Helena HoayunAnyone have recommendations for good narrative non-fiction? I’m trying to broaden my reading. Open to anything!
Brad King@Helenahoayun Do you have a type, because I have a bunch. (I assume you mean no essay books, because I have a few memoir-by-essays like that I love.)
Some memoir, some other stuffs
Alisson Wood, Being Lolita
Good Morning Destroyer of Men's Soul, by Nina Renata Aron
The Mastermind, by Evan Ratliff
No Filter, by Sarah Frier
Open, by Rachel Kranz
I'm The One You Want to Marry, by Sophie Santos
Jesus Land and A Thousand Lives, by Julia Scheeres
@thebradking thank you for this list! I enjoy memoirs so I’ll definitely check these out!
@Helenahoayun I hope you like whichever you read! Drop a note when you're finished and happy #AmReading
Christiana Doucette@Helenahoayun do you like verse? Alias Anna by Susan Hood is excellent. She teamed up with the son of the main character to write the book. It's set in what is now Ukraine during WWII.
@Helenahoayun and yes. It's non-fiction. Not just historical.
@doucette515 oh this sounds interesting! I haven’t read many books in verse so I’ll give this one a shot. Thank you!
Andreas Tjernshaugen@Helenahoayun I love Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. It was published more than ten years ago and the topic is not the most uplifting, of course, but it is extremely well written and interesting.
@andreastjern thanks, I’ll keep this one in mind!
torzillo@Helenahoayun does Malcolm Gladwell count with books like Outlier? Or The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Both have a few good stories but maybe wouldn’t be considered narrative non fiction.
@torzillo I haven’t heard of these but I’ll check them out, thank you!
altlovesbooks@Helenahoayun For something historical, maybe The Radium Girls (Kate Moore) or Midnight in Chernobyl (Adam Higginbotham)? Both of these were really good reads to me.
@altlovesbooks great thank you for the suggestions!
Daniela Quirke@Helenahoayun Have you read Maria Popova's book "Figuring"? I loved it. It has history, science, art, romance, tragedy... and it's all true!
@vantablue Ooooh I like the sound of this one, thank you for the rec! Adding it to my tbr now ✨
Jon Wesley Huff@Helenahoayun i have enjoyed all of Erik Larson’s books I’ve read so far including Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck. It’s a genre I haven’t delved too much into but I find his writing really brings these interesting moments to life.
@jonwesleyhuff thank you, I’ll look into them!
@jonwesleyhuff Seconding Erik Larson, I read Isaac's Storm last year and loved it. I have Devil in the White City on my to-read list currently.
@altlovesbooks I'm definitely planning on reading another one soon. I was thinking about Dead Wake. But Isaac's Storm does seem intriguing.
Dana Rail@Helenahoayun I highly recommend THE FUTURE IS HISTORY by #MashaGessen.
The subject is the decline of post-Soviet #Russia into its current state of oligarchy and authoritarianism, and she examines it from different viewpoints by telling the stories of several very interesting people.
Very timely reading, too.
@danarail thanks for the suggestion, I’ll look into it!
Eryn McConnell@Helenahoayun I really liked The Angry Therapist's Book, Single on Purpose. You don't have to be single to read it. And Atomic Habits.
@ErynMcConnell lol this sounds right up my alley, thank you!
Heather@Helenahoayun I greatly enjoyed “Poisoned Water” by Candy Cooper. She explored the Flint Water Crisis through the eyes of primarily teens. Very eye opening.
@thelindenbookie thank you, I’ll look into this a little more!
Gill DeCosemo@Helenahoayun I’ve recently read The Spy and The Traitor by Ben Macintyre with my book group. Wasn’t sure I wanted to read it but once I got going it exceeded all expectations. I’d say it’s definitely worth reading.
@GillDeCosemo ooh thank you! I’ll check this out!
L'étagère@Helenahoayun it's only been a few years i started reading memoirs myself (#fictionaddict) beginning with the hauntingly beautiful "Wild" by @CherylStrayed, moving on to Lidia Yuknavitch's Chronology of Water, Carrie Fisher's Wishful drinking and Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" (great for writers too)
Oh and if you wanna go classic, Agatha Christie's autobiography is an absolute delight <3
Oh and if you wanna go classic, Agatha Christie's autobiography is an absolute delight <3