I’ve always read almost entirely fiction (and of that, mostly sci-fi and mystery) but lately I’ve picked up a few non-fiction titles that really hooked me – **American Kingpin** and **Empire of Pain**. I already dug through and found some other titles similar to these that are regularly recommended (**Bad Blood, Red Notice, Dark Money**, there are a few others but those are the three I just bought).
What I’d love is to branch out a bit from the true crime/tech/finance themes and find some other nonfiction titles that are engaging page-turners rather than information-dense slogs. I’m especially interested in psychology, food and nutrition, the history of food manufacturing, cults, North Korea, fundamentalist/evangelical religion (quiverfull movement especially), art, and video games. I’m not especially interested in sports, war, cars, or politics.
I also enjoyed **I’m Glad My Mom Died** and **The New One** (by Mike Birbiglia) so I’m also open to memoirs, and I’m a big fan of Oliver Sacks (**The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Island of the Colorblind**). I DNF **Crying in H Mart**, just wasn’t in the mood to read about a mother dying after just having a baby myself.
Thank you in advance!
by LittlePinkLines
6 Comments
*The Story of Art* by E.H. Gombrich
*Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane* by Andrew Graham-Dixon
*Bernini: His Life and His Rome* by Franco Mormando
*The King’s Painter: The Life of Hans Holbein* by Franny Moyle
*Raphael: A Passionate Life* by Antonio Forcellino
*Leonardo da Vinci* by Walter Isaacson
*Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling* by Ross King
*The Forger’s Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century* by Edward Dolnick
*The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer* by Anne-Marie O’Connor
*The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry That Transformed Rome* by Jake Morrissey
*Landscape and Memory* by Simon Schama
Terry Pratchett a Life With Footnotes,
Thinking in Pictures,
Kitchen Confidential,
Born a Crime,
The Omnivores Dilemma
The Chanka and the Priest by Sabine Hyland
>What I’d love is to branch out a bit from the true crime/tech/finance themes
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. It’s about the discovery of waterborne disease which led to the beginning of modern epidemiology.
Van Gogh’s Ear by Bernadette Murphy. It starts off as investigation into the story of Van Gogh’s cut off ear, but turns into an engaging biography and even leads to the discovery of new information about him. It’s one of the most engaging nonfiction books I’ve read and it totally reads like a novel.
I recommend Freakonomics because it has about ten chapters that are linked only through the writers’ analyses. So, if one topic does not grab you, it is only 20-30 pages of boring. For me, however, I loved it all. For instance you will learn what caused a decrease in crime in America in the 1990s, who cheats on school standardized tests, etc.