I’m curious to get everyone’s perspective on this - The Boys in the Boat is the only nonfiction book that our survey respondents have ranked in our top 10 favorite book club books of all time, and BookBrowse has its nonfiction book club books here, but would love to have more nonfiction book club recommendations!
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Some that come to mind (in no particular order):
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Being Mortal
Astoria
Rough Sleepers
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Unbroken
Any of Metzger’s Conspiracy books
I’m kind of surprised that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks didn’t make it. It was a great book, and hugely popular as well.
Our book club read Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott, and we had a great discussion about it.
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I think Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson would be great book club nonfiction selection.
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I love non-fiction. In addition to Grann and Larson, here are a few other books/authors that I think would be great for bookclub discussions:
The Swans of Harlem (Karen Valby)
Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA (Liza Mundy)
The Six - The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts (Loren Grush)
The Library Book (Susan Orlean)
The Art Thief (Micheal Finkel)
Empress of the Nile (Lynne Olson)
A Most Beautiful Thing (Arshay Cooper)
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I (Raja Shehadeh)
And maybe depending on the interests of the group, these books (which are more favs):
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me (Patrick Bringley)
Soul of an Octopus (Sy Montgomery)
Free (Lea Ypi)
Eat the Buddha (Barbara Demick)
The Book of Joy (His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu)
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So many wonderful suggestions in the replies! I just finished An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin—so interesting and she makes history so readable! Any of her books would be a good addition to your non-fiction book club. Candace Millard is another non-fiction writer whose books read like fiction. Two of our book club’s best discussions over the years are Just Mercy and Being Mortal. Happy reading!
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Here are a few recent nonfiction selections that our book clubs read that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan
Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key
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I love that book. Lots of discussion points, too.
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Besides many of the books listed below (especially Unbroken, any of Metzger’s Conspiracy books, and A Fever in the Heartland), three that are worth reading include:
Prisoners of the Castle by Ben Macintyre
The Devil’s Half Acre by Kristen Green
The Escape Artist - Jonathan Freedland
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NIck, I asked my book club this question and the response was that most nonfiction is written about men: war stories, sports people, etc. Not many came to mind about real women unless they are biographies. True??
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That’s interesting and likely true historically, but it looks like others have proposed some good options in this thread that focus on women!
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While I agree that there are many more nonfiction books featuring men than women, there are books about women out there, too, if you look for them. Some really great titles that come to mind include:
Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien
Code Girls by Liza Mundy
Radium Girls by Kate Moore
(irritating how they all use “girls” in the title)
Valiant Women by Lena S. Andrews
Yale Needs Women by Anne Gardiner Perkins
Brave the River by Melissa Sevigny
… and I could go on.
If you’re interested in checking out some woman-centric nonfiction, I’d suggest logging in to BookBrowse & going to Genres & Themes. Select the Adult Nonfiction oval. Then, under Filter by Subgenre/Theme, select “Strong Women.” Here’s a shortcut (you have to be logged in first to see the full list):
(I’m not sure why the box above says General Fiction, but the link does bring up NF, at least on my system.)
Daniel James Brown who wrote Boys in the Boat has a couple of other great titles. I particularly enjoyed Facing the Mountain.
Ilyon Woo’s Master Slave Husband Wife is an excellent discussion book.
Kate Moore has two books that cover topics worth discussing: The Radium Girls and The Woman They Could Not Silence.
I just finished Black in Blues by Imani Perry and it has tons of topics for further reading and discussion.
The Shadow Docket by Steve Vladeck is a bit of a challenge for the non lawyer but it is especially important right now.
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Oh, I think there are a lot of non-fiction books about women. I have read quite a few amazing stories centered around women. I listed a few in my response above.
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I second Kate Moore’s The Woman They Could Not Silence and many of the other books mentioned above. Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist is another that is woman centric but the topic of abortion could be too devisive for a book club. I found it fascinating and tragic to look at the world before birth control.
How about The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold. This was very little about the crimes, but centered on the lives lived before their murders.
Also highly recommend Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of A Burning World by John Valliant. No woman focused, but a fabulous read. Our book club members were all enthusiastic.
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Thanks so much for posting this question. The replies mention quite a few books I need to check out that were not on my list to read.
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Of course! I knew I could depend on our BookBrowsers to surface some great recommendations, and I was not disappointed!
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Thanks! We did read the Woman Who could not be silenced and the author came to our community college . I will take back your suggestions!