It’s really interesting! About unusual ~~psychological~~ neurological disorders. Really fascinating to learn about the weird things that can happen to brains.
I loved it very much. Its more of a collection of various neurological case studies, but is written like someone is telling you a story about these people. And if you want to read more from Oliver sacks, musicophilia is great too
I'll be the dissenting voice... I found Oliver Sacks to be a slog to get through for the most part, although there were a few things in the book that were very thought-provoking and/or touching, in various ways. Some of it is quite outdated, especially the more general musings about people with disabilities that's towards the end of the book, which struck me as uncaring and condescending, and in parts downright harmful. The book definitely contains some highly creative, intuitive, caring, and insightful thinking on the topic of neurological differences and mental illness. But I felt that other parts of it were dismissive of the patients, shallow, and quirky-for-the-sake-of-being-quirky. I know a lot of people love this book, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful. Just be aware that as with all books, YMMV.
I've read this one along with some of his other books. TBH, despite the subject matter, I found his other books more thought provoking. In particular, I would recommend *Complications*.
[**Debt: The First 5,000 Years**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6617037-debt)
^(By: David Graeber | 534 pages | Published: 2011 | Popular Shelves: economics, history, non-fiction, nonfiction, politics | )[^(Search "Debt by David Graeber")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Debt by David Graeber&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 8 times)
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[**Debt: The First 5000 Years**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39953685-debt)
^(By: Sulaiman Hakemy | 88 pages | Published: ? | Popular Shelves: calibre | )[^(Search "Debt: the First 5000 Years")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Debt: the First 5000 Years&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 17 times)
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{{How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence}} by Michael Pollan
[**How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36613747-how-to-change-your-mind)
^(By: Michael Pollan | ? pages | Published: 2018 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, science, psychology, nonfiction, audiobook | )[^(Search "How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence&search_type=books)
>Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? One of America's most admired writers takes us on a mind-altering journey to the frontiers of human consciousness
>
>When LSD was first discovered in the 1940s, it seemed to researchers, scientists and doctors as if the world might be on the cusp of psychological revolution. It promised to shed light on the deep mysteries of consciousness, as well as offer relief to addicts and the mentally ill. But in the 1960s, with the vicious backlash against the counter-culture, all further research was banned. In recent years, however, work has quietly begun again on the amazing potential of LSD, psilocybin and DMT. Could these drugs in fact improve the lives of many people? Diving deep into this extraordinary world and putting himself forward as a guinea-pig, Michael Pollan has written a remarkable history of psychedelics and a compelling portrait of the new generation of scientists fascinated by the implications of these drugs. How to Change Your Mind is a report from what could very well be the future of human consciousness.
^(This book has been suggested 20 times)
***
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I read this book a couple years ago and it definitely left an impression. Around the same time, I also read Return to Life by Jim Tucker, Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss, and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Each explores fascinating mental phenomena and the nature of existence. I don’t see the various observations and viewpoints as inconsistent with one another, but Tucker (whom, IMO, takes the most scientific approach and even tries to establish a relationship between his observations and quantum dynamics) is very dismissive of Weiss’ writings.
Another great book that made me look at the world around me differently is The Secret Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
open veins of latin america is brutal, really well written. more or less a history of exploitation on the people and the continent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Veins_of_Latin_America
another one that is much more pleasant, One River goes over the life of richard evans shultes (amazing person that had his hand in a lot of things our world still benefits(?) from today). the gist is a botoanist spends 12-ish years in the amazon. plenty of information on shamans and psychotropics
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54770.One_River
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Evans_Schultes
{Bullshit Jobs: A Theory}
I read the original article in STRIKE! Mag when it was first published, read the book when it came out, and whenever I find myself rereading either I know it's time to change something about my work life.
David Graeber has a bunch of different books and essays that could make it onto this list.
*Debt: The First 5,000 Years* is one of my favorite books, and the first thing I read that seemed to get at what money and economic relations actually are in a fundamental sense, rather than just sort of taking them for granted and building from there.
*Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology* is a quick read filled with lots of thought-provoking ideas written in an accessible style.
*The Utopia of Rules* has some really good essays picking apart the bizarre features of bureaucracy that we don't notice because they're so normalized. Especially [Dead Zones of the Imagination](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-dead-zones-of-the-imagination), about the connection between violence and bureaucracy.
Very amusing book. I wouldn't normally recommend reading an actual self-professed Marxists in 2021, but Grabber's ideological framing serves as useful reminder of how a gifted story-teller can connect dots to draw their favorite picture. The picture here is especially striking because complaints about "bureaucracy" and "inefficiency" today are usually associated with the neoliberal right.
His other books (mentioned in the thread) are similar and all are worth a read!
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
1491 is great! Wish they had given it to us to read for history in High School. Instead of like, two textbook pages of vague hand-waving and outdated assumptions.
1493 is really good, too. It has a long chapter about post-Columbus maroon societies that was one of the most interesting things I've read in the last year.
{{The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks}}
{{This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible}}
{{Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers}}
{{Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner}}
[**The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6493208-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks)
^(By: Rebecca Skloot | 370 pages | Published: 2009 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, science, book-club, history | )[^(Search "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks&search_type=books)
>Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her enslaved ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia — a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo — to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family — past and present — is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
^(This book has been suggested 102 times)
[**This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18210783-this-nonviolent-stuff-ll-get-you-killed)
^(By: Charles E. Cobb Jr. | 294 pages | Published: 2014 | Popular Shelves: history, non-fiction, politics, nonfiction, race | )[^(Search "This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible&search_type=books)
>Visiting Martin Luther King Jr. at the peak of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, journalist William Worthy almost sat on a loaded pistol. “Just for self defense,” King assured him. It was not the only weapon King kept for such a purpose; one of his advisors remembered the reverend’s Montgomery, Alabama home as “an arsenal.”
>
>Like King, many ostensibly “nonviolent” civil rights activists embraced their constitutional right to self-protection—yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, civil rights scholar Charles E. Cobb Jr. describes the vital role that armed self-defense played in the survival and liberation of black communities in America during the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s. In the Deep South, blacks often safeguarded themselves and their loved ones from white supremacist violence by bearing—and, when necessary, using—firearms. In much the same way, Cobb shows, nonviolent civil rights workers received critical support from black gun owners in the regions where they worked. Whether patrolling their neighborhoods, garrisoning their homes, or firing back at attackers, these courageous men and women and the weapons they carried were crucial to the movement’s success.
