Non fiction

[von1471]

I’m in a book slump so think I need to read some non fiction. Can you recommend me a non fiction book please? ( Not a self help book please as I’m too old for those)

Do you like memoirs?

I loved Motherwell by Deborah Orr. It's about growing up in Motherwell near Glasgow and also her relationship with her mother.

Also Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty, beautiful writing.

It's a wide field @von1471. What areas do you like?

You could try looking at some prizes that are awarded for non fiction-that might be a good starting point. You can find the prizes on the Waterstones website or just google literary prizes .

I've recently read a book about insects, one about Philip Larkin and another about Victorian murder. At the moment, I've just finished The Cut Out Girl-told by a relative-of sorts-about a Jewish girl in war time Holland. The author meets her and some of the people involved.

I mostly read fiction but sometimes, a good factual book is what is required

I loved Mudlarking, by Lara Maiklem, H Is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald and Tom Cox’s later books 21st Yokel and Ring The Hill.
Caitlin Doughty writes wittily and sensitively about working in funeral parlors.
Mary Roach is good for popular science.
David Olusoga’s Black And British is beautifully written and densely packed with the history of black experience.

Just remembered Scoff by Peg Vogler. Short chapters looking at various aspects of food and eating, all written in light hearted style but stuffed full of information.

I’m also midway through Motherwell but finding it really hard going.

Yes, I read Mudlarking and enjoyed it. I've been intrigued about mudlarking since reading an article about a Lancashire mudlarker in a magazine before this book came out, so was happy to read more about it.

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. It's the story of a couple's walk along the south west coast path. I loved it.

I loved The Salt Path too. The follow up was good but not as good...how could it be!

I didn't like the Salt Path at all. Even though I knew it was a true story and the author was unlikely to be making it up it just didn't read like a true story to me at all. It sounded really unbelievable. I know, if it had been a boring, believable story then it wouldn't have been worth writing a story about, my reaction to it was just odd.
I recently enjoyed Alan Cumming's autobiography and I read Know My Name by Chanel Miller, an American woman who was sexually assaulted and treated so badly afterwards. The guy was a rich preppy kid with a bright future in swimming, the book was about her though, not him. Amazing woman.

This really is my last post!

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold (sp?) is truly wonderful. The five are the victims of Jack the Ripper but this book doesn't mention him. Instead she looks at the lives of the five victims in order to give them back their individuality and remind us that they were real women with lives,

I also enjoyed The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale, which looks at a woman in the 1930s who says that she is tormented by a ghost. Kate also wrote the amazing Suspicions of Mr Whicher, an in depth look at a Victorian murder and the role of the emerging detective. It's splendid!

I recently enjoyed Sinead O’Connor’s autobiography “Rememberings”. Thoroughly recommend it as her story is fascinating.

I also loved The Salt Path. I read it last summer while we were wild camping Wales and couldn’t put it down.

My all time favourite non-fiction book is Stasiland by Anna Funder, about life in East Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Some harrowing personal stories but fascinating and beautifully written.

At the moment I’m reading Erebus by Michael Palin, which was a birthday present from DH. We watched The Terror and really enjoyed it, and this is about what really happened (and the ships previous journey to the Antarctic) as opposed to the fictional account the TV show was based on.

I really enjoyed unnatural causes by Richard Shepherd and war doctor by David Nott also Bad Blood by John Carrerou, plus another recommendation for Mudlarking.

A brief history of everyone who ever lived by Adam Rutherford is pretty science heavy but a good read if your interested in anthropology.

Older non fiction recommendations are
Into thin air and into the wild both by John kraken
Touching the void by Joe Simpson

@Mrsfrumble

I also loved The Salt Path. I read it last summer while we were wild camping Wales and couldn’t put it down.

My all time favourite non-fiction book is Stasiland by Anna Funder, about life in East Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Some harrowing personal stories but fascinating and beautifully written.

At the moment I’m reading Erebus by Michael Palin, which was a birthday present from DH. We watched The Terror and really enjoyed it, and this is about what really happened (and the ships previous journey to the Antarctic) as opposed to the fictional account the TV show was based on.

I loved Stasiland too. I've had a bit of an obsession with East Germany ever since visiting Berlin in 1988 before the fall of the Wall.

I'm currently reading House of Glass by Hadley Freeman which is about her Jewish family's experience of 20th century Europe.

The World I Fell Out Of - Melanie Reid
Afloat - Danie Couchman
The Cut Out Girl - Bart Van Es

I second the recommendation of The Five, an excellent book that gives the Ripper’s victims some dignity and value as real women in their own right. It’s particularly good if you enjoy social history.

There’s a very moving book about 9/11 which I read a little while ago, called The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff. It’s a collection of oral testimonies from people involved; everyone from individuals trapped in the towers to emergency workers, bereaved family members, presidential aides, staff at the Pentagon, air traffic controllers...the whole spectrum. It’s not an easy read, I was in tears at some points, but I felt better for having read it, if that makes sense.

I also loved the Salt Path .

The Tent , the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy is a v funny account of her family camping holidays in the 70s. Incidentally, DH starting reading it and gave up on it as he felt it was made up, much like knitwit and the Salt Path. Both seemed pretty authentic to me.

Bill Bryson's books are good , I've recently read a Walk in the Woods. If you're interested in science and sociology The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks is fascinating.