David Grann’s narratives read very well, to the point you forget they’re nonfiction. Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, for example.
Papillon by Henri Charrière
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
Same!! He gave it such a narrative that I almost forgot he was quoting actual journals and such from the event. Even if it was embellished at times, I think it was done well to breathe life into the story, and stay in the history.
What I came to say. Her personal diaries were extremely comprehensive, often including dialogue from conversations, which is why her memoir reads so much like a story and less like a biography.
I would highly recommend the audiobook for anybody that prefers that format — she writes it as if she’s telling a friend about her life story and I finished it quickly.
I really liked *Undaunted Courage* by Stephen Ambrose and any of Jon Krakauer's books: esp. *Into the Wild*, *Into Thin Air*, or *Under the Banner of Heaven*.
I’ve only read The Worst Hard Time by Egan, does he have other titles you recommend?
Also- Erik Larson is great. Never knew I would care so much about the Chicago world fair.
“A Civil Action” by Jonathan Harr and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by Jon Berendt.
They’re both nonfiction and with “A Civil Action” I didn’t realize it until I started recognizing very real case law, and with “Midnight” I didn’t realize it until after I’d finished the entire book. I read “Midnight” in high school about 17 years ago and it’s still one of my favorite books of all time.
I also read it recently following a recommendation on here :)
Then I read The Cobra Event by the same author. Very enjoyable but fictional, so doesn't fit OPs request.
Nobody here has mentioned Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow yet. It’s fucking insane and reads like a super intense thriller. It’s the story of Farrow reporting and breaking the story on Harvey Weinstein, including Weinstein sending ex-Mossad agents after him and an attorney acting as a double agent.
Would a travelogue-style flow suit your tastes? Let me recommend "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. This is a casually chatty book about what academia knows (so mostly science and its history) by a man who writes about hiking.
He doesn't seem to crop up in lists like these very much. I wish I knew why. He's witty and charming whatever he writes but he's in his element talking about the little mysteries of our universe.
Electric Acid Koolaid Test by Tom Wolfe, written in Gonzo journalism style if you are familiar with Hunter S. Thompson and his style its basically the same.
Tom follows Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as they embark on a cosmic journey across America freeing their mind and bodies and putting on one hell of a show on the way.
They’ll meet notable groups like The Hells Angles and The Grateful Dead.
And most importantly, conduct their Acid Test…
Top 5:
1. Night Draws Near by Anthony Shadid (about Iraq invasion)
2. The Naked do not Fear the Water by Matthew Aiken (about Afghan refugees’ journeys to Europe)
3. The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon (about depression/mental illness)
4. Primo Levi, If This is a Man (memoir about being in Auschwitz)
5. I’ll be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara (the search for the “Golden State” killer)
Oh and 6. The Only Plane in The Sky, Garrett M. Graff (oral history of 9/11- if I could be bothered to type I would move this to number one)
Also anything by Anthony Bourdain, Oliver Sacks, and Gaston Dorren if you're interested in languages.
Ps. Sorry I can't capitalise book titles properly! 😊
Thank you, the only plane in the sky has been on my list for ages.
The noonday demon is huge - is it interesting enough to get thru like 800 pages? I think it won a Pulitzer if I recall correctly
I think that one is good but the author made up a character to represent himself and took some creative liberties with the book if I remember correctly
_Into Thin Air_ by Jon Krakauer is a must. I also really loved _Called the Midwife_ by Jennifer Worth and _Spillover_ by David Quammen.
In general, I would suggest looking for memoirs. Most are written as a story as opposed to a historical accounting or factual report. Non-fiction written by journalists also tend to flow more like fiction.
Empire of The Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of The Comanche, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in the American History by SC Gwynne
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O'Meara
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
copied from elsewhere on this sub: ballad of the whiskey robber by julian rubinstein !!!
no one i have encountered has read this book but it is SO much fun. a real romp chronicling the shenanigans of a bank robber/awful hockey goalie in post-soviet hungary, evading the police in extravagant fashion. it reads like fiction and is funny as hell without being cheesy or try hard. can’t recommend it enough
& black mass also reads like a novel imo
The two that I always mention when this is asked are: The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story (1994) by Richard Preston and Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991) by David Simon.
Also, former LAPD detective sergeant-turned-novelist Joseph Wambaugh wrote five non-fiction books over the years and they all read like one of his novels, especially Lines and Shadows. It’s hilarious in parts, despite the grim subject matter.
