Any recommendations on nonfiction/history? I like nonfiction that reads like a novel -- strong voice, at least reasonably not dense. I really liked Jonathan Harr, Mark Steel, and John Carlin, but I couldn't stand David McCullough, not because he's a bad writer but because of the citations. They just disturbed my reading too much for me to like his work. So please, no in-text citations.
tl;dr: What is /book/'s favorite nonfiction and history?
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Anonymous2010-01-03 1:36
I'm currently reading “Cheating Death”. It's basically about how the biggest obstacle to treating life-threatening damage is time — time to stop the bleeding, time to clear the arteries, and so on — and how doctors are finding ways to get more time. Pretty exciting.
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Anonymous2010-01-03 10:36
Stalingrad
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Anonymous2010-01-03 14:29
Check out Bernard Cornwall. He writes about all parts of histroy and they are fiction but they are taking place in the context of real events how they actually happened and whit the people that were actually there. For example he rewrites the king arthur story as it would have actually been. Don't read Stonehenge though. All his books are good except that one.
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Anonymous2010-01-03 15:46
Robert K. Massie writes some very readable bio's and history books, if you're interested in Russian history.
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Anonymous2010-01-03 22:40
>>5
Seconded. I got Massie's book on Peter the Great for christmas, and it's great.
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Anonymous2010-01-05 22:38
T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph.
Not the abridged "Revolt in the Desert"
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Anonymous2010-01-06 2:28
As a historian I'm appalled you can't read something with citations. How about.. Guns Germs and Steel? or an oral history like Patriots or, Working Class War by Christian Appy.. or if you like intellectual histories- Freethinkers by Susan Jacoby.
everything else I've read for class has citations.
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Anonymous2010-01-11 18:00
Bump
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Anonymous2010-01-11 19:10
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston had me absolutely glued to it till I finished. Afterwords I had to madly wash my hands every chance I had for about a month.
I'm also a fan of Bill Bryson, who makes subjects that I normally don't care for really fun.
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Anonymous2010-01-11 19:59
Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. It is unapologetic in its Mao-bashing and is very easy to read.
The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang is harrowing.
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Anonymous2010-01-12 16:22
The commentary by Caesar.
You have heroism, propaganda, warfare, male testosterone, all in one. What else do you expect from a book.
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Anonymous2010-01-12 22:33
My favorite nonfiction is probably Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. Though I didn't know you were into this kind of stuff, Anon, I am disappoint.
Right now I am reading "The Imperial Cruise" and really enjoying it. It's a historical account of our forien policy during the turn of the 20th century. It's literally laugh out loud funny because the author gives you the true version of how things were back then not the whitewashed textbook version. For instance apparently Teddy Roosevelt was quite the ladyboy before he launched a media campaign to show how manly he was.
For instance when he was an assemblyman the other assemblymen called TR "Oscar Wilde" in reference to the scandalised gay author
T.R's college roommate saw him lifting weights in the gym once and thought "he must be a humble-minded chap, to give such a lady-like performance in such a public place"
In one newspaper the reporter wondered if Theodore was "given to sucking the knob of an ivory cane"
>>24
Your name is Anonymous and apparently you are into drugs.
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Anonymous2010-01-17 4:16
pun - n. A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.
So basically a pun is a play on a word with two different meanings, or two similar sounding words. In this case the operative word is anonymous, and it means the exact same thing in both references. >>13 Was suggesting that our anonymous person is the same anonymous person who wrote the Alice book. Since anonymous is an adjective and not a noun this is quite stupid in the first place, and still not a pun. Remember, anonymous is not a noun, and you might understand.
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Anonymous2010-01-17 4:28
>>26
Actually the word has a bit of a different sense on 4chan. It's one of our memes.
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Anonymous2010-01-17 5:35
>>27
Well even if it does have different sense on 4chan, that doesn't change the fact that >>13 meant anonymous in the exact same way both times. I don't think he was even trying to make a pun there, just imply that 4chan users do drugs and he is disappoint.
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Anonymous2010-01-17 10:56
>>28
Why the hell would he mention Go Ask Alice then?
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Anonymous2010-01-19 17:42
OP here. Puns aside, any other books?
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Anonymous2010-01-19 19:30
"Cosmos and Psyche" by Richard Tarnas is a must-read.
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Anonymous2010-01-19 21:03
Caesar's books on his campaigns in Gaul are incredible. Not only are they well-written, they're super-detailed and endlessly interesting.
Jack White writes fiction, but it's sooooo historically accurate...
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Anonymous2010-01-19 23:11
Gonna borrow Conquest of Gaul tomorrow. Thanks anon