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.

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick is one of the best non-fiction books I've read. It follows the lives of several ordinary North Koreans and shows what day-to-day life was really like under the regime, particularly during the famine years. Fascinating,

Into that darkness- interviews with the commandant of Treblinka. Terrifying and fascinating insight into the banality of evil.

Why does he do that- Lundy Bancroft. Probably my most- recommended book in real life. Still, so many women don't understand the dynamics of abuse- and that they are being abused.

Seconding Wilding by Isabella Tree.

I've just finished Trading Game by Gary Stevenson. The greater part of it is his story of how a working class boy got a job in finance, made his millions and went mad, but just one paragraph crystallised so much of what I've been mulling over for years.

Basically, he comes to the conclusion that the economy will never recover, because so much money is being siphoned out of it by the global super rich, who do not spend it and keep it circulating like normal people do, and that this isn't recognised in conventional economic theory because inequality isn't factored into their equations.

I’ve got The Five, Henrietta Lacks, and Invisible Women, and I haven’t read any of them.

dies of shame

I have read this though and yes it’s brilliant and terrifying.

Bill Bryson is GREAT.

Sounds like Gary Stevenson needs to read some John Maynard Keynes 😂. And there is a unit on poverty and inequality in the Economics A level (I imagine his beef is with the universities though).

I don't think Ed Conway would have that effect. Five Times Faster by Simon Sharpe might: it's about how climate change can be effectively tackled. I liked it because he had a list of practical tips in the back. It was recommended by Kate Raworth, whose similar book Doughnut Economics is also well worth a read.

Another vote for The Psychopath Test by Marc Ronson. Absolutely blew my mind. You'll start looking round at everyone you know and wondering who the secret psychopaths are. An excellent book!

Can I add The Choice, by Edith Eger. It is her autobiography. My favourite line being "There is no hierachy of pain" It is when she is saying that everyone's pain is real and valid to them. You cannot compare your pain with someone elses because you and they have different lives. Everyone's pain is valid.

The Cult of the Fact by Liam Hudson. The book is, as he says, a book about academic psychologists and the visions they pursue, but is nowhere near as dry or narrow as that might seem to imply. It's very elegantly written, and has things to say to almost anyone about what and how we believe, and the idees fixes that can take hold of individuals, professions and whole societies to distort our reason.

Thank you to everyone who mentioned Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. I bought a copy on the strength of the recommendations on here and found it a good and thought-provoking read.

Love Bill Bryson.

Agreeing with Invisible Women, Ultra processed people, Wilding and 4,000 weeks (Meditations for mortals is also good).

Stolen Focus by Johan Hari is an excellent book about how the rise of the smart phone and similar technology has impacted on people's (especially young people's) mental health and freedom.

A blatant breach of the thread rules here (1.recommending another book, sorry not sorry and 2.ive not finished it yet!)

Absent Minds Dr Madeline Pownall

If Invisible Women and The Body Keeps The Score had a lovechild, it would be this book.

Its a book about the work of women in the field of psychology as theorists and as practitioners, and as usual how their contributions have been silenced, lost, or miscredited* to a male.

...edited as fat thumbs hit post not preview.

*I've made up the word miscredited. It works.

Thanks for that recommendation - I've added it to my TBR list, along with four thousand weeks.

I'm going to break the rules as well. I'm halfway through The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and it's a very powerful and sobering read.

Have you read his “The Coddling of the American Mind”? He describes it as “the sequel to The Anxious Generation, that was actually written first.” It’s also very sobering - he has a real way of seeing the threads that run through the data and presenting them accessibly.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57540.The_Ethnic_Cleansing_of_Palestine

Like the OP, Bill Bryson, but Notes from a small Island, funny, informative and just a good read

Not to me.

London Falling - Patrick Radden-Keefe
A Rebel and a Traitor - Rory Carroll If you happen to be interested in Ireland's struggle for independence in the early part of the 20th century.

My latest two non fictions, both compulsive reads.

I thought I knew a lot about women's history until I read this. It's extraordinary, fascinating and having read it once, it's now become a useful reference book.

Normal Women by Philippa Gregory
"Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records to find highway women, beggars and shepherdesses, through newspapers and diaries to find murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The ‘normal women’ you will meet in her pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot. They built our society to be as diverse and varied as the women themselves. They are there in the archives – if you look – and they made our history."

*It should be said that the women who flew spitfires could only fly them between airfields not in battle.

The German War, by Nicholas Stargardt.

It's a history of the Second World War detailing German life under and as Nazis, drawing on letters and diaries and official papers to present a comprehensive picture of citizens and soldiers, officials and SS, churchmen, etc, and their involvement in and experience of that period. It also draws from accounts of the many victims of the Nazis. It is extremely detailed and well written.

On the strength of your recommendations I have listened to audio books of All That She Carried and The Lost Child of Philomena Lee. Couldn’t quite enjoy the style of the latter but both fantastic books, so thank you!