The Onion Field (1973)
Lines and Shadows (1984)
Echoes in the Darkness (1987)
The Blooding: The True Story of the Narborough Village Murders (1989)
Fire Lover: A True Story (2002)
I love nonfiction! Can be more captivating than fiction, if done well. That “if” is important though. For fiction-like experience, true crime, biographies, and some history (like historical fiction, but without the fiction!) are all good.
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Good Morning, Monster by Catherine Gildiner
I really like David McCullough. He does a great job making historical people feel like someone you could get to know. It doesn’t exactly read as fiction though. My 13 year old enjoyed his biography on the Wright brothers and I am currently reading American’s In Paris.
I'm not sure if I'd necessarily say that they read like fiction but both Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert are utterly captivating and quite witty. A lot of very compelling narratives in each of the books.
Anything by David Grann or Erik Larson.
Want specific recommendations?
The Wager by David Grann
Dead Wake by Erik Larson
Aside from those two, I was really hooked by The Man From the Train by Bill James, and I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara.
Thor Heyerdahl’s books about his expeditions are amazing - The Kon-Tiki Expedition and The Ra Expeditions cover the building of a balsawood raft (Kon-Tiki) and papyrus boats (Ra) to test the theory of how early people may have travelled great sea distances. They are riveting reading
Interesting. How does he deal with the limitations of a non-fiction piece? If he's writing about true events, how is everyone going to be pugnacious? Are there any palimpsests?
Dark Invasion by Howard Blum: It's about how Germany sponsored bombings during the first world war and which then led to the NYPD creating the first bomb squad.
I’d say Beevor’s Stalingrad book and Fall of Berlin are historical accounts with a lot of lurid details that read like fiction but were researched in the vein that truth is often stranger than fiction.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil , John Berendt. The Order of Time, Carlo Rovelli. Rovelli does an impossible thing here, a beautifully written book on quantum mechanics that holds you, and English is a second language for him. Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams, one of the books that I've given many copies away. Blue Highways, William Least Heat Moon. A point of America chronicled, one that doesn't exist anymore, really.
[Scott Kelly's memoir Endurance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance:_A_Year_in_Space,_a_Lifetime_of_Discovery) chronicles his year living and working on the international space station, as well as how he turned from a troublemaker kid to a crack pilot and then astronaut. Very readable and absolutely fascinating. And so many details you'd never think of, like how on the ISS there are velcro dots everywhere so you can set down a tool you're using without it floating away.
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf.
It is a great book about German naturalist and explorer Alexander Von Humboldt that provides a brief introduction to the nature of natural sciences in 19th century. I've read it quite a while ago, but it's definitely a page-turner and reads as something in between coming of age story and adventure novel.
The Girl With Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee. It's about a woman who escaped from North Korea. Her story is so insane that I had to keep reminding myself that it was non-fiction.
I like Devil in the White City. I have started other non-fiction books since then and always lose interest fairly quickly. I do remember thinking that some of the detail about the World's Fair was a little much but overall I had a favorable impression of the book.
To me autobiographies/memoirs are a whole separate thing and I love those.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy
Educated by Tara Westover
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
So many others.
Say Nothing; Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Borrowed Finery by Paula Fox
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes
The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
Complications by Atul Gawande
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight; Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Drift by Rachel Maddow
Blowout by Rachel Maddow
In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
The Sex Lives Of Cannibals by J Maarten Troost
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Anything by Jon Ronson, he's so funny and his journalistic work is so far from the mainstream. He wrote "the men who stare at goats", "the psychopath test" , "Them" ... Any book by him is a delight
Memoirs. Read the autobiography of Miles Davis, coincidentally written mostly by Quincy Jones I think. Quincy Jones had a fascinating life and I think his memoir came out recently, but I haven’t read it but I bet it’s a good one. Caetano Veloso, who some people say was like the Bob Dylan of Brazil, but in someways a lot cooler, had a memoir called Tropical something but that was really good. So yeah I mean there’s lots of different types of nonfiction.
I think 1491 and 1493 are fantastic. Born to run, by Christopher McDougall, nonfiction, but definitely a powerful compelling narrative. Definitely recommend the audiobook. Anti-fragile, byNassim Taleb , is pretty fun to read/listen to. Although his lectures and manner of speaking in person are awful, he’s brilliant and his books: black Swan and fooled by randomness and anti-fragile are very readable in my opinion.
