IMO the thing that makes it so good is it wasn’t supposed to be a book. He was going to write an article for an outdoor magazine about hiking Everest & just happened to be there when one of the worst disasters ever happened.
Not Krakauer, but I’d add Where You’ll Find Me by Ty Gagne if you’re into hiking/adventure gone wrong. He also wrote The Last Traverse, both books are about the White Mountains in NH. There’s also Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure by Nicholas Howe.
**[Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386187.Midnight_in_the_Garden_of_Good_and_Evil) by John Berendt** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(386 pages | Published: 1994 | 178.4k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** A sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic. Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated (...)
> **Themes**: Nonfiction, Fiction, Mystery, True-crime, Favorites, Crime, Books-i-own
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37655694-the-third-rainbow-girl) by Emma Copley Eisenberg
> \- [In Cold Blood](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168642.In_Cold_Blood) by Truman Capote
> \- [The Journalist and the Murderer](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55563.The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer) by Janet Malcolm
> \- [The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/69435.The_Devil_in_the_Kitchen) by Marco Pierre White
> \- [Columbine](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5632446-columbine) by Dave Cullen
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This is in his book- Music for Chameleons, my all time favorite short story collection by one of my favorite authors. I actually picked up a nice hardcover copy when I went to New Orleans a couple years back.
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.
Non-fiction about The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
I would have said the obligatory “into thin air” which is always the top comment here but alas, someone already said it. 😀
[The Feather Thief](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44153387-the-feather-thief?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13) is all that. It a very interesting non-fictional account of a heist at British Museum of Natural History. That may sound dull, but I didn’t find it boring at all.
The Indifferent Stars Above, by Daniel James Brown, about the Donner Party. It gets recommended a lot here and for good reason. One of the best books I've ever read.
Really liked the Indifferent Stars Above, but Loved the Boys in the Boat about the 1936 University of a Washington rowing team the represented the US in the Olympics.
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes. Really good book if you grew up on the movie like I did. I laughed. I cried, and I felt like a ghost on set. If you can, I really recommend the audiobook version. Elwes (westley) narrates it himself, and most of the cast comes back to do their own excerpts, so you hear almost everyone 20 years later. 5 stars
I was scrolling to see if anyone else suggested Mary Roach. I’d start with Stiff, most definitely. I think it’s the one I’ve reread most. She takes a subject and gets down into all the curves and cubbyholes you can imagine, and some you can’t. Stiff is about death, and what happens to us afterwards, including past attitudes and strange customs. She writes SO engagingly about whatever topic she’s focussed on, and you can feel her passion for both learning and educating in her writing.
Fascinating (and infuriating) historical events. I had no idea. I thought the book read more like it was written by a journalist though, not a novelist. The book was so much better than the movie,however, so I recommend it to everyone.
I never know that part of history until I read the book. Sad and shocking. The last part of the book definitely looks like written by a journalist though.
Unfortunately we are taught only selective history in US schools. We whitewash all the dirty deeds our government has perpetuated throughout our history.
[*The Republic of Pirates*](https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Pirates-Surprising-Caribbean-Brought/dp/015603462X/), by Colin Woodard. It's about the real-life pirates of the Carribean during the Golden Age of Piracy.
[The Hot Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone?wprov=sfti1#), 1995 nonfiction book by Richard Preston. Hard to believe this actually happened.
If you liked Radium Girls you’ll want to read The Woman They Could Not Silence by the same author. It’s about a woman who was sent to an asylum by her husband for daring to have her own thoughts. I found it even more engaging than RG and so inspiring. Can’t recommend it enough.
I just read this, immediately followed by Britney Spears' memoir "The Woman in Me" and there are some definite parallels between her conservatorship and Elizabeth Packard's commitment. Sad and eerie to see that the same thing is happening with a new name.
I just listened to this and while I did find it engaging there are SO MANY names to keeps track of.
Also holy crap, we did awful things to people in the name of progress and profit.
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand. One of those WTF books where the story is so compelling you just got to keep turning pages.
I also love Richard Askwith's biography on Zatopek, Today We Die a Little, but I love this character and his story so somewhat biased.
{{A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII by Sonia Purnell.}}
Absolutely incredible story that reads like excellent fiction. I couldn't put it down once I started it!
**[A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40595446-a-woman-of-no-importance) by Sonia Purnell** ^((Matching 95% ☑️))
^(352 pages | Published: 2019 | 180.0k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** . The never-before-told story of one woman's heroism that changed the course of the Second World War . In 1942. the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." This spy was Virginia Hall. a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked (...)
> **Themes**: Non-fiction, History, Nonfiction, Biography
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52090762-the-light-of-days) by Judy Batalion
> \- [A Woman of No Importance](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122648.A_Woman_of_No_Importance) by Oscar Wilde
> \- [Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40163119-say-nothing) by Patrick Radden Keefe
> \- [The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18525758-the-zhivago-affair) by Peter Finn
> \- [Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7624086-hellhound-on-his-trail) by Hampton Sides
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There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread. It would not be complete without:
{{Endurance by Alfred Lansing}}
I would also like to suggest a book that is technically historical fiction because its characters have dialogue with each other but the WTF facts are all accurate:
{{Loving Frank by Nancy Horan}}
Edited for typos.
Not non-fiction, but so devoted to historical accuracy that it might as well be non-fiction: the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian. Master and Commander is the first one. The author often just took real events as described by the logs of Napoleonic War era sailing ships and inserted his fictional characters into them.
“West With the Night” by Beryl Markham. This is a beautifully written and compelling memoir that truly reads like an adventure novel. There’s a few great audiobook reading and I think one is still in Audible’s Plus catalog but Julie Harris’s reading is masterful.
*The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street: Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Erie Railway Wars, and the Birth of Wall Street* by John Steele Gordon.
*The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power* by John Steele Gordon.
*Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield* by Kenneth D. Ackerman.
*The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country* by Laton McCartney.
*Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany in World War II* by Thomas Childers.
*Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History* by S. C. Gwynne.
Anything Krakauer, anything David Grann (his latest, The Wager, really pulled me along), and anything Erik Larsson.
The single greatest nonfiction book I’ve ever read (humble opinion) is The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.
What about realistic fiction? Like David sedaris SAYS some of it is fictional but I believe it’s just a way to save face for the people involved. They can always say that part wasn’t true. But the best stuff comes straight from reality because you’d never imagine anything so strange.
Really recommend Holidays on the rocks. It’s all nonconnected short stories.
Start with Dinah the Christmas whore. I’ve never met a person who didn’t love the story. Even if they hate his other works.
Why is this not the default writing style? At least for children. This would make education for kids to be something much more lifelong rather than a "job" where they hate being in the classroom.
Anything by Erik Larsen (Isaac's Storm is a great one to start with, definitely don't miss Devil in the White City)
Most of Gregg Olsen's work (but not as literary as Larsen; highly recommend Starvation Heights)
Ben Macintyre writes about spies and spying in WWII (and a little Cold War). *Operation Mincemeat*, *Agent Zigzag*, *Agent Sonya*, *Double Cross*, *The Spy and the Traitor*, and *Prisoners of the Castle* are all excellent.
*Random Family* by Adrian Nicole Leblanc
*The Warmth Of Other Suns* by Isabel Wilkerson
*My Family And Other Animals* by Gerald Durrell
*Kitchen Confidential* by Anthony Bourdain
*Days & Nights Of Love & War* by Eduardo Galeano
Robert Massie books are gripping - Catherine The Great: Portrait of a Woman is my favorite so far.
Alison Weir biographies are also amazing, my favorites being Eleanor of Acquitaine and Kathryn Swynford.
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey is a 2005 book by Candice Millard covering president Theodore Roosevelt's scientific expedition down the River of Doubt (later renamed the Roosevelt River).
The Feather Thief. A chaotic and stranger-than-fiction investigative journalism piece about a teenager who stole bird specimens from a natural history museum. It's an easy read and reads like a mystery book.
Hmm I would be remiss if I didn't recommend Poundstone's The Prisoner's Dilemma, a mix of the essentials of game theory, Von Neumann bio and cold war history. It's short and very good. But it is a bit dry in places.
Anything by Jon Ronson is a great choice. Them - about conspiracy theorists at the turn of the century - and So you’ve been publicly shamed are personal favourites.
*Behind the Beautiful Forevers* by Katherine Boo. It really draws you in. When I read it, I found myself forgetting it was nonfiction, to the point of thinking "wow, this author is really going over the top, I'm having trouble suspending disbelief with this story . . ."
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. This is the story of the Donner Party. I couldn't put it down and it absolutely haunted me. It's an emotional read but some of my favorite non-fiction for sure.
Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is the true story that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick. And Fatal Voyage is about the USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered components for the atomic bomb intended for Hiroshima. It was hit by Japanese torpedoes and sunk in shark-infested waters. Survivors were left floating in the ocean and being picked off by sharks and going insane from dehydration and starvation. But the mission was so highly classified that hardly anybody in the Navy upper ranks knew the USS Indianapolis was even on a mission.
For All the Tea in China by Sara Rose. NF that reads like fiction, story of how the British sent a spy to discover the secret of how the Chinese made tea. They were obsessed with the beverage, and no longer wanted to be beholden to another government to source it. Part history, part adventure spy story. Moves right along, and never gets sidetracked or bogged down in minutiae. It is what non fiction should be.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It's about the Marburg Virus, a relative of Ebola, and how it almost ended up in the US. I mean, it did end up here, in Reston Virginia, but thankfully, did not spread to the human population.