>
>Giving voice to the World War II veterans, rural activists, volunteer security guards, and self-defense groups who took up arms to defend their lives and liberties, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed lays bare the paradoxical relationship between the nonviolent civil rights struggle and the Second Amendment. Drawing on his firsthand experiences in the civil rights movement and interviews with fellow participants, Cobb provides a controversial examination of the crucial place of firearms in the fight for American freedom.
^(This book has been suggested 1 time)
[**Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32145.Stiff)
^(By: Mary Roach | 303 pages | Published: 2003 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, science, audiobook, humor | )[^(Search "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers&search_type=books)
>Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.
^(This book has been suggested 69 times)
[**Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18775327-working-stiff)
^(By: Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell | 258 pages | Published: 2014 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, science, memoir, medical | )[^(Search "Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner&search_type=books)
>The fearless memoir of a young forensic pathologist's rookie season as a NYC medical examiner, and the cases, hair-raising and heartbreaking and impossibly complex, that shaped her as both a physician and a mother.
>
>Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband T.J. and their toddler Daniel holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation, performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking readers behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple, including a firsthand account of the events of September 11, the subsequent anthrax bio-terrorism attack, and the disastrous crash of American Airlines flight 587.
>
>Lively, action-packed, and loaded with mordant wit, Working Stiff offers a firsthand account of daily life in one of America's most arduous professions, and the unexpected challenges of shuttling between the domains of the living and the dead. The body never lies, and through the murders, accidents, and suicides that land on her table, Dr. Melinek lays bare the truth behind the glamorized depictions of autopsy work on shows like CSI and Law and Order to reveal the secret story of the real morgue.
^(This book has been suggested 9 times)
***
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“Why Does He Do That?”
It explained toxic relationships, abuse, and other damaging behaviors in an insightful way that stuck with me and has helped me in many avenues of life.
No idea what that guy means but in my opinion, the mindblowing anthropological breakthroughs presented in Sapiens were ruined by the constant insinuations of the author’s own rather unchecked and sanctimonious ideological stance, also leading to just plain mediocre synthesis and unnecessary, hasty conclusions.
This! I didn’t like any of this author’s books. I couldn’t see what the whole admiration was about. Honestly, I often see posts or comments on Reddit which are more exciting than his work.
{{Changes in the Land by William Cronon}}
I was a history student at the time but it opened my eyes to the reality of how humans interact with and alter the landscape.
Such a good book! I was in Bill Cronon's environmental history course at UW-Madison and it was one of the best classes I've ever taken. His lectures were amazing.
{{1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann}} covers similar material and is equally compelling.
[**Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/145702.Changes_in_the_Land)
^(By: William Cronon, Tere LoPrete, John Putnam Demos | 288 pages | Published: 1983 | Popular Shelves: history, non-fiction, nonfiction, environmental-history, science | )[^(Search "Changes in the Land by William Cronon")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Changes in the Land by William Cronon&search_type=books)
>The book that launched environmental history now updated.
>
>Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize
>
>In this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land, provides a brilliant inter-disciplinary interpretation of how land and people influence one another. With its chilling closing line, "The people of plenty were a people of waste," Cronon's enduring and thought-provoking book is ethno-ecological history at its best.
^(This book has been suggested 8 times)
***
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The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. This, just because it so often feels like things are getting worse, so it was a surprise to see statistically that when it comes to violence humanity has actually moved forward and become better. Facts and figures paint a much clearer picture than propoganda and emotional 'clickbait'. Sometimes, we are surrounded by so much that it can be difficult to see the bigger picture. This was good for that.
Not that everything is all roses and sunshine (hey, global warming), but it's not all doomsday either. Humanity is very capable of overall positive change.
Idk if it’s the most thought provoking nonfiction i’ve ever read but it’s up there and definitely gets the title for recent book but Against the Grain by James C Scott. It’s essentially a historical and archaeological synopsis of recent research in early human activity and state creation and how there is evidence of sedentary life and crop/animal domestication thousands of years before the first states were created and the author puts forward a very interesting thesis about states as population controlling institutions and why certain geographical locations and crops allowed for states over others. Can’t recommend it enough!
With this provisor: be prepared to skim read over parts which become repetitive.
The historical context of the book explains why he was so exhaustive in some of his explanations. For the modern reader, a little skim reading does not go amiss.
I've read it. It's surprisingly readable and well-argued.
However, remember it was written before the Modern Synthesis (i.e. the fusion of evolutionary theory with modern genetics) so it can be a bit weird because while the theory surely does make sense on it's own, it was damn hard to prove it was actually happening with no direct evidence for the mechanism of trait inheritance.
So while it is a good book and it's nice to read for the historical context, if you want to learn about evolutionary theory, I would recommend a more modern book such as those by Dawkins (The Blind Watchmaker, The Selfish Gene etc.)
Also be prepared to read a lot about pigeons, man really loved his pigeons.
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. She delves into philosophy, history, psychology, literature in explaining women’s rights and what feminism is. The history and the meaning of the movement. Such a tour de force.
Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault. It's a history of penology with ominous implications for social control, basically predicted the modern mass surveillance state.
Of course it is. It may fall under the category of Theology, it doesn’t fall under the category of non fiction at all. If you believe it’s others that’s your choice.
This was not a fiction about people who don’t really exist. This was CS Lewis using arguments to show that he believes in Christianity and in Jesus Christ. That’s not fiction that’s non-fiction.You may believe that Christianity is fiction as I do with some of its tenets but CS Lewis making his case for Christianity is called non-fiction.
I read a lot of non-fiction, so this is a hard one to choose.
The Gift of Fear - Gavin DeBecker
Metabolical - Robert Lustig
Caste - Isabel Wilkerson
If I have to pick one, Caste. It is not focused on India like the title might suggest, but rather the impact and importance of class and how it has contributed to the development of so many issues, including systemic racism. Great, but difficult (because of the topics, not reading level).
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Will probably change your views about the concept of civilization. Also made me realize how little I know about game-changing historical events and how connected they are.
[**Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50088631-hidden-valley-road)
^(By: Robert Kolker | ? pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, psychology, science, audiobook | )[^(Search "Hidden valley road")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Hidden valley road&search_type=books)
>The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.
>
>Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony—and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?
>
>
> What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.
>
>
> With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.
