To ask you to name-drop your favourite non-fiction books?

[Blinketyblink]

Just that really - please and thanks!

I don't know where to start tbh - I read as much non fiction as fiction, and will try anything!
I loved Life on the Edge - totally mind blowing, and Born to Run as previously mentioned.
Other Minds - the octopus and the evolution of intelligence is incredible
I'm currently reading Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell which is very good
The Emperor of all Maladies
Entangled Life - this is about fungi and just full of stuff I didn't know. Fascinating.
Prisoners of Geography
The Silk Roads
Loads and loads more! Will have to check my Kindle for titles
What sort of areas interest you?

Desert flower - Waris Dirie . About a Somali desert nomad girl who flee s and eventually becomes a supermodel.

'Kindred' by Becky Wragg Sykes. Science AND lyricism about the Neanderthals

I love the books of Svetlana Alexievich (not exactly cheerful though)

• voices from Chernobyl
• the last of the Soviets
• the unwomanly face of war

Also, Stasiland by Anna Funder in a similar vibe And if you're in a really good mood, Gulag Archipelago by Soljhenitsyn is absolutely fantastic.

Really enjoyed Seven brief lessons on physics by Carlo Rovelli.

The Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett, really interesting and easy read about what we know (and don't know) about the brain.

A Short History of Disease by Sean Martin, an overview of how civilisation dealt with pandemics over the course of history

The American Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haight, about what's happening now in American campuses.

Chavs by Owen Jones (this one was particulary interesting for me as a EU citizen living in the UK, I had an idea of the class system but not much of the scale)

In terms of self growth, I enjoyed Atomic Habits by James Clear, Start with Why by Simon Sinek, and Make Time by Jake Knapp and another guy.

Got the books of Simon Sebag Montefiore about the Romanovs, Jerusalem and Stalin in my reading list this summer.

Seasons In The Sun by Dominic Sandbrook.

Prisoners Of Geography by Tim Marshall

It will change the way you think about race, help you understand modern day geopolitics, and make you realise how many more layers there are to everything that's going on in the world today. But it's not weighty or boring.

I think everyone should read it!

The Less You Know, The Sounder You Sleep by Juliet Butler. Biography of Russian conjoined twins born under Stalin's Terror regime. Based on interviews with the sisters. Very moving and there's something revealed at the end that I found so beautiful it's stayed with me for years.

Alright that goes in the reading list, Stalinism and conjoined twins, two of my fav topics!

Bounce - Mathew syed - the myth of talent and the power of practice

Daughters of Britannia - Katie Hickman - the lives of diplomatic spouses over the centuries telling the stories of invisible women

A short history of nearly everything- bill Bryson - best basic intro to how physics & chemistry affect everyday life

French revolutions - tim Moore everyday coach potato and journalist cycles the route of the Tour de France

Citizens - Simon schama - story of the French Revolution

Winning! - sir Clive Woodward on how to achieve success and keep it going

Pale rider - the spainish flu epidemic of 1918 - Laura spinney

Becoming - Michelle Obama
Toast - Nigel Slater
Howard's End is on the Landing - Susan Hill
84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
Bad Science- Ben Goldacre
Our Hidden Lives - Simon Garfield
Hons and Rebels - Jessica Mitford
Any Bill Bryson
Any Tim Moore
Any James Lees Milne
Venetian Dreaming - Paula Weideger
Home - Julie Myerson
Driving over Lemons - can't remember the author!

Touching the Void - Joe Simpson

Also
The map that changed the world - Simon Winchester about the first geological map of the uk

Dinosaur hunters by Deborah Cadbury telling the story of the first palaeontologists and the massive rivalries, bullying and skullduggery of Victorian fossil hunting

The Nine Hundred - Heather Dune Macadam (also appears to have been published as 999 the extraordinary true story of the first female transport to Auschwitz, or something)

Born Survivors. Wendy Holden.

Both Holocaust literature. Both amazing. Both about women. Actually any Holocaust books based on true stories are worth a read imo.

Oh, so many. But here’s a few:

Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche

The Devils of Loudon - Huxley

The Kingdom of God is Within You - Tolstoy

Reflections on the Guillotine - Camus

Regarding the Pain of Others - Sontag

Oooh I love this thread!

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
Getting By by Lisa McKenzie
Is It Just Me? by Miranda Hart
Hunger by Roxane Gay
Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig

Another vote for Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

Loving that thread!
Forgot 'Lost Pianos of Siberia' by Sophy Roberts.

@FastFood have you read Stalin's Daughter by Rosemary Sullivan? That was really interesting too.

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck (road trip around America with his dog in a camper van)

Bye Bye Baby by Caroline Sullivan - about a fan completely obsessed with the Bay City Rollers, very funny

Hitler's Furies - about German women during ww2 and how complicit they were in the atrocities.

The Ravine - the author tries to find the truth behind a photo of Jews being murdered by the nazis in the Ukraine during ww2. I'm half way through this and it's fascinating.

Both books by Wendy Lower.

[quote CatNamedEaster]@FastFood have you read Stalin's Daughter by Rosemary Sullivan? That was really interesting too.[/quote]
No, but I'm happily adding it to my reading list!

Barbarian Days
Bury my heart at wounded knee
Among the righteous

The viv Albertine books are great.

A woman in Berlin - really opened my eyes to what the women in Germany endured post ww2. It's a hard read but very well written.

Also Severed: A history of heads lost and heads found by Frances Larson.

I seem to have quite morbid tastes

@Brefugee

arg - forgot my absolute favourite: How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt.

]]

I've just ordered this! Thanks, it looked intriguing.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

And I am very much not interesting in climbing/exploring/macho endurance shit, which shows how brilliantly written this is.