My favorite non-fiction book is The Fifties by David Halberstam. It’s a great history of the social, cultural, technological, and political changes that swept America during the decade that most people look back at as “boring”. Anything but, IMHO! The author covers topics ranging from the emergence of the military-industrial complex and the Beat movement to the first televised congressional hearings and the establishment of American road culture icons such as McDonalds and Holiday Inn.
Just picked up “The Boxer Rebellion” by Diana Preston from the review table at work. Anybody read it?
A number of folks have brought up John McPhee, and I’ll put a vote in here for his Assembling California.
Ditto Jared Diamond and The Third Chimpanzee.
Ellroy’s My Dark Places was a harrowing but rewarding read. Three other excellent memoirs I would recommend are The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr, and the two views from the Wolff brothers: The Duke of Deception by Geoffrey and This Boy’s Life by Tobias.