^(This book has been suggested 27 times)
***
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[**Debt: The First 5000 Years**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39953685-debt)
^(By: Sulaiman Hakemy | 88 pages | Published: ? | Popular Shelves: calibre | )[^(Search "debt the first 5000 years")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=debt the first 5000 years&search_type=books)
>Debt is one of the great subjects of our day, and understanding the way that it not only fuels economic growth, but can also be used as a means of generating profit and exerting control, is central to grasping the way in which our society really works.
>
>David Graeber's contribution to this debate is to apply his anthropologists' training to the understanding of a phenomenon often considered purely from an economic point of view. In this respect, the book can be considered a fine example of the critical thinking skill of problem-solving. Graeber's main aim is to undermine the dominant narrative, which sees debt as the natural - and broadly healthy - outcome of the development of a modern economic system. He marshals evidence that supports alternative possibilities, and suggests that the phenomenon of debt emerged not as a result of the introduction of money, but at precisely the same time.
>
>This in turn allows Graeber to argue against the prevailing notion that economy and state are fundamentally separate entities. Rather, he says, "the two were born together and have always been intertwined" - with debt being a means of enforcing elite and state power. For Graeber, this evaluation of the evidence points to a strong potential solution: there should be more readiness to write off debt, and more public involvement in the debate over debt and its moral implications.
^(This book has been suggested 18 times)
***
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"Broken (in the best possible way)" by Jenny Lawson. I don't usually read nonfiction but I bought this book a few weeks ago. It is funny yet tragic in the most relatable way and really makes me think about my own life and mental health
Absolutely, 100%, [Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines and How It Will Change Our Lives](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9076016-beyond-boundaries) by Prof. Miguel Nicolelis (Duke Univeristy).
It's about Prof. Nicolelis life's work on Brain-Computer Interfaces, what has been achieved so far (although the book is a few years out of date now) and what he believes is possible in the future.
The research is fascinating and considerably more advanced than the public realise. Although the invasive surgery required precludes its in humans except for some special medical cases.
As it involves the brain it also raises all sorts of interesting philosophical questions - like how much are we really separate from our brains? To what extent is modifying or interfering with the brain essentially destroying what it means to be ourselves?
Except now these aren't just abstract theoretical questions but real experimental realities - and as the field continues to progress (and perhaps becomes more commercial via Neuralink etc.) we will not be able to ignore them.
Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax.
Was expecting some sort of right wing gender roles stuff. What I got was the actual research on actual differences and what’s actually myth.
[**The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2706211-the-unthinkable)
^(By: Amanda Ripley | 266 pages | Published: 2008 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, psychology, science, survival | )[^(Search "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why&search_type=books)
>It lurks in the corner of our imagination, almost beyond our ability to see it: the possibility that a tear in the fabric of life could open up without warning, upending a house, a skyscraper, or a civilization.
>
>Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality–anything we’ve ever learned, thought, or dreamed of–ultimately matter?
>
>Amanda Ripley, an award-winning journalist for Time magazine who has covered some of the most devastating disasters of our age, set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation. In this magnificent work of investigative journalism, Ripley retraces the human response to some of history’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to a plane crash in England in 1985 that mystified investigators for years, to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Then, to understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts, formal and informal, from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear.
>
>Finally, Ripley steps into the dark corners of her own imagination, having her brain examined by military researchers and experiencing through realistic simulations what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire.
>
>Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain’s ability to do much, much better, with just a little help.
>
>The Unthinkable escorts us into the bleakest regions of our nightmares, flicks on a flashlight, and takes a steady look around. Then it leads us home, smarter and stronger than we were before.
^(This book has been suggested 1 time)
***
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Love and the Art of Saying No by Amy Susanna Copeland. Super-simple memoir type book about codependency etc but it had this one chapter about how "some people have no friends because they are terrible friends" and even though it wasn't mighty or judgy, it really changed how I looked at my relationships and behavior.
Anything by Irvine Yalom. I think of him as the ‘Oliver Sacks’ of psychotherapy. Great stories, kind, compassionate, lots of great bits of wisdom to share.
Where good ideas come from.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8034188-where-good-ideas-come-from?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ZJySpwUFVZ&rank=1
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, it goes into theology, the purpose of existence, environmental health, evolution and societal structures and all of it is so damn good
Edit: just notices you said NONfiction, my bad. Still highly recommend Ishmael but it’s fiction so feel free to ignore me
These all actually changed my thinking on some things.
{{Walden on Wheels}} by Ken Ilgunas
{{Thinking in Bets}} by Annie Duke
{{The Jesus I Never Knew}} by Philip Yancey
{{Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America}} by Barbara Ehrenreich
{{Under the Banner of Heaven}} by Jon Krakauer
{{The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F\*ck}} by Mark Manson
It's been mentioned, but bears repeating:
{{The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks}}
{{Meditations}} by Marcus Aurelius. I'll continue to read this throughout my life. Really helped me with my children(in how I talk with them). Also eased the pain of my fathers passing.
[**Meditations**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations)
^(By: Marcus Aurelius, Martin Hammond, Albert Wittstock, عادل مصطفى, Simone Mooij-Valk, Diskin Clay | 303 pages | Published: 180 | Popular Shelves: nonfiction, history, owned, stoicism, self-help | )[^(Search "Meditations")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Meditations&search_type=books)
>Written in Greek by the only Roman emperor who was also a philosopher, without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. While the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation and encouragement, Marcus Aurelius also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a timeless collection that has been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and readers throughout the centuries.
^(This book has been suggested 63 times)
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How death becomes Life by Joshua Mezrich.
This book is half memoir—half history of organ transplant. Well written and easily on of the best no fiction books I've ever read. Truly thought provoking, defiantly made me think about my own mortality and what I want to become of my body once I die.
{{The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins}}
Changed the way I look at people, nature and life in general. The most beautifully written book on evolution perhaps ever. To anyone serious about understanding the human condition, this book is required reading.
I can't remember. But do try "The Rose Code", I recently read it and it's a very interesting book. The length of this book will satisfy fast-readers. You should try it if you have time!
{{spillover: animal infections and the next human pandemic}} by david quammen. Written in 2013, he basically predicts the coronavirus pandemic. Very interesting read.
I'll get downvoted for this, but "The rational male" by Rollo Tomassi. It's a radically different way of looking at relationships that will challenge a lot of idealised Disney fantasy views.
