What’s the best non fiction book you’ve read ?

[Dayrider]

In the last year and/or ever?
Looking for inspiration

Skyfaring is brilliant. It's about becoming and then working as an airline pilot. It's fascinating, and also beautifully and poetically written.

Justice, by Michael Sandel
Pretty much anything by Bill Bryson
Six Wives, by David Starkey (though I have problems with his political views)
How to make the World Add Up, by Tim Harford.

Michael Pollan: How to Change Your Mind.

Incredibly interesting, balanced, rational discussion of LSD (and other psychedelics). He covers the history, the psychology, the philosophy, and social implications.

I hadn't been a big fan of non-fiction popular books but this one, err, really changed my mind.

Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody - a woman who has to escape from her abusive husband in 1980s Iran.

Escape by Carolyn Jessop - about a woman escaping from the FLDS cult in America.

Both of these books are gripping and very well written. I can totally recommend them.

The immortal life of Henrietta Lack

The diving bell and the butterfly

Not sure about "the best" but the three below were easy to read, of relevance to everyone, and changed my worldview a lot.

Invisible women - Caroline criado perez
Factfulness - hans rosling
The secret barrister books

I also like books about roman history and forensic investigations/criminal profiling but that might be a bit more niche depending on what your interests are!

Rewilding by isabella tree. Although I am reading entangled life atm and that might beat it.

History-wise Mary Beard's spqr is great

I enjoyed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
And Becoming by Michelle Obama

Another vote for Michelle Obama and I also loved Parting Words: 9 Lessons for a Remarkable Life by Benjamin Ferencz (look him up, he is extraordinary).

London by Peter Ackroyd. That book has stayed with me

English Pastoral by James Rebanks
Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert & Kath Green
Also love Mary Beard

Sapiens
Outliers
Stasiland
Thinking, Fast and Slow

I pretty much only read non-fiction. Some notables recently, (can’t remember authors, sorry!)
Sapiens = very good and thought provoking. Did really not like the 2nd book, Deus.
The Vaccine Race
Human Kind (Rutger something)

Katharine Graham’s autobiography, she was the publisher of the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal.

Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Educated by Tara Westover
also Sapiens which several others have mentioned

Renas Promise : A story of sisters in Auschwitz

I’ve read this book loads of times and recommend it to friends who also loved it. The horrors she endured in Auschwitz were awful but her love for her sister kept her going. It’s not as gruesome as some holocaust books ive read, I found it quite life affirming actually. I always read it when I’m feeling sorry for myself, puts my problems into perspective.

The Common Years by Jilly Cooper. Especially if you like dogs or Putney Common! I maintain she was doing brilliant 'nature writing' before all those other people with their hawks and rewilding got in on the act.

Thinking, Fast and Slow
Invisible Women
With the End in Mind
This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health
Born to Run

Unnatural causes by Richard shepherd. He was an eminent home office pathologist. Not gory but a very thought provoking read. He was involved a a lot of big disasters and his analysis of them is very interesting.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is fascinating

If This is a Man by Primo Levi - harrowing but powerful

Being Mortal

The Secret Barrister

There are a series of books about London’s history by Catherine Arnold. Necropolis is about how the city has managed the dead. I can’t remember the names of the other two, but the second is about how it has dealt with the mad and the last one is about the sex trade. Absolutely fascinating books that sent me nosing around very obscure bits of London.

Other ones, I like Antonia Fraser’s historical bios, esp the female centred ones. Her history of Marie Antoinette is fascinating and a completely different slant on the traditional view.

Eve Was Framed by Helena Kennedy is excellent though now a little out of date (though you may throw it at the wall in a fury!)

And years ago I read one of my Dad’s about the Vulcan bombers attack on the Port Stanley runway which was brilliant. Can’t for the life of me tell you anything about the name or author, but there can’t imagine there more than one if you look on Amazon.

The only plane in the sky - an oral history of 9/11

It's very emotional though.

SPQR - Mary Beard
Any of the Time Traveller's Guide to....series by Ian Mortimer
The Book of Nothing - John D Barrow

White Mughals by William Dalrymple.

A great read for anyone interested in the early history of the British in India, but a great human story too from an author who really knows his stuff about India.

Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins