good, legit non-fiction for reading

[OnceUponATime]

Enjoyed any non-fiction recently that hasn't put you to sleep?

Add your favorite NON-fiction books here.  Feel free to add a non-spoiler review.

 

Some lists that already exist:

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-nonfiction/

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/14/100-greatest-non-fiction-books

http://thegreatestbooks.org/nonfiction

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/07/the-15-best-nonfiction-books-of-2015-so-far.html (Thanks Kailash)

[RabbitKM]

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Amazing memoir.

Bossypants by Tina Fey.  Hysterical.

If you're into science, any book by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.  He has a great style of writing and it's easy to read and understand.

The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea.  It is about people crossing the border from Mexico to the US, and the brutal stretch of desert they must pass through in order to do so.  It makes you look at immigration in a new light and it was compellingly written.

[OnceUponATime]

Books from @Mela99's status:

The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes (mitochondrial DNA and how we can trace our ancestry back to particular strains)

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford (Genghis Khan's daughters)

American Plague by Molly Crosby (Yellow fever)

Dr. Mutter's Marvels by Christin O'Keefe Aptowicz (medical biography)

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin (autobiography)

As Nature Made Him (The Boy Who Was Raised a GIrl) by John Colapinto (story of David Reimer)

The Nurses by Alexandra Robbins

Rosemary the Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore (wonder woman and what ideas its writers and artists were trying to share)

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (anthropology - the fate of human societies

Salt by Mark Kurlansky (microhistory)

Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin (Autism autobiography)

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison

The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1959 Clutter murder)

Born To Run by Christopher McDougall (long distance running)

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (race relations/discrimination)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Medical)

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (space travel)
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean (history: periodic table of the elements)
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (cancer)
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (story of Lia Lee)

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons From The Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (President James Garfield)

The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum (how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City)

The Malaria Capers by Robert S. Desowitz (about malaria)

The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin (history of man's search to know his world and himself)

The Year of Living Biblically by Al Jacobs (also "The Know it All" and "Drop Dead Healthy")

"Lucky" by Alice Sebold

"Swing Low: a Memoir" by Miriam Toews

"My Life As Me" by Barry Humphries

The Starvation Experiment by Todd Tucker

Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and American Memory by Anne Sarah Rubin

 

This list is made from the comments written by the following people Khan, Mela99, 16strong, withaj, Maggie Mae, church_of_dog, Chicken bones, EmainMacha, just...sare, lawlifelgtb, purple_summer

[RandomTrivia]

The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel Brown.  This was our local One Read book last year, about the US rowing team in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 

Faith Ed: Teaching Religion in an Age of Intolerance, by Linda Wertheimer

All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenting

Definitely the Henrietta Lacks book, I thought it was very good

For kicks, I read Kitchen Confidential and Travels with Zenobia recently.  Started a biography of Gertrude Bell but ran out of time before the library wanted it back, and I've got a biography of Tesla from the library that I need to read.

[19 cats and counting]

What subjects are you interested in?

Some nonfiction that has kept me up all night (in a good way as I couldn't put the book down) have been the books written by women who escaped the FLDS.  Escape by Carolyn Jessop and Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall.  

(I read mostly non fiction.  I find my next read by typing the book title into Amazon and seeing what else they try to sell me then head to the library).

[NakedKnees]

Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá is a real page turner for me. I also really like The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti... basically, all things human sexuality will keep me reading.

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a pretty impressive take on non-fiction. I loved it, but I've tried recommending it to others who found it boring.

I like a lot of memoirs and consider them similar to non-fiction... Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Tales From the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty is a fun quick read if you're into body/death subject matter. All David Sedaris too.