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Hi guys! I read mostly fantasy and fiction, so I want to branch out and read some nonfiction! I really like books like Malcolm Gladwell's, that are informative and interesting, but entertaining at the same time. It's not a drag to get through, and I can learn something from it. Does anyone have any nonfiction recommendations like this?

Thanks!

Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives and
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? are fascinating and important.

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales and others by Sacks are popular and worthy.

I look forward to reading Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

Do you have any particular interest? Technology, history, psychology, biography... ?

I have a lot of good NF on my shelves; feel free to browse.

I like psychology a lot! I'll definitely check out your shelves, thank you so much.

I read What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions last year and liked it.

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders. Perhaps it sounds like a yucky subject for a book but the author has a wonderful sense of humor. Plus the hand drawn illustrations are fun!

I've been meaning to read Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ and The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

I will second The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements and recommend thes two books as well:

1. Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation covers the creation of video games system in the narrative of the ultimate underdog story, Sega trying to break into a market literally owned by Nintendo.

2. The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism is written by an autistic teenager. It is snippets of poetry, art, Q&A, and personal narratives. It's non-linear but a truly delightful read.

Fannie wrote: "I read What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions last year and liked it."

I read this too and thought is was really fun! It has all these educational scientific explanations for crazy situations, I found it very funny.

I'm definitely adding a lot of these to my tbr list, but I have read The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism and can definitely second it, it was so interesting (although I work with children with severe autism on a daily basis as I'm in school training to be a special ed teacher so that might have been why it was so interesting to me. It might not hold the same appeal to people who aren't as interested in studying autism).

I like Malcolm Gladwell too. I loved the Tipping point because it was the first book to give me new insights into how things change over time - big things like violence in a city, and cultural attitudes, and smaller things like swearing or talking about sex at work. I used some of his ideas (like the broken window theory) in training programs to prevent sexual harassment in businesses.

When I first heard that gay marriage was going to be legalized, I wondered just what it was that pushed attitudes over the tipping point.

I highly recommend:
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard His stories of successful change (in individuals, groups, companies, communities) are interesting and he identifies several techniques and insights that you can use to apply to your own change efforts. One true story involved a group of high school students who found ways to turnaround their economically dying town. I've gotten a lot of practical ideas from this inexpensive book that I haven't seen in more expensive books. (I teach change leadership.)

Freakonomics + Superfreakonomics
These books are very entertaining and enlightening, and highly recommended for curious people. You don't need to know a lot about economics to enjoy this book. The stories about Suma wrestlers and drug dealers were particularly surprising
I don't read non-fiction cover to cover. I sometimes just pick a page or chapter at random and start reading. I'm always entertained, sometimes puzzled, and once in a while I'll get a great insight that I can use on a project.

My husband liked Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, and he's not much of a fan of non-fiction.

Just one thing, about any of these, especially Gladwell - a lot of good science is sacrificed when a book is contrived to be entertaining. Please always remember to be skeptical, and to be open to newer theories that fit the data better. Science is an ongoing quest; there are no final answers.

I agree Cheryl. Just because a book is non-fiction, it doesn't mean it's scientific or based on proven facts.

I"m pretty sure Gladwell was a columnist, not a scientist at all. He found some good stories and found ways to link and interpret then.

One of my favorite classes in college included a supplemental book called "Alternative Explanations.... ' I tried to find it later with no success. Each week we had a new study or data set to evaluate. We would try to identify alternative explanations to the ones the researchers identified.

Here is a simple example I recall from an actual study.

500 adults (age 22-40) completed a 200 question survey on facets of life satisfaction. There was a positive correlation between the answers to the following two questions:

Q78. How satisfied are you with your sex life on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 extremely dissatisfied, ... 10= extremely satisfied)

Q91: In the past five years, how many times have you voted in a local or national election for political office?
NA= I was not eligible to vote, 1= never, 2= once, 3= 2 times. 4 = 3 times 5= 4 times , 6= 5 times

Assignment: How could you interpret this data? (What does a positive correlation tell you? What does it not tell you? What are some alternative explanations?)

