Nonfiction anyone?

[dkbaseball]

I can't bring it on the best book thread since P.G. Wodehouse is about the only fiction I've read in decades (and I'm thinking maybe I have no soul as a consequence). So herewith a few nominees in the nonfiction category:

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe -- quintessential account of '60s zeitgeist. Also, Mauve Gloves and Madmen Clutter & Vine is a must-read by Wolfe.

Democracy in America by Tocqueville -- the Frenchman spent less than a year in the U.S., apprehending it through a second language, yet understood more about the country than anyone else ever has. You probably know about some of the predictions that came to pass, such as the U.S. and Russia becoming the world's superpowers, but check out some of the less well known, such as the rise of pantheism.

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James -- you can't understand the U.S. without understanding the religious impulses that have driven it. James writes better than his brother Henry.

The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch and The Fall of Public Man by Richard Sennett -- two '70s books that do a chillingly good job of describing and accounting for our currrent predicament.

The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg -- a sociologist's very readable account of the demise of places in the U.S. where people interact socially.

The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler -- the horrors of suburban sprawl and the whole post-WWII built environment.

These last two books began my conversion from Reagan conservatism to a European-style leftism.

[Bob Green]

I've read and enjoyed The Geography of Nowhere. A couple more sociology type books I've enjoyed are: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. These books will make you think twice about McDonalds and Wal-Mart.

My main non-fiction pleasure is reading history:

Modern Times by Paul Johnson
The Fifties by David Halberstam
Waltzing With a Dictator (Marcos) by Ray Bonner
Two Ocean War by Samuel Eliot Morison
At Dawn We Slept by Gordon Prange

Beyond Peace by Richard M. Nixon is a very good read.

Bob Green
Yokosuka, Japan

[BCGroup]

With the plethora of leadership books out there, I was pleasantly surprised at Resonant Leadership, with a focus on resonance in leadership, rather than dissonance. The focus is keeping balance in stressful situations, but it's more than just dealing with burnout--more about finding your moral center, and staying true to yourself even in challenging situations.

[Dukerati]

95% of what I read is fiction but I do venture to the other side once in a while. I love the "geography to nowhere" book and thought it was convincingly written.

Favorite Authors:
David Halberstam (Breaks of the Game), Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, Tipping Point), Micheal Lewis (Moneyball), Stephen Levitt (Freakonomics), Dave Eggers (Heartbreaking work of staggering genius, What is the what)

[DevilAlumna]

I love anything by the Shaara's -- father or son. Killer Angels is obviously a classic, but I thought the first of the two Revolutionary war books was a more exciting read. I also liked "Gone for Soldiers," as the Mexican-American war was the training ground for the generals who would go on to lead in the Civil War.

[Exiled_Devil]

With the plethora of leadership books out there, I was pleasantly surprised at Resonant Leadership, with a focus on resonance in leadership, rather than dissonance. The focus is keeping balance in stressful situations, but it's more than just dealing with burnout--more about finding your moral center, and staying true to yourself even in challenging situations.

BC - who is the author? I am always up for a new leadership book - leadership development is part of my business.

my favorite non-fictions:

How to win friends and influence people, Dale Carnagie. Everyone should read this at least once a year.

The Art of Loving, Eric Fromm - not a Kama Sutra book, but one on human relationships from a great psychologist

Man's search for meaning, Viktor Frankl - Psychology thoery derived from personal experience of the author in Auschwitz. Powerful.

Age of Access Rifkin - Recent (1999?) book on how we will pay for stuff less and privilege more. Damn homeowners association.

Our Post-human future, Francis Fukuyama - bridges technology and culture; implications of bio- and nanotech advances on society written by a reformed neo-con.

Everything bad is good for you, Steven Johnson - argues that TV and video games are more complex and challenge the brain more, making Jason Evans smarter than the rest of us for all his TV viewing. Interesting read.


Exiled

[Bob Green]

Man's search for meaning, Viktor Frankl - Psychology thoery derived from personal experience of the author in Auschwitz. Powerful.



How could I have left this one off. Frankl's book is indeed very powerful.