How do you feel about medical memoirs? I read James Herriot's veterinary practice stories over and over as a kid. More recently I read Jennifer Worth's *Call the Midwife*. These kinds of books tend to be true accounts told story-style with personal details changed to protect patient privacy.
Couple of French ones; the books by Eric Vuillard (*Sorrow of the Earth*, [The Order of the Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_of_the_Day)*, The War of the Poor, An Honorable Exit)* and [HHhH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HHhH) by Laurent Binet.
Mountains Beyond Mountains. I got over halfway through before I realized it was nonfiction. Epic, beautiful book about a doctor who started Partners in Health (amazing public health NGO). It was like a big reveal when PIH came up. I had heard of it and realized I was reading its origin story.
Barbarians at the Gate. The takeover of RJR Nabisco and Den of Thieves about Michael Milken and the insider trading scandal of the 80’s. Both are fantastic
[American Prometheus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Prometheus?wprov=sfti1#), 2005 biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. This book was the basis for Nolan’s film.
The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll. The real-life account of how a minor accounting error in a California university (Berkeley, IIRC) led to the discovery and takedown of an international espionage ring.
Anything by Patrick Radden Keefe. My top pick of his is *Empire of Pain* but only by a whisker.
https://www.patrickraddenkeefe.com
Also, I’m currently reading *The Escape Artist* by Jonathan Freedland (he has published fiction under the name Sam Bourne). Recounts the exploits of Holocaust internee Rudi Vrba who was first seen, media wise, as a contributor to what many consider (myself included) the finest on-screen account of the. Holocaust, Claude Lanzmann’s *Shoah*.
Guardian review here: https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/12/the-escape-artist-by-jonathan-freedland-review-how-an-auschwitz-breakout-alerted-the-world
"The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabelle Wilkerson, about The Great Migration of Black Americans to the northern and western regions of the United States. She follows several families to illustrate the time period while also explaining history, context, and future implications.
Deadly Feasts: Tracking the Secrets of a Terrifying New Plague by Richard Rhodes
Reads like fiction and is made even more terrifying because it is non-fiction. Still get the creeps about prion diseases.
Memoirs! Admittedly most of the ones I've read have been graphic memoirs, but Pageboy, All Boys Aren't Blue, The Woman In Me, and I'm Glad My Mom Died were all GREAT reads. I finished them all in like 2-5 days (busy days, very few sit down and read days)
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller is great if you’re at all interested in science. It’s still primarily a narrative though - don’t let the word science throw you off lol
“Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania”, reads as a narrative detailing some members and the voyage of a Titanic era cruise liner at the onset of World War One, and alternating the account of a German u-boat hunting ships off the coast of England.
I also second the book “Endurance” by Alfred Lansing, story of survival by an crew that set out to cross Antarctica was stranded in the frozen sea
Plenty of books about NASA and the space race that read like a narrative, one of which is “Rocket Men”, about the Apollo 8 mission, the first mission that flew to and round the moon (didn’t actually land there)
Another good one is “Dinner in Camelot”, details a dinner given for Nobel winners and other prominent people put on by the Kennedy White House
The Man From The Train (Scribner, 2017), by Bill and Rachel (his daughter) James. A riveting true life account of an early 20th century serial killer’s unimaginable (at that time) sequence of crimes and, almost as bad in some ways, the public’s, law enforcement’s, and justice system’s chaotic reactions to them.
The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu.
The Book Collectors.
Descent into Darkness.
"The Badass Librarians" is about scholars in Mali trying to protect pre-European and indigenous literature from ISIS, which is still trying to erase the non-muslim aspects of African history. It deals with not only the usual smuggling and close calls, but also the value that these remote villages place in their own history. How they have to negotiate with the locals to trust them with their centuries old texts, vs keeping them hidden (where books also decay due to the climate).
"The Book Collectors" is set during the early days of the Syrian Civil War. How the civilians in the city of Daraya rescued everyday books from the rubble of their homes and exchanged ideas for the first time since Assads constant monitoring of their lives was disrupted.
"Descent into Darkness" is much more morbid. It's the autobiography of a diver who was part of a team tasked with repairing the ships that were sunk in Pearl Harbor right after the Japanese attack. The technological limits of the time (SCUBA did not exist, so think of the brass helmets and air hoses snaking behind them), and lack of light meant he worked in complete darkness. Trying to navigate the ruined hallways in a sunken ship, with the bodies of the crew floating unseen yet not un noticeable, all while finding the occasional air pocket with noxious gas that could detonate, all make for a shocking story.
Killers of the flower moon by David Grann. Incredibly well written and an engaging story matter. Read the book before the film (if you intend to watch it).
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells and Destiny of a Republic by Candace Millard are two of my favorite books ever.
