Name a nonfiction book that had you utterly hooked very early on.
I tend to struggle if a book doesn’t draw me in quickly. I know some books are a slow burn and worth the early effort, but I want to hear about the ones that grabbed you early on and held you until the end! 😊
“The Glass Castle” Jeanette Walls – read cover to cover in a weekend!
​
“Maybe you should talk to someone” Lori Gotlieb
“While you were out” Meg Kissinger
Due-Ad8230 on
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
redeagle11288 on
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl.
Villeneuve_ on
*Midnight in Chernobyl* by Adam Higginbotham. It tells the history of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. It’s written in the ‘narrative journalism’ style, and I found it to be thoroughly engaging from beginning to end.
Born a crime by Trevor Noah!!!!!!!
Stiff by Mary roach
AConant on
I’m afraid I share this book too much, and I see others here do as well, but it really is an epic read, and one I think everyone should experience.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
By Alfred Lansing
I’m 54 and a lifelong reader and it is still near the very top of all my reads.
blargblargityblarg on
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston was both terrifying and utterly captivating.
Tophat_Shark on
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum
Lanchettes on
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
kneelbeforetod2222 on
Lots of good suggestions here! I will add Bad Blood by John Carryrou
Next_Literature_2905 on
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. It’s about the Sackler family. It’s long, but very easy to read, imo, so I didn’t feel like it was as long as it is. I thought it was interesting to see the history of the family, how they created what they created, and how much they became involved in.
It can be difficult to read about the crisis they helped to create. It’s definitely not enjoyable to read about all of the terrible things that they have done and caused, but I thought it gave a good general overview of the opiod crisis (something I didn’t know much about before reading this) and how it came about.
Non-fiction rarely holds my interest, so it surprised me that I was able to get through this book without losing interest
joshmo587 on
“Columbine” by Dave Cullen
Stircrazylazy on
*The Splendid and the Vile* by Erik Larson, *The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich* by William Shirer, *Battle Cry of Freedom* by James McPherson, *Washington: A Life* by Ron Chernow, and *A Woman of No Importance* by Sonia Purnell.
GumshoeBelly on
Killers of the flower moon
Thecryptsaresafe on
Devil in the White City was the first nonfiction book that ever hooked me. I’d read most of what I was assigned in school but I never knew nonfiction could be that engrossing.
Killers of the the Flower Moon as well for sure
ethicalhippo on
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou reads like a thriller. Highly recommend the audiobook
Striking-Pea3815 on
Educated by Tara Westover
TinyChaco on
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. I think everyone should read this book.
DeeDee719 on
Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. Paced like a spy novel!
skltnhead on
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
blueberry_pancakes14 on
The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor (this one is thick and a little textbooky, but I was fascinated so it didn’t matter; plus I kind of like textbooky)
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters by Matt Kaplan
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach
The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution by Donald R. Prothero
My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs by Maxwell King
Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived by Anton Scalia
The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe
The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks by Susan Casey
Nature Noir: A Park Ranger’s Patrol in the Sierra by Jordan Fisher-Smith
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Shark Trouble by Peter Benchley
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-boat Battles of World War II by Herbert A. Werner
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team by Daniel Lenihan
Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria and Dark Descent: Diving and the Deadly Allure of the Empress of Ireland by Kevin F. McMurray
Neptune’s Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas by David Rains Wallace
Twelve Days of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks by Richard G. Gernicola
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal
itsok-imwhite on
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
b0neappleteeth on
kate moore!! radium girls and the woman that couldn’t be silenced – both AMAZING
Happy_Plantain8085 on
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. Best book I’ve read in like two years
Fancy_Way_7406 on
Midnight in the garden of good and evil!
TraditionalDetail617 on
“Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier” by Ian Urbina
There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world’s oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation.
Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways — drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, survival and tragedy, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world’s economies rely.
Both a gripping adventure story and a stunning exposé, this unique work of reportage brings fully into view for the first time the disturbing reality of a floating world that connects us all, a place where anyone can do anything because no one is watching.