Bob Green
Yokosuka, Japan

[BCGroup]

BC - who is the author? I am always up for a new leadership book - leadership development is part of my business.
Exiled
Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, 2005, Harvard Business School Press. It is to some degree a follow-up to Primal Leadership, which they co-authored.

[Exiled_Devil]

Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, 2005, Harvard Business School Press. It is to some degree a follow-up to Primal Leadership, which they co-authored.

Cool - I know some of Boyatzis's academic stuff. I look forward to reading it. Thanks for the info.


Exiled

[bluebutton]

I'm reading my first non-fiction book not related to my research interests in a while and it's a good go.

James Bartholomew's The Welfare State We're In
He's a British journalist who reviews the history of state sponsored welfare in Britain which started well before I thought. As an academic, I find some of his stats a bit breezy, but cumulatively his argument is quite coherent. I don't think about/know about this stuff really, so I was surprised how interesting this was to me.

[Jim3k]

Freethinkers, A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby (2004), New York, Henry Holt & Co.

This is a great history for those who are being bombarded by those who think the United States is a Christian nation and who want to intelligently respond. Jacoby begins with the secularists of the Revolution (with a nod to their predecessors) and traces the conflict from then to now.

[3rdgenDukie]

1491 - Pre-European Americas by Charles Mann

At Home In the Universe - Self-organization theory by Stuart Kaufmann

Anything travel book by Paul Theroux

The Prize - History of oil by Daniel Yergin

Song of the Dodo - by David Quammen

Short History of Everything - by Bill Bryson

Parting the Waters - Taylor Branch

Against the Gods - Peter Bernstein

History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell

Out of Control - Kevin Kelly

[Deslok]

A few in the science/math geeky category...

Chaos by James Gleick: a very interesting foray into the development and fundamentals of chaos theory

Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne: a fantastic work that outlines both the history and the implications of relativity and other aspects of modern physics(and it amused the heck out of me to recognize its presence in the hospital scene in the original Spiderman movie)

The Inflationary Universe by Alan Guth: Guth was the one who introduced the theory and the book explains it all, how the universe could arise from nothing, and the omega value could be as close to 1 as it is.

In Search of Schrodinger's Kittens by John Gribben: An excellent work explaining the ideas of quantum theory and various interpretations of it.

[dukestheheat]

Absolutely the best non-fiction I've recently read:

'Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the globe', by Laurence Bergreen.

I highly recommend this book for several reasons: it grips you with pain-staking detail, it's very-well referenced so you feel like you're learning from a textbook as you're reading it, and it is such a great read on the politics and struggle between the Portuguese and the Spaniards when it comes to race/class and the quest for 'first to the spice'. With my interests in sailing and kiteboarding, this book was compelling.

I couldn't put the book down! Also, I wrote the author, Bergreen, and I told him just how much I'd loved this book, and that I'd looked through some of the references and also had tracked down all of the 'for more information and additional reading' notations he'd offered along with his references, and he wrote me back!

go for it!

dth.

[dbb03]

Up in the Old Hotel
Journalist Joseph Mitchell, whose death in in May 1996 at the age of 87 merited a half-page obituary in the New York Times, pioneered a style of journalism while crafting brilliant magazine pieces for the New Yorker from the 1930s to the early 1960s. Up in the Old Hotel, a collection of his best reporting, is a 700-page joy to read. Great reportage!

In Cold Blood
Capote masterpiece

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
On December 8 1995, Elle magazine editor-in-chief Bauby suffered a stroke and lapsed into a coma. He awoke 20 days later, mentally aware of his surroundings but physically paralyzed with the exception of some movement in his head and left eye. Bauby had Locked-in-Syndrome, a rare condition caused by stroke damage to the brain stem. Eye movements and blinking a code representing letters of the alphabet became his sole means of communication. It is also how he dictated this warm, sad, and extraordinary memoir. Bauby's thoughts on the illness, the hospital, family, friends, career, and life before and after the stroke appear with considerable humor and humanity.

Soon to be a movie, read it before you see it.

Darkness Visible
"Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness" is an autobiographical work in which distinguished novelist William Styron recalls his battle with clinical depression. A lean 84 pages, this is a straightforward and eloquent book.