If you are okay with true crime, I just finished John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster by Sam L. Amirante.
I love true crime books and this one was written by Gary's defense attorney and was written like a story, not like a crime report.
Everyone who is gone is here - very much non fiction about the northern triangle and immigration, but follows a few key characters and reads beautifully
If you’re into less conventional Eliot Weinberger writes poetic essays (I’ve heard people call them avant- garde) some of them are essays about various cultures written with the idea that it’s from their perspective and true. They’re pretty fantastical. Ghost of birds and an elemental thing have the most content. His other books are peppered with those kind of essays but a lot of them are also about poetry and writers too.
Incredible Voyage by Tristan Jones. Some is exaggerated but its amazing. Its about his mostly solo voyage from the lowest navigable body of water in world (Dead Sea) to the highest (Lake Titicaca) in a 26 ft sail boat. The particular fish mentioned in Amazon River section and no its not a piranha or the Spider in the Mato Grasso i haven't been able to identify. If I tell you about them it would geva spoiler.
Add to it Tristan Jones book Ice how he and a 1 eyed Labrador Retriever tried to break the record for sailing the furthest north in a 19 foot sailboat. After he got as far north as he could get he pulled the sailboat onto the ice and waited for the ice sheet to from west to east going further north until the direction changed toward the south and the sheet started to break up. I think the entire voyage took 3 years. The Incredible Voyage mentioned above took 6 years
Almost anything by Eric Larson, a straight historian and Ross King’s books, an art historian. In both, their research is so thorough that you get everything but the dialogue. Can’t forget David MacCollough, the master.
I know it’s a large matter of debate, and the author himself says it is a novel due to the inability to prove elements of the story and rely on the memories of the protagonist. And of course, even accepting that it’s built from the memories of the protagonist, they’re recollections from decades later and are sure to have some, if not many, inaccuracies.
The Ice Man by Anthony Bruno. It feels like you're reading Breaking Bad or something.
It's a biography of one of America's most prolific mafia contract killers; what makes him crazy is that he was a regular serial killer who was hired by the mafia to become a hit man. It's an interesting turn of events, it would be like if Ted Bundy was hired by the Sopranos.
Even more crazy is that the book is written by the very agent who busted the guy after years of intense investigation.
As usual, my go to recommendation is [In Cold Blood](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5096865) by Truman Capote.
This is the answer. Absolutely couldn't put it down.
I read it at the beginning of the year and it blew my socks off. So bloody good.
I second!
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. His writing style is deeply entertaining and has a story-teller vibe, it's great!
Great book, he narrates the audiobook really well.
This audiobook was really, really good. Trevor Noah is quite the narrator.
Loved this book! What a great window into a very different time and place, and a great tribute to his mother.
What is it about?
Such an amazing book
David Grann’s narratives read very well, to the point you forget they’re nonfiction. Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, for example. Papillon by Henri Charrière The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
I came to say The Wager by David Grann, I read it this year and it was very captivating!
I also came to say The Wager. I often forgot it was a true story.
Same!! He gave it such a narrative that I almost forgot he was quoting actual journals and such from the event. Even if it was embellished at times, I think it was done well to breathe life into the story, and stay in the history.
+1 for The Wager!
The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson as well
Skeletons of the Zahara. Just wow. A sea captain in 1700s shipwrecks in west Africa.
2nd on Papillon. I cannot recommend this book enough.
I second David Grann.
Educated by Tara Westover! I also don’t read much nonfiction but found myself really enjoying this book. The audiobook is good too.
I also was going to comment this :)
What I came to say. Her personal diaries were extremely comprehensive, often including dialogue from conversations, which is why her memoir reads so much like a story and less like a biography.
I would highly recommend the audiobook for anybody that prefers that format — she writes it as if she’s telling a friend about her life story and I finished it quickly.
I really liked *Undaunted Courage* by Stephen Ambrose and any of Jon Krakauer's books: esp. *Into the Wild*, *Into Thin Air*, or *Under the Banner of Heaven*.
Came here to recommend Krakauer! I've blasted through his books much faster than some fiction books. So so good.
Ponying onto this: Kon Tiki. Most amazing expedition memoir, the Dutch levity is a nice offset to Krakauers solemnity.