197219671 on
Helter Skelter.
JoannaJewelz on
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax
Blonde_Mexican on
Me Talk Pretty One Day- Davis Sedaris
Extension_Cucumber10 on
Unbroken.
frijolita_bonita on
STIFF the Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
> For 2,000 years, cadavers — some willingly, some unwittingly — have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.
Ok-Thing-2222 on
In the Heart of the Sea. Whaling ship(s) lost at sea and the horrendous fight for survival.
Skeletons on the Zahara. Trying to survive after shipwreck in the Sahara Desert.
sterlingrose on
The Gift of Fear by Gavin deBecker. I’ve read it several times, recommended it to so many people, and eventually gave away my copy to a friend so I really need to replace it.
Flossy40 on
The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. I bought it years ago, before it won the Pulitzer. Long before COVID. It dissects infectious diseases, their various ways of spreading, and control.
She discussed the CDC, other related organizations, and how they have dealt with outbreaks. I found it fascinating.
Yeah, I might be weird.
SuburbanSubversive on
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande.
It’s a book about checklists, which sounds like an incredibly boring subject. But he uses dramatic case studies — an ER visit, the plan crash-landing on the Hudson, a fine dining restaurant — to show how checklists can be incredibly powerful tools. The first chapter is a doozy — got me pulled right in by the second paragraph.
The book is completely compelling, and because it’s case-study based, each chapter is about a specific application of checklists and so it’s easy to get through.
Warning, though — if you read it, you may become a checklist evangelist.
scarlettslegacy on
Radium Girls by Kate Moore. Reads like fiction in that you don’t feel bogged down by any dry history lessons and footnotes.
fordkelsey25 on
Anything by David Sedaris. The best part is each chapter is more like a short story. If one doesn’t resonate, try a different one
Brave_Ad1836 on
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland is a 2018 book by writer and journalist Patrick Radden Keefe. It focuses on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. I am fascinated by the Irish and their history . The book is a well researched non fiction account of the time called The Troubles It was a great read highly recommend it .
46 Comments
“The Glass Castle” Jeanette Walls – read cover to cover in a weekend!
​
“Maybe you should talk to someone” Lori Gotlieb
“While you were out” Meg Kissinger
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl.
*Midnight in Chernobyl* by Adam Higginbotham. It tells the history of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. It’s written in the ‘narrative journalism’ style, and I found it to be thoroughly engaging from beginning to end.
King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild
im glad my mom died by jannette mccurdy
SPQR by Mary Beard
American Kingpin, by Nick Bilton.
The Lost City of the Monkey God, Douglas Preston
On Writing by Stephen King
– [Humankind](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/9a3bf034-0cec-4d40-b473-17e644f35ebf) by Rutger Bregman – for a different look at human nature
– [The Man from the Train](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/36f75e07-8781-44c2-b545-e6a6725b9d3a) by Bill James – true crime from the early 1900s about a serial axe murderer
– [Kiss Me Like a Stranger](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7cabadc1-9bc6-472b-932c-e749e82aef14) by Gene Wilder – his life in his own words
– [A Brief History of Time](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7cabadc1-9bc6-472b-932c-e749e82aef14) by Stephen Hawking – I know I sound like such a pedantic twat by suggesting this, but Hawking could really write and this is not nearly as difficult a read as people love to make it out to be.
Salt by Mark Kurlansky
Born a crime by Trevor Noah!!!!!!!
Stiff by Mary roach
I’m afraid I share this book too much, and I see others here do as well, but it really is an epic read, and one I think everyone should experience.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
By Alfred Lansing
I’m 54 and a lifelong reader and it is still near the very top of all my reads.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston was both terrifying and utterly captivating.
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Lots of good suggestions here! I will add Bad Blood by John Carryrou
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. It’s about the Sackler family. It’s long, but very easy to read, imo, so I didn’t feel like it was as long as it is. I thought it was interesting to see the history of the family, how they created what they created, and how much they became involved in.
