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Please use this thread to recommend or post short reviews of books that fall in the category of non-fiction.

If you want personalized recommendations for this genre, make a post in this thread with a brief explanation about what type of other books or authors you like in this genre.

You can also recommend against reading books that you read but didn't like.

When recommending a book, it may help to make a concise description of the book. If you wish to write more than a paragraph about a book or series, please post a new thread dedicated solely to that book or series.

If you are listing a lot of books, it may be a good idea to briefly explain the list a little. (Are all the books part of a sub-genre? Do they all the books you are listing have something in common? If they are your personal favorites in the genre, then briefly tell us a little about yourself and what types of books you like.)

George Friedman, chief intelligence officer and founder of Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), a private intelligence agency whose clients include foreign government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. Gathering information from its total network of operatives and analysts (drawing the nickname “the Shadow CIA”), Stratfor produces introspective and genuinely fascinating analysis of international events daily, from possible outcomes of the latest Pakistan/India tensions to the hierarchy of Mexican drug cartels to challenges to Obama’s nascent administration. In The Next 100 Years, Friedman attempts the impossible challenge of prognostication world events through the 21st century.

In the mid-1970s, an American graduate student in anthropology joined the ranks of white-powdered geisha in Kyoto, Japan. Liza Dalby took the name Ichigiku and apprenticed in the famed Pontocho district, trailing behind “older sisters” bemused by this long-legged Westerner intent on learning their arts and customs. For a deeper comprehension though of Geisha existence, I would recommend Liza Dalby’s ‘Geisha’. In this classic best-seller, Liza Dalby, the only non-Japanese ever to have trained as a geisha, offers an insider’s look at the exclusive world of female companions to the Japanese male elite.

House of Cards By William D. Cohan. A firm that was established on May 1, 1923, and stayed through the 1929 crash and the Great Depression, had been ruined by bad management and the crisis of 2008. In famous March 2008 when the 85-year-old firm Bear Stearns crashed and burned in little over a week, it became a herald of the credit crisis that snowballed later in the year and led to the current global financial meltdown. Bear Stearns, whose stock had traded as high as $170 in 2007, ended up selling itself to JPMorgan Chase for less than the value of its office building, and Mr. Cohan’s narrative of its death spiral not only makes for absorbing, edge-of-the-seat reading, but it also remains as a prophylactic tale about how avarice and arrogance and high-risk gambling smashed up one company, and turned it into a metaphor for what the author calls “the near collapse of capitalism as we have known it.”

A good friend of mine loved Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom, so I decided to read it the other day and I fell in love as well. This book is about a man named Eddie who dies and encounters five people he knew in his lifetime before he is sent off to heaven. He learns things about these people, people who he thought were insignificant to him, but turned out to have a greater impact on his life than he could ever imagine. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to read a short, quick read, that's sentimental and inspirational.

Other Mitch Albom books I would recommend are: For One More Day, and Tuesdays With Morrie. He also has a new book coming out in some time September this year, Have A Little Faith, about a rabbi and pastor and their devotion to their faith. He gives a preview of this book in this YouTube video I came across the other day, which truly moved me, and I hope you will be able to enjoy it as well. You can find it on Mitch Albom's official YouTube page.

Another book I would recommend if you enjoy Mitch Albom, would be Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. I hope this review helped!

It has helped!

My recommended book is milkweeed. Yes its and odd title. But its about Hitler the Aryan race he wanted to start, and all the people he got rid of trying to create it, but through a little boys eyes who is experienced his friends dying and having no parents or way of living. He had some of his friends turn against him. Its a very good book. It also has its sad parts. Its a good book for someone who thinks its the end of the world and their life is so horrible when their are people who have way worser problems.

I can recommend this book, it is very exciting

I just read A Tale of 2 Worlds, an inspirational and thought-provoking book, that uses humour and slight satire to valuable insight about life and the world we live in now.

I ordered my book two weeks ago from the online site (ataleof2worldsDOTcom) and it just came to my doorstep a week later. I then proceeded to read it, thinking it was just intriguing economic concepts (serves both as a leisure and a help to my work). And then I realized that the book wasn't what I thought at all. Instead of being all about economics and technical jargon, it explains to us what life is simply.

I really don't know how to explain the book well, because it is something so profound that it is difficult to exactly type/write out what I think. But I must say that the website has a very inaccurate, mismatched and underrated description of this book. Hoping to find people who read it or are interested to read it so I have someone to discuss it with (:

I can recomend Necropolis: London and Its Dead by Catharine Arnold. I normally just stick to fiction but I did enjoy this book and its not a huge book either so quite a quick read.

I was hoping to find more non fiction recommendations.

Please!!!!

SmartShopp3r wrote:I was hoping to find more non fiction recommendations.

Please!!!!

A few I really enjoyed:

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
--It's about how people make split second decisions. The stories were really interesting, but the technical information behind it is a little sparse. Still, I found it a really enjoyable read, and I still think about the content of the book quite often.

Bad News by Tom Fenton
--Fenton was a CBS news correspondant for over 30 years. He changed the way I read/watch the news and it is probably the best non-fiction book I've ever read. It is also VERY non-partisan which I found refreshing with the state of the news today.


The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
--Pollan explores the various ways food gets to our table in America. I am a little hesitant to recommend the book because my cousin has become a food Nazi after reading the book. I really enjoyed it, but I took something completely different away from the book than he did. It made me more aware of what I'm eating, but it didn't necessarily change how I eat. I found the business of the food industry fascinating though. It's a great conversation book though.


Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery by Janet F. Kitz
--Kitz did extensive research on this 1917 event where a ship loaded with munitions destined for Europe exploded in the Halifax Harbour. It devastated the city killing many and leaving even more homeless. There is an awesome exhibit about the tragedy at The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax. This book might be a little difficult to find if you are not in Canada. I picked up my copy at the museum. It was really well written and I found her writing both heartfelt and interesting.


I hope that helps you out!

Thanks Bowlie, will give Bad News a shot. Have a good feeling about it.

SmartShopp3r wrote:Thanks Bowlie, will give Bad News a shot. Have a good feeling about it.

It is great! We read it for my real life book club a few years ago and had a great discussion about it. Let me know what you think of it (even if you don't like it).

I liked Blink as well.

I recommend Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. Best on audio. Very funny and poignant.