Any recommendations for good non fiction books?

[CaptainWarbeck]

Preferably on kindle so I can read them when getting DC to sleep.

Feel like I haven't read a good book for ages and can't be bothered with fiction. I want to read facts/autobiography/travelogue type of thing.

[OCSockOrphanage]

HTH, Amethyst!

[CaptainWarbeck]

flimp I've been wanting to read Leap In, thanks for reminding me.

[CoteDAzur]

“ I want to read facts/autobiography/travelogue type of thing.”

Miracles of Life - J G Ballard’s brilliant autobiography, starting with his childhood in Shanghai when he was locked up in a Japanese internment camp during WWII.

The Outsider: My Life In Intrigue - Frederick Forsythe (author of The Day The Jackal). Not just an autobiography but also a headfirst dive into many pivotal moments of the last 50 years. Great stuff.

The Worst Journey In The World - Scott’s disastrous Arctic expedition, written by one of its survivors.

Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre’s fantastically detailed book about how allies tricked Germans with documents planted on a corpse in the sea.

Total Recall - Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography. I thought this would be a bit of a laugh and was when it turned out to be an amazingly inspirational story of forward planning and determination. I definitely recommend it.

Born To Run - Journalist travels to Mexico to find an elusive tribe that regularly runs ultra marathons for fun among themselves, without a single running injury. Great book with fascinating insights and a lot of fun to read too, even if you are not a runner.

Confessions Of A Sociopath - M E Thomas. Author is a woman and an officially diagnosed sociopath (previously called ‘psychopath’) and this is her explanation /manifesto of what it’s like to be one. This was a great read.

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer’s account of the disastrous Everest climb of 1996 that killed so many people. Really well-written.

[CoteDAzur]

I also have loads of sciency non-fiction & biography recommendations, if anyone is interested in that sort of stuff.

[LillianGish]

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demik about life in North Korea and Stasiland by Anna Funder about the former GDR. And a Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks about his life as a sheep farmer in the Lake District. All unputdownable.

[Alwaysatyke]

I really love Underground by Haruki Murakami, it's a series of interviews about the sarin gas attacks in Tokyo but it's also a really interesting insight into Japanese working culture and how cults draw people in

[2zooornot2zoo]

Sapiens - can't remember the author off the top of my head!

[Tarahumara]

Hi OP, I like biographies / autobiographies / memoirs and would recommend:

Why be Happy when you Could be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson
The Skeleton Cupboard - Tanya Byron
Wild - Cheryl Strayed
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
Romantic Outlaws: the Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley - Charlotte Gordon
Darkness Visible - William Styron
Einstein: his Life and Universe - Walter Isaacson
Life in a Cold Climate - Laura Thompson (I’m guessing this might appeal given your username!)
The Man Without a Face - Marsha Gessen
Dead Babies and Seaside Towns - Alice Jolly
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys - Viv Albertine
The Strangest Man - Graham Farmelo

Other non fiction I have enjoyed:
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
The Dark Net - Jamie Bartlett
Born to Run - Christopher McDougall
Far From the Tree - Andrew Solomon
The Sports Gene - David Epstein

[flimp]

This is such a great thread. I'm loving Prisoners of Geography now, thank you!

[drspouse]

Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks is an amazing book.
Nothing to Envy
Delusions of Gender is also great.

On my wish list:
Pink Brain Blue Brain
Hamilton (the musical is based on it)
Hidden Figures

[GrimDamnFanjo]

Great recommendations!
A brief history of everyone whoever lived - Andrew Rutherford - DNA, very well written an accessible
The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale
Any of Claire Tomalins books, Pepys is my favourite
Disrupted - Dan Lyons - unbelievable memoir of working in a tech startup.

[CheckpointCharlie2]

My favourites:

Lean in -Sheryl Sandberg - this changed my life!
freakonomics - Steve and Stephen somebody!
The Gift of Fear - Gavin De Beck
El Narco - can't remember the author but it was about Mexican drug cartels, very gruesome but fascinating.

[DoctorTwo]

I'm currently reading Cryptocurrency: the future of money? by Paul Vigna and Michael Casey. So far it hasn't lived up to the title :o

WTF by Robert Peston is a cracking read if you don't mind reading about why MSM totally misread the public wrt Brexit and 'the establishment'.

Next up I have Talking To My Daughter About The Economy-A Brief History Of Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis.

[GhostsToMonsoon]

Strangers Drowning - Voyages to the Brink of Moral Extremity - Larissa MacFarquahar

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - William Kamkwamba

'Nomad' and 'Infidel' - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

The Life Project - Helen Pearson

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari

Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo

Being a Beast - Charles Foster

Feral - George Monbiot

Fingers in the Sparkle Jar - Chris Packham

Anything by Bill Bryson

[flimp]

@CheckpointCharlie2, or anyone else, can I ask, why is Lean In life changing? The blurb isn't giving much away!

[GhostsToMonsoon]

The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls

Mutants - Armand Marie Leroi. (I enjoyed this more than his new one about Aristotle).

City of Thorns - Ben Rawlence.

Born Survivors by Wendy Holden is an amazing book, but wouldn't recommend for when you're settling children (ditto The Girl in the Picture, Denise Chong).

[CheckpointCharlie2]

flimp it gave me loads more confidence in myself and my abilities at work and I have since done some incredible things that I would never have believed I could do without having read it. It has also affected the messages I have given my daughters.

[babybythesea]

I was going to say Bill Bryson but was beaten to it!
I love his "Short History of Nearly Everything" - not only a history of science but the people who were key in it. With loads of random facts. Isaac Newton will forever be the bloke who stuck a needle into his eye socket to see what would happen!
Similarly his book about Shakespeare. I also have one about the history of the home but I haven't read it yet.

Biography - Claire Tomalin is amazing. Her book about Samuel Pepys - The Unequalled Self - is outstanding. Easy to read but so so interesting.

Finally, the comedian Tony Hawkes wrote a couple of books I enjoyed - 'A Piano in the Pyrenees' was enjoyable, as was 'Playing the Moldovans at Tennis', and 'Round Ireland with a Fridge.'

[NomNomNominativeDeterminism]

Another vote for Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography. Really interesting and a very good read.

Also The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, about 20th century music. It’s music, history, politics, philosophy - if it sounds worthy and dull, well it isn’t. Another engaging writer.

[Blogwoman]

Some great suggestions. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been mentioned & I was jumping in to recommend this - fascinating & shocking.
Loved ‘Can Any Mother Help Me?’ - women pre-WW2 who started a correspondence club as young mothers wanting to connect with others & kept it going over decades, sharing their lives with each other, as women do.
Just finished ‘When breath becomes air’ - a young doctor’s search for meaning in life & death, sharpened as he faced terminal cancer. Also (another tough read but so worth it) ‘Being Mortal’ by Atul Gawande.

[BestIsWest]

Some great recs up thread.

I liked the Annie Hawes books about Italy for those who like a series about Brits moving abroad.

[NomNomNominativeDeterminism]

Bridget Christie’s A Book For Her* is fabulous.

• (and Him, If He Can Read)

[Foxjar]

The Glass Castle and A Year of Living Danishly were my favourite non fiction books this year.

[YoungYolandaYorgensen39]

Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime - Val McDiarmid
The Outrun - Amy Liptrott
Adnan's Story - Rabia Chaudry
My Year of Reading Dangerously - Andy Miller
Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo
Bonjour Blanc - Ian Thompson
Zanzibar Chest - Aidan Hartley

[Avebury]

When Breath becomes Air by Paul Kalitha