# Non-fiction recommendations please **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 30, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869 "2024-01-30T17:02:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/21 "2024-01-31T12:27:13Z")
I recently picked up that Wright Brothers book in perfect condition from a used book sale for $2. Looking forward to cracking it open. mmm ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/22 "2024-01-31T12:28:35Z")
Another great read in the genre of surviving lost at sea is > **[438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Se…](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25111328-438-days)** > > 438 Days is the miraculous account of the man who survi… From Ecuador he made his way to a fishing village in Mexico. Went out shark hunting with friends in a small boat never to return until 438 days later. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/23 "2024-01-31T14:08:15Z")
Thank you all for the great recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/24 "2024-01-31T14:14:40Z")
Same! ordering them through the library system. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/25 "2024-01-31T14:18:12Z")
Pretty much anything by Simon Winchester or Michael Pollan. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/26 "2024-01-31T14:19:52Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > “The Code Book”, a history of cryptography and cryptanalysis: > [@suranyi](#): > > “The Big Bang”, a history of cosmology: Do these books require more than a basic understanding of the subjects? They sound interesting, but they are subjects that I know woefully little about. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/27 "2024-01-31T14:39:59Z")
If you’re interested at all in the current crisis in American democracy, here are two books that will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. _American Midnight_ by Adam Hochschild is about the first red scare that happened in the aftermath of World War I. Mass deportations are not just a recent idea by the right wing radicals. I am currently reading a related account of the rise and fall of the KKK in the twenties. _A Fever in the Heartland_ by Timothy Egan. I’m about halfway through, but I recommend it highly. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/28 "2024-01-31T15:55:35Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > Do these books require more than a basic understanding of the subjects? They sound interesting, but they are subjects that I know woefully little about. I don’t think so. I just checked the opening of my The Code Book and it starts with a very basic discussion of the history of cryptography including shift ciphers and scytales. That’s about as beginner as it gets. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/29 "2024-01-31T16:53:33Z")
No, both books are definitely written for an intelligent person who knows little about the topics. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/30 "2024-01-31T19:51:58Z")
I’ll read anything by Daniel E. Lieberman. He’s a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard. His books are about how an understanding of that subject can illuminate modern issues. I’ve read and loved [Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding](https://www.amazon.com/Exercised-Something-Evolved-Healthy-Rewarding-ebook/dp/B082H3ZH44/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=daniel+lieberman&qid=1706729648&sr=8-1) and [The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease](https://www.amazon.com/Story-Human-Body-Evolution-Disease/dp/030774180X/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=daniel+lieberman&qid=1706729648&sr=8-2). He has also written at least one book I haven’t read yet, _The Evolution of the Human Head_. He is not the same person as Daniel Z. Lieberman, a professor of psychiatry whose books I have not read but which also look interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/31 "2024-01-31T20:58:51Z")
I’m in the middle of [To Anyone Whoever Asks](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8GMWF1N/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title), a biography of an obscure 50’s folk singer. It’s fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/32 "2024-01-31T23:05:08Z")
I liked your punchline Suntan; it was a pnemonic device I think, right? ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/33 "2024-01-31T23:11:23Z")
I am always trying to be funny…just a play on the misspelling. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/34 "2024-02-01T03:42:16Z")
I need a mnemonic to help me remember how to spell mnemonic. The one thing I do remember is that it doesn’t have a P. Meanwhile, I think I’ll have a P. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/35 "2024-02-01T03:52:01Z")
Lost Moon, by Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. It formed the basis for the Ron Howard movie, Apollo 13. The Terrible Hours, by Peter Maas. About the early years of saving sailors from sunken submarines. This is the same author who wrote Serpico, about the honest cop in a corrupt NYC police force. ---
**Author:** ![ColdBrew50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@ColdBrew50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdBrew50)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/36 "2024-02-01T04:03:19Z")
I thought the new-ish book, nominally about the life of Gödel was pretty entertaining. Not, really, since Tolmin and Janik has there been such a precise, literate rendering of pre-war Austria-Hungary. Available as a cheap paperback. I’d check it out, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/37 "2024-02-01T04:28:36Z")
Michael Lewis writes good nonfiction with Moneyball and Blind Side being his most famous, but he has many others. Buddy Levy writes great historical adventure books about Cortez, an early expedition up the Amazon, and Arctic adventures. I know Stephen Ambrose is controversial, but he writes page turners of history books. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869/38 "2024-02-09T23:41:23Z")
How this isn’t one of the greatest best-sellers of all time, I don’t know: [102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780805094213/102minutes) Also true of (although it has sold more): [Hiroshima](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_(book)) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/996869.md?page=1)