I have enjoyed the following books written by Mary Roach:
Stiff (about the history of the cadaver), Gulp (about the digestive system) and Spook (Science Tackles the Afterlife).

I also recommendThe Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work
It summarizes some of the research conducted out of Harvard and elsewhere on how happiness improves performance at work.

Martin Seligman is the granddaddy of positive psychology and he has several interesting books too. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment

Well, my favorite happiness books remains The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom because it is *both* smart and wise. Also, the author is the one who came up with the Rider & Elephant analogy, iirc, which I've seen plenty more places since.

I like the Rider and Elephant analogy too, especially when dealing with motivation and change. Switch also uses (copied?) that terminology.

The Reason I Jump is one of the best books I’ve ever read!

The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon - This book is a masterpiece. I'd recommend it to anyone but especially those interested in geology, nature, American history, rafting, hydrology, or resource management.

Lab Girl - Also one of my favorite books. This memoir explores what it takes to be a scientist in today's world as well as dealing with the human condition. I laughed out loud and cried while reading this one.

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars - Although some people find this book sexist (which I think is ridiculous) I found it to be a fascinating exploration of both women's history and human exploration from rockets to deep space. I also learned a lot about basic physics and space exploration. This novel is truly non-fiction and is probably best tackled in the form of an audiobook (if you are like me and tend to put down books with slow sections).

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women - Also best tackled via audio recording but a shocking piece of history that I knew nothing about before reading this book.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate � Discoveries from a Secret World - This books presents more questions than answers but you'll never look at a tree the same way again.

Great topic! I'm excited to check out books recommended by others here as well!

Thank you guys so much!

I can't say enough about Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. If it were fiction you'd say it weren't realistic.

Alison wrote: "I can't say enough about Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. If it were fiction you'd say it weren't realistic."

Agree, Allison: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann is a 5-star read depicting the treatment of Native Americans in Oklahoma and the greed of those who would kill and displace them. Another great book by David Grann is The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon that tells the story of British surveyor, Colonel Percy Fawcett, who searched for an indigenous lost city he believed existed in the jungles of Brazil.

These are very middle grade but Terry Deary's Horrible Histories books~

For 'memoirs' that are both humourous and philosophical, which will also teach you stuff about farming, emergency medicine, small-town life, etc., consider just about anything by Michael Perry.

One of my favorites is Truck: A Love Story, or his latest, Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy. His most well-known/ widely available is probably Population: 485 : Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time.

I just finished Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting and, though excellent, it cohered just a bit less than some of the others... of course, that's not surprising, as he wrote it while starting a new family and a new family farm.

Two that have been mentioned already:
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

Both I found to be researched with amazing depth and were written in more 'story-like' format. I gave both five stars. I just finished Radium Girls and it's haunting me. A really incredible, awful, empowering, tragic, fascinating story.

While both stories are incredible in themselves, the effect they've had on historical and current policy/regulation/institutions is really important. You can feel their effects today.

I agree with everyone saying Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. That book was amazing.

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

This is an entertaining story about a man who lived as a hermit in the woods (without a cabin) for more than 20 years. It's a fast read, and you'll want to tell people about it.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

This a funny book but it's also very interesting and it teaches you a lot !

One of my favorite authors is Mary Roach. She writes science non-fiction that is very easy to read and very funny!

Loved Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

I agree, Mary Roach is really great, I absolutely loved Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers I like to read non-fiction about weird subject, so I really liked Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found by France Larson, which is a bit creepy but quite interesting. Also in science, The Curse of the Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction is somewhere between ornithology and tavel book, but quite amusing.
In sociology, I likedThe Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson. The author is a journalist and some of his books read as a collection of long-form article (thought also interesting, I liked Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries a lot), but this one is more consistent.
The best suggetion I can make is to find a book about something you like or something that intrigues you and look for a book about it. Biographies, history books, true crime, essays, psychology, travel, etc. There is something for everyone!

How could I forget Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The photos are real, by Frank A. Worsley.

It's not my kind of book, but my mother recommended to every library patron who asked her for "a good book." And it is, no matter what you're into.

