What non-fiction book could you just not put down? Was it a biography? Some obscure textbook? A collection of papers or speeches? Share your suggestions below!
I have read these multiple times:
A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold, the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters. It’s a heavy book.
How much of it is nonfiction is up in the air, but I love Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson. Hunter is sharp and observant and funny as hell. It’s eerie how little has changed in American elections in 50 years.
“Man’s search for meaning” is both profound and a must read imo. “Gödel, Esther, Bach” is a tome that I love to say I’ve read but it’s been 5yrs and I’ve only got to 60%. The follow up, however, “I am strange loop” is much more digestible.
Huey P. Newton’s Revolutionary Suicide
Michael Parenti’s Against Empire and Blackshirts and Reds
Zak Cope’s The Wealth of Some Nations
Leigh Philips’ and Michał Rozowski’s People’s Republic of Walmart
Vladimir Lenin’s State and Revolution
Cosmos by Carl Sagan. A little dated, but a classic. Sagan’s enthusiasm for his subject is inspirational.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Part memoir, part reflections on how to repair humanity’s relationship with the natural world. The author is a botanist and a Potawatomi, and brings both perspectives to her work.
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green. Thoughtful, heartfelt observations of humanity and its effects on the planet and the other beings that live on it, from a kind, decent, engaged, and nevertheless hopeful person.
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery. Really more personal reflections on octopuses the author has known and loved than an objective look at consciousness, but the tales are very moving.
Here are some:
- Bad Blood - about Theranos
- Evicted - low-income housing
- They Called Us Enemy - Immigrants
- Factfulness - statistics
- Permanent Record - Edward Snowden
- Masters of Doom - PC gaming, id Software
- The Cuckoo’s Egg - fighting early computer crime
- The Initiates - Winemaking
- If it’s Smart, it’s Vulnerable - Computer security
- Sid Meier’s Memoir - Computer games
- How to Invent Everything - Building up modern tech starting from nothing
- The Everything Store - Amazon.com
- The Soul of a New Machine - Pulitzer winner, minicomputers in the late 70’s
- Freakonomics - Economics
- How Bad are Bananas - Greenhouse gas emissions and climate catastophe
- Laserwriter II - 90’s computer repair in NYC
- A Life on our Planet - Climate catastrophe
- The Goal - Business management comic