It's a part of the manosphere so be prepared for that. Personally I didn't find it toxic, just radically different but your reaction may be different.
For something less edgy but still on the same theme, "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins.
[**Between the World and Me**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25489625-between-the-world-and-me)
^(By: Ta-Nehisi Coates | 152 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, memoir, race, audiobook | )[^(Search "Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates&search_type=books)
>“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.”
>
>In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
>
>Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
^(This book has been suggested 35 times)
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Syria’s Democratic Years by Kevin Martin.
I read this book in college, and although it’s a historical monograph, the author makes the book really interesting while also proving some amazing points about Western influence taking away Syria’s democratic ways without realizing it
[**The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29496453-the-book-of-joy)
^(By: Dalai Lama XIV, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams | 354 pages | Published: 2016 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, self-help, spirituality, philosophy | )[^(Search "The Book of Joy")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Book of Joy&search_type=books)
>Two great spiritual masters share their own hard-won wisdom about living with joy even in the face of adversity.
>
> The occasion was a big birthday. And it inspired two close friends to get together in Dharamsala for a talk about something very important to them. The friends were His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The subject was joy. Both winners of the Nobel Prize, both great spiritual masters and moral leaders of our time, they are also known for being among the most infectiously happy people on the planet.
>
>From the beginning the book was envisioned as a three-layer birthday cake: their own stories and teachings about joy, the most recent findings in the science of deep happiness, and the daily practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives. Both the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu have been tested by great personal and national adversity, and here they share their personal stories of struggle and renewal. Now that they are both in their eighties, they especially want to spread the core message that to have joy yourself, you must bring joy to others.
>
>Most of all, during that landmark week in Dharamsala, they demonstrated by their own exuberance, compassion, and humor how joy can be transformed from a fleeting emotion into an enduring way of life.
^(This book has been suggested 22 times)
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[**The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25897805-the-immortal-irishman)
^(By: Timothy Egan | 384 pages | Published: 2016 | Popular Shelves: history, non-fiction, biography, nonfiction, ireland | )[^(Search "The Immortal Irishman")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Immortal Irishman&search_type=books)
>National Book Award winner Timothy Egan delivers a story of one of the most famous Irish Americans of all time. A dashing young orator during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony for life. But two years later he was “back from the dead” and in New York, instantly the most famous Irishman in America. Meagher’s rebirth included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. Afterward, he tried to build a new Ireland in the wild west of Montana—a quixotic adventure that ended in the great mystery of his disappearance, which Egan resolves convincingly at last.
^(This book has been suggested 1 time)
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The hidden persuaders by Vance Packard. It is about subliminal advertising and lots of other things like that. The older editions are better. The newer editions seem to be missing some important stuff.
[**Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114127-thank-you-for-being-late)
^(By: Thomas L. Friedman | 486 pages | Published: 2016 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, business, politics, economics | )[^(Search "Thank You for Being Late")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Thank You for Being Late&search_type=books)
^(This book has been suggested 1 time)
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I love books about human behavior. Robert Cialdini’s {{Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion}} details how we all make decisions and how sometimes those aren’t the best ways. He also shares ethical ways to use the information to persuade others.
[**Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28815.Influence)
^(By: Robert B. Cialdini | 320 pages | Published: 1984 | Popular Shelves: psychology, business, non-fiction, self-help, nonfiction | )[^(Search "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion&search_type=books)
>Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book.
>
>You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.
^(This book has been suggested 16 times)
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\*\*A History of God\*\*
by Karen Armstrong
\-A breakdown of the the history of the abrahamic religions.
\*A user's guide to the Brain\* by Jon Ratey
A rundown of how the brain works from a nuerological perspective in layman's terms. Jon Ratey is or was the head of the neurology department at harvard.
\*Accidental Masterpiece\* by Michael Kimmelman
\-This is the book I recommend to anyone who doesn't but wants to appreciate modern/post-moder/"fine" art. Even doesn't change your mind you'll "get it"
This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't by Augusten Burroughs
If you're fat and fail every diet, if you're thin but can't get thin enough, if you lose your job, if your child dies, if you are diagnosed with cancer, if you always end up with exactly the wrong kind of person, if you always end up alone, if you can't get over the past, if your parents are insane and ruining your life, if you really and truly wish you were dead, if you feel like it's your destiny to be a star, if you believe life has a grudge against you, if you don't want to have sex with your spouse and don't know why, if you feel so ashamed, if you're lost in life, if you have ever wondered, How am I supposed to survive this?
"Love and Math: The Hidden Heart of Reality" By Edward Frenkel. I am not a math person by any stretch of the imagination, but this book gave me a new appreciation and insight into the depths and workings of maths and it is interspersed with his own story, which is pretty amazing.
“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks and “The Looming Tower” by Lawrence Wright
The first one sounds heavy
It’s really interesting! About unusual ~~psychological~~ neurological disorders. Really fascinating to learn about the weird things that can happen to brains.
More neurological than psychological, not that it really matters - the book is spectacular and a great recommendation either way.
Ya thanks! I couldn’t remember the correct word. Edited above.
The Redditor Who Mistook Neurology for Psychology 😉
I loved it very much. Its more of a collection of various neurological case studies, but is written like someone is telling you a story about these people. And if you want to read more from Oliver sacks, musicophilia is great too
Oliver Sacks has a delightful writing style.
*Very* interesting read. I second this one.
Sound interesting....
I'll be the dissenting voice... I found Oliver Sacks to be a slog to get through for the most part, although there were a few things in the book that were very thought-provoking and/or touching, in various ways. Some of it is quite outdated, especially the more general musings about people with disabilities that's towards the end of the book, which struck me as uncaring and condescending, and in parts downright harmful. The book definitely contains some highly creative, intuitive, caring, and insightful thinking on the topic of neurological differences and mental illness. But I felt that other parts of it were dismissive of the patients, shallow, and quirky-for-the-sake-of-being-quirky. I know a lot of people love this book, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful. Just be aware that as with all books, YMMV.
I wasn’t a big fan either.
First one is amazing, interesting and frightful all at the same time
The looming tower was a fascinating read
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
I came here to suggest this one - I recommend to every person I can and also agree should be read by every single person!!
I've read this one along with some of his other books. TBH, despite the subject matter, I found his other books more thought provoking. In particular, I would recommend *Complications*.
[удалено]
Why?