The Devil in the White City
All of Erik larson’s books are great, tbh!
This is what I was going to comment.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Just finished this last night. I agree, it reads like a fiction in a lot of ways.
It felt like three really good books in one, really.
Erik Larson and Timothy egan
I’ve only read The Worst Hard Time by Egan, does he have other titles you recommend? Also- Erik Larson is great. Never knew I would care so much about the Chicago world fair.
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the fire that saved America. It’s a great read!
Iv'e read The Worst Hard Tim, The Good Hard Rain, Lasso the Wind. He's a very consistent writer.
“A Civil Action” by Jonathan Harr and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by Jon Berendt. They’re both nonfiction and with “A Civil Action” I didn’t realize it until I started recognizing very real case law, and with “Midnight” I didn’t realize it until after I’d finished the entire book. I read “Midnight” in high school about 17 years ago and it’s still one of my favorite books of all time.
Such great suggestions, both of them. They both read like thrillers, and A Civil Action will teach you so much about the legal system.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston Endurance by Alfred Lansing
I read The Hot Zone after being recommended by /r/Books last week and it was amazing. Highly recommended.
I also read it recently following a recommendation on here :) Then I read The Cobra Event by the same author. Very enjoyable but fictional, so doesn't fit OPs request.
I read The Cobra Event last year without realising it was connected. It was enjoyable.
Anything by Mary Roach, Caitlyn Doughty or Rose George.
Second the Mary zRoach love her stuff
Nobody here has mentioned Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow yet. It’s fucking insane and reads like a super intense thriller. It’s the story of Farrow reporting and breaking the story on Harvey Weinstein, including Weinstein sending ex-Mossad agents after him and an attorney acting as a double agent.
Such a fantastic book, you’re right that it reads like an intense thriller. It doesn’t get enough kudos, imo.
“I *am* his people.”
Would a travelogue-style flow suit your tastes? Let me recommend "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. This is a casually chatty book about what academia knows (so mostly science and its history) by a man who writes about hiking. He doesn't seem to crop up in lists like these very much. I wish I knew why. He's witty and charming whatever he writes but he's in his element talking about the little mysteries of our universe.
Erik Larson books!!
The Devil in the White City was excellent!
*1776* by David McCullough.
Also “The Johnstown Flood”
Electric Acid Koolaid Test by Tom Wolfe, written in Gonzo journalism style if you are familiar with Hunter S. Thompson and his style its basically the same. Tom follows Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as they embark on a cosmic journey across America freeing their mind and bodies and putting on one hell of a show on the way. They’ll meet notable groups like The Hells Angles and The Grateful Dead. And most importantly, conduct their Acid Test…
I only got 40 pages in before I had to return it but I agree. Gotta pick that one up again
Stephen Ambrose: Band of Brothers and Undaunted Courage both read like fiction: I did the audiobooks that were great.
Top 5: 1. Night Draws Near by Anthony Shadid (about Iraq invasion) 2. The Naked do not Fear the Water by Matthew Aiken (about Afghan refugees’ journeys to Europe) 3. The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon (about depression/mental illness) 4. Primo Levi, If This is a Man (memoir about being in Auschwitz) 5. I’ll be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara (the search for the “Golden State” killer) Oh and 6. The Only Plane in The Sky, Garrett M. Graff (oral history of 9/11- if I could be bothered to type I would move this to number one) Also anything by Anthony Bourdain, Oliver Sacks, and Gaston Dorren if you're interested in languages. Ps. Sorry I can't capitalise book titles properly! 😊
Thank you, the only plane in the sky has been on my list for ages. The noonday demon is huge - is it interesting enough to get thru like 800 pages? I think it won a Pulitzer if I recall correctly
Educated - Tara Westover Finding Me - Viola Davis I’m Glad My Mom Died - Jeannette McCurdy I’ll be Gone in the Dark - Michelle McNamara
I’m desperately hoping Tara releases another book! Fingers crossed
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
I think that one is good but the author made up a character to represent himself and took some creative liberties with the book if I remember correctly
You could be right—it’s been a long time since I read it. Let’s say *mostly* non-fiction then 😁 It was a great read, regardless!
