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

[Blinketyblink]

Just that really - please and thanks!

Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. She was the food critic for the New York times and has written a few books about her experiences and her life - they're brilliant. I heard her on the radio one day and it inspired me to get the book. It is a fascinating read into being a restaurant critic.

Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Wonderful Life by Steven Jay Gould

The Blind Watchmaker Richard Dawkins - heaven knows Dawkins has his flaws but Blind Watchmaker is brilliantly written.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Worth it for the jokes alone, no, really.

The Last Grain Race- Eric Newby
One Summers Grace- Libby Purves
The Roses of No Mans Land - Lyn McDonald
Most books by Bill Bryson, especially Notes from a Small Island and A Walk in the Woods
Erebus - Michael Palin
This is going to Hurt - Adam Kay

London the biography - Peter Ackroyd
Becoming - Michelle Obama
For a bit of Travel adventure anything by Anna Mcnuff or George Mahood

Waterlog by Roger deakin - such a wonderful book - chronicles his journey around the uk wild swimming.

Alan Davies autobiography Just Ignore Him was unbelievably moving and funny and desperately sad

Oh my GOD, yes, London the Biography ilovepixie. Just superb - there was a TV tie-in too iirc.

10% human by Alana Colleen - wonderful transformative book all about the role of our gut microbes.

Also Gut - the inside story of the body’s most underrated organ.

Akala, Natives: Race and class in the ruins of empire.

Sapiens: Youval Noah Harari

‘Blink’ by Malcolm gladwell - makes you think about how you think. Very memorable stuff.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Any Bill Bryson book
Educated by Tara Westover
Lion by Saroo Brierley
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou
Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Why we sleep - Matthew Walker
The chimp paradox - Steve Peters
Prime obsession - John Derbyshire
Being mortal -Atul Gawande

...& another shout out for Touching the Void and This is going to hurt

Bit niche as they are both about Princess Margaret but these are both highly readable:

Ma’am Darling by Craig Brown (P. Margaret as depicted in 99 other autobiographies - v. funny)

Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner

So many.

Round Ireland with a fridge was very funny.

Out of sheer rage by somebody Dyer is hugely enjoyable. It's the book someone wrote while they were trying to avoid writing a biography of DH Lawrence. The procrastination and self sabotage are hilarious. At one point he has a chance to meet someone who knew the writer (hardly anyone alive has) and went scurrying in the opposite direction for no reason other than it felt a bit odd to say hello.

I second An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks.
One of the most fascinating books I have read is Stiff - The curious lives of human cadavers by Mary Roach. It’s all about the different things they use dead bodies for.

Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. It's a wonderful book that I've read 3 times so far

Notting to envy as Pixie said earlier and The Corpse Eaters (similar but about China).

Friday Night Lights (HG Bissinger)
The Glass Castle (Jeanette Walls)
The Shoemaker and his Daughter (Conor O'Clery)
Salvation on Sand Mountain (Denis Covington)
The Summer Book (Tove Jansen)

Great thread!

I choose to live.Its a real life account of a Belgian girl who was kidnapped on her way to school.
She is truly a survivor its well worth a read.

God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens.
London, A Biography: Peter Ackroyd
Eleanor of Aquitaine : Alison Weir
Kings. Queens, Bones and Bastards: David Hilliam
Medieval Lives: Terry Jones
Dear Me: Peter Ustinov
Until Now: William Shatner

Gosh, could go on (and on and on 😂)

Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes (if you live in England)

They Marched Into Sunlight by David Maraniss. It's about what was happening in Vietnam and USA in 1967, it's gripping and moving.

(I’m not sure this is what “name-drop” means, is it?).

Reasons not to die - Matt Haig
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Tricks of the Mind - Derren Brown