Best Non fiction books you have read?

The_Kew_Tour

Just looking for suggestions as these type books I like to read

me-skywalker

im not a big Non-fiction reader but my favourite book was recommended by a friend who is an avid non-fiction reader and this is a must if into american culture and politics........

http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Fear-Americans-Afraid-Things/dp/0465014909


and no dont worry about the Michael Moore tendancies it is more balanced than anythign he has written.

buck65

Fermat's Last Theroem - Simon Singh

TskTsk

The Great Bridge or 1776 by David McCullough

mackthefinger

Not sure if you like war books, but you can't go wrong
with anything by Anthony Beevor - Stalingrad, Berlin or
the Spanish Civil war, which I am currently reading.

Has a fantastic way of describing events, giving you an
overview of a complicated situation then zooming in to focus
on events take place on the ground and how they affect the individual
participants. Not unlike Tolstoy in 'War and Peace' in his
ability to describe a battle scene.

The_Kew_Tour

Thanks all for your help:)

mackthefinger wrote: »

Not sure if you like war books, but you can't go wrong
with anything by Anthony Beevor - Stalingrad, Berlin or
the Spanish Civil war, which I am currently reading.

Has a fantastic way of describing events, giving you an
overview of a complicated situation then zooming in to focus
on events take place on the ground and how they affect the individual
participants. Not unlike Tolstoy in 'War and Peace' in his
ability to describe a battle scene.

Yes read Berlin was excellent book (so much so read it twice). Must get others he has out too

Dozen Wicked Words

mackthefinger wrote: »

Not sure if you like war books, but you can't go wrong
with anything by Anthony Beevor - Stalingrad, Berlin or
the Spanish Civil war, which I am currently reading.

Has a fantastic way of describing events, giving you an
overview of a complicated situation then zooming in to focus
on events take place on the ground and how they affect the individual
participants. Not unlike Tolstoy in 'War and Peace' in his
ability to describe a battle scene.

+1 if you like historical non-fiction.

Dades

Cosmos, by Carl Sagan.

Stella777

The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

I don't agree with everything he says, and he tends to be a bit of a doomsdayer, but certainly interesting and his writing style is always colorful.

One of my favorite quotes, I'll have to paraphrase...
"We've become a bunch of overfed clowns living in a hostile cartoon environment."

It's about suburbinization, car depedency, souless architecture, chain stores killing off smaller shops, consumerism, obesity, the environment and lots of other things

Speculator

Easy Way to give up Smoking By Allen Carr

Miss Lockhart

Generally, I don't enjoy non-fiction books but I loved Assasination Vacation by Sarah Vowell - I found it really entertaining and easy to read, and I learned a few things along the way.

BaelNaMblath

SALT is really good. And it has nothing to do with that awful looking angelina travesty coming out in theaters.

ronano

A Peoples Tragedy: A history of the russian revolution

excellent book concerning the russian revolution,what came before and the civil war after

LenaClaire

The Longest Day - Cornelius Ryan (WWII book about D-day)
Madame Secretary - Madeline Albright (autobiography)
Pascal's Wager - James Connor (biography of Pascal)

All are good reads if you are interested in the topics.

gaf1983

Stella777 wrote: »

The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

I don't agree with everything he says, and he tends to be a bit of a doomsdayer, but certainly interesting and his writing style is always colorful.

One of my favorite quotes, I'll have to paraphrase...
"We've become a bunch of overfed clowns living in a hostile cartoon environment."

It's about suburbinization, car depedency, souless architecture, chain stores killing off smaller shops, consumerism, obesity, the environment and lots of other things

I finished The Geography of Nowhere last Autumn, and although I agree with nearly all of Kunstler's arguments, I can't say I really enjoyed the read.
I was recommended this book by someone who said that the suburban sprawl that Kunstler was so critical of in his book, was being replicated in Ireland during the property bubble of the past decade.
Overall, I agree with his central thesis, that a car-orientated planning regime results in ugly, characterless and ultimately dehumanising towns and cities. It was especially interesting to read his book during the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, as many of the issues he hinted in his 1993 book would become major international issues by 2010 have actually come to pass.
My criticisms of the book would be that he does seem to play the same tune throughout, rehashing the same old arguments – I believe the book could have benefited from more ruthless editing. I thought some of the case studies were irrelevant to a wider international audience. I thought his account of his trip to Disneyworld was pointless: there was never any chance that a someone as committed to sustainable planning as Kunstler would have enjoyed such an excursion; the resulting essay was just a tad bit overblown. However, I particularly enjoyed his case studies of the development of Los Angeles, Detroit and Portland.
His concluding Credo has some interesting recommendations; however I don't think quite it made up for the tediousness of the preceding chapters.