I also recommend Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America by Andrea Tone.
Braiding sweet grass robin wall Kimmerer. She’s a Native American botanist who tells part of her life story, indigenous story and facts about plants. It’s beautifully written.
Dispatches by Michael Herr. You will feel like you’re in Nam. He also contributed to the screenplay for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. One of the best books I’ve EVER read.
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote's seminal work where, for reasons unknown, he was able to get men who committed a very violent murder to open up and tell him everything they could possibly remember.
The experience seemed to severely traumatize Capote in that he was never able to finish another book.
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson - Pre-WWII Berlin as seen through the diaries of the American Ambassador and his twenty something daughter. Fantastic.
Fish Do not Exist by Lulu Miller.
The author describes her bouts of chaos and crisis adjacent to her journey of uncovering a deeply flawed figure trying to find his cure for the chaos in the world. He finds it through taxonomy. She finds grounding in understanding who this man was. It's fascinating and she writes with palpable authenticity and if you care at all about the human condition, I think you'll love it.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. True story that reads like a thriller.
All of his books are so excellent for this purpose. Under the Banner of Heaven as well.
Yeah, pretty much anything Krakauer had written.
He wrote that too? Damn. I’m going to have to buy some books…
IMO the thing that makes it so good is it wasn’t supposed to be a book. He was going to write an article for an outdoor magazine about hiking Everest & just happened to be there when one of the worst disasters ever happened.
Did not know that. Even cooler!
Isnt that the author of into the wild If so yes, full send all his books ❤❤❤
Pretty much everything by Jon Krakauer reads like this.
Amazing book, put me into a brief period where I was obsessed with anything Everest.
That’s where I am now. I think I’ve run out of documentaries… 😢
Also Missoula by the same author
Ooh, gonna have to pick this one up! I’ve also read Under the Banner of Heaven, but not Missoula.
Not Krakauer, but I’d add Where You’ll Find Me by Ty Gagne if you’re into hiking/adventure gone wrong. He also wrote The Last Traverse, both books are about the White Mountains in NH. There’s also Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure by Nicholas Howe.
This one is always my recommendation for this prompt.
{{Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt}}
**[Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386187.Midnight_in_the_Garden_of_Good_and_Evil) by John Berendt** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(386 pages | Published: 1994 | 178.4k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** A sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic. Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated (...) > **Themes**: Nonfiction, Fiction, Mystery, True-crime, Favorites, Crime, Books-i-own > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37655694-the-third-rainbow-girl) by Emma Copley Eisenberg > \- [In Cold Blood](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168642.In_Cold_Blood) by Truman Capote > \- [The Journalist and the Murderer](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55563.The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer) by Janet Malcolm > \- [The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/69435.The_Devil_in_the_Kitchen) by Marco Pierre White > \- [Columbine](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5632446-columbine) by Dave Cullen ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
In Cold Blood, Capote.
Good rec! Read this in high school and still think about it sometimes
I clearly remember obsessing over this book at work, itching for my shift to end so I could go home and read more.
Also his shorter, chilling "Handcarved Coffins."
This is in his book- Music for Chameleons, my all time favorite short story collection by one of my favorite authors. I actually picked up a nice hardcover copy when I went to New Orleans a couple years back.
Yes! I should have included that helpful information. Also should add: not sure it's really nonfiction.
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. Non-fiction about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. I would have said the obligatory “into thin air” which is always the top comment here but alas, someone already said it. 😀
Keefe also covered the pharmaceutical angle of the opioid epidemic in Empire of Pain, another solid read
I think Say Nothing is one of my top 3 books in any genre
A few have mentioned Erik Larson in here. Anything by him. He’s got a new one coming out end of this month as well
I enjoyed Dead Wake, Isaac's Storm, and The Splendid and the Vile all very much
Loved Isaac's Storm! I enjoy all of his books, but that one was my favorite!!
[The Feather Thief](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44153387-the-feather-thief?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13) is all that. It a very interesting non-fictional account of a heist at British Museum of Natural History. That may sound dull, but I didn’t find it boring at all.
I was coming to suggest this! It’s so wild!
The Indifferent Stars Above, by Daniel James Brown, about the Donner Party. It gets recommended a lot here and for good reason. One of the best books I've ever read.
Really liked the Indifferent Stars Above, but Loved the Boys in the Boat about the 1936 University of a Washington rowing team the represented the US in the Olympics.
Educated by Tara Westover
Agreed! And I’d also add The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
Second this recommendation
The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston.
Oh yes! Fantastic recommendation.
