Random non-fiction titles

[YesYesAllGood]

Hello,

I'm interested in reading non-fiction on topics I don't necessarily know anything about. Would anyone have recommendations of fascinating books?

Topic is genuinely unimportant (actually, the more obscure the better!) as long as it:

1. Assumes no prior knowledge of the subject and
2. Is written in such an engaging way that anyone could enjoy it?

Thank you!

A selection of very different topics!!

In the footsteps of Mr Kurtz by Michaela Wrong

the trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher hitchens

the five: the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

black sea by neal ascherson

arena: the story of the colosseum by John Pearson

Travels Without my Aunt: In the Footsteps of Graham Greeneby Julia Llewellyn

The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts (travels through Siberia)

East West Street by Philippe Sands (account of how the crime of genocide was legally defined)

The Story of a Life by Konstantin Paustovsky (the autobiography of a man who lived through the First World War and Russian Revolution)

The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow (the men who kicked off the Industrial Revolution)

Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis (his account of the financial crash in 2008 and the battle between Greece and Brussels)

@Dazedandconfusedma
Thank you for recommending King Leopolds Ghost
I ordered it when I saw your post and am a third of the way through and thoroughly engrossed in a book I would never have normally picked up about an event I knew nothing about previously

King Leopolds Ghost is excellent

others I read soon after were on Haiti (Haiti: Duvaliers and Their Legacy by Elizabeth Abbot)

and the Michaela Wrong book I mentioned upthread - in the footsteps of Mr Kurtz

I second Five Women and Wedlock.

I also really enjoyed Stasiland by Anna Funder and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

One of my very favourites ever is very old now - The Reason Why by CV Wedgwood. It's so good though.

A book I am so happy I read years back is Making Sense of he Troubles. It's been updated since.

Oh yes, a long term favourite - probably out of print

Death, Dissection and The Destitute by Ruth Richardson

About the 1832 Anatomy Act - medicine, social history, poor vs rich, beliefs and customs

Judith Flanders’ The Victorian House (a tour around the rooms of a typical middle-class Victorian house, what activities go on in each, meaning completely fascinating accounts of the growth of suburbs, the postal system, women’s dress, meals, courtship, child-rearing, mourning rituals, servants, nursing and ill health, hobbies, laundry, hygiene, weddings, hairstyles etc). She also has a new book on Victorian mourning.

A new one — Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones, a memoir about disability, clever, brilliantly well-written.

Missing Persons by Clair Wills, a family memoir by a London-Irish historian bringing her historian’s sensibility to the unspoken stories of her family in west Cotk.

The Reason Why is by Cecil Woodham Smith, I agree that it is an excellent read though.

CV Wedgwood wrote a two volume history of the English Civil War - The King’s Peace and The King’s War, which are also highly readable.

There is also a more recent book called The Restless Republic by Anna Keay, which deals with what happened after the civil war, also fascinating.

This period (one of my favourites in case you hadn’t realised) is also covered in Antonia Fraser’s The Weaker Vessel, which looks specifically with women’s lives at this turbulent time.

Empire of Pain was fantastic.

Also just finished An Immense World on animal senses and absolutely loved it.

All That Remains - A Life in Death by Professor Sue Black is a very well written explanation of death, what happens to bodies and what they can tell us.

She’s an excellent educator and story teller, and a sensitive writer

prompted a while ago by a thread on FWR about the miners strike i ordered this, which arrived last week. It is stunningly brilliant.

Backbone of the Nation: Mining Communities and the Great Strike of 1984-85 by Robert Gildea
(I wish i knew who had recommended it or which thread because it's bloody brilliant)