Reading Stalin: In the Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore at the moment and think it's brilliant, a real pager-turner, even if there are quite a few names to keep track of. He is a brilliant historian and really paints a full picture of the characters in Stalin's inner circle and conveys the atmosphere of paranoia that pervaded in the USSR during the Purges.

Overall I probably prefer non-fiction to fiction - I certainly seem to read more of the former. Last week I finished Shane Hegarty's The Irish (& Other Foreigners), a popular history of 10,000 years of migration to Ireland, a fascinating and enjoyable book.

Some of my all time favourite non-fiction books include:

• The State of Africa - Martin Meredith
• Hidden Agendas - John Pilger
• The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East - Robert Fisk
• Guns Germs and Steal - Jared Diamond
• The Undercover Economist - Tim Harford
• The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West - Niall Ferguson
• The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order - Parag Khanna
• Foul!: The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals - Andrew Jennings
• Al-Qaeda - Jason Burke

JesseCuster

David Simon - Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

I know I keep harping on about it, but if I ever read a work of non-fiction as good as this I will be pleasantly surprised!

The_Kew_Tour

gaf1983 wrote: »

Al-Qaeda - Jason Burke

Must look into reading this book.

I read his book "On the Road to Kandahar" excellent read

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Kandahar-Travels-Through-Conflict/dp/0141024356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264513189&sr=8-1

scriba

The best non-fiction book I've read in the last while was King Leopold's Ghost - Adam Hochschild - an account of Beligian activities in the Congo in the nineteenth century, best non-fiction book I've read in quite a while. Excellently written, and hard hitting. I would recommend it to anyone.

panda100

The two that impacted my life most and are the most thumbed on my bookshelf are:

'Affluenza' by Oliver James
'The Beauty Myth' by Naomi Wolf

fontanalis

Originally Posted by gaf1983
Al-Qaeda - Jason Burke

adrian280582 wrote: »

Must look into reading this book.

I read his book "On the Road to Kandahar" excellent read

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Kandahar-Travels-Through-Conflict/dp/0141024356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264513189&sr=8-1

Both great reads. I read a great book about Jack the Ripper (actually it's more about the murders and not coming up with nonsesnse theories) called The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Phillip Sugden.
Another good non fiction one I read a good while back was In Harms Way by Doug Stanton; it's about the sinking of the USS Indianopolis in WW2, which was made famous in Jaws by Robert Shaws monologue.
I'd also recommend Cosmos by Carl Sagan and Guns, Gemrs and Steel by Jared Diamond (Collapse is good aswell) which were mentioned already.

Eliot Rosewater

I would actually be quite skeptical of someones choice of their favorite non-fiction book. This is because usually their choice wont be based on the quality of the book, but rather because the book suits their own point of view.

As someone who almost exclusively reads fiction I rarely come across this tendancy, with the major exception (and with the utmost deference to Valmont :pac:) of Ayn Rand. Whilst I would agree with Rand on most things, I don't think her books are written well and I think she is undeserving of any "great" status amongst writers.

BopNiblets

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson was good.

fontanalis

BopNiblets wrote: »

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson was good.

Yes, and it's nearly everything!

toomevara

Where do you start? Here's some of my all time favourite non-fiction reads;

Karl Marx - Francis Wheen.

My War Gone By I Miss It So - Anthony Loyd.

Reformation - Diarmaid McCullough.

Travels With A Tangerine - Tim Mackintosh Smith.

The Buried Soul: How Humans Invented Death - Timothy Taylor

How are We to Live: Peter Singer.

The Art of Travel: Alain de Botton.