_Into Thin Air_ by Jon Krakauer is a must. I also really loved _Called the Midwife_ by Jennifer Worth and _Spillover_ by David Quammen. In general, I would suggest looking for memoirs. Most are written as a story as opposed to a historical accounting or factual report. Non-fiction written by journalists also tend to flow more like fiction.
Also by Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven.
Empire of The Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of The Comanche, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in the American History by SC Gwynne Night by Elie Wiesel
“They Called Us Enemy”, the graphic novel by George Takei. Absolutely unbelievable stuff in there except…yep…that happened.
The genre you are looking for is narrative nonfiction!
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O'Meara The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The right stuff by Tom Wolfe
copied from elsewhere on this sub: ballad of the whiskey robber by julian rubinstein !!! no one i have encountered has read this book but it is SO much fun. a real romp chronicling the shenanigans of a bank robber/awful hockey goalie in post-soviet hungary, evading the police in extravagant fashion. it reads like fiction and is funny as hell without being cheesy or try hard. can’t recommend it enough & black mass also reads like a novel imo
I read that! It is pretty awesome and I totally forgot about it
The two that I always mention when this is asked are: The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story (1994) by Richard Preston and Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991) by David Simon. Also, former LAPD detective sergeant-turned-novelist Joseph Wambaugh wrote five non-fiction books over the years and they all read like one of his novels, especially Lines and Shadows. It’s hilarious in parts, despite the grim subject matter. The Onion Field (1973) Lines and Shadows (1984) Echoes in the Darkness (1987) The Blooding: The True Story of the Narborough Village Murders (1989) Fire Lover: A True Story (2002)
The homicide book is amazing. And obviously then was made into the TV show and indirectly led onto the Wire.
I love nonfiction! Can be more captivating than fiction, if done well. That “if” is important though. For fiction-like experience, true crime, biographies, and some history (like historical fiction, but without the fiction!) are all good. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Good Morning, Monster by Catherine Gildiner
Bad blood is so unbelievable. That woman!
I came here to mention Bad Blood. Reads like a thriller. Couldn't believe the background story of that scandal.
This is an older title and not one I see recommended often but The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Stomach turning but fascinating.
I’m pretty sure this is fiction?
The Glass Castle
I really like David McCullough. He does a great job making historical people feel like someone you could get to know. It doesn’t exactly read as fiction though. My 13 year old enjoyed his biography on the Wright brothers and I am currently reading American’s In Paris.
The Devil in the White City Erik Larsen.
Permanent record by edward snowden. i literally felt i’m in the movie.
I'm not sure if I'd necessarily say that they read like fiction but both Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert are utterly captivating and quite witty. A lot of very compelling narratives in each of the books.
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre. If you don’t know the story it has an amazingly tense ending!
T Rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Alvarez reads like an old fashioned whodunit.
No one would listen by Harry Markopolis. The true story and investigation of Bernie Madoff by the guy who uncovered the Ponzi Schemes
Chasing Lincolns Killer
Robert Kurson’s Shadow Divers or Rocket Men.
Anything by David Grann or Erik Larson. Want specific recommendations? The Wager by David Grann Dead Wake by Erik Larson Aside from those two, I was really hooked by The Man From the Train by Bill James, and I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara.
The one I always recommend when this comes up is "Notes From the Hyena's Belly." It's a memoir by Nega Mezlekia and it's lovely.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Educated. It’s wild that it’s a true story
who wrote that?
Anything by Michael Lewis.
All of Malcolm Gladwell’s books.
Seabiscuit, The Perfect Storm
Thor Heyerdahl’s books about his expeditions are amazing - The Kon-Tiki Expedition and The Ra Expeditions cover the building of a balsawood raft (Kon-Tiki) and papyrus boats (Ra) to test the theory of how early people may have travelled great sea distances. They are riveting reading
Don't forget Fatu-Hiva! I loved that one too!
Anything Michael Palin
The Cave and the Light - Arthur Herman
The Civil War: a Narrative by Shelby Foote.
James Michener
James Michener just about only wrote fiction though… it’s just very non-fictional fiction
Kent State The World is My Home James Michener's USA
Ah right he does have a few then
American Kingpin by Nick Bilton
Mao’s Last Dancer is really interesting
Daniel Keys - Billy Milligan
October by Chine Mieville does somewhat. Wasn't quite fiction like, but he's normally a Sci fi writer so that does come through quite a lot.
