what do you think are some nonfiction books that everyone should read?
lately i have been wanting to read nonfiction books that i feel will really make an impact on my life and the way i view things. for example, i recently read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and it completely affected the way i view the death penalty and educated me on its relation to race in the US. i’ve also read Know My Name by Chanel Miller, and while it didn’t change my views on any topics, i feel like it provided an extremely impactful story. personally, i am not as interested in self-help book as i am in books that are more about societal/political/economic topics.
what are some other books that you think everyone should read to help educate one’s view of the world?
by juj0123
5 Comments
*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins
*The dawn of everything* by Davids Graeber and Wengrow
It’s dense, but Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond is pretty mind-blowing. It explains a lot of how modern societies ended up where they are. Highly recommend.
Caste by Isabella Wilkerson
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Deaths of Despair by Case and Destin
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
The Power Broker by Robert Caro
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi
The 1619 Project
I’m Glad My Mom Is Dead by Jeanette McCurdy
What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
Pretty much everything by Mary Roach
The Better Half by Sharon Moalem
Born a Crime by Noah Trevor
Guns Germs and Steel by Jerad Diamond
And because it has deeply personal meaning to my family, The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang. My husband was one of the immigrant children whose story is just like Kao Kalia’s—from wading the Mekong River to the internment camps to the confusion of America.
Also on the same tone as The Latehomecomer, the tragic story, The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman — it is actually required reading for a lot of medical students (in all fields not just doctors) in America because this one death radically changed the way we approach patient care in America now.