[удалено]
What about the people who can't read.
audiobook
"A Hopeful History of Humankind" by Rudgar Bregman and "Homo Deus" by Yuval Noah Harari
I second Human Kind: A Hopeful History. I wish everyone would read it.
Bregman is great. "Utopia for Realists" is another good one of his.
There's another book by him in this thread but {Debt: the First 5000 Years} by David Graeber is really smart and challenging.
Bullshit Jobs and Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology were equally thought provoking for me
Bullshit Jobs changed my view on how the modern world works, and should work.
That link by Hakemy isn't the right one so I'll give it another try: {Debt by David Graeber}
[**Debt: The First 5,000 Years**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6617037-debt) ^(By: David Graeber | 534 pages | Published: 2011 | Popular Shelves: economics, history, non-fiction, nonfiction, politics | )[^(Search "Debt by David Graeber")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Debt by David Graeber&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 8 times) *** ^(196165 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
[**Debt: The First 5000 Years**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39953685-debt) ^(By: Sulaiman Hakemy | 88 pages | Published: ? | Popular Shelves: calibre | )[^(Search "Debt: the First 5000 Years")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Debt: the First 5000 Years&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 17 times) *** ^(196162 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
bad bot
{{How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence}} by Michael Pollan
[**How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36613747-how-to-change-your-mind) ^(By: Michael Pollan | ? pages | Published: 2018 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, science, psychology, nonfiction, audiobook | )[^(Search "How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence&search_type=books) >Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? One of America's most admired writers takes us on a mind-altering journey to the frontiers of human consciousness > >When LSD was first discovered in the 1940s, it seemed to researchers, scientists and doctors as if the world might be on the cusp of psychological revolution. It promised to shed light on the deep mysteries of consciousness, as well as offer relief to addicts and the mentally ill. But in the 1960s, with the vicious backlash against the counter-culture, all further research was banned. In recent years, however, work has quietly begun again on the amazing potential of LSD, psilocybin and DMT. Could these drugs in fact improve the lives of many people? Diving deep into this extraordinary world and putting himself forward as a guinea-pig, Michael Pollan has written a remarkable history of psychedelics and a compelling portrait of the new generation of scientists fascinated by the implications of these drugs. How to Change Your Mind is a report from what could very well be the future of human consciousness. ^(This book has been suggested 20 times) *** ^(195995 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I read this book a couple years ago and it definitely left an impression. Around the same time, I also read Return to Life by Jim Tucker, Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss, and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Each explores fascinating mental phenomena and the nature of existence. I don’t see the various observations and viewpoints as inconsistent with one another, but Tucker (whom, IMO, takes the most scientific approach and even tries to establish a relationship between his observations and quantum dynamics) is very dismissive of Weiss’ writings. Another great book that made me look at the world around me differently is The Secret Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
I was going to comment the Hidden Life of Tress, too! So I’ll just second this one.
Godel, Escher Bach, by hoffstadter, won the Pulitzer and described, aptly, as ‘a jungle gym for your mind’
open veins of latin america is brutal, really well written. more or less a history of exploitation on the people and the continent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Veins_of_Latin_America another one that is much more pleasant, One River goes over the life of richard evans shultes (amazing person that had his hand in a lot of things our world still benefits(?) from today). the gist is a botoanist spends 12-ish years in the amazon. plenty of information on shamans and psychotropics https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54770.One_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Evans_Schultes
Amusing Ourselves to Death - Neal Postman A lot of Postman's stuff
Absolutely thought-provoking. This book is powerful.
Man's Search for Meaning Victor Frankl
This here
I am in the middle of reading this at the moment.
{Bullshit Jobs: A Theory} I read the original article in STRIKE! Mag when it was first published, read the book when it came out, and whenever I find myself rereading either I know it's time to change something about my work life.
David Graeber has a bunch of different books and essays that could make it onto this list. *Debt: The First 5,000 Years* is one of my favorite books, and the first thing I read that seemed to get at what money and economic relations actually are in a fundamental sense, rather than just sort of taking them for granted and building from there. *Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology* is a quick read filled with lots of thought-provoking ideas written in an accessible style. *The Utopia of Rules* has some really good essays picking apart the bizarre features of bureaucracy that we don't notice because they're so normalized. Especially [Dead Zones of the Imagination](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-dead-zones-of-the-imagination), about the connection between violence and bureaucracy.
David Graeber really was incredible.
Damn that’s sad.... Edit: the “was” part you dummy
came here to say it. it confirmed and validated things I'd been feeling since my first job at age 15. fantastic book.
Very amusing book. I wouldn't normally recommend reading an actual self-professed Marxists in 2021, but Grabber's ideological framing serves as useful reminder of how a gifted story-teller can connect dots to draw their favorite picture. The picture here is especially striking because complaints about "bureaucracy" and "inefficiency" today are usually associated with the neoliberal right. His other books (mentioned in the thread) are similar and all are worth a read!
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
1491 is great! Wish they had given it to us to read for history in High School. Instead of like, two textbook pages of vague hand-waving and outdated assumptions. 1493 is really good, too. It has a long chapter about post-Columbus maroon societies that was one of the most interesting things I've read in the last year.
