Nonfiction November discussion

Hi everyone! I'm very curious to hear about all of your favorite nonfiction books - which ones hit you hard, stuck with you, or even changed you life?

I have a ton of favorites and I feel like I add on to my list every year!

But some of mine include:
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

my favorites are
The Field House: A Writer's Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
Braiding Sweetgrass
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss
H is for Hawk

Some of mine include:
The Year of Lear
An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis
The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis
The War Diary and Memorials to Court by Admiral Yi Sun-sin
The Debate of the Romance of the Rose by Christine de Pizan and others
The Book of the Deeds and Arms of Chivalry by Christine de Pizan
H is for Hawk
and many others as well, but these are the first books which come to mind.

Some of mine over the past decade include
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
A People's History of the United States
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger's Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare's First Folio
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

Biographies and memoirs
Billy Joel by Fred Schruers
Finding Me by Viola Davis
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero by Kate Clifford Larson
Patti LuPone: A Memoir

A couple of my favorite nonfictions from last year are:
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body

The Anthropocene Reviewed

My nonfiction favorites tend to be political, but here's a bit of a mix, including some popular science and writing on writing, all in a jumble:
Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell
We Are Not Afraid, Seth Cagin and Philip Dray
Hypatia's Heritage, Margaret Alec
Language of the Night, Ursula K. Le Guin
History of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky
My Life, Leon Trotsky
Capital, Karl Marx
Letters from Prison, James P. Cannon
Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobell
Life of the Cosmos, Lee Smolin
Einstein in Love, Dennis Overbye
Cosmos, Carl Sagan
Revolution, She Wrote, Clara Fraser
The Making of Black Revolutionaries, James Forman
Eaarth, Bill McKibben
At the Dark End of the Street, Danielle L. McGuire
Personal Politics, Sara Evans
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Frederick Engels
The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

Tough to narrow down, as I mainly read nonfiction. So, In no particular order:

Maus I
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee
Finding the Mother Tree
John Adams
Quiet: The Power of Introverts…
The Perfect Storm
Into Thin Air

And random ones I could not put down:

Stranger in the Woods (Finkel)
The Wave (Casey)
Born to Run

It's a challenge when it comes for books to be added to my favorites list. I usually go based on a gut instinct. Something that directly speaks to me on a level that I can't quite grasp.

That said, there have been very few.

My all-time favorite nonfiction is:


Into the Wild

Other favorites include:


Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking


Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament

2022 favorites:


Fire and Flood: A People's History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present


How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America

Rch wrote: The Perfect Storm

I really like this one too. It's been a while since I read it but the author did a good job with it.

For me:
Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield - anyone who argues women aren’t in combat need to read this

Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army - we hear a lot about US military but not other countries

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty - if you want an understanding of the opioid epidemic and how it came to be

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream - interesting NF about Chinese illegal immigration

Like Ron, this is based on my gut instinct.

The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of World War II

Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free

The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone

Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World

A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Some of my favourites:

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley

The Madman's Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History

How to Be a Victorian

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome

Apology

The Book of My Lives

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank the Irishman Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood

My favorite three
1. Lab Girl.
2. Running with Sherman
3. Braiding Sweetgrass

Sherri wrote: "My favorite three
1. Lab Girl.
2. Running with Sherman
3. Braiding Sweetgrass"

I loved Lab Girl and Running with Sherman. It seems our tastes align, so I should probably read Braiding Sweetgrass.

So many. Off the top of my head, in no particular order:

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
Educated
Know My Name
Crying in H Mart
In Cold Blood
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
Just Kids
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
In a Sunburned Country
84, Charing Cross Road

Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton (first to pop up in my mind)

Ooh, I forgot Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.

Milena wrote: "So many. Off the top of my head, in no particular order:

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
[book:The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the ..."

So many here that are on my TBR! Did you watch The Dropout, on Hulu?

No. Is that based on one of the books? Sorry for my ignorance. Is it worth watching? Sometimes the streaming choices are just overwhelming, so I resort to Schitt's Creek for the 36th time like a comfort blanket.

Oops, meant to reply to Ashley Marie.

Milena wrote: "No. Is that based on one of the books? Sorry for my ignorance. Is it worth watching? Sometimes the streaming choices are just overwhelming, so I resort to Schitt's Creek for the 36th time like a co..."

I think it's based on Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. It's excellent IMO. Amanda Seyfried stars as Elizabeth Holmes.

Ashley Marie wrote: "Milena wrote: "No. Is that based on one of the books? Sorry for my ignorance. Is it worth watching? Sometimes the streaming choices are just overwhelming, so I resort to Schitt's Creek for the 36th..."

Ah, thanks. I should watch that. The book was so good. Isn't there another movie being made with Jennifer Lawrence as Elizabeth Holmes?

It looks like Jen has recently walked away from the project, partly because she admired Amanda's version so much.

Ashley Marie wrote: "It looks like Jen has recently walked away from the project, partly because she admired Amanda's version so much."

Huh. Didn't know that. Now I really need to watch it.

My favorite non-fiction books - not in any particular order (hope I did not inadvertently include any fiction in there :) )

Outliers, Thinking fast and slow, Nudge, Freakonomics, Irresistible, Bad Blood, 21 lessons for the 21st century, Auschwitz: A Doctor's eyewitness account by Miklos Nyiszli, David and Goliath, Educated by Tara Westover, The Archer by Paulo Coelho, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, Super Freakonomics, A stolen life by Jaycee Dugard, Blink, The tipping point

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

My favourites so far this year have been Empire of Pain, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Boys Will Be Boys by Clementine Ford, Hidden Valley Road, Delusions of Gender, Finding Me, Dark Money, and How the Word Is Passed.

I've read a lot less nonfiction this year so far but both of these were very good.
The Beatle Bandit: The Bank Robber Who Fuelled the Debate on Guns, Mental Health, and the Death Penalty
The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer

Some of my favourite nonfiction:

The Trials of Nina McCall: Sex, Surveillance, and the Decades-Long Government Plan to Imprison "Promiscuous" Women
Columbine
Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants
A House in the Sky

Favorites this year were :
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer and All Creatures Great and Small
Herriot, James
Also just finished the graphic memoir, " A Fire Story" by Brian Fies which was awesome.

Previous years favorite nonfiction:
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Bryson, Bill

You Carried Me: A Daughter's Memoir
Ohden, Melissa

Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart
Philippe, Jacques

The Priest Is Not His Own
Sheen, Fulton

Archbishop Fulton Sheen's St. Therese: A Treasured Love Story
Sheen, Fulton

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

This was a great read & I always recommend it.