Recommend me some brilliant non fiction books

DMcL1971

weldoninhio wrote: »

The Ice Man by Philip Carlo. Excellent book about one of the most notorious serial killers in the US. Don't watch the recent movie, its awful.

I agree on both accounts. An excellent book but a dreadful movie. You really understand what a psychopath is after reading this book.

Swiper the fox

If the OP is as interested in tennis as his name suggests then the Agassi autobiography "Open" is a fabulous read. I'm just about to finish The Secret Race about doping in cycling, fantastic book. Non-fiction is so broad though that a bit more info on interests etc might be useful, I've read quite a few of the books mentioned so far and some I've enjoyed while others have been rubbish (not to my taste obviously)

Manach

The Righteous Mind -
by Jon Haidt

Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World
by Jack Goldsmith

Jimmy Iovine

Playing for Keeps - Michael Jordan and the World He Made

One of the most addictive books I've read. You would have to have an interest and knowledge of some of the players from the late '80s and mid to late '90s.

lynski

The cuckoos egg by cliff stoll, excellent story about tracking hackers per-internet.

Diving bell and the butterfly Book by Jean-Dominique Bauby - locked in syndrome account.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs excellent book

Ryder

The lost city of z. A story about an 19th century attempted to find a supposed lost Amazonian empire
Any Malcolm Gladwell book
Lawrence in Arabia. A semi biography of Lawrence set within the wider context of WW1
A voyage for madmen. Fantastic story about the first round the world yacht race

MRnotlob606

The motor cycle diaries by Che Guevara
The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain De Botton
30 Second Politics by Steven L Taylor

wolfeye

Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden.

Sold -Zana Muhsen.

Defeat Of The wolf packs -Geoffrey Jones.

weldoninhio

DMcL1971 wrote: »

I agree on both accounts. An excellent book but a dreadful movie. You really understand what a psychopath is after reading this book.

I'm reading Philip Carlos book, The Killer Within, at the moment. While doing research on The Ice Man he found out he had ALS, a form of motor neueron disease, Mickey Rourke wanted to make the Ice Man movie, not sure what happened, but i hope someone still has the rights to the movie version of the book. Rourke reckoned that it would be his Raging Bull.

The Killer Within is a great book so far too, I like Carlos style of writing. Gaspipe, Ice Man and The Butcher are all brilliantly written books.

weldoninhio

MRnotlob606 wrote: »

The motor cycle diaries by Che Guevara
The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain De Botton
30 Second Politics by Steven L Taylor

I found The Motorcycle Diaries pretty boring. I must give it another go.

cmbutterfly45

Mans search for meaning - victor frankl

Short enough story about him being in a concentration camp but told from the side of hopefulness, amazing outlook on life.

Dibble

Moab is my Washpot - Stephen Fry (autobiography)

BlutendeRabe

Dravokivich wrote: »

The Bible.

King James version, to be specific.

Also:
1) Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre
2) Amexica: War Along the Borderline by Ed Vulliamy

First Up

ScienceNerd wrote: »

A short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

Anything by Bill Bryson. They are all gems.

Wailin

2smiggy wrote: »

The damage done - warren fellows , aussie in thai jail for drug trafficking , great read

+1 on this, a great read.

Dozen Wicked Words

Woody Guthrie: A life by Joe Klein is a fantastic biography of the American folk singer. Very moving, particularly towards the end with Woody battling the effects of Huntingdons disease.

Keedowah

Having a look at my Goodreads, these are some that i rated highly.

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation - Jon Gertner
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer (Not Into the Wild!!)
Pryor Convictions and other Sentences - Richard Pryor
Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night - Doug Hill
Dreams of iron and Men: Sevin Wonders of the Modern Age... - Deborah Cadbury
Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade - Robert Sabbag
Masters of Doom: How two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture - David Kushner Loved this book!
In the heart of The Sea - Nathaniel Phillbrick
The Code Book & Fermats Last Theorum - Simon Singh
Marching Powder - Thomas McFadden
Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal - Mary Roach
Anything from Bill Bryson

jgarry28

I would recommend any Bill Bryson book

Michael J Fox's autobiography is an excellent read

Catch me if you can - Frank Abignail

Peter Mul

The Rocky Road, By Eamonn Dunphy.. seriously. A very interesting social and political, and sometimes football, history of Dublin and Ireland in the 70's and 80's...

Aenaes

Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles by Paul Lieberman.

Just after WW2, the LAPD wants to crack down on organised crime. They create the "Gangster Squad" which starts off as 8 men tasked with bringing down Mickey Cohen, a supposed leading "mob boss". The writing style isn't the best and it struggles to flow at times but the book seems to be adapted from newspaper articles so perhaps that is why. However, it's an honest account of how some ordinary men were tasked with bringing down a seemingly untouchable figure using almost any means necessary, including illegal wiretaps.

BurnsCarpenter

2 of my favourite books from the last few years:

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin - about Lincoln and his cabinet. Uh, the other politicians he worked with in government that is, as opposed to a piece of furniture he really liked.

The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker - fascinating look at how violence has declined over the years (contrary to what a lot of people think), and the reasons why this is. He's got some great books on psychology as well.

MagicMarker

I enjoyed Team of Rivals up to the point that Lincoln becomes president, not quite so much after that.

Jimmy Iovine

I've only read the first half of Team of Rivals but it was fantastic. Lincoln is one of the most interesting people dead or alive. As important as Chase and Seward were to the race and to the subsequent government, I felt some of their parts dragged in comparison to Lincoln's.

I've also read the first half of Bill Clinton's autobiography - My Life. His early life is fascinating. I loved reading about his college years. I wish more pages were devoted to it in the book, especially the time he spent as a Rhodes Scholar.

I bought First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong a while back but have yet to get around to reading it. It says on the cover that it is the 'first authorised biography'. He was a very private man. I've heard good things about it.

I'm sure you can spot a pattern in my reading now, though. I buy and/or attempt to read 'heavy' books and it takes so long due to other commitments that I run out of steam.

cloudatlas

'Mortality' by Christopher Hitchens

Reiver

Not usually a fan of war memoirs but "Quartered Safe Out Here" by George MacDonald Fraser was one of the best books I've ever read about WW2. I'd read his fiction (the Flashman series) but this was something altogether different. Never realized he'd served in Burma during the last year of the war, its definitely left his mark on him and explains his blunt way of writing.

I can't do it justice, him fighting in the last land campaign of the war as the sole Scot amongst a section of eccentric Cumbrian Borderers is just well worth a read. Its funny, poignant, brutal and entertaining in every regard. Even if war isn't a favourite topic, try it out.

Ulmus

Life and death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng. One of many excellent memoirs about the cruelty of Mao's Cultural Revolution
The naked island (1952) by Russell Braddon. Prisoner of war memoir. Worth tracking down.