The Battle for God: Karen Armstrong.

The Blind Watchmaker: Richard Dawkins.

The End of Faith: Sam Harris.

The Suicide of the West: Richard Koch and Chris Smith.

thusspakeblixa

Two recent Irish non-fiction books I read (featured in my reading log in my sig) were Fintan O'Toole's Ship of Fools and David Lynch's A Divided Paradise. Both were excellent, particularly A Divided Paradise.

Before Christmas I read the latest Richard Dawkins book, The Greatest Show On Earth. I much preferred this one to The God Delusion as it focuses mainly on evolutionary biology.

brumindub

I would recommend "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. It's a very moving book about the last months or so of a terminally ill man's journey and the relationship he re-discovers with one of his ex-pupil's (the author).

sxt

Forgotton Soldier - Guy Sajer


About a man who joiins the German army and fights on the eastern front in World War II , WOW is all I can say about it , An amazing read.

Denerick

On the balance of things I've probably read more non fiction than fiction, and much of that has been excessively dull.

Here is a rundown of my favourite works. Most of them are 'popular' for a reason you know

• Robert Harvey, A Few Bloody Noses (Excellent narrative of the American revolution from a British pov)
• Fearghal Mc Garry, Eoin O Duffy (Excellent biography, in nearly every way. Has a great ability to write about wider issues and very insignificant issues in the same breadth)
• Niall Ferguson, Empire (Puts the British Empire in perspective)
• Michael Hopkinson, Green against Green (Authoritative account of the Irish Civil War)
• Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins (Don't care what anyone says, its a very good biography!)
• Lord Longford, Peace by Ordeal (semi archaic prose, perfect title for a book on the anglo Irish treaty)
• Conor Cruise O Brian, The Great Melody (Fantastic thematic biography of Edmund Burke)
• Tom Holland, Rubicon (This has gotten some criticism as far as I know, but the drama of the fall of the Roman Republic is accounted for with majesterial competance)
• AJP Taylor, Origins of the Second World War (Controversial analysis of the origins of WWII)
• John France, Military history of the first crusade (Exciting)
• Peter Hart, IRA and its enemies in co. Cork (Controversial and probably wrong, but well meant)
• R.B. Mc Dowell, Public Opinion in Ireland, 1750-1800 (Fantastic review of pamphleteering literature in an age of revolution in Ireland)
• Machiavelli, The Prince (multi layered)
• Edmund Burke, Reflections of the Revolution in France (The rallying rhetoric of the philosophy of moderation)

And of Course:

• Stephen Runciman, History of the crusades in 3 volumes (BY FAR my most favourite non fiction read)

Eliot Rosewater

Denerick wrote: »

Niall Ferguson, Empire (Puts the British Empire in perspective)

I'm glad you liked it

My central qualm with it was that I perceived a sense of bias towards the British Empire, particularly in the first and last chapters. I think he was justifying it on the basis of economics or something?

Saying that, it was a year and a half ago when I read it. I still had a bit of the petty Irish nationalism in me and was probably insulted by the pro-Empire stance from my subjective viewpoint. Theres been a lot of growing up since then...

Denerick

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

I'm glad you liked it

My central qualm with it was that I perceived a sense of bias towards the British Empire, particularly in the first and last chapters. I think he was justifying it on the basis of economics or something?

Saying that, it was a year and a half ago when I read it. I still had a bit of the petty Irish nationalism in me and was probably insulted by the pro-Empire stance from my subjective viewpoint. Theres been a lot of growing up since then...

Lol. Thanks for the book by the way!

I liked it because it was controversial. I don't necessarily agree with what he's saying but he does make it intelligable. People like to whinge about the British Empire as an inherently evil thing, but he does a good job of putting it into a sense of economic rationality. In short I would say that I found it interesting without agreeing with him all the way.

Monkeybonkers

Stella777 wrote: »

One of my favorite quotes, I'll have to paraphrase...
"We've become a bunch of overfed clowns living in a hostile cartoon environment."

It's about suburbinization, car depedency, souless architecture, chain stores killing off smaller shops, consumerism, obesity, the environment and lots of other things

gaf1983 wrote: »

His concluding Credo has some interesting recommendations; however I don't think quite it made up for the tediousness of the preceding chapters.

