Anyone have any good non-fiction recommendations? I’m open to pretty much anything, but biographies are of particular interest.
(I see this topic has been done a few times, but the last thread I see is over a decade old, so I thought I would open a new one).
Same here. I don’t read fiction.
The Emerald Mile. Ancient and modern history and geology of the Grand Canyon, all structured around some fascinating contemporary individuals and the culture of river guides, plus some insanity.
I loved a book I just finished, “The Hungry Season” by Lisa Hamilton. It’s a biography of a woman that survived the civil war in Laos, and then immigrated to the US, surviving by growing rice in the traditional Hmong fashion in California. It was a very different topic than the sort I usually read, but was good from the first page.
This looks great, thank you. Just the type of recommendation I am looking for. I appreciate it.
“The Taking of K-129” by Josh Dean, about how the US attempted to steal a Soviet submarine from the bottom of the ocean. About the technology, the people involved, and the process of keeping it all secret. Also a sea story.
A very unique biography. Scary as hell, but very readable for a layperson.
Two recreational divers chance upon a well preserved – and completely unknown and undocumented – WWII U-boat wreck laying off the coast of New Jersey. The book chronicles their attempts to identify the boat and figure out why it sank and why there was no record of it.
An amateur sailor on a solo trans-Atlantic crossing suffers a catastrophic loss of his boat and is forced to survive in a life raft the size of a bathtub with no water or food for 2 1/2 months.
A physician who specializes in expeditions to and into extreme inhospitable environments shares a number of experiences and challenges treating sickness and injury in places such as Mt. Everest, the Amazon jungle, and similar wild areas where modern medical care is non-existent.
A classic about the western U.S.'s quickly vanishing water and the impending catastrophe that scarcity will cause. When my son was going through a phase where he wanted to be a lawyer because “that’s how you get rich” I told him that specializing in water rights litigation between political entities in the Western U.S would soon be a very lucrative career. This book taught me that.
A book that explores how western Christians press-ganged a dark-haired, brown-skinned Palestinian who preached peace and acceptance into a mascot for white power, persecutions, war, and unflinching xenophobia while portraying him as a blue-eyed, blonde haired northern European who spoke English.
The Social World of the California Gold Rush. Title says it all. Not about the mines or the miners per se but rather the mining towns and camps and the social and economic fabric that the gold rush created and subsequently made the American colonization of California possible.
By and by I’ll think of some more.
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer, about the disastrous attempt to climb Everest that he was a part of.
Touching the Void - Joe Simpson, about two men on a climb in the Andes that goes sideways
Yes, I do love books about survival and exploration. Luckily, there are a lot of them out there, although I’ve read a good portion of them.
Roman Mars is doing a year-long podcast series (within 99% Invisible) on The Power Broker by Robert Caro. You can read along and hear the discussion 100 pages at a time:
If you haven’t read Kamler’s book noted above, do yourself a favor and give it a go. It highlights a great, and somewhat unique, perspective into survival in harsh environments.
I’ll give it a look. Thanks! The book that got me started in this genre was The White Nile, by Alan Moorehead, which has the stories of the multiple British expeditions trying to find the river’s headwaters. A fascinating read about some of the toughest men to ever pick up a rucksack. He also wrote a sequel called The Blue Nile.
Surely You’re Joking, Mr.Feynman, by the inimitable genius Richard Feynman, the nuclear physicist and enfant terrible. About himself.
Albion’s Seed by David Fischer. A social historian’s thought-provoking opus on how the differing essential ideals of the four earliest sets of American colonists – Puritan, Quaker, Cavalier, and Borderer, all from different classes within Britain – set the patterns of tension in American culture which are only too obvious today.
Longitude Dava Sobel. How one inventor cracked the challenge of how to determine it, essential to navigation at sea.
As usual, many of my favorites have already been mentioned: Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Shadow Divers
A few more:
A Long Way Home be Saroo Brierly - About the journey of an Indian boy (and man) to find his family. Was made into the movie “Lion”.
Falling Upwards by Richard Holmes - A history of hot air ballooning from the early scientists and daredevils through their use in battle. A small excerpt was made into the movie “The Aeronauts”.
Jungle of Stone by William Carlsen - About the discovery by Europeans of the ancient Mayan civilization.
The Last Man on the Mountain by Jennifer Jordan - About an early failed expedition to climb K2.
Buried in the Sky by Peter Zuchman and Amanda Padoan - About Sherpa climbers killed on K2, but goes into the whole history of Sherpas and their relationship to mountain climbers.
Young Men and Fire by Norm McLean - A classic about smoke jumpers killed fighting a wildfire
Two books by Simon Singh:
“The Code Book”, a history of cryptography and cryptanalysis:
“The Big Bang”, a history of cosmology:
Both excellent.
“Journey Through Genius” by William Dunham. For math lovers. Discusses 12 classic theorems of mathematics, how they were proved and their historical context.
I’m going to read that book. I’ve always wanted to know how theorums are developed, as a tool for memorizing them and for making pnemonic devices about them.
I bet I’ll learn how to spell theorem correctly. (Slap to forehead)
Theorums are what you drink while reading.
Another math connoisseur, Matt Parker, is a really fun read. He recounts how he petitioned the UK government to replace geometrically incorrect renditions of soccer balls on signs advertising sporting events. He’s also built rudimentary computers entirely out of thousands of dominos on basketball courts. A genuine ubernerd good for blowing your mind and making you chuckle while doing it.