Death Be Not Proud
Johnny Gunther was only seventeen years old when he died of a brain tumor. During the months of his illness, everyone near him was unforgettably impressed by his level-headed courage, his wit and quiet friendliness, and, above all, his unfaltering patience through times of despair. This deeply moving book is a father's memoir of a brave, intelligent, and spirited boy

The great influenza
Fascinating look back at an all too often ignored chapter in our history.

Miracle in the Andes
In 1972, Parrado and his rugby teammates from Uruguay were flying to Chile to play a match against the national team. Crossing the Andes, the aircraft crashed on a remote, high-altitude, glaciated slope. This remarkable story of the survivors omits none of the raw intensity and brutality of their experience but is burnished by time, casting an analytical perspective on ways in which their subsequent lives were influenced by the ordeal. The many forms of courage exhibited and the sustaining power of love of family are the basis of the narrative as the group supported one another in a collective refusal to surrender to the mountain.

and one bball related one:

A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton
First published in 1965, A Sense of Where You Are is the literary equivalent of a harmonic convergence, a remarkable confluence of two talents--John McPhee and Bill Bradley--at the beginning of what would prove to be long and distinguished careers. While McPhee would blossom into one of the best nonfiction writers of the last 35 years, Bradley segued from an all-American basketball player at Princeton, to Rhodes Scholar, to NBA star, to three terms in the U.S. Senate. McPhee noticed greatness in Bradley from the start; the book is an extension of a lengthy magazine profile McPhee wrote early in Bradley's senior year; the title comes from Bradley always knowing his position in relation to the basket.

[Olympic Fan]

Most of the non-fiction I read is history. For years I've been devouring military history ...

Bob, I notice you have a few good WWII titles ... Let me suggest Russell Weigley's Eisenhower's Lieutenants. Published in 1990, it's the best, most accessible account of the 1944-45 campaign in France that I've found. I also like Gerald Weinberg's World at Arms, one of the best one-volume histories of the war that I've seen -- it's very, VERY good at relating the impact of different campaigns on each other (for instance, how German tank losses at Kursk impacted the submarine campaign in the North Atlantic).

If you are interested in the Revolution, let me suggest John Buchanan's The Road to Guilford Courthouse -- an amazing account of the war in the Carolinas.

Lately, I've been plowing everything I can find on antebellum American history. I got hooked by Gary Wills' The Negro President (a very unflattering look at Thomas Jefferson). Anything by Wills is superb (his Lincoln at Gettsburg is an all-time favorite).

I also finally got around to reading Don Fehrenbacker's 1978 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Dred Scott Case ... which set me up for David Reynolds mind-blowing, "John Brown - Abolitionist."

Look, I'm not a big fan of revisionist history. I'm VERY skeptical of historians who try to make a splash by throwing out a new perspective without a factual foundation.

But Reynolds' re-examination of Brown is long overdue and is most convincing. For one thing, the century-long distortion of him as a madman who heard voices from God doesn't explain why he met and overwhelmed such men as Emerson and Thoreau (and such a woman as Harriett Tubman, who wanted to join his raid on Harper's Ferry) or why he so terrified the South. When you read his words in court, you hear not a narrow-minded religious bigot, but a brilliant intellect whose words did more damage to the slave-owning cause than his military exploits ever did.

It helps you understand why Thoreau wrote that Brown will do for the gallows what Christ did for the cross ... and why the 69th Massachusetts marched off to war singing "John Brown's body"

Anyway, I just picked up David Fischer's Washington's Crossing and the first few pages in are enthralling.

Oh well, I'd also recommend anything by Barbara Tuchman ...

[Bob Green]

Bob, I notice you have a few good WWII titles ... Morison is a fun read, but he's very out of date and has been by-passed by modern research.


Oh well, I'd also recommend anything by Barbara Tuchman ...



Samuel Eliot Morison was the official historian of the U.S. Navy during WWII, so I have some difficulty with the concept of him being bypassed by modern research.

I echo your recommendation for Barbara Tuchman. Her book on Stilwell and China was fascinating. I also enjoyed The March Of Folly.

Bob Green
Yokosuka, Japan

[dukemomLA]

I'm so glad someone finally mentioned IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote. And yes, truly a masterpiece!

Another oldie, is YES I CAN, an autobiography by Sammy Davis, Jr.

