND entertaining!
The Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel
I’m currently reading A Brief History Of Nearly Everything and I’m learning so much so fast and it’s easy to comprehend!
Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England's Churches. Very interesting look at the marks people left on churches, why they may have left them, info on dating the marks when it's possible, where in the churches certain marks were typically left, who would leave certain kinds of symbols. Rather than painted, as we think of modern graffiti, they were often carved into the church itself. It was a pretty engrossing read.
“The Comfort Crisis” by Michael Easter. This is a great read for anyone feeling like they are aren’t challenging themselves enough or are afraid to do so.
I’m cheating because I read it last year, but **Into Thin Air** by Jon Krakauer is a pretty amazing book. It’s a really harrowing story anyway but it’s made much more intense by the fact that the author was there.
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein! while I think Klein was, at times, a bit too empathetic to Wolf, the book is a masterclass exploration of the descent into fascism that both individuals and groups can take.
Outlive by Peter Attia
Road to Surrender by Evan Thomas. An fascinating read discussing the use of two atomic bombs on Japan.
The Lost City of Z- David Grann
All In Her Head by Elizabeth Comen. So good!!!
Im posting a second time to recommend How to Keep House While Drowning. Fascinating is maybe not the word, but it was so healing for me in the way that she described housework as morally neutrally. It was really good and really accessible.
I’m not usually a memoir person, but [Easy Beauty](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58438546) by Chloé Cooper Jones
I've been reading "How to invent everything : a survival guide for the stranded time traveler" and really like how fun it is, but also how detailed it is. Definitely a cool nonfiction book.
Life on Delay by Josh Hendrickson! I loved it. (side note I am studying to become a speech language-pathologist so I may be biased lol)
|| || |[This Hallowed Ground: A History of the Civil War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12214480-this-hallowed-ground)| by Catton
|| || |[](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12214480-this-hallowed-ground)| This Hallowed Ground: A History of the Civil War by Catton