# Recommend great non-fiction! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910 "2006-05-23T15:49:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/21 "2006-05-23T20:21:39Z")
This is the one I recommend to pretty much everybody, and they all rave about it: [We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312243359/sr=8-1/qid=1148415561/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2337827-6503955?%5Fencoding=UTF8), by Philip Gourevitch. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/22 "2006-05-23T20:31:09Z")
I found [Origins Reconsidered : In Search of What Makes Us Human](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385467923/sr=8-2/qid=1148415988/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-2223579-6013569?%5Fencoding=UTF8) by Richard Leakey to be a fascinating exploration of human evolution and just what forces lead to make us what we are today. It also has some autobiographical elements to it to help make it a good read. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/23 "2006-05-23T21:11:22Z")
If you want to read about the OED I have to say I prefer **Caught in the web of words** by K. M. Elizabeth Murray. One of my all-time favorites, if you’re interested in history and women and fabric and all that stuff, is **Women’s work: the first 20,000 years** by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. All about the development of thread, weaving, fabric, and so on. Fascinating stuff. Or, if you need to beef up your reference section, buy **Brewer’s dictionary of phrase and fable**. The preface in the 2000 edition was written by Terry Pratchett! ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/24 "2006-05-23T21:25:43Z")
If you haven’t read Guns, Germs, & Steel by Jared Diamond yet, I highly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/25 "2006-05-23T21:29:03Z")
One more shout-out for Henry Petroski. _The Pencil_ is the best piece of popular history of technology that it’s ever been my pleasure to read. I also got great satisfaction out of a slender little book called _A History of the World in Six Glasses_, by Tom Standage. It’s surely the first history of world civilizations told through beverages (beer, wine, coffee, tea, cola, and water). Brisk and engaging after-dinner reading, ideally with the appropriate quaff nearby. To all the plaudits laid across Bill Bryson’s broad shoulders, I can do little to add – except that his European travelogue _Neither Here Nor There_ and his British one _Notes from a Small Island_ are among my favorite books of any kind by any author. I say travelogues, which they are, but I also wouldn’t let either deter you from visiting the places he writes about. Of those I’ve been to so far, I’ve found most more enjoyable than did Bryson, who’s an idealist, a bit cranky, and easily let down by the state of the world. More importantly, though, he seldom fails to amuse as he educates, and is not infrequently pee-your-seat hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Mayo\_Speaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mayo\_Speaks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mayo_Speaks)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/26 "2006-05-23T21:31:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Anything by Richard Feynman. His more technical writings are great, too, if you’re inclined towards physics, but even if you’re not, his memoirs are a great read. The only title I can remember is _Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman_, but there are a few others as well. I’ll heartily second _Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman_. Even if you don’t care about physics, the story about how he cracked into the safes with the US’s nuclear secrets is priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/27 "2006-05-23T21:32:49Z")
The sixth beverage in Standage’s _History of the World_ is not water – which is dealt with often enough anyway in the book – but distilled spirits. Excuse please. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/28 "2006-05-23T21:38:51Z")
I read [A Mind of Its Own: A cultural history of the penis](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142002593/sr=8-1/qid=1148419301/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0147847-1514508?%5Fencoding=UTF8) by David Friedman this spring and _lurved_ it. It’s pretty much about what the title says. [The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0374525641/qid=1148419712/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-0147847-1514508?v=glance&s=books) by Anne Fadiman is pretty good and shocking if you weren’t aware of what happened to the Hmong after the Vietnam War. I wasn’t as it definitely wasn’t covered in my American history classes. I second _The Professor and the Madman_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/29 "2006-05-24T00:46:06Z")
**’Swimming Across’ by Andy Grove** Born Andres Groff in Budapest just before WWII. He grew up in the occupation, escaped the Nazi’s, made it to NYC with $20 in his pocket. Went to a shool in NYC while living with a distant relative. Got a job offer in California, went to school there (Stanford?) and later becam CEO of Intel. Hell of a story, great book. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/30 "2006-05-24T02:27:03Z")
Pretty much anything by Carl Sagan or Barbara Tuchman. Of course, they’re both dead, but what are you gonna do? ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/31 "2006-05-24T13:01:09Z")
I second (or third, or something) Mary Roach’s Stiffed. Fascinating. I was going to mention Alison Weir, but I see you know about her already. I just read Princesses by Flora Fraser – about the daughters of George III. She isn’t as good a writer as her mother, IMO, but the story was very interesting. Will You Miss Me when I’m Gone?: The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music is definately worth the read, too. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/32 "2006-05-24T14:39:18Z")
Seconding _A Bright Shining Lie_, _The Making of the Atom Bomb_ and pretty much anything by Henry Petroski. If one is into seafaring tales, may I suggest [_On the Bottom: the Raising of the U.S. Navy Submarine S-51_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BTH5NA/sr=8-1/qid=1148480417/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1698484-6043132?%5Fencoding=UTF8), by Edward Ellsberg? This is a cracking good read, describing a herculean, 18-month effort to recover the sub after it was lost in a collision with a freighter off Long Island in the early '20s. Ellsberg was one of the officers supervising the recovery team, who struggled with primitive diving equipment, appalling conditions, and an unending series of technical problems that routinely threatened to scuttle the whole mission, right down to the last few yards of the sub’s transport back to the New York Navy Yard. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/33 "2006-05-24T16:16:58Z")
[Into Thin Air](http://www.bookpage.com/9705bp/nonfiction/intothinair.html) The only non-fiction book I’ve read that I couldn’t put down, started and read straight through to the end. Steven Jay Gould’s [Wonderful Life](http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/backlist/030700.htm) I think a lot of what’s in it has been dis-credited since (it’s over 25 years old) but it’s a great read, you’d never think that analysis of _biramous appendages_ would be so compelling. [Last Chance to See](http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/dna/lastchance.shtml) by Douglas Adams (and some other chap), searching for endangered species. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/34 "2006-05-24T16:17:13Z")
[The FairTax Book](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060875496/sr=8-1/qid=1148487353/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8988972-8159926?%5Fencoding=UTF8) Very easy read, simple to understand, and you will go running to write your congressmen afterward. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/35 "2006-05-24T16:22:19Z")
Mary Roach’s book is called [Stiff](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393050939/qid=1148487593/sr=2-3/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_3/102-9868690-6921731?s=books&v=glance&n=283155). Buying Susan Faludi’s [Stiffed](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380720450/qid=1148487593/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/102-9868690-6921731?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) is _quite_ another kettle of fish. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/36 "2006-05-24T16:23:28Z")
[Young Men and Fire](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226500624/sr=8-1/qid=1148487623/ref=sr_1_1/103-2519837-1760664?%5Fencoding=UTF8) by Norman Maclean, and [Beautiful Swimmers](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316923354/qid=1148487702/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-2519837-1760664?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) by William Warner are two of my all-time favorite non-fictionbooks. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910/37 "2006-05-24T17:30:35Z")
> [@Small Clanger](#): > > [Last Chance to See](http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/dna/lastchance.shtml) by Douglas Adams (and some other chap), searching for endangered species. I bought that one a few years ago at a garage sale for .25. Best quarter I ever spent. 🆒 I know other people loved Adams for his science fiction but I loved him mostly for that truly terrific book. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-great-non-fiction/357910.md?page=1)