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Non-Fiction thread

RCRanger03

By RCRanger03
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RCRanger03

RCRanger03 1049

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I’m on a kick of non-fiction right now. Just started reading a book on the history/purposes of the drug war and a differing perspective on dealing with drug addiction called “Chasing the Scream” by Johann Hari, if it’s worthwhile I’ll probably make a follow up thread

 

What’s something non-fiction you’ve read or are reading that is worth sharing?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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deac_tracy

deac_tracy 516

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Recently read The Romanovs by Simon Montefiore. First half was Game of Throne-ish aka lots of orgies and slaughtering. Second half was like watching a trainwreck in slow motion. One critique I have is I wish the author focused less on the tsar's sex lives and more on their policies and how they influenced Russia. Spoiler alert: most of them were nymphomaniacs, got repetitive after a while. Still recommend the book.

 

Reading The Evangelicals by Francis Fitzgerald now. Liking it so far.

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Angry Gorilla

Angry Gorilla 1766

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Erik Larson has some good ones...

The Devil in the White City - dual story of the making of the Chicago World's Fair along with serial killer H.H. Holmes during the fair.  Scorsese is making a movie with Leo based on the book
Isaac's Storm - the story of the 1900 Galveston hurricane

I also read Skip Hollandsworth's...

The Midnight Assassin - relatively unknown Jack the Ripper style serial killer in Austin in the late 1800's, great story as well as a nice read about Austin at that time

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89626

Posted
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On 4/18/2018 at 2:56 PM, Angry Gorilla said:

The Midnight Assassin - relatively unknown Jack the Ripper style serial killer in Austin in the late 1800's, great story as well as a nice read about Austin at that time

The Servant Girl Annihilator is the best name for a serial killer ever. 

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zman13

zman13 178

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Posted
On 4/18/2018 at 2:56 PM, Angry Gorilla said:

Erik Larson has some good ones...

The Devil in the White City - dual story of the making of the Chicago World's Fair along with serial killer H.H. Holmes during the fair.  Scorsese is making a movie with Leo based on the book
Isaac's Storm - the story of the 1900 Galveston hurricane

I also read Skip Hollandsworth's...

The Midnight Assassin - relatively unknown Jack the Ripper style serial killer in Austin in the late 1800's, great story as well as a nice read about Austin at that time

Good recommendations. All three books are really enjoyable. A great overview of the atmosphere, the people, politics and egos. 

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staboner

staboner 4969

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Posted
On 4/21/2018 at 11:14 AM, michaelpshayes said:

51Kajb20ozL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

learn a little about a lot of different things in this one, really liking it 

bryson is my favorite author. have read everything he does. if you like this one there are more

i loved the section on baseball and the history. just loved it. 

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michaelpshayes

michaelpshayes 417

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3 hours ago, staboner said:

bryson is my favorite author. have read everything he does. if you like this one there are more

i loved the section on baseball and the history. just loved it. 

will certainly read more of his stuff,  have loved this book .... I know little to nothing about baseball history and I agree with you... those parts of the book are great....the part about the guy walking in on babe ruth while he was  laying on the floor with a girl "working on him" while he was smoking a cigar and drinking whiskey...I was hooked

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michaelpshayes

michaelpshayes 417

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Posted
On 4/18/2018 at 2:56 PM, Angry Gorilla said:

Erik Larson has some good ones...

The Devil in the White City - dual story of the making of the Chicago World's Fair along with serial killer H.H. Holmes during the fair.  Scorsese is making a movie with Leo based on the book
Isaac's Storm - the story of the 1900 Galveston hurricane

I also read Skip Hollandsworth's...

The Midnight Assassin - relatively unknown Jack the Ripper style serial killer in Austin in the late 1800's, great story as well as a nice read about Austin at that time

I enjoyed Devil in the White City a lot,  the parts of the book about the buildings in the fair and their construction was fascinating... I actually liked Larson's In the Garden of Beasts better but I'm fascinated with that period ...have Isaac's Storm on my list too.. I really dig his writing ...

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Texas Town

Texas Town 18

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Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I (Tuchman) - brilliant writing, fascinating read

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (Ambrose) - soooo good

Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon (Dolnick) - One-armed man leads first white-man expedition through the Grand Canyon

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Wright) - Pulitzer Prize winner, current Hulu series

Into the Wild AND Into Thin Air (Krakauer) - two more adventure recs, very well written

You might also like stuff by Bowden: Black Hawk Down AND Killing Pablo are my favorites of his

 

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SimonBolivar

SimonBolivar 10957

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So far for 2018 I've finished

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5* damn good and worth reading if you have or haven't watched the series

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3* pretty good, but I got bored about 3/4 of the way in

 

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4* Really good and worth a read

 

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5* I'm on the last chapter and should finish it today. It really puts a lot of our daily struggles into perspective

 

Up next:

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FWD

FWD 297

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Posted
On 5/12/2018 at 9:59 AM, Parliament said:

Way more interesting than a book about a bridge should be.dccfff5921bc9dfd3939dfc77e00c095.jpg

McCullough's history of the Panama canal, Path Between the Seas, remains the best history book I've ever read.

