Two books that should be required reading for all high school seniors:
Parliament of Whores by PJ O’Rourke A lone satirist tries to make the function and operation of the US government comprehensible.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King Many English courses try to make writing more mysterious and intimidating than it really needs to be. This book does the exact opposite.
Anything about serial killers.
You might try Tim Cahill’s books about his travels. “Pass the Butterworms” is the title that comes to mind but they’re all great in my opinion.
The Starship and the Canoe by Kenneth Brower.
A beautiful book which I need to find another copy of. The description of George in his treehouse during the fog is unforgettable.
A History of Warfare by John Keegan
Stiff by Mary Roach
A humorous and well-researched look at what happens to human cadavers. One must have a bit of a fascination with a morbid to read this one, but it is very interesting.
Thank you, NoDucks! I had tried to reserve this at the library, but they didn’t have it. I decided to try again later but forgot. Now they have it on order and I’m first on the list!
And welcome to the SDMB.
Well, if he wants to be like me (and who doesn’t?), he should finish Seabiscuit and then read Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing.
I have never been as tempted to read whole, huge sections aloud to my husband as I was when reading Endurance. “Incredible” doesn’t begin to cover Shackleton’s voyage. It truly was an amazing story, and the author tells it in a lively and engaging way. Seriously. An amazing read. Plus, even the soft-copy edition has a photos throughout, thanks to the talented photographer who came on the expedition and took extraordinary measures to preserve his photos.
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley details the lives of the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima as well as the training they underwent, the defenses on the island, the actual invasion and it’s aftermath. It’s a powerful story.
If he liked Guns, Germs and Steel he may like Diamond’s earlier book The Third Chimpanzee– My son enjoyed both. He also liked Fast Food Nation. and The Color of Water.
Oh and The Perfect Storm was also enjoyed by both my son and daughter.
I would recommend ** The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography** by Simon Singh. The author does a great job of describing the elements of various famous codes throughout history so that the reader can easily understand them.
There is a slightly dumbed-down version of this book on the market intended for “young adult” readers, but I think if your son read and enjoyed Guns, Germs and Steel then he’s more than ready to read the regular version.
The Ancient Engineers by L.Sprague De Camp.
Go here for details.
Wow Zenster! I thought I’d be the only one to think of this book. I’ve never really been into much non-fiction, so most of it that I enjoyed as a kid was animal related. I read that book and loved it, along with all of James Herriot’s books (which are arguably non-fiction, at least); The Cat Who Went to Paris
by Peter Gethers which was very entertaining; all of Cleveland Amory’s The Cat books…
On the other hand, I hated Last Chance To See. I attenpted it when I was around 15 or 16, and couldn’t finish it. Still haven’t. It was far too depressing for someone who is reading animal books just because they like animals. Had I realized it was by the same person who wrote the Hitch Hiker’s guide books, I might never have read that series a couple of years later because the book upset me so much. I’m glad I didn’t know.
There was another book I really liked, but unfortunately, I only remember the title, not the author. It was called Castaway and was written by a man who survived for weeks in the sea after his boat/ship sank. I wonder if the Tom Hanks movie was inspired by it.
Thanks, elfkin477. Sterling North’s Rascal is a book that I will read to my children. I have read it as an adult and still got a lot out of it. North’s recollection of passenger pigeons darkening the sky and the hilarious antics of their pet raven, Poe, are memorable passages in an unforgettable book. Reading it helped give me a life long love of animals that persists to this day.
Two good ones by Michael Ruhlman: The Making of a Chef and The Soul of a Chef. In the first one, Ruhlman enrolls at the Culinary Institute of America to (sort of) train as a chef. The second book is split into three sections: Ruhlman covers the Certified Master Chef exam, and visits two working chefs (including Thomas Keller of The French Laundry) to see what their lives are like.
And on a completely different note, Randall Rothenberg’s Where the Suckers Moon is an entertaining and eye-opening look at the life and death of an advertising campaign. He covers Subaru’s search for a new agency (and marketing position) in the early 1990s; how they ended up with Wieden and Kennedy, one of the top creative agencies in the country; and why they were a horrible match for each other. It sounds dry, but it’s entertaining as hell, and sheds a lot of light on why so many bad ads run despite the efforts of many creative people.
Rascal! I loved that book! I haven’t read it for years and years, but it was one my mom read aloud, and I remember us all crying with laughter over the sugar-cube washing incident. Another book in a similar vein, and also non-fiction, is Cheaper By the Dozen, the very funny and true account of growing up in the 12-child Gilbreth family. Both of those might be geared to readers at a younger level than your son, but they’re terrific books if he doesn’t mind reading below his level.
It’s been about twenty-four hours since the first post in response to my OP, so I thought I’d stop back in to say “thank you” to everyone. All the recommendations have been wonderful!
Also, I was planning on making a few suggestions of my own, for anyone else out there looking for a good nonfiction book for a teenager. I was going to suggest Cheaper by the Dozen (and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes), but you beat me to it, Beadalin! So, I’ll just second your motion, and note that my son loved both those books.
I recommend also the Gerald Durrell trilogy about his childhood on Corfu: My Family and Other Animals; Birds, Beasts and Relatives; and The Garden of the Gods. My son and I both love these books.
~Merejane
Longitude by Dava Sobel. A great story about making a clock. OOOH Man does that makes it sound boring, but it’s really quite interesting. I got it for my stepdad when I was 14-ish, read it shortly after he did and loved it. Read it a few times since.
Yet another vote for Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm. The movie covered the “story” part of it, but there is loads in the book about the history of commercial fishing, the dynamics of waves, the physiology of drowning which I found more interesting the saga of the Andrea Gail (possibly because I knew what happened to them)
Also, Junger’s second book Fire is quite good. It’s a number of shorter, article-type pieces on various topics.
Never Cry Wolf is Farley Mowat’s account of the time he spent in the Canadian wilderness studying a family of wolves. Not only do you learn a bit about wolves, but you’ll chuckle a few times and discover a recipe for mice.
“White Nile” and “Blue Nile”, both by Alan Moorehead. These are books about the exploration of the Nile, the search for its source and all the intrigue surrounding it. Reads like an Indiana Jones story. Fascinating stuff.
Harder books to find, but well worth the search: “Cradle of The Storms” and “10,000 Miles By Dogsled”, both by Bernard Hubbard, S.J. Hubbard was a Jesuit Priest who taught at Santa Clara. During his off time, he explored the wilds of Alaska and climbed some of the most forbidding mountains in the southwest part of the territory. He also explored the Valley of 10,000 Smokes not long after the eruption. This was all in the 1930s, with a few pack dogs, some football buddies and very little equipment. These are fascinating and fun reading for anyone.
“Travels In Alaska” by John Muir. Can’t say enough about this book. The man was incredible and his stories are wondrous.