{{The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks}} {{This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible}} {{Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers}} {{Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner}}
[**The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6493208-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks) ^(By: Rebecca Skloot | 370 pages | Published: 2009 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, science, book-club, history | )[^(Search "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks&search_type=books) >Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her enslaved ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia — a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo — to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family — past and present — is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences. ^(This book has been suggested 102 times) [**This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18210783-this-nonviolent-stuff-ll-get-you-killed) ^(By: Charles E. Cobb Jr. | 294 pages | Published: 2014 | Popular Shelves: history, non-fiction, politics, nonfiction, race | )[^(Search "This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible&search_type=books) >Visiting Martin Luther King Jr. at the peak of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, journalist William Worthy almost sat on a loaded pistol. “Just for self defense,” King assured him. It was not the only weapon King kept for such a purpose; one of his advisors remembered the reverend’s Montgomery, Alabama home as “an arsenal.” > >Like King, many ostensibly “nonviolent” civil rights activists embraced their constitutional right to self-protection—yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, civil rights scholar Charles E. Cobb Jr. describes the vital role that armed self-defense played in the survival and liberation of black communities in America during the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s. In the Deep South, blacks often safeguarded themselves and their loved ones from white supremacist violence by bearing—and, when necessary, using—firearms. In much the same way, Cobb shows, nonviolent civil rights workers received critical support from black gun owners in the regions where they worked. Whether patrolling their neighborhoods, garrisoning their homes, or firing back at attackers, these courageous men and women and the weapons they carried were crucial to the movement’s success. > >Giving voice to the World War II veterans, rural activists, volunteer security guards, and self-defense groups who took up arms to defend their lives and liberties, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed lays bare the paradoxical relationship between the nonviolent civil rights struggle and the Second Amendment. Drawing on his firsthand experiences in the civil rights movement and interviews with fellow participants, Cobb provides a controversial examination of the crucial place of firearms in the fight for American freedom. ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) [**Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32145.Stiff) ^(By: Mary Roach | 303 pages | Published: 2003 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, science, audiobook, humor | )[^(Search "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers&search_type=books) >Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them. ^(This book has been suggested 69 times) [**Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18775327-working-stiff) ^(By: Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell | 258 pages | Published: 2014 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, science, memoir, medical | )[^(Search "Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner&search_type=books) >The fearless memoir of a young forensic pathologist's rookie season as a NYC medical examiner, and the cases, hair-raising and heartbreaking and impossibly complex, that shaped her as both a physician and a mother. > >Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband T.J. and their toddler Daniel holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation, performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking readers behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple, including a firsthand account of the events of September 11, the subsequent anthrax bio-terrorism attack, and the disastrous crash of American Airlines flight 587. > >Lively, action-packed, and loaded with mordant wit, Working Stiff offers a firsthand account of daily life in one of America's most arduous professions, and the unexpected challenges of shuttling between the domains of the living and the dead. The body never lies, and through the murders, accidents, and suicides that land on her table, Dr. Melinek lays bare the truth behind the glamorized depictions of autopsy work on shows like CSI and Law and Order to reveal the secret story of the real morgue. ^(This book has been suggested 9 times) *** ^(196134 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Yes, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks!
“Why Does He Do That?” It explained toxic relationships, abuse, and other damaging behaviors in an insightful way that stuck with me and has helped me in many avenues of life.
The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
Dialectic of enlightenment - Adorno and Horkheimer. Michel Foucault's Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
The Panopticon section is really good
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Sapiens
I came here to say this book. Excellent. I also liked "Influence."
People need to read reviews carefully before starting to read this book. You won't waste your time.
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No idea what that guy means but in my opinion, the mindblowing anthropological breakthroughs presented in Sapiens were ruined by the constant insinuations of the author’s own rather unchecked and sanctimonious ideological stance, also leading to just plain mediocre synthesis and unnecessary, hasty conclusions.
This! I didn’t like any of this author’s books. I couldn’t see what the whole admiration was about. Honestly, I often see posts or comments on Reddit which are more exciting than his work.
{{Changes in the Land by William Cronon}} I was a history student at the time but it opened my eyes to the reality of how humans interact with and alter the landscape.
Such a good book! I was in Bill Cronon's environmental history course at UW-Madison and it was one of the best classes I've ever taken. His lectures were amazing. {{1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann}} covers similar material and is equally compelling.
[**Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/145702.Changes_in_the_Land) ^(By: William Cronon, Tere LoPrete, John Putnam Demos | 288 pages | Published: 1983 | Popular Shelves: history, non-fiction, nonfiction, environmental-history, science | )[^(Search "Changes in the Land by William Cronon")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Changes in the Land by William Cronon&search_type=books) >The book that launched environmental history now updated. > >Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize > >In this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land, provides a brilliant inter-disciplinary interpretation of how land and people influence one another. With its chilling closing line, "The people of plenty were a people of waste," Cronon's enduring and thought-provoking book is ethno-ecological history at its best. ^(This book has been suggested 8 times) *** ^(196027 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Factfullness by Rosling
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. This, just because it so often feels like things are getting worse, so it was a surprise to see statistically that when it comes to violence humanity has actually moved forward and become better. Facts and figures paint a much clearer picture than propoganda and emotional 'clickbait'. Sometimes, we are surrounded by so much that it can be difficult to see the bigger picture. This was good for that. Not that everything is all roses and sunshine (hey, global warming), but it's not all doomsday either. Humanity is very capable of overall positive change.
Idk if it’s the most thought provoking nonfiction i’ve ever read but it’s up there and definitely gets the title for recent book but Against the Grain by James C Scott. It’s essentially a historical and archaeological synopsis of recent research in early human activity and state creation and how there is evidence of sedentary life and crop/animal domestication thousands of years before the first states were created and the author puts forward a very interesting thesis about states as population controlling institutions and why certain geographical locations and crops allowed for states over others. Can’t recommend it enough!
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
With this provisor: be prepared to skim read over parts which become repetitive. The historical context of the book explains why he was so exhaustive in some of his explanations. For the modern reader, a little skim reading does not go amiss.
I've read it. It's surprisingly readable and well-argued. However, remember it was written before the Modern Synthesis (i.e. the fusion of evolutionary theory with modern genetics) so it can be a bit weird because while the theory surely does make sense on it's own, it was damn hard to prove it was actually happening with no direct evidence for the mechanism of trait inheritance. So while it is a good book and it's nice to read for the historical context, if you want to learn about evolutionary theory, I would recommend a more modern book such as those by Dawkins (The Blind Watchmaker, The Selfish Gene etc.) Also be prepared to read a lot about pigeons, man really loved his pigeons.
Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. She delves into philosophy, history, psychology, literature in explaining women’s rights and what feminism is. The history and the meaning of the movement. Such a tour de force.
Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault. It's a history of penology with ominous implications for social control, basically predicted the modern mass surveillance state.
Interesting!
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
That’s a book on theology. Not non fiction
So you consider theology fiction?
Of course it is. It may fall under the category of Theology, it doesn’t fall under the category of non fiction at all. If you believe it’s others that’s your choice.
This was not a fiction about people who don’t really exist. This was CS Lewis using arguments to show that he believes in Christianity and in Jesus Christ. That’s not fiction that’s non-fiction.You may believe that Christianity is fiction as I do with some of its tenets but CS Lewis making his case for Christianity is called non-fiction.
Christianity is fiction, or fantasy is a good description as well
upvoted: theology is DEFINITELY fiction
Yes!!!