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Stoogey

Stoogey 219

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Autobiography of Mark Twain, recently published in full for the first time faithfully following Twain's manuscript. In three volumes.  

As a companion book, reading  Mark Twain's Aquarium: The Samuel Clemens - Angelfish Correspondence, 1905 - 1910 by John Cooley. Correspondence between Twain and his "angelfish" (a group of girls age twelve through sixteen). There is no evidence of abuse but with Twain being one of my favorite writers, I'd hate to see his reputation tarnished. 

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HOOK'EMHOOAH

HOOK'EMHOOAH 1610

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510fzREHECL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

This one is a good read, I found it challenging my first time through.

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Lisa Randall is a brilliant physicist and Science Communicator. I've read "Warped Passages," I'm now working on "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs" and will start "Knocking on Heaven's Door" upon completion and processing of the one I'm on now. I will warn anyone now, the concepts in these books can be incredibly difficult to grasp for some and the math that goes into these might as well be an alien language. A healthy grasp of Greek letters and what they represent in physics/maths equations will help in this regard, as would at least a cursory understanding of calculus.

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kevwun

kevwun 15764

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Posted (edited)

I am about to finish Dreadnought.  I actually wish it was longer because it is so damn good.  I will be reading everything Massie has written because he is a great writer.  It is the best summary of the the lead up to WWI that you will find.

Edited by kevwun
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Lazarus Bocanegra

Lazarus Bocanegra 304

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In the last month or so I've read both Hero of the Empire (Churchill) and River of Doubt (T. Roosevelt) by Candace Millard.  Both were so awesome I'm considering giving Destiny of the Republic (Garfield) a shot.  I seem to recall River of Doubt being discussed on that other board.  Absolutely insane.  

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michaelpshayes

michaelpshayes 417

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On 7/25/2018 at 4:20 PM, Lazarus Bocanegra said:

In the last month or so I've read both Hero of the Empire (Churchill) and River of Doubt (T. Roosevelt) by Candace Millard.  Both were so awesome I'm considering giving Destiny of the Republic (Garfield) a shot.  I seem to recall River of Doubt being discussed on that other board.  Absolutely insane.  

Destiny of the Republic was freaking great ....I'd put it even or a little ahead of River of Doubt ....really enjoyed Hero of the Empire too 

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Sbbruin

Sbbruin 21829

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I just finished this and REALLY enjoyed it.  Revolved around the life and times of Isaias Hellman, German Jewish immigrant who helped establish Los Angeles as a major metro from a backwater pueblo, and was instrumental in creating much of the modern banking system (ascending to President of Wells Fargo, but really launch WF from a small regional bank to a national player).

51MYbdwRsnL._SX333_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31438

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On 6/8/2018 at 10:46 AM, ocugolf said:

I highly recommend Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff.  It’s so damn good.

Just a hundred pages or so in, but yeah it's very engaging. I read that leduff may have some credibility problems, but even setting that aside, his analogy of Detroit for America as a whole seems apt. And very alarming. 

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ClubWhatever

ClubWhatever 12120

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I picked up Stephen Hawking’s posthumous Brief Answers to the Big Questions.  The chapter about whether God exists was startling to me, not because of his conclusion but in how he explained it.  He starts off with a claim that seems just completely nonsensical and then proceeds to show how it does make sense... if you accept the physical premises.  I did a search later and found out the main idea in his explanation originated in 1973 with someone else.  I will let you read the book if you are interested.  

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Native Horn

Native Horn 3498

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Just finished Admiral William McRaven's new book, "Sea Stories - My Life in Special Operations."  Riveting from first page to last.  The stuff that man has seen and done, my goodness!  Definitely on the list of most badass Longhorns.  Would recommend.

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gecko

gecko 1104

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Just started Atkinson's "The British are Coming" about the origins and conduct of the revolutionary war.

And I should have put it here....Hampton Sides "In the Kingdom of Ice" is really good.  It's about the failed, sort of) US Arctic Expedition of 1878.

Edited by gecko
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LABEVO

LABEVO 928

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On 10/5/2018 at 11:40 AM, Sbbruin said:

I just finished this and REALLY enjoyed it.  Revolved around the life and times of Isaias Hellman, German Jewish immigrant who helped establish Los Angeles as a major metro from a backwater pueblo, and was instrumental in creating much of the modern banking system (ascending to President of Wells Fargo, but really launch WF from a small regional bank to a national player).

51MYbdwRsnL._SX333_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

1234

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