What one non-fiction book would you love people to read?

[Yourinmyspot]

Mine is The Body by Bill Bryson. I found it fascinating and some of the facts in it are amazing, my favourite being the following.

’Every time you breathe, you exhale 25 sextillion molecules of oxygen- so many that with a day’s breathing you will in all likelihood inhale at least one molecule from the breaths of every person that has ever lived. And every person who lives from now until the sun burns out will from time to time breathe in a bit of you. At the atomic level we are in a sense eternal’.

I find that fact fascinating and oddly comforting.

Invisible Women. I think it's one of th most important books published in the 21st century

Peter ackroyd London. Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire. Debs at War. Yeah that’s 3.

Came here to say Invisible Women too!

Could people elaborate a little on their recommendations? Saves me googling every single title, lol.

If this is a Man by Primo Levi

The Female Eunuch - Gemaine Greer

The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism by Naoki Higashida.
As a mother of a non verbal, severly autistic son, it gave me some possible clues on what my boy might be thinking or experiencing, though I will never know for sure.

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Upvote for Invisible Women

mine are fairly self explanatory I think.

Round About A Pound A Week, Maud Pember Reeves.

A project at the start of the 20th century in London, with very poor working families, looking in detail at their spending and lives.

A very English Scandal by John Preston. About the Jeremy Thorpe scandal.

Makes you realise that politics was a shitshow back then just as much as now.

Another shout out for Invisible Women. It's an absolute eye opener - you will never see the world in the same way again.

Yes to Invisible Woman. It should be required reading in high school for ALL chidlren. Boys and girls.

I was going to say Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything which is the most interesting book you’ll ever read. It’s a book to put into the hands of every intelligent young person. Carol Sagan’s Cosmos comes a close second.

My all-time favourite non-fiction books:

Robert Graves: Goodbye to all That
Patrick Fermor: A Time of Gifts
Bertrand Russell: Autobiography
Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own
Harold Bloom: Shakespeare, the Invention of the Human
Peter Ackroyd’s: William Blake
Claire Tomalin: Biography of Thomas Hardy

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. As relevant today as it was when written and should be on the school syllabus.

Oooh fab thread....

Oops sorry - that’s a fictional book.

I’d also recommend Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-aged Women by Victoria Smith

There are tons Holocaust survivor books that everyone should read at least 1 of. I think my top 3 are
Primo Levi - If This Is a Man
Elie Wiesel - Night
Eva Schloss - Eva's Story

But also
Fauziya Kassindja - Do They Hear You When You Cry.
The true story of a young woman fleeing from arranged marriage and FGM. Her case changed US law.

I would like people to read “Why We Eat (Too Much) by Dr Andrew Jenkinson. Indeed if I was in charge of MN no-one would be allowed to post on weight loss/mounjaro threads until they have read it 🤣

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - v v poor black woman has her cancer cells taken and sequenced (without her consent). Those cells were the first to continue multiplying when outside the human body and are today worth a fortune and still used in cancer research and treatment.

This is a rollicking good read

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. Written by a USA journalist who lived in Germany in the thirties and during the first few years of WW2, till he was expelled.
It's a long book but surprisingly readable and explains why Hitler couldn't be appeased. It also presents a true picture of what life was like under a fascist government. The word fascist is thrown about as a random insult nowadays, mainly by people who fortunately haven't a clue what a real fascist government does to its people. The book also highlights the utter misery that millions of ordinary people suffered both as soldiers and civilians due to evil power hungry leaders.

One is Fun by Delia Smith. A cookbook that got me cooking for myself in my 20s and I still cook the recipes now, doubling up the quantities.