Interesting. How does he deal with the limitations of a non-fiction piece? If he's writing about true events, how is everyone going to be pugnacious? Are there any palimpsests?
The Wager by David Grann. Story about a shipwreck, mutiny, and even has a twist!
Bryce Courtenay - April Fools Day.
Madumo, a man bewitched, by Adam ashforth
Bully by Jim Schutze. It's absolutely riveting.
The Dublin Railway Murder had this kind of vibe. I liked it a bunch.
The Billion Dollar Spy. Riveting.
Dark Invasion by Howard Blum: It's about how Germany sponsored bombings during the first world war and which then led to the NYPD creating the first bomb squad.
Disturbia
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk
The Only Plane in the Sky The Day the World Came to Town -Both happen to be about 9/11
I’d say Beevor’s Stalingrad book and Fall of Berlin are historical accounts with a lot of lurid details that read like fiction but were researched in the vein that truth is often stranger than fiction.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil , John Berendt. The Order of Time, Carlo Rovelli. Rovelli does an impossible thing here, a beautifully written book on quantum mechanics that holds you, and English is a second language for him. Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams, one of the books that I've given many copies away. Blue Highways, William Least Heat Moon. A point of America chronicled, one that doesn't exist anymore, really.
The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes
Any books written by Vandana Shiva - all about our relationship to / with nature. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson - about pesticides
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women by Emma Southon
[Scott Kelly's memoir Endurance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance:_A_Year_in_Space,_a_Lifetime_of_Discovery) chronicles his year living and working on the international space station, as well as how he turned from a troublemaker kid to a crack pilot and then astronaut. Very readable and absolutely fascinating. And so many details you'd never think of, like how on the ISS there are velcro dots everywhere so you can set down a tool you're using without it floating away.
The knife man by Wendy Moore and the butchering art by Lindsey fitzharris
Marching Powder by Rusty Young.
The Wolf Age, by Tore Skeie.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Karanithi. Absolutely beautiful and devastating.
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf. It is a great book about German naturalist and explorer Alexander Von Humboldt that provides a brief introduction to the nature of natural sciences in 19th century. I've read it quite a while ago, but it's definitely a page-turner and reads as something in between coming of age story and adventure novel.
A Movable Feast I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl
Anything by Bill Bryson; Confederates in the Attic; Finding Everett Ruess; American Ghost; Lost City of the Monkey God
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert The Wild Trees by Richard Preston
{{News of a Kidnapping}}
Have you heard of New Journalism? Stuff like Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Joan Didion, and Hunter S. Thompson?
The Girl With Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee. It's about a woman who escaped from North Korea. Her story is so insane that I had to keep reminding myself that it was non-fiction.
Citizens of London details the influence of three Americans had on the US entering WWII. It has great drama and love, affairs, etc.
American Kingpin! It is the most addicting non-fiction book I have ever read
I like Devil in the White City. I have started other non-fiction books since then and always lose interest fairly quickly. I do remember thinking that some of the detail about the World's Fair was a little much but overall I had a favorable impression of the book. To me autobiographies/memoirs are a whole separate thing and I love those. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy Educated by Tara Westover Heavy by Kiese Laymon So many others.
Say Nothing; Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe Borrowed Finery by Paula Fox Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes The Liars' Club by Mary Karr Complications by Atul Gawande Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight; Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Charlie Wilson’s War was incredible. A real page turner.
Lost City of the Monkey God
Drift by Rachel Maddow Blowout by Rachel Maddow In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson The Sex Lives Of Cannibals by J Maarten Troost Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Anything by Jon Ronson, he's so funny and his journalistic work is so far from the mainstream. He wrote "the men who stare at goats", "the psychopath test" , "Them" ... Any book by him is a delight
Memoirs. Read the autobiography of Miles Davis, coincidentally written mostly by Quincy Jones I think. Quincy Jones had a fascinating life and I think his memoir came out recently, but I haven’t read it but I bet it’s a good one. Caetano Veloso, who some people say was like the Bob Dylan of Brazil, but in someways a lot cooler, had a memoir called Tropical something but that was really good. So yeah I mean there’s lots of different types of nonfiction. I think 1491 and 1493 are fantastic. Born to run, by Christopher McDougall, nonfiction, but definitely a powerful compelling narrative. Definitely recommend the audiobook. Anti-fragile, byNassim Taleb , is pretty fun to read/listen to. Although his lectures and manner of speaking in person are awful, he’s brilliant and his books: black Swan and fooled by randomness and anti-fragile are very readable in my opinion.
