I read a lot of fiction mainly mysteries and contemporary. But I would like to branch out and read more non-fiction. I love true crime podcasts and am interested in American history and politics.
Can you recommend me some history political or true crime books that have held your attention and you couldn’t put it down?
I have a few books about recent American history (9/11, 2016 campaign) but always put them down because they seem daunting even if they are only 300-400 pages. Suggest me something that will get me over my mental block of non-fiction ?
by lumos-
1 Comment
You could try [The Bloody White Baron](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2899999-the-bloody-white-baron) by James Palmer. In a way, it’s a combination of history and true crime. It tells the story of the insane, literally, Baron Ungern-Sternberg. A Baltic-German nobleman in the Russian Empire, after the fall of the Tsar he joined the forces fighting the Reds but was so insane that he could hardly be controlled. Among his crimes was roasting bakers to death in their own ovens. As things started to collapse for the counter-revolutionaries in European Russia, he gathered up his own rag-tag army and used it to conquer Mongolia, where for a while it seemed as if he might succeed in making himself king.
You could also try [anything by Peter Hopkirk](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/79989.Peter_Hopkirk).