Is it worth a read? I wouldn't be the biggest fan of so-called progress myself so might have a look at this. What did you find tedious, the message or the writing style?

Monkeybonkers

JesseCuster wrote: »

David Simon - Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

I know I keep harping on about it, but if I ever read a work of non-fiction as good as this I will be pleasantly surprised!

Wasn't the HBO series 'The Corner' based on this book.

Kaizer Sosa

He's got another book called the Corner, so I imagine it was based on that. I think he had some involvement in writing the Wire along with George Pelecanos too.

My favourite non fiction books are;

• The Looming Tower: Al Quaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright Such a good account of the history of Al Qaeda and the lead up to 9/11
• Angler: The Shadow Presidency of Dick Cheney This is a fascinating read about a genuinely brilliant man. Very sinister and calculating but you can't help admire his talent and alpha maleness.
• Fiasco I can't recommend this book highly enough for anyone with an interest in what happened in Iraq. There is a sequel out at the minute in hardback. The bungling that took place is like something out of a farce.
• Notable mentions are Tipping Point and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein. I also liked Stupid Whitemen back in the day however, I'm a little more skeptical about Michael Moore these days.

I would love to know has anybody read or indeed enjoyed these books as much as I have!:)

JesseCuster

Monkeybonkers wrote: »

Wasn't the HBO series 'The Corner' based on this book.

I believe The Corner is based on another David Simon book of the same name. I haven't read it but I hear great things about it!

"Homicide" inspired the Homicide: Life on the Street TV series, indeed many of the cases and detectives in the book are also present in the TV show (I am watching Season 1 at the moment and very impressed, it seemed well ahead of its time)

hmmm

The Alan Clark diaries are great if you have an interest in politics. Poignant, appalling and hilarious in equal measure.

Friedman's The World is Flat will get you thinking.

C by John Diamond (ex husband of Nigella Lawson)

Medici Godfathers of the Renaissance is excellent for the first 3/4 of the book but then runs out of steam.

I second the "Berlin" recommendation.

RepublicanEagle

Books.

-Seven Years In Tibet
-The Alchemist
-The Piligrimage
-The Seventh Well
-If Not Now,When?

ian8746

Yes Man Danny Wallace. It is based upon a year of the author's life, in which he chose to say "Yes" to any offers that came his way

Sergeant

Postwar - A History Of Europe Since 1945 (Tony Judt) - An enormous book that touches so many aspects of post war history, the rise of communism, the decline of religion. Dry topics are presented without clogging up the narrative.

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (Brian Greene) - A good layman introduction to some of the more obscure theories surrounding the creation and composition of the universe.

Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob (Dick Lehr) - A journalistic account of corruption that reads like a good thriller.

The_Kew_Tour

JesseCuster wrote: »

David Simon - Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

I know I keep harping on about it, but if I ever read a work of non-fiction as good as this I will be pleasantly surprised!

Just read this book and totally agree, excellent stuff

buck65

This Blinding Absence of Light - Tahar Ben Jelloun

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/jul/24/featuresreviews.guardianreview14

unbelievable book.

Morlar

The one I am re-reading at the moment is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read.

Albert Speer - Inside the Third Reich

His 'cathedral of light' & stage managing of the nuremberg rallies and his incredible logistical feats as minister of armaments as the war came to an end make this very interesting. Along with the fact that he was one of the few senior officials not to be executed. This book was written over the course of 20 yrs in Spandau prison with limited access to outside materials. The book is full of interesting first hand accounts from the top source. He was later villified by jewish advocacy groups & jewish authors and historians in print & the revisionists of his account are thick on the ground but I would highly recommend it.

Bill2673

Interesting question.

Mine are

Russia At War - Alexander Werth
The Brendan Voyage - Tim Severin
Full Tilt - Dervla Murphy
Seven Years in Tibet
Memoir - John McGahern


Somebody mentioned Stalingrad by Antony Beevor; I have read this, it is good, but the book mentioned above is much better IMHO, written in the 1950s by a journalist who was in Moscow during the war, its just fascinating.

