Best Non fiction books you have read?

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

Pappy o' daniel

I just finished "Persian fire" by Tom Holland. Great read.

SeekUp

I enjoyed the Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. I'm quite interested in the food we eat, where it comes from, the impact it has on the rest of our world, and the ideologies behind it. It's a well-balanced look at the making of what goes into a single meal, and the fine line between the politics and pleasure of foods . . . something which we encounter several times a day, but probably don't think about very extensively.

finlma

All of Jon Krakauer's books are great reads.

Into Thin Air - an excellent first hand account of a famous failed Everest expedition
Into The Wild - interesting story about a guy who gave up everything to live in the Alaskan wilderness. Turned into a movie by Sean Penn
Under the Banner of Heaven - an account of a murder of a young woman and her child by Mormons who were "ordered by God" to do so and a look into the sordid history of Mormonism.

JimmyOats

finlma wrote: »

All of Jon Krakauer's books are great reads.

Into Thin Air - an excellent first hand account of a famous failed Everest expedition
Into The Wild - interesting story about a guy who gave up everything to live in the Alaskan wilderness. Turned into a movie by Sean Penn
Under the Banner of Heaven - an account of a murder of a young woman and her child by Mormons who were "ordered by God" to do so and a look into the sordid history of Mormonism.

Couldn't agree more. Unfortunately his new book, The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, isn't great. It seemed like a bit of a cut and paste job.

I can recommend The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Reads like a thriller.

sxt

"The Forgotten Soldier"- Guy Sajer - a French citizen from Alsace who served as a foreign volunteer in the German Wehrmacht during World War II, fighting the Russians on the Eastern front in the Grossdeutschland Division.

Morlar

sxt wrote: »

"The Forgotten Soldier"- Guy Sajer - a French citizen from Alsace who served as a foreign volunteer in the German Wehrmacht during World War II, fighting the Russians on the Eastern front in the Grossdeutschland Division.

Absolutely - one of the best war books ever written. They are apparently making a movie of it too.

'Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck' is also excellent though not in the league of Forgotten Soldier.

I'd add to that list Dan Breens 'My Fight for Irish Freedom' & TP Coogans biography of 'Michael Collins'.

El Tarangu

Pappy o' daniel wrote: »

I just finished "Persian fire" by Tom Holland. Great read.

Very good book. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend 'The Spartans' by Paul Cartledge, the two books complement one another very well IMO.

I really liked 'All the Presidents Men'. Even though you know how the story ends, it's still a really gripping account of the Nixon-era realpolitik

Linguo

An Evil Cradling is still my fav non-fiction book, the language and intensity of the whole book is just amazing