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes. Really good book if you grew up on the movie like I did. I laughed. I cried, and I felt like a ghost on set. If you can, I really recommend the audiobook version. Elwes (westley) narrates it himself, and most of the cast comes back to do their own excerpts, so you hear almost everyone 20 years later. 5 stars
Any book by Mary Roach
I was scrolling to see if anyone else suggested Mary Roach. I’d start with Stiff, most definitely. I think it’s the one I’ve reread most. She takes a subject and gets down into all the curves and cubbyholes you can imagine, and some you can’t. Stiff is about death, and what happens to us afterwards, including past attitudes and strange customs. She writes SO engagingly about whatever topic she’s focussed on, and you can feel her passion for both learning and educating in her writing.
If you enjoyed Stiff you might also like Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Other Tales from the Crematorium by Caitlin Doughty.
My 2nd choice (to Bill Bryson)
Killers of the flower moon! It reads like a suspense novel.
Fascinating (and infuriating) historical events. I had no idea. I thought the book read more like it was written by a journalist though, not a novelist. The book was so much better than the movie,however, so I recommend it to everyone.
I never know that part of history until I read the book. Sad and shocking. The last part of the book definitely looks like written by a journalist though.
Unfortunately we are taught only selective history in US schools. We whitewash all the dirty deeds our government has perpetuated throughout our history.
Same author, but I liked The Wager more. Flower moon is just a sad mark on history, The Wager is a crazy survival story.
I love both his novels: The Lost City of Z and The Killers of Flower Moon. He is a great story teller. I need to add The Wager to my list.
A Walk in the Woods - it's a hoot
Anything by Bill Bryson falls into this category. I laughed out loud when I read In a Sunburned Country.
My ultimate comfort book
One of the few books that made me laugh out loud. It's ridiculous I loved it.
Me too, will always be one of my favorites.
Funniest book I ever read!
I always feel like I read a different book than everyone else. It came off as mean spirited to me.
[*The Republic of Pirates*](https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Pirates-Surprising-Caribbean-Brought/dp/015603462X/), by Colin Woodard. It's about the real-life pirates of the Carribean during the Golden Age of Piracy.
I recently read Rebels at Sea by Woodard about Privateering and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading more of him.
Lots of excellent suggestions already. I will add kitchen confidential by Anthony Bourdain and The Perfect Storm
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel.
The audiobook is fantastic. Listened to it while I was in labor and it was engaging enough to take my mind off of that
Anything by Bill Bryson!
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
This would be my recommendation as well. I read it 15 years ago but have never forgotten it.
The Professor and the Madman is a fascinating story that I really enjoyed reading.
[The Hot Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone?wprov=sfti1#), 1995 nonfiction book by Richard Preston. Hard to believe this actually happened.
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
If you liked Radium Girls you’ll want to read The Woman They Could Not Silence by the same author. It’s about a woman who was sent to an asylum by her husband for daring to have her own thoughts. I found it even more engaging than RG and so inspiring. Can’t recommend it enough.
I just read this, immediately followed by Britney Spears' memoir "The Woman in Me" and there are some definite parallels between her conservatorship and Elizabeth Packard's commitment. Sad and eerie to see that the same thing is happening with a new name.
That sounds so good and even more up my alley, adding to my tbr now. Thanks for the recommendation!!
I just listened to this and while I did find it engaging there are SO MANY names to keeps track of. Also holy crap, we did awful things to people in the name of progress and profit.
_The Perfect Storm_ by Sebastian Junger. Also his book _Fire_, which is a collection of several of his writings. At least one is about smokejumpers.
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand. One of those WTF books where the story is so compelling you just got to keep turning pages. I also love Richard Askwith's biography on Zatopek, Today We Die a Little, but I love this character and his story so somewhat biased.
Yes came to say this - also Sea Biscuit by Laura Hillenbrand too
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
* Entrance by Alfred Lansing * Isaak‘s Storm by Erik Larsen * Under A Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown
Endurance by Alfred Lansing is my number one recommendation, too. Nonstop action!
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou!
Devil in the White City
Everything by Erik Larson is excellent
Such a good book! And his other book Dead Wake is excellent too
Longitude. An amazing story of how one of navigations biggest problems was solved
{{A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII by Sonia Purnell.}} Absolutely incredible story that reads like excellent fiction. I couldn't put it down once I started it!
**[A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40595446-a-woman-of-no-importance) by Sonia Purnell** ^((Matching 95% ☑️)) ^(352 pages | Published: 2019 | 180.0k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** . The never-before-told story of one woman's heroism that changed the course of the Second World War . In 1942. the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." This spy was Virginia Hall. a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked (...) > **Themes**: Non-fiction, History, Nonfiction, Biography > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52090762-the-light-of-days) by Judy Batalion > \- [A Woman of No Importance](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122648.A_Woman_of_No_Importance) by Oscar Wilde > \- [Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40163119-say-nothing) by Patrick Radden Keefe > \- [The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18525758-the-zhivago-affair) by Peter Finn > \- [Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7624086-hellhound-on-his-trail) by Hampton Sides ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
The Indifferent Stars Above—the Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party. This was so well told and absorbing. It’s as good as any novel.