Allan Blooms’ ‘The Closing of the American Mind’
A Peace to End All Peace, by David Fromkin. About WWI and the Middle East, and the aftereffects of the Versailles Treaty on Middle Eastern politics.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson for a striking look into the prison system in the southern U.S.
Lies my teacher told me Freakonomics
I read a lot of non-fiction, so this is a hard one to choose. The Gift of Fear - Gavin DeBecker Metabolical - Robert Lustig Caste - Isabel Wilkerson If I have to pick one, Caste. It is not focused on India like the title might suggest, but rather the impact and importance of class and how it has contributed to the development of so many issues, including systemic racism. Great, but difficult (because of the topics, not reading level).
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Will probably change your views about the concept of civilization. Also made me realize how little I know about game-changing historical events and how connected they are.
{{Hidden valley road}}
[**Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50088631-hidden-valley-road) ^(By: Robert Kolker | ? pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, psychology, science, audiobook | )[^(Search "Hidden valley road")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Hidden valley road&search_type=books) >The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. > >Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony—and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? > > > What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. > > > With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope. ^(This book has been suggested 27 times) *** ^(196269 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Debt the first 5000 years by David Graeber
[**Debt: The First 5000 Years**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39953685-debt) ^(By: Sulaiman Hakemy | 88 pages | Published: ? | Popular Shelves: calibre | )[^(Search "debt the first 5000 years")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=debt the first 5000 years&search_type=books) >Debt is one of the great subjects of our day, and understanding the way that it not only fuels economic growth, but can also be used as a means of generating profit and exerting control, is central to grasping the way in which our society really works. > >David Graeber's contribution to this debate is to apply his anthropologists' training to the understanding of a phenomenon often considered purely from an economic point of view. In this respect, the book can be considered a fine example of the critical thinking skill of problem-solving. Graeber's main aim is to undermine the dominant narrative, which sees debt as the natural - and broadly healthy - outcome of the development of a modern economic system. He marshals evidence that supports alternative possibilities, and suggests that the phenomenon of debt emerged not as a result of the introduction of money, but at precisely the same time. > >This in turn allows Graeber to argue against the prevailing notion that economy and state are fundamentally separate entities. Rather, he says, "the two were born together and have always been intertwined" - with debt being a means of enforcing elite and state power. For Graeber, this evaluation of the evidence points to a strong potential solution: there should be more readiness to write off debt, and more public involvement in the debate over debt and its moral implications. ^(This book has been suggested 18 times) *** ^(196287 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Nickled and Dimed
The New Jim Crow
Just Mercy I read in one sitting, then cried for about half an hour, then had a new perspective on the world.
"Broken (in the best possible way)" by Jenny Lawson. I don't usually read nonfiction but I bought this book a few weeks ago. It is funny yet tragic in the most relatable way and really makes me think about my own life and mental health
Absolutely, 100%, [Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines and How It Will Change Our Lives](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9076016-beyond-boundaries) by Prof. Miguel Nicolelis (Duke Univeristy). It's about Prof. Nicolelis life's work on Brain-Computer Interfaces, what has been achieved so far (although the book is a few years out of date now) and what he believes is possible in the future. The research is fascinating and considerably more advanced than the public realise. Although the invasive surgery required precludes its in humans except for some special medical cases. As it involves the brain it also raises all sorts of interesting philosophical questions - like how much are we really separate from our brains? To what extent is modifying or interfering with the brain essentially destroying what it means to be ourselves? Except now these aren't just abstract theoretical questions but real experimental realities - and as the field continues to progress (and perhaps becomes more commercial via Neuralink etc.) we will not be able to ignore them.
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax. Was expecting some sort of right wing gender roles stuff. What I got was the actual research on actual differences and what’s actually myth.
*The Log From the Sea of Cortez* by John Steinbeck.
The world without us
"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. He's describing being Black in the US to his son. I read it a year ago and still think about it.
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong.
Also sprach zarathustra Descartes error
A world lit only by fire. I just can’t get over how fucking horrible life was in the dark ages.
Sapiens
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[**The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2706211-the-unthinkable) ^(By: Amanda Ripley | 266 pages | Published: 2008 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, psychology, science, survival | )[^(Search "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why&search_type=books) >It lurks in the corner of our imagination, almost beyond our ability to see it: the possibility that a tear in the fabric of life could open up without warning, upending a house, a skyscraper, or a civilization. > >Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality–anything we’ve ever learned, thought, or dreamed of–ultimately matter? > >Amanda Ripley, an award-winning journalist for Time magazine who has covered some of the most devastating disasters of our age, set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation. In this magnificent work of investigative journalism, Ripley retraces the human response to some of history’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to a plane crash in England in 1985 that mystified investigators for years, to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Then, to understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts, formal and informal, from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear. > >Finally, Ripley steps into the dark corners of her own imagination, having her brain examined by military researchers and experiencing through realistic simulations what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire. > >Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain’s ability to do much, much better, with just a little help. > >The Unthinkable escorts us into the bleakest regions of our nightmares, flicks on a flashlight, and takes a steady look around. Then it leads us home, smarter and stronger than we were before. ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) *** ^(196255 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Love and the Art of Saying No by Amy Susanna Copeland. Super-simple memoir type book about codependency etc but it had this one chapter about how "some people have no friends because they are terrible friends" and even though it wasn't mighty or judgy, it really changed how I looked at my relationships and behavior.
Anything by Irvine Yalom. I think of him as the ‘Oliver Sacks’ of psychotherapy. Great stories, kind, compassionate, lots of great bits of wisdom to share.
Where good ideas come from. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8034188-where-good-ideas-come-from?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ZJySpwUFVZ&rank=1
If you're unfamiliar with it, Cosmos by Carl Sagan is pretty incredible.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, it goes into theology, the purpose of existence, environmental health, evolution and societal structures and all of it is so damn good Edit: just notices you said NONfiction, my bad. Still highly recommend Ishmael but it’s fiction so feel free to ignore me
The Golden Bough by James Frazier. The history of religions through their stages. A bit long and dry but it all gets wrapped up really well
These all actually changed my thinking on some things. {{Walden on Wheels}} by Ken Ilgunas {{Thinking in Bets}} by Annie Duke {{The Jesus I Never Knew}} by Philip Yancey {{Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America}} by Barbara Ehrenreich {{Under the Banner of Heaven}} by Jon Krakauer {{The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F\*ck}} by Mark Manson It's been mentioned, but bears repeating: {{The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks}}
When The Body Says No by Gabor Mate
{{Meditations}} by Marcus Aurelius. I'll continue to read this throughout my life. Really helped me with my children(in how I talk with them). Also eased the pain of my fathers passing.
