# Recommend me some good non-fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 15, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265 "2011-12-15T01:54:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/21 "2011-12-15T20:58:57Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Some recent reads of mine: > > [Atkinson’s](http://www.amazon.com/Army-Dawn-1942-1943-Liberation-Trilogy/dp/0805087249/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323980639&sr=1-1) first two books (third pending) of his WWII in Europe trilogy. Well-researched, and well written as well. > > 1491 and 1493: somewhat speculative but thoroughly researched books on pre-Columbus and post-Columbus Americas. > > [Raft of The Medusa](http://www.amazon.com/Raft-Medusa-Gericault-Race-Design/dp/3791327828/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323980491&sr=1-1): the account not only of the ship’s grounding and subsequent survival, but of the huge impact upon the French monarchy and the life of the French painter [Gericault](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thompsondunn.co.uk/newsletter2/images/p4_img3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thompsondunn.co.uk/newsletter2/page16.html&h=352&w=500&sz=54&tbnid=c26b6_GuqqmygM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=128&zoom=1&docid=2vzdtTeXxw320M&sa=X&ei=ylfqTtq4GoqkiQLm5pnPBA&ved=0CEEQ9QEwAg&dur=173). > > [Undaunted Courage](http://www.amazon.com/Undaunted-Courage-Meriwether-Jefferson-American/dp/0684826976/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323980797&sr=1-1): the exploration journey of Lewis & Clark Atkinson gets a major black mark from its factually wrong description on Amazon. Two of my Great Uncles served in the Western Desert (one died in Greece[http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty\_details.aspx?casualty=2106132](http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2106132)). I’m not interested in a book that says “1942 and 1943 [t]hat first year of the Allied war…” I’d suggest Bierman and Smith’s _Alamein_ for a better view of the whole Western Desert campaign. 1491 and 1493 sounds good though. I remember seeing a documentary on Gericault and his masterpiece, (it may have been one of Simon Schama’s). I found it interesting, but doubt whether it would sustain a whole book for me. _Undaunted Courage_ also sounds good. I like tales of exploration. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/22 "2011-12-15T21:01:00Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > Here are some non-fiction titles I’ve particularly enjoyed recently: > > **Terrible Lizard: The First Dinosaur Hunters and the Birth of a New Science** , by Deborah Cadbury. Story of two of the main guys who were finding and identifying fossils in the UK in the 19th century. Interesting look at the scientific and academic communities of the day. I would say the writing is good but not great; however the story itself really carries it. > > **Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?** Okay, I like it when James Shapiro does pop Shakespeare, although he might be a little on the glib side for you based on how you describe your taste. His angle here isn’t so much on the various people put forward as the “real” Shakespeare, but on what social and literary issues seem to drive the need for people to believe in Shakespeare conspiracies. > > \*\* > Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America\*\* by John M. Barry. I didn’t know anything about this topic, and found it fascinating. A lot of public policy implications. I’ve got Terrible Lizard, and enjoyed it. Shapiro’s book sounds interesting. Personally I’m fully in the Stratford camp. Isn’t that the flood that John Goodman’s character was writing a novel about in _Treme_, sounds interesting. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/23 "2011-12-15T21:03:21Z")
> [@Silver\_Tyger](#): > > I haven’t read Orwell’s book. Nickel and Dimed was a campus-wide reading thing one semester, and very appropriate for all the starving students. It’s a fairly light read. > > It’s probably better than the tv series. From what I’m reading on wikipedia that had nothing to do with Mr. Bourdain. I picked up the book based on liking him on No Reservations - I like snarky people. > > Both of them are a little older, so if you can probably find them second hand, if that helps at all (I know I’m more likely to pick up a book I might not like if I don’t have to pay much for it). Yeah, many of these will be picked up second hand. Both are possibles at this stage. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/24 "2011-12-15T21:06:01Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > _The Big Oyster_ is good, but not as good as _Salt_. > > I also recommend Peter Ackroyd’s _London: The Biography_. Yeah, _Salt’s_ my favourite of Kurlansky as well. I’ll put _The Big Oyster_ on the possibles pile for now. I’ve read Ackroyd’s _London_ and found it interesting. Must get there one of these days, but I tend to spend too much on books… ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/25 "2011-12-15T21:08:09Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > These both sound interesting. Which murder is the murder of the century? I thought from your desciption it would be the murder of[Stanford White](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kendall_Thaw), but that wasn’t until 1906. I enjoyed Caleb Carr’s _The Alienist_ so I think I’d enjoy reading about that time and place. I’ll box it so that you can decide whether to see the name or not; the book holds back from the positive identification of the murder victim for a while as it follows the first days of the case, much like the investigation itself, so that there’s a “reveal” around chapter 3. But anyway, the Murder of the Century was a Turkish bath masseur named William Guldensuppe, murdered by his ex-girlfriend and her live-in lover. The ex, Augusta Nack, apparently wasn’t a very comely woman, but while shacking up with these two, she was still technically married to another man, so she must have been quite the charmer. She and her new lover lured Guldensuppe to a rented house, shot him, cut him up, and scattered his parts in various locations; his head, supposedly encased in plaster and dropped in the East River, was never found. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/26 "2011-12-15T21:14:39Z")