It can be difficult to read about the crisis they helped to create. It’s definitely not enjoyable to read about all of the terrible things that they have done and caused, but I thought it gave a good general overview of the opiod crisis (something I didn’t know much about before reading this) and how it came about.
Non-fiction rarely holds my interest, so it surprised me that I was able to get through this book without losing interest
“Columbine” by Dave Cullen
*The Splendid and the Vile* by Erik Larson, *The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich* by William Shirer, *Battle Cry of Freedom* by James McPherson, *Washington: A Life* by Ron Chernow, and *A Woman of No Importance* by Sonia Purnell.
Killers of the flower moon
Devil in the White City was the first nonfiction book that ever hooked me. I’d read most of what I was assigned in school but I never knew nonfiction could be that engrossing.
Killers of the the Flower Moon as well for sure
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou reads like a thriller. Highly recommend the audiobook
Educated by Tara Westover
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. I think everyone should read this book.
Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. Paced like a spy novel!
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor (this one is thick and a little textbooky, but I was fascinated so it didn’t matter; plus I kind of like textbooky)
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters by Matt Kaplan
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach
The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution by Donald R. Prothero
My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs by Maxwell King
Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived by Anton Scalia
The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe
The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks by Susan Casey
Nature Noir: A Park Ranger’s Patrol in the Sierra by Jordan Fisher-Smith
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Shark Trouble by Peter Benchley
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-boat Battles of World War II by Herbert A. Werner
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team by Daniel Lenihan
Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria and Dark Descent: Diving and the Deadly Allure of the Empress of Ireland by Kevin F. McMurray
Neptune’s Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas by David Rains Wallace
Twelve Days of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks by Richard G. Gernicola
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
kate moore!! radium girls and the woman that couldn’t be silenced – both AMAZING
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. Best book I’ve read in like two years
Midnight in the garden of good and evil!
“Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier” by Ian Urbina
There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world’s oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation.
Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways — drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, survival and tragedy, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world’s economies rely.
Both a gripping adventure story and a stunning exposé, this unique work of reportage brings fully into view for the first time the disturbing reality of a floating world that connects us all, a place where anyone can do anything because no one is watching.
Helter Skelter.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax
Me Talk Pretty One Day- Davis Sedaris
Unbroken.
STIFF the Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
> For 2,000 years, cadavers — some willingly, some unwittingly — have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.
In the Heart of the Sea. Whaling ship(s) lost at sea and the horrendous fight for survival.
Skeletons on the Zahara. Trying to survive after shipwreck in the Sahara Desert.
The Gift of Fear by Gavin deBecker. I’ve read it several times, recommended it to so many people, and eventually gave away my copy to a friend so I really need to replace it.
The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. I bought it years ago, before it won the Pulitzer. Long before COVID. It dissects infectious diseases, their various ways of spreading, and control.
She discussed the CDC, other related organizations, and how they have dealt with outbreaks. I found it fascinating.
Yeah, I might be weird.
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande.
It’s a book about checklists, which sounds like an incredibly boring subject. But he uses dramatic case studies — an ER visit, the plan crash-landing on the Hudson, a fine dining restaurant — to show how checklists can be incredibly powerful tools. The first chapter is a doozy — got me pulled right in by the second paragraph.
The book is completely compelling, and because it’s case-study based, each chapter is about a specific application of checklists and so it’s easy to get through.
Warning, though — if you read it, you may become a checklist evangelist.
Radium Girls by Kate Moore. Reads like fiction in that you don’t feel bogged down by any dry history lessons and footnotes.
Anything by David Sedaris. The best part is each chapter is more like a short story. If one doesn’t resonate, try a different one
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland is a 2018 book by writer and journalist Patrick Radden Keefe. It focuses on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. I am fascinated by the Irish and their history . The book is a well researched non fiction account of the time called The Troubles It was a great read highly recommend it .