Morzadec

Reading an excellent book called 'Risk' by Dan Gardner. Very accessible and describes and explains the irrational culture of fear that we live in today, and the reasons behind many of our irrational judgements.

A very informative and enjoyable read, I'm only halfway through but would highly recommend it

gaf1983

Monkeybonkers wrote: »

Is it worth a read? I wouldn't be the biggest fan of so-called progress myself so might have a look at this. What did you find tedious, the message or the writing style?

Probably the message, in that I had been told what his main arguments were before I read it. Also given that it was written about twenty years ago, it seemed a bit dated. Also, some of the case studies seemed very localised, (or localized) - fine for an American audience, but not necessarily for an Irish readership twenty years later.


Morzadec, I really enjoyed Dan Gardner's Risk too, though he does seem to quote an awful lot from a select number of psychologists - Tversky being one, the others' names escape me, so its not necessarily original work. Nevertheless, I found the book fascinating in parts.

Morzadec

gaf1983 wrote: »

Morzadec, I really enjoyed Dan Gardner's Risk too, though he does seem to quote an awful lot from a select number of psychologists - Tversky being one, the others' names escape me, so its not necessarily original work. Nevertheless, I found the book fascinating in parts.

Yeah Paul Slovic as well I think is probably the one you're thinking of, he seems to be mentioned a lot. I agree this came to my mind as well, but to be honest it's not a subject I'm overly educated about so I don't mind reading about others' work from him. It's also very readable for the layperson - as I said it's a pretty accessible book. I couldn't say for sure but I would imagine a lot of the stuff from Slovic and Tversky would be quite heavy and academic, and I'm sure would be very interesting for sociologists/psychologists but for those with not much background in these fields I think Dan Gardner does a great job of using their information/studies to make easy-to-understand points and observations.

I'm also finding it fascinating. Really exposes the myth of humans as rational beings. And I think through reading it I've definitely developed an awareness of some of my own irrationalities and cognitive biases (I would have always considered myself a rational person).

Gamblers fallacy is definitely a cognotive bias that I'm guilty of! Once lost about 30 euro to a friend on a game of guessing the colour of a random card from a deck of cards. Started off betting just 50 cent or something, and red kept coming out of the deck. It came out 5 times in a row or something and I kept betting black, sure that it was 'due', untill eventually I had a tenner on black... and lost again

mackthefinger

JesseCuster wrote: »

I believe The Corner is based on another David Simon book of the same name. I haven't read it but I hear great things about it!

"Homicide" inspired the Homicide: Life on the Street TV series, indeed many of the cases and detectives in the book are also present in the TV show (I am watching Season 1 at the moment and very impressed, it seemed well ahead of its time)

Have read both; Homicide first, fantastic book where Simon shadows
the homicide unit for a year. Good fun trying to pick out which characters went on to feature in the wire.
Some grim reading but lots of black humour.

'The Corner' is by Burns and Simon and looks at the lives of a couple of families and invididuals in Baltimore.
It's really heartbreaking stuff. But it does make for a riveting read about the lives of those caught up in the middle of a drug ravaged neighbourhood,
most of whom are trying to escape it but haven't the strength to do so. The authors put an amazing amount of work into this book tracking people
over the course of a year. Reading both these, you can see the outline
of the wire taking shape.

hermunkla

The Mayan Prophecies.

AEG

The Rise and Fall of Enron! An insight into corporate greed. Pity the text in the book was miniscule though.

term

New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia - Lutz Kleveman

Published in 2004 and perhaps showings its age just a little, gives a fantastic snapshot of all the "new" countries formed after the break-up of Russia and their relationships with each other, as well as the more established powers.
Each country gets a chapter, and presented in a travelogue style, so easy to dip in and out of.

OxfordComma

I haven't gotten around to reading it myself yet, but I've heard good things about No Logo by Naomi Klein.

Marty McFly

The only type of book i read are non fiction, some of the best ive ive read would have to be:

Welcome to hell by Colin Martin
The Westies by T.J English

and thirdly one of my fovorite books of recent times it really hit me hard and makes yeh think at least i think so would be

This Is For The Mara Salvatrucha by Samuel Logan