Hah, I can’t resist spoilers! It sounds like I’d enjoy it though so on to the list it goes. I may have my non-fiction reading for 2012 all planned out in no time! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/27 "2011-12-15T22:52:02Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Atkinson gets a major black mark from its factually wrong description on Amazon. Two of my Great Uncles served in the Western Desert (one died in Greece[http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty\_details.aspx?casualty=2106132](http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2106132)). I’m not interested in a book that says “1942 and 1943 [t]hat first year of the Allied war…” I’d suggest Bierman and Smith’s _Alamein_ for a better view of the whole Western Desert campaign. > > 1491 and 1493 sounds good though. > > I remember seeing a documentary on Gericault and his masterpiece, (it may have been one of Simon Schama’s). I found it interesting, but doubt whether it would sustain a whole book for me. > > _Undaunted Courage_ also sounds good. I like tales of exploration. If you like exploration, try “White Nile” and “Blue Nile”, particularly the former, by Alan Moorehead. Outstanding narrative of the British exploration of the Nile and the African interior. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/28 "2011-12-15T23:38:12Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > _Undaunted Courage_ also sounds good. I like tales of exploration. That’s the one I came in to recommend. It’s pretty fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/29 "2011-12-16T00:49:55Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > That’s the one I came in to recommend. It’s pretty fascinating. I agree. I thought it was so good, when I finished it, I immediately read it again. I can’t say that I’ve ever done that with any other book but there was just something about UC that was so compelling. ---
**Author:** ![davidw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@davidw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidw)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/30 "2011-12-16T02:27:22Z")
A few good ones: [Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea](http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324001732&sr=8-1) by Barbara Demick: This book details the experiences of a handful of North Korean defectors to illustrate what life is like for the people living there. [The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration](http://www.amazon.com/Warmth-Other-Suns-Americas-Migration/dp/0679763880/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324001807&sr=1-1) by Isabel Wilkerson: Similar in structure to the North Korea book, this one uses the story of three black Americans who migrated from the south to the north to in the first half of the 20th century to illustrate the experiences of the huge wave of black Americans who made a similar migration during that time. [The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Payback-History-Business-Hip-Hop/dp/0451234782/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324001891&sr=1-1) by Dan Charnas: Very interesting for hip-hop fans, but probably more so to non-fans in explaining how rap music went from a dismissible ghetto fad to being a huge business ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/31 "2011-12-16T03:22:22Z")
[Jon Krakauer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Krakauer) has only written a few books, but they’re all awesome. _Into the Wild_ was made into a pretty good film, but Krakauer’s book is much more real-life and less storybook. In fact, all of his books are great for their wealth of evidence, excerpts from primary sources, interviews, and usually an account of the author’s following in the footsteps of his subjects. Except for _Into Thin Air_, which is a first hand account of the fatal 1996 Mt Everest disaster. _Under the Banner of Heaven_ and _Where Men Win Glory_ were more all-encompassing, looking at almost the entire subjects of religion and war through the window of a couple of fundamentalist Mormon murderers and a football player-turned Army Ranger, respectively. I haven’t read _Eiger Dreams_ which is a collection of his essays, mostly from **Outside** magazine, but I plan to soon. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/32 "2011-12-16T14:36:25Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Atkinson gets a major black mark from its factually wrong description on Amazon. Two of my Great Uncles served in the Western Desert (one died in Greece[http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty\_details.aspx?casualty=2106132](http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2106132)). I’m not interested in a book that says “1942 and 1943 [t]hat first year of the Allied war…” I’d suggest Bierman and Smith’s _Alamein_ for a better view of the whole Western Desert campaign. Your quote is accurate. While Britain was engaged in North Africa as early as 1940, the Allied Command under Ike (which is what these books are about), and the US forces he commanded, did not arrive on the scene until 1942. The books acknowledge the fighting that had gone on prior to US involvement. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/33 "2011-12-16T21:08:07Z")
Except that isn’t what the sentence says, it says the Allied War, not the “Allied command under Eisenhower.” And thus minimises everything else up to that point. I’m really not interested in any books about how the USA won World War II pretty much by itself. It’s not only untrue, it’s frankly insulting to the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/34 "2011-12-16T21:09:14Z")
