What non-fiction books should I read?

[deer of the dawn]

I went looking for nonfiction books and discovered that people really, really, really like True Crime books. Seriously. That's all I could even find on Gutenburg.org, except for a few biographies (and most of those were about horrible criminals and pirates). What the heck is wrong with people?

I like memoirs by interesting people, like Life and Death in Shanghai, Reading Lolita in Teheran; or historical books like Over the Edge of the World or Guns, Germs and Steel (not sure how you would classify that). My sister gave me The Tipping Point but it's sitting there half-finished since November, so...

I am very interested in Our Women on the Ground, essays by Arab women reporters.

Got recommendations for nonfiction books that aren't gory retellings of horrible crimes?

[Avatar]

Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential
Howard Marks: Mr Nice

--A

[sgt.null]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
the Devil in the White City - Erik Larsen

[Rigel]

The Big Short. So much better than the movie.

Everyone who watches the movie comes away saying "Bankers are crooks!" But the reality of the situation is that mortgage-backed securities and investments are incredibly complicated, and every individual choice seems reasonable (and ethical!) at the level it was made at. The whole point is that there aren't bad guys twirling mustaches out there, but that the sum of these decisions led to unforeseen problems for everyone else.

[peter]

Gosh - this is a difficult one...... and that's from a man who read nothing but non-fiction for twenty five years!

Lyton Strachey's Eminent Victorians is a first class read. The author has an incisive wit and an undeniable charm as he disects his three (I want to say victims, but will stick with) subjects - Florence Nightingale, Lord Gordan and I think Cardinal Newman if I recall correctly.

Yes - I highly recommend this one.....

Oh yes - and Edith Sitwell's English Eccentrics. Simply the best opening paragraph to any book ever written - and who could forget her description of failed actor 'Curricle' Coates, shaking his fist at the audience who mocked him and roaring "Ye bucks of the boxes who roar and reel - too drunk to listen, too proud to feel........" Magic!