BALL FOUR by Jim Bouton is a good baseball read. And DALLAS NORTH FORTY is a good football read (....is this considered non-fiction. I'm not sure)

And in a spiritual bent: THE LOST BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, and THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS.

[Olympic Fan]

Bob,

I understand Morison's position as the navy's official historian -- his "Two-Ocean War" that you cite is merely a summary of his 15-volume official "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II."

Morison originally published in 1949. He not only had access to the U.S.Navy's official records, but to many of the participants of the battles he was writing about. Not only that, he knew many of them from his service in the war.

However, he did not bother with more than a cursory investigation into Japanese records, so work is VERY weak and unbalanced in that regard. And as the navy's official historian, there are places where he's an advocate for the navy and not an impartial observer. There's a tremendous amount of information that's emerged in the last 60 years that re-shapes many of the campaigns that Morison writes about.

Morison is a hell of the a writer and his work is a useful starting place for anyone interested in the war in the Pacific. Actually, my original criticism of Morison nagged at me so much that I went back and erased that sentence soon after I wrote it.

BTW: If you liked Prange's work, check out Edwin Layton's "And I Was There." Layton was the Pacific Fleet intelligence officer under both Kimmel and Nimitz (he was on the scene from before Pearl Harbor to the surrender in Tokyo Bay). He offers a intimiate behind-the-scenes look at the Navy's high command in the days before and after Pearl Harbor.

[rthomas]

DevilAlumna,
I too love Shaara's books, especially Killer Angels. It's especially fun to visit Gettysburg and other battle sites after reading thier books.

But I wouldn't call them nonfiction. Both the elder Shaara and his son called them novels.

[mapei]

Awesome recommendations. A comment on The Geography of Nowhere is that a somewhat more academic and dispassionate rendering of the same facts and their solutions, The Next American Metropolis by visionary architect Peter Calthorpe, changed my career and my life.

And most anything by John McPhee is wonderful. I especially remember Coming Into the Country, and his great essay on Arthur Ashe.

How about Krakauer's Into Thin Air?

I also nominate Peter Mathiasson's The Snow Leopard. I hope I spelled PM's name correctly.

[Bob Green]

Bob,

I understand Morison's position as the navy's official historian -- his "Two-Ocean War" that you cite is merely a summary of his 15-volume official "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II."

Morison originally published in 1949. He not only had access to the U.S.Navy's official records, but to many of the participants of the battles he was writing about. Not only that, he knew many of them from his service in the war.

However, he did not bother with more than a cursory investigation into Japanese records, so work is VERY weak and unbalanced in that regard. And as the navy's official historian, there are places where he's an advocate for the navy and not an impartial observer. There's a tremendous amount of information that's emerged in the last 60 years that re-shapes many of the campaigns that Morison writes about.

Morison is a hell of the a writer and his work is a useful starting place for anyone interested in the war in the Pacific. Actually, my original criticism of Morison nagged at me so much that I went back and erased that sentence soon after I wrote it.

BTW: If you liked Prange's work, check out Edwin Layton's "And I Was There." Layton was the Pacific Fleet intelligence officer under both Kimmel and Nimitz (he was on the scene from before Pearl Harbor to the surrender in Tokyo Bay). He offers a intimiate behind-the-scenes look at the Navy's high command in the days before and after Pearl Harbor.

Edwin Layton's "And I Was There" is part of my library. I listed "Two Ocean War" because very few people have time to read 15 Volumes of Naval History. I've read a great deal of it but no where close to every page of all 15 Volumes. I agree with your point in regard to Morison's objectivity and treatment of the Japanese viewpoint. Two books I recommend in order to gain insight on the Japanese perspective are:

"The Pacific War, 1931-45: A Critical Perspective on Japan's Role in World War II" by Saburo Ienaga.

"The Reluctant Admiral" by Hiroyuki Agawa.

Bob Green
Yokosuka, Japan

[mpj96]

A few great books that I've not yet seen mentioned on the lists that have been provided so far:

The Glory and the Dream -- William Manchester -- a great account of US history from the thirties through the sixties. Someone on this board recommended it. I read it. It was a tremendous introduction to history outside the classroom.