> [@davidw](#): > > A few good ones: > > [Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea](http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324001732&sr=8-1) by Barbara Demick: This book details the experiences of a handful of North Korean defectors to illustrate what life is like for the people living there. > > [The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration](http://www.amazon.com/Warmth-Other-Suns-Americas-Migration/dp/0679763880/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324001807&sr=1-1) by Isabel Wilkerson: Similar in structure to the North Korea book, this one uses the story of three black Americans who migrated from the south to the north to in the first half of the 20th century to illustrate the experiences of the huge wave of black Americans who made a similar migration during that time. > > [The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Payback-History-Business-Hip-Hop/dp/0451234782/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324001891&sr=1-1) by Dan Charnas: Very interesting for hip-hop fans, but probably more so to non-fans in explaining how rap music went from a dismissible ghetto fad to being a huge business All three look pretty intertesting, they’re on the possibles list. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/35 "2011-12-16T21:14:52Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > [Jon Krakauer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Krakauer) has only written a few books, but they’re all awesome. > > _Into the Wild_ was made into a pretty good film, but Krakauer’s book is much more real-life and less storybook. In fact, all of his books are great for their wealth of evidence, excerpts from primary sources, interviews, and usually an account of the author’s following in the footsteps of his subjects. Except for _Into Thin Air_, which is a first hand account of the fatal 1996 Mt Everest disaster. > > _Under the Banner of Heaven_ and _Where Men Win Glory_ were more all-encompassing, looking at almost the entire subjects of religion and war through the window of a couple of fundamentalist Mormon murderers and a football player-turned Army Ranger, respectively. I haven’t read _Eiger Dreams_ which is a collection of his essays, mostly from **Outside** magazine, but I plan to soon. I’ve read Krakeur’s magazine article that was extended into _Into Thin Air_. I’ve seen _Into the Wild_ which I enjoyed but don’t feel any need to learn more about. If you haven’t seen Werner Herzog’s _Grizzly Man_ about a similar person you really should. Both the other two look interesting. I’ve been following the Pat Tillman case on the internet, and a good book on the whole affair sounds great. And I’m oddly fascinated by fringe sects (we’ve had a couple of really interesting ones in New Zealand), so _Under the Banner of Heaven_ sounds promising. ---
**Author:** ![ballardfam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8797f3/32.png) [@ballardfam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ballardfam)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/36 "2011-12-16T21:34:24Z")
\*\* Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World\*\* by Richard Rhodes. my dad’s reading this & say’s it’s good. I know you said no celebrity bios but this seems different. Following is from the amazon description: \*What do Hedy Lamarr, avant-garde composer George Antheil, and your cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio: a revolutionary invention based on the rapid switching of communications signals among a spread of different frequencies. Without this technology, we would not have the digital comforts that we take for granted today. Only a writer of Richard Rhodes’s caliber could do justice to this remarkable story. Unhappily married to a Nazi arms dealer, Lamarr fled to America at the start of World War II; she brought with her not only her theatrical talent but also a gift for technical innovation. An introduction to Antheil at a Hollywood dinner table culminated in a U.S. patent for a jam- proof radio guidance system for torpedoes—the unlikely duo’s gift to the U.S. war effort. What other book brings together 1920s Paris, player pianos, Nazi weaponry, and digital wireless into one satisfying whole? In its juxtaposition of Hollywood glamour with the reality of a brutal war, Hedy’s Folly is a riveting book about unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.\* ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/37 "2011-12-16T23:42:50Z")
> [@ballardfam](#): > > \*\* Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World\*\* by Richard Rhodes. Haven’t read this yet but as a EE, I’m familiar with her involvement in the invention of frequency hopping systems and can say that [it’s a fascinating story](http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/nu_lectures/lecture7/hedy/lemarr.htm). I remember her being profiled in IEEE Transactions on Communications a while back. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/38 "2011-12-17T00:03:29Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > [Jon Krakauer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Krakauer) has only written a few books, but they’re all awesome. . I agree and in a similar vein, I can also recommend [Sebastian Junger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Junger), particularly The Perfect Storm, War and Restrepo. All of them were gripping and informative. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/39 "2011-12-17T00:16:12Z")
Have you read Simon Singh? He writes books about math and science, several of which I’ve found very good. I can particularly recommend three of them: [Fermat’s Enigma](http://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-Problem/dp/0385493622/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324080756&sr=1-2) [The Code Book](http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography/dp/0385495323/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324080756&sr=1-1) [Big Bang](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Bang-Origin-Universe-P-S/dp/B003IWYGV6/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324080756&sr=1-3) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265/40 "2011-12-17T00:39:32Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Except that isn’t what the sentence says, it says the Allied War, not the “Allied command under Eisenhower.” And thus minimises everything else up to that point. I’m really not interested in any books about how the USA won World War II pretty much by itself. It’s not only untrue, it’s frankly insulting to the rest of us. Without having read the book, you’re sure assuming a lot about it. Who do you consider participated in the “Allied War”? The book airs all the dirty laundry about poor decision making and bad planning on all sides of the fence. It’s a miracle that the Allies won the damn thing; but of course, if you prefer Amazon reviews to, you know, actually reading the book for yourself, then by all means remain ignorant of the facts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-good-non-fiction/606265.md?page=3)