Non fiction recommendations please

[Fattoushka]

I am happy to read mostly anything but enjoy something a bit thought provoking or domestic type thrillers.
I hardly ever buy/pick up non fiction so would like to step out of my comfort zone a bit, some autobiographies would be great.
What have you read that you would recommend?

You might like Kerry Daines book The Dark Side of the Mind about her work as a forensic psychologist.

Hallie Rubenfold's book The Five about the lives (not the deaths!) of the women killed by Jack the Ripper is fascinating.

Autobiography - I really enjoyed Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner

And also The World I Fell Out Of by Melanie Reid

Educated by Tara Westover is excellent.

I much prefer non fiction.
Books I've enjoyed are

Wild swans
Testament of youth
A woman in Berlin
Stasiland
Anzac girls
The 6 wives of Henry the eighth

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

Thank you, I will add those to my list
I did read This is going to hurt by Adam Kay when it first came out so I think I’d like The Dark side of the mind

Currently reading Limitless by Tim Peake (autobiography)

If youd like some easy reading, with a few laughs thrown in check out "Motherhood... wingin' it! In my Pj's" here is the link ... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08NF1RC8H/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_uVo7FbZHFYQQC?tag=mumsnetforu03-21 hope you enjoy! Its my first ever published book! Xx

House of glass by Hadley freeman, a memoir following her grandmother and her siblings from their childhood in Poland through to Paris and eventually America- a fascinating and illuminating family history full of personality but also very thought provoking about immigration, multiculturalism and anti semitism, still such contemporary issues. My top read of the year.

Thanks all I am noting all of these down
Wow well done Cara

Second The World I Fell Out of - Melanie Reid

Also
Unnatural Causes - Richard Shephard
The Cut Out Girl - Bart Van Es (currently 99p on Kindle)
The Choice - Edith Egar
Afloat - Danie Couchman

Also recommend The Five, Stasiland, and A Woman in Berlin (real life of an anonymous woman who lived through the fall of Berlin at the end of WW2).
Also in a similar vein, Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick ( real stories of people who have escaped from North Korea, utterly gripping but pretty grim), Wild by Cheryl strayed, Leviathan by Philip Hoare (about whales), and my absolute favourite, Tracks by Robyn Davidson (she crossed Australia alone with camels )

Maya Angelou I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings fascinating and tragic

Random Family. True story about drug dealers and their families in the Bronx in the 1980s and 90s. Not very cheerful but a riveting read. It was recommended on here on an AMA thread about someone who lived with a big time drug dealer. It was really interesting

Non Fiction :

Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Enlightening and topical about racial construct issues in the UK

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

A large US family receives multiple diagnoses of schizophrenia devastating a generation.

Love Child by Allegra Huston

Allegra, sister of Anjelica, is raised by the film director John Huston unaware she is the love child of her late mother a ballerina and a British viscount.

Catch And Kill by Ronan Farrow

Journalist Farrow attempts to expose Harvey Weinstein and finds himself under surveillance.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Heard of Hamilton : The Musical? This is the book.

Lady In Waiting by Anne Glenconner

Memoir of Princess Margaret's best friend who had a full life of her own.

A Woman Of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

Biography of Virginia Hall an unsung WW2 spy. Amazing. Really well written. Anger inducing.

Kick by Paula Byrne

Biography of John F Kennedy's sister Kathleen who was interesting in her own right.

Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Self explanatory

The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk

The link between physical unwellness and mental health

Another Day In The Death Of America by Gary Younge

A 24 hour picture of underage gun deaths

Rough Magic by Lara Prior Palmer

A young woman participates in the worlds hardest horse race.

First Lady by Sonia Purnell

Biography of Clementine Churchill. Again, really well written.

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine

Authors memoir of her life in music. Amazing. SO entertaining.

Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey

An examination of the issues and misconceptions faced by Britain's overlooked underclass

Mrs Jordan's Profession by Clare Tomalin

A biography of Dora Jordan, King William IV mistress by whom he had 10 children and never married.

Noble Savages by Sarah Watling

Biography of the Olivier sisters who were Fabians and part of the Bloomsbury set.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Autobiographic perfection

No Place To Hide by Glenn Greenwald

The Snowden Whistleblowing Affair

Mindfuck by Christopher Wylie

Absolutely fucking terrifying. A must read.
The scary truth about Cambridge Analytica

To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine

A deep and affecting look at her parents marriage.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Self explanatory

Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne

Memoir by the actor. Really well written

Becoming by Michelle Obama is well worth the read

Also American Kingpin if you're into true crime. Totally gripping!

'Bury my heart at Wounded Knee" - heartbreaking though.
Very unexpectedly, I really enjoyed "Barbarian Days".

The Feather Thief. SO compelling!

Thanks All!
Eine I had just copied and pasted your list from the books read in 2020 thread as some of your fiction books I’d previously read/have in my shopping basket

Thank you @Fattoushka 😘

Hi everyone, I would like an answer from Mumsnet about why I can't post about my book on Mumsnet on topics where people are asking info about books. How does that violate rules? If users are asking for tips on books, I cannot suggest a book I wrote? Or the problem is that I am being reported because the book is about radical feminism?

Mention of The Dark Side of the Mind makes me think of Written in Bone, by a forensic anthropologist/anatomist. Excellent and fascinating. She's written another too, the title of which eludes me.

Good nature writing/memoir crossovers if that's your bag: The Salt Path, by a woman who with her unwell husband walked the South West Coast Path after they lost their house and business; and H is For Hawk, Helen Macdonald, about training a goshawk while working through grief.