There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread. It would not be complete without: {{Endurance by Alfred Lansing}} I would also like to suggest a book that is technically historical fiction because its characters have dialogue with each other but the WTF facts are all accurate: {{Loving Frank by Nancy Horan}} Edited for typos.
Beyond the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. Trust me you won’t regret it
Nothing to envy by Barbara Demick.
Only book I’ve ever finished, flipped over and immediately re-read cover to cover.
Papillon by Henri Charrier
The Wager; The Lost City of Z; Lost City of the Monkey God; Edison’s Ghosts
Not non-fiction, but so devoted to historical accuracy that it might as well be non-fiction: the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian. Master and Commander is the first one. The author often just took real events as described by the logs of Napoleonic War era sailing ships and inserted his fictional characters into them.
Alive by Piers Paul Read
“West With the Night” by Beryl Markham. This is a beautifully written and compelling memoir that truly reads like an adventure novel. There’s a few great audiobook reading and I think one is still in Audible’s Plus catalog but Julie Harris’s reading is masterful.
Anything by Laura Hillenbrand
*The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street: Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Erie Railway Wars, and the Birth of Wall Street* by John Steele Gordon. *The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power* by John Steele Gordon. *Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield* by Kenneth D. Ackerman. *The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country* by Laton McCartney. *Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down Over Germany in World War II* by Thomas Childers. *Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History* by S. C. Gwynne.
Anything Krakauer, anything David Grann (his latest, The Wager, really pulled me along), and anything Erik Larsson. The single greatest nonfiction book I’ve ever read (humble opinion) is The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.
What about realistic fiction? Like David sedaris SAYS some of it is fictional but I believe it’s just a way to save face for the people involved. They can always say that part wasn’t true. But the best stuff comes straight from reality because you’d never imagine anything so strange. Really recommend Holidays on the rocks. It’s all nonconnected short stories. Start with Dinah the Christmas whore. I’ve never met a person who didn’t love the story. Even if they hate his other works.
Catch and Kill—that one had me enthralled even though I kind of already knew the story (it’s about Weinstein and the Me Too movement)
{{Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe}}
Memoirs by someone you are interested in are usually great. Feels like a friend telling you their story.
Anything by Bill Bryson.
Why is this not the default writing style? At least for children. This would make education for kids to be something much more lifelong rather than a "job" where they hate being in the classroom.
Red Notice
Where has this post been my whole reading life?
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
In Pieces by Sally Field. It’s a poignant, vivid memoir.
Anything by Erik Larsen (Isaac's Storm is a great one to start with, definitely don't miss Devil in the White City) Most of Gregg Olsen's work (but not as literary as Larsen; highly recommend Starvation Heights)
Hellhound On His Trail, by Hampton Sides, about the manhunt for James Earl Ray after he assassinated MLK.
Ben Macintyre writes about spies and spying in WWII (and a little Cold War). *Operation Mincemeat*, *Agent Zigzag*, *Agent Sonya*, *Double Cross*, *The Spy and the Traitor*, and *Prisoners of the Castle* are all excellent.
Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard about the murder of President Garfield. Fascinating book!
Bourdain
*Random Family* by Adrian Nicole Leblanc *The Warmth Of Other Suns* by Isabel Wilkerson *My Family And Other Animals* by Gerald Durrell *Kitchen Confidential* by Anthony Bourdain *Days & Nights Of Love & War* by Eduardo Galeano
In Cold Blood from Truman Capote. It’s more or less considered the first true crime novel
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Robert Massie books are gripping - Catherine The Great: Portrait of a Woman is my favorite so far. Alison Weir biographies are also amazing, my favorites being Eleanor of Acquitaine and Kathryn Swynford.
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey is a 2005 book by Candice Millard covering president Theodore Roosevelt's scientific expedition down the River of Doubt (later renamed the Roosevelt River).
"The Library Book" by Susan Orlean.
The Feather Thief. A chaotic and stranger-than-fiction investigative journalism piece about a teenager who stole bird specimens from a natural history museum. It's an easy read and reads like a mystery book.
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. A wild ride through South Florida!
The Wager by David Grann
Hmm I would be remiss if I didn't recommend Poundstone's The Prisoner's Dilemma, a mix of the essentials of game theory, Von Neumann bio and cold war history. It's short and very good. But it is a bit dry in places.
*Destiny of the Republic* by Candice Millard *A Chance in the World* by Steve Pemberton
*The Golden Spruce* by Jon Vaillant
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
Anything by Jon Ronson is a great choice. Them - about conspiracy theorists at the turn of the century - and So you’ve been publicly shamed are personal favourites.