Any book by Mary Roach...Stiff, Gulp, Grunt, and others. Incredibly varied and funny too. Also all John McPhee books...his book about New Jersey's Pine Barrens is my favorite...

Cheryl wrote: "How could I forget Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The photos are real, by Frank A. Worsley.

It's not my kind of book, bu..."

Hi Cheryl,
Wasn't that an amazing adventure? One of the stories I always read with my 3rd graders is about Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica. When I learned of the documentary called 'The Endurance', I had to purchase a copy. My students are always mesmerized when they actually see the on-location footage taken by Frank Worsley as well.

I think it's wonderful, Karen, that you're teaching 3rd-graders about true heroes, people who were brave and smart, not just celebrities.

I fell in love with Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration.
I am always a fan of technology and creative industry, let a lone Pixar itself.
This is a very entertaining and inspiring tale of Pixar since it's first days until now. It has valuable management lessons that can be applied anywhere and everywhere.
It was extremely FUN!

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are is probably the first best book for the general public on the subject of data analysis. Concise, fun and easy to read, mostly good science (though, as I say in my review, sometimes the author forgets about possible alternative interpretations).

Highly recommended to all, because this does have an impact on our lives now, and that impact will only grow stronger.

I just heard about Attending Others and it looks great.

Thanks so much for all of your recommendations, Cheryl :)

Oh, how could I forget The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True? For all ages, lots of illustrations, attractive... could even be considered a 'coffee-table' book but it's a good read, too.

Bill Gates has 5 suggestions in this category. See Time Magazine:



They all sound great. Two of them were already on my list, not that bad. :-) Hadn't heard of the other three.

.... In a post announcing his picks on Gates Notes, he adds: “All these books are fun to read, and most of them are pretty short.� ....

Lincoln in the Bardo keeps making just about every list i see. I think it is one I must read. So many recommend it for different reasons. It sounds interesting

Yes, of course. It's one of the two in my list as well. But actually this one is a novel, not nonfiction. His other four suggestions are nonfiction.

Compelling true-crime. If it weren't so well-documented, it would be hard to believe.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann reads like a novel with an outrageous plot that will outrage YOU!
5�
/review/show...

A bright red cover for an equally colourful history/mystery! I recommend Susan Orlean’s The Library Book to all book lovers.
5� Link to my review

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "A bright red cover for an equally colourful history/mystery! I recommend Susan Orlean’s The Library Book to all book lovers.
5�..."

I take it you read an ARC?

Cheryl wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "A bright red cover for an equally colourful history/mystery! I recommend Susan Orlean’s The Library Book to all book lovers.
[bookcover:The ..."

Yes, I did, Cheryl. I was lucky enough to get one. I try to remember to always mention that at the bottom of my reviews, although I don't put the publication date. It will be out of date too soon, and the book link itself has the publication date.

I really should look into signing up for chances to read arcs myself, especially as I've moved to new town with a much smaller library than I'm used to.

That's interesting, Cheryl. Can you give us some figures, say, in number of books available, of your previous big and present small libraries?

I just finished Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life for another book club. It was a bit like Astrophysics for People in a Hurry but with a warmer narrative voice and concepts a lot closer to home. It was witty, informative and fairly simple to follow for most of the concepts.

Marcos wrote: "That's interesting, Cheryl. Can you give us some figures, say, in number of books available, of your previous big and present small libraries?"

Gosh, I have no idea how to get that number. I just know that Carson City, NV's library's linear feet of shelving is apparently roughly three times that of Rolla, Missouri... and Carson City could share books with almost all the other rural libraries in Nevada, several of which are themselves clearly larger than Rolla's.

I mean, just by looking, it's very much smaller. Also, when someone recommends a book to me, it's very often available in Carson City, and if not then it's somewhere in that consortium, and very few books that I specifically search for are in Rolla's catalog.

Yes, that was a great alternative for measuring the book offer decrease! :-) And two thirds less is a lot! But it was interesting, anyway, to hear about a side aspect of a reader's life.