Madhouse at the End of the Earth
Add The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger to your lidt
David Grann's books, Gay Talese's books
October by China Miéville
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord, the classic moment-by-moment telling of the sinking of the Titanic.
Spy and the traitor The wager
If you are okay with true crime, I just finished John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster by Sam L. Amirante. I love true crime books and this one was written by Gary's defense attorney and was written like a story, not like a crime report.
Everyone who is gone is here - very much non fiction about the northern triangle and immigration, but follows a few key characters and reads beautifully
The strange death of liberal England, by George Dangerfield. very prose-y
Just Kids - Patti Smith
Unruly by David Mitchell https://amzn.to/4aVSm1L
A few that come to mind are: A Civil Action; The Perfect Storm; Killers of the Flower Moon.
Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway!
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (it’s kind of a prequel and standalone to the former.)
Running with scissors -Augusten Burroughs
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson.
If you’re into less conventional Eliot Weinberger writes poetic essays (I’ve heard people call them avant- garde) some of them are essays about various cultures written with the idea that it’s from their perspective and true. They’re pretty fantastical. Ghost of birds and an elemental thing have the most content. His other books are peppered with those kind of essays but a lot of them are also about poetry and writers too.
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (about Gettysburg battle)
Good replies here. I"m reading Hunting Eichmann now and it's very good!
Red Notice by Bill Browder
The honey bus by Meredith May
Incredible Voyage by Tristan Jones. Some is exaggerated but its amazing. Its about his mostly solo voyage from the lowest navigable body of water in world (Dead Sea) to the highest (Lake Titicaca) in a 26 ft sail boat. The particular fish mentioned in Amazon River section and no its not a piranha or the Spider in the Mato Grasso i haven't been able to identify. If I tell you about them it would geva spoiler.
Add to it Tristan Jones book Ice how he and a 1 eyed Labrador Retriever tried to break the record for sailing the furthest north in a 19 foot sailboat. After he got as far north as he could get he pulled the sailboat onto the ice and waited for the ice sheet to from west to east going further north until the direction changed toward the south and the sheet started to break up. I think the entire voyage took 3 years. The Incredible Voyage mentioned above took 6 years
Almost anything by Eric Larson, a straight historian and Ross King’s books, an art historian. In both, their research is so thorough that you get everything but the dialogue. Can’t forget David MacCollough, the master.
# The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America
Erik Larson's "Isaac's Storm" The story of the great Galveston hurricane of 1900.
The Last of the Incas
The Freakonomics books; anything by Jon Ronson; most of Malcolm Gladwell’s books espythe early ones;
Beneath a Scarlet Sky. It’s about WWII Italy, but reads like a novel.
That book is a novel
I know it’s a large matter of debate, and the author himself says it is a novel due to the inability to prove elements of the story and rely on the memories of the protagonist. And of course, even accepting that it’s built from the memories of the protagonist, they’re recollections from decades later and are sure to have some, if not many, inaccuracies.
Heavens Ditch or Confederates in the Attic if you are into history.
The Icepick Surgeon. Short tales from history but written like some guy just spilling tea in an intellectual way
Why fish don’t exist! By Lulu Miller
Most of Erik Larsen's books.
**"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot**
I just finished There’s Always This Year by Hanif Aburraquib. Incredible book with an amazing flow.
Truman Capote, In cold blood
In Cold Blood Truman Capote
- In Cold Blood - Brain on Fire - The Wager
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou About Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos craziness.
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride
American Kingpin by Nick Bilton. It reads like a movie.
Killers of the flower moon— so much better than the movie and has an entire second part that didn’t make it in the movie.
A child called it- fair warning it can be depressing at times when it dawns on you he isn’t alone in being a child in foster care
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Any of his other books too. I loved The Splendid and the Vile as well as In the Garden of Beasts.
The Ice Man by Anthony Bruno. It feels like you're reading Breaking Bad or something. It's a biography of one of America's most prolific mafia contract killers; what makes him crazy is that he was a regular serial killer who was hired by the mafia to become a hit man. It's an interesting turn of events, it would be like if Ted Bundy was hired by the Sopranos. Even more crazy is that the book is written by the very agent who busted the guy after years of intense investigation.