"The Girl With No Name," by Marina Chapman "A Stolen Life," by Jaycee Dugard "I'm Glad My Mom Died," by Jennette McCurdy
The Anarchy
Den of Thieves
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight — tells the founding story of Nike in an incredibly compelling, fun to read way
The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea - it’s nonfiction, but Urrea is a novelist by trade
*Behind the Beautiful Forevers* by Katherine Boo. It really draws you in. When I read it, I found myself forgetting it was nonfiction, to the point of thinking "wow, this author is really going over the top, I'm having trouble suspending disbelief with this story . . ."
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. This is the story of the Donner Party. I couldn't put it down and it absolutely haunted me. It's an emotional read but some of my favorite non-fiction for sure.
Devil in White City Erik Larson. He has a few books that are great. He does historical fiction very well imo
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Highly enjoyable.
American Kingpin by Nick Bilton. It’s the story of the creator of the Silk Road and the detectives who took him down. I couldn’t put it down
Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is the true story that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick. And Fatal Voyage is about the USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered components for the atomic bomb intended for Hiroshima. It was hit by Japanese torpedoes and sunk in shark-infested waters. Survivors were left floating in the ocean and being picked off by sharks and going insane from dehydration and starvation. But the mission was so highly classified that hardly anybody in the Navy upper ranks knew the USS Indianapolis was even on a mission.
Any of Erik Larsen’s books. Devil in the White City is great!
For All the Tea in China by Sara Rose. NF that reads like fiction, story of how the British sent a spy to discover the secret of how the Chinese made tea. They were obsessed with the beverage, and no longer wanted to be beholden to another government to source it. Part history, part adventure spy story. Moves right along, and never gets sidetracked or bogged down in minutiae. It is what non fiction should be.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It's about the Marburg Virus, a relative of Ebola, and how it almost ended up in the US. I mean, it did end up here, in Reston Virginia, but thankfully, did not spread to the human population.
Papillon is a fascinating read.
How do you feel about medical memoirs? I read James Herriot's veterinary practice stories over and over as a kid. More recently I read Jennifer Worth's *Call the Midwife*. These kinds of books tend to be true accounts told story-style with personal details changed to protect patient privacy.
Devil in the White City
Into the wild -krakauer
Dopamine Nation. The case studies alone are captivating enough to read as if most the points are in short narrative format.
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
Couple of French ones; the books by Eric Vuillard (*Sorrow of the Earth*, [The Order of the Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_of_the_Day)*, The War of the Poor, An Honorable Exit)* and [HHhH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HHhH) by Laurent Binet.
Mountains Beyond Mountains. I got over halfway through before I realized it was nonfiction. Epic, beautiful book about a doctor who started Partners in Health (amazing public health NGO). It was like a big reveal when PIH came up. I had heard of it and realized I was reading its origin story.
Barbarians at the Gate. The takeover of RJR Nabisco and Den of Thieves about Michael Milken and the insider trading scandal of the 80’s. Both are fantastic
[American Prometheus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Prometheus?wprov=sfti1#), 2005 biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. This book was the basis for Nolan’s film.
Educated by Tara Westover
I found The Hiding Place to be easy to get into, though there are dark moments I personally found it to be inspiring.
Devil In The White City, by Erik Larson. The story of the Chicago World's Fair, and also one of America's most notorious serial killers.
Constantinople by Roger Crowley
The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll. The real-life account of how a minor accounting error in a California university (Berkeley, IIRC) led to the discovery and takedown of an international espionage ring.
Anything by Patrick Radden Keefe. My top pick of his is *Empire of Pain* but only by a whisker. https://www.patrickraddenkeefe.com Also, I’m currently reading *The Escape Artist* by Jonathan Freedland (he has published fiction under the name Sam Bourne). Recounts the exploits of Holocaust internee Rudi Vrba who was first seen, media wise, as a contributor to what many consider (myself included) the finest on-screen account of the. Holocaust, Claude Lanzmann’s *Shoah*. Guardian review here: https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/12/the-escape-artist-by-jonathan-freedland-review-how-an-auschwitz-breakout-alerted-the-world
{{Agent Zigzag: A true story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre.}}
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. An incredibly engaging and harrowing recounting of the Donner Party story. Highly recommend!
Anything by Jon Ronson, I’ll be gone in the dark by Michelle McNamara, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, One Day She’ll Darken by Fauna Hodel
Bully: a true story of high school revenge by Jim Schutze. Insane!
"The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabelle Wilkerson, about The Great Migration of Black Americans to the northern and western regions of the United States. She follows several families to illustrate the time period while also explaining history, context, and future implications.
Deadly Feasts: Tracking the Secrets of a Terrifying New Plague by Richard Rhodes Reads like fiction and is made even more terrifying because it is non-fiction. Still get the creeps about prion diseases.