Just a Country Lawyer -- Paul R. Clancy -- biography of Sen. Sam Ervin. Absolutely fantastic.

Truman -- David McCullough -- in my opinion the best of the many good books that he has written (at least of the ones I have read)

My Life in Court -- Louis Nizer -- Absolutely riveting account of six different kinds of trials by a master lawyer. Great war stories here.

The Great Shark Hunt -- Hunter S. Thompson -- I suppose one could call this nonfiction. A compilation of journalism culled from the work of a writer in his prime.

As mentioned by others, the Killer Angels and its sequels are historical fiction.

For Devilalumna and others who like that genre, Cape Fear Rising by Philip Gerard is awesome.

[mapei]

The Year of Magical Thinking.

[DevilAlumna]

The Year of Magical Thinking.

I want to read this, but I'm afraid -- afraid my husband would think about buying stock in Kleenex, because I wouldn't help but cry when reading it. (I'm a girl, I cry. Just a fact of life. :o)

Does it have its uplifting moments, to balance out the heaviness of the subject matter?

[mapei]

"Uplifting" may be asking too much, I'm afraid. But, being Didion and all, there is certainly clear-eyed insight.

[Cavlaw]

The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff.

[throatybeard]

I want to thank dkb for the recommentdation on Kunstler. I read The Geography of Nowhere and was wowed by it, so I've followed up with Home from Nowhere, The City in Mind, and I'm working on The Long Emergency. Kunstler can get a little high-horsey at times, but he's absolutely right: we've set the nation up in an completely unsustainable way, and when the oil gets too expensive to extract, we're screwed.

His skwereing of Atlanta and Las Vegas is delightful.

[wilson]

Ditto the comments about Barbara Tuchman. I too loved The March of Folly, but The Guns of August is also brilliant. It's an account of the early proceedings of WWI, which of course had far-reaching implications for much more than just that particular war. As an historian of the West Indies, I must also recommend one of her lesser-known works, The First Salute, about a largely overlooked, yet quite significant (at least in Tuchman's eyes) episode of the American Revolution.

As for WWII books, Richard Overy's Why the Allies Won is, quite simply the best out there. Impeccably researched and compellingly presented. Among the true historical classics.

I also love Sugar and Slaves by Richard Dunn (pretty much exactly what it sounds like) and Command at Sea by Michael Palmer (an overview of the evolution of naval tactics from the classical period to the Gulf War).

Finally, if you like spy novels and are looking for good nonfiction, you have to read A Man Called Intrepid by William Stevenson. It's about the genesis of the CIA and the crucial role of Anglo-American intelligence during WWII. Why this book has yet to be made into a movie is beyond me. It's better than any fictional espionnage tale I can think of.

[dkbaseball]

I want to thank dkb for the recommentdation on Kunstler. I read The Geography of Nowhere and was wowed by it, so I've followed up with Home from Nowhere, The City in Mind, and I'm working on The Long Emergency. Kunstler can get a little high-horsey at times, but he's absolutely right: we've set the nation up in an completely unsustainable way, and when the oil gets too expensive to extract, we're screwed.

His skwereing of Atlanta and Las Vegas is delightful.

Check out his website every Monday for a choice rant or two. Mostly riffs on The Long Emergency, but lately he's been teeing off on The Big Fund Boyz of Wall Street.

A very edgy guy, and heavily invested in the U.S. going to hell in a handbasket, so his analysis always supports that theme and some of his predictions are a bit slow in coming around. But he's preaching to the choir with me (my bumper sticker reads: "Where are we going and what am I doing in this handbasket"). And the guy can really turn a phrase, IMO. He's got a pile of novels out there, but hey, I'm no English professor.

As Mapei mentioned, some of the architects in the New Urbanism movement have weighed in with good books on the subject, such as Kunstler's pals Calthorpe and Duany/Plater-Zybeck. I really liked the Calthorpe quote in Home From Nowhere about the U.S. seeming to have suffered a national stroke after WWII and forgotten everything it ever knew about living intelligently.

[Tappan Zee Devil]

Guns, Germs and Steel - How European culture became dominant.

Collapse - Why societies succeed or fail.

[SoCalDukeFan]

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

SoCal