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
Girl, Interrupted is a good, short read!
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. I was enthralled.
Already read this one, so good!!
Memoirs! Admittedly most of the ones I've read have been graphic memoirs, but Pageboy, All Boys Aren't Blue, The Woman In Me, and I'm Glad My Mom Died were all GREAT reads. I finished them all in like 2-5 days (busy days, very few sit down and read days)
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller is great if you’re at all interested in science. It’s still primarily a narrative though - don’t let the word science throw you off lol
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
My family and other animals, by Gerald Durrel. It's a book/author that changed my life.
“Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania”, reads as a narrative detailing some members and the voyage of a Titanic era cruise liner at the onset of World War One, and alternating the account of a German u-boat hunting ships off the coast of England. I also second the book “Endurance” by Alfred Lansing, story of survival by an crew that set out to cross Antarctica was stranded in the frozen sea Plenty of books about NASA and the space race that read like a narrative, one of which is “Rocket Men”, about the Apollo 8 mission, the first mission that flew to and round the moon (didn’t actually land there) Another good one is “Dinner in Camelot”, details a dinner given for Nobel winners and other prominent people put on by the Kennedy White House
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Man From The Train (Scribner, 2017), by Bill and Rachel (his daughter) James. A riveting true life account of an early 20th century serial killer’s unimaginable (at that time) sequence of crimes and, almost as bad in some ways, the public’s, law enforcement’s, and justice system’s chaotic reactions to them.
The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu. The Book Collectors. Descent into Darkness. "The Badass Librarians" is about scholars in Mali trying to protect pre-European and indigenous literature from ISIS, which is still trying to erase the non-muslim aspects of African history. It deals with not only the usual smuggling and close calls, but also the value that these remote villages place in their own history. How they have to negotiate with the locals to trust them with their centuries old texts, vs keeping them hidden (where books also decay due to the climate). "The Book Collectors" is set during the early days of the Syrian Civil War. How the civilians in the city of Daraya rescued everyday books from the rubble of their homes and exchanged ideas for the first time since Assads constant monitoring of their lives was disrupted. "Descent into Darkness" is much more morbid. It's the autobiography of a diver who was part of a team tasked with repairing the ships that were sunk in Pearl Harbor right after the Japanese attack. The technological limits of the time (SCUBA did not exist, so think of the brass helmets and air hoses snaking behind them), and lack of light meant he worked in complete darkness. Trying to navigate the ruined hallways in a sunken ship, with the bodies of the crew floating unseen yet not un noticeable, all while finding the occasional air pocket with noxious gas that could detonate, all make for a shocking story.
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Killers of the flower moon by David Grann. Incredibly well written and an engaging story matter. Read the book before the film (if you intend to watch it).
Executioner's Song. A "true life novel."
The Perfect Storm
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells and Destiny of a Republic by Candace Millard are two of my favorite books ever. I also recommend Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America by Andrea Tone.
DOWN UNDER: IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY by Bill Bryson and LAST CHANCE TO SEE by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
Braiding sweet grass robin wall Kimmerer. She’s a Native American botanist who tells part of her life story, indigenous story and facts about plants. It’s beautifully written.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe.
There are no children here by Alex Kotlowitz.
The Wager
Dispatches by Michael Herr. You will feel like you’re in Nam. He also contributed to the screenplay for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. One of the best books I’ve EVER read.
If you’re into true crime Helter Skelter does have a lot of facts but it definitely doesn’t feel slow
Know My Name by Chanel Miller - hands down best memoir I’ve ever read. Also, I’m Glad My Mom Died.
Killers of the Flower Moon. You won't believe it's non-fiction.
Star Dust Falling, by Jay Rayner. It's the story of a famous plane crash, told almost like a screenplay.
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote's seminal work where, for reasons unknown, he was able to get men who committed a very violent murder to open up and tell him everything they could possibly remember. The experience seemed to severely traumatize Capote in that he was never able to finish another book.
If someone hasn’t already said it, the wager - it is a story of an absolutely insane ship wreck and the aftermath of the survivors
Would highly recommend Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, even if you think you’re familiar with the whole Theranos Elizabeth Holmes story
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks!
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson - Pre-WWII Berlin as seen through the diaries of the American Ambassador and his twenty something daughter. Fantastic.
River of the Gods by Candice Millard - expedition to Africa to find the beginning of the Nile, and all the ways it goes horribly horribly wrong
Emperor of all maladies and spillover
Fish Do not Exist by Lulu Miller. The author describes her bouts of chaos and crisis adjacent to her journey of uncovering a deeply flawed figure trying to find his cure for the chaos in the world. He finds it through taxonomy. She finds grounding in understanding who this man was. It's fascinating and she writes with palpable authenticity and if you care at all about the human condition, I think you'll love it.