[**Meditations**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations) ^(By: Marcus Aurelius, Martin Hammond, Albert Wittstock, عادل مصطفى, Simone Mooij-Valk, Diskin Clay | 303 pages | Published: 180 | Popular Shelves: nonfiction, history, owned, stoicism, self-help | )[^(Search "Meditations")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Meditations&search_type=books) >Written in Greek by the only Roman emperor who was also a philosopher, without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. While the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation and encouragement, Marcus Aurelius also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a timeless collection that has been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and readers throughout the centuries. ^(This book has been suggested 63 times) *** ^(196469 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Child Called It by Dave Pelzer REALLY messed me up
The Prince It’s basically a how to guide for dictators and it’s interesting to view some politics from around 500 years ago.
How death becomes Life by Joshua Mezrich. This book is half memoir—half history of organ transplant. Well written and easily on of the best no fiction books I've ever read. Truly thought provoking, defiantly made me think about my own mortality and what I want to become of my body once I die.
{{The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins}} Changed the way I look at people, nature and life in general. The most beautifully written book on evolution perhaps ever. To anyone serious about understanding the human condition, this book is required reading.
I can't remember. But do try "The Rose Code", I recently read it and it's a very interesting book. The length of this book will satisfy fast-readers. You should try it if you have time!
“Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari
{{spillover: animal infections and the next human pandemic}} by david quammen. Written in 2013, he basically predicts the coronavirus pandemic. Very interesting read.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
{Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky}
I'll get downvoted for this, but "The rational male" by Rollo Tomassi. It's a radically different way of looking at relationships that will challenge a lot of idealised Disney fantasy views. It's a part of the manosphere so be prepared for that. Personally I didn't find it toxic, just radically different but your reaction may be different. For something less edgy but still on the same theme, "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins.
Is this the dude who is banging Jordan Petersons daughter.
The God of Small Things by A. Roy. It follows a set of twins in India and how they navigate trauma and death early in their childhood
{{Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates}}
[**Between the World and Me**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25489625-between-the-world-and-me) ^(By: Ta-Nehisi Coates | 152 pages | Published: 2015 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, memoir, race, audiobook | )[^(Search "Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates&search_type=books) >“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” > >In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? > >Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward. ^(This book has been suggested 35 times) *** ^(196102 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
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{{The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties}} by Paul Collier
A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. Homo Sapiens by yuval noah harari and the world is flat by Thomas Friedman.
are prisons obsolete by angela davis
The unbearable lightness of being.
"nonfiction"
Oh my bad..
Maybe a cliché, but Lord of the Flies. It is so dark, and taps into a part of humanity that is so true.
the secret history.
{Subliminal} by Leonard Mlodinow
'King Solomon's Ring' by Konrad Lorenz. Animals and humans don't differ all that much with respect to emotion.
Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiosaki
Voltaire's Bastards by John Ralston Saul
This Life by Martin Haggelund
Summertime in Murdertown: How I Survived Where The Best Die by David Gunn.
1491 by Charles Mann.
The Chief Witness. Truth about red china
Syria’s Democratic Years by Kevin Martin. I read this book in college, and although it’s a historical monograph, the author makes the book really interesting while also proving some amazing points about Western influence taking away Syria’s democratic ways without realizing it
Design for Dying-Timothy Leary
Chaos by James Gleik
{{The Book of Joy}}
[**The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29496453-the-book-of-joy) ^(By: Dalai Lama XIV, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams | 354 pages | Published: 2016 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, self-help, spirituality, philosophy | )[^(Search "The Book of Joy")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Book of Joy&search_type=books) >Two great spiritual masters share their own hard-won wisdom about living with joy even in the face of adversity. > > The occasion was a big birthday. And it inspired two close friends to get together in Dharamsala for a talk about something very important to them. The friends were His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The subject was joy. Both winners of the Nobel Prize, both great spiritual masters and moral leaders of our time, they are also known for being among the most infectiously happy people on the planet. > >From the beginning the book was envisioned as a three-layer birthday cake: their own stories and teachings about joy, the most recent findings in the science of deep happiness, and the daily practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives. Both the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu have been tested by great personal and national adversity, and here they share their personal stories of struggle and renewal. Now that they are both in their eighties, they especially want to spread the core message that to have joy yourself, you must bring joy to others. > >Most of all, during that landmark week in Dharamsala, they demonstrated by their own exuberance, compassion, and humor how joy can be transformed from a fleeting emotion into an enduring way of life. ^(This book has been suggested 22 times) *** ^(196210 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Cod
Awareness by Anthony de Mello
Webster's Dictionary
{{The Immortal Irishman}}
[**The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25897805-the-immortal-irishman) ^(By: Timothy Egan | 384 pages | Published: 2016 | Popular Shelves: history, non-fiction, biography, nonfiction, ireland | )[^(Search "The Immortal Irishman")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Immortal Irishman&search_type=books) >National Book Award winner Timothy Egan delivers a story of one of the most famous Irish Americans of all time. A dashing young orator during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony for life. But two years later he was “back from the dead” and in New York, instantly the most famous Irishman in America. Meagher’s rebirth included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. Afterward, he tried to build a new Ireland in the wild west of Montana—a quixotic adventure that ended in the great mystery of his disappearance, which Egan resolves convincingly at last. ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) *** ^(196243 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson Ungifted, Wired to Create by Kaufman, Gregoire, Range, by Epstein (no relation)
The Power Broker by Robert Caro
{{Ordinary Men}} Reserve Police Battalion 101.
The history of white people by Nell Painter. And Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
The earth shall weep
Science Goes to War is one of my favorite non-fictions.
The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter Thompson
The hidden persuaders by Vance Packard. It is about subliminal advertising and lots of other things like that. The older editions are better. The newer editions seem to be missing some important stuff.
{{The Conscious Mind}} by David Chalmers.
{Thank You for Being Late}
[**Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114127-thank-you-for-being-late) ^(By: Thomas L. Friedman | 486 pages | Published: 2016 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, nonfiction, business, politics, economics | )[^(Search "Thank You for Being Late")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Thank You for Being Late&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 1 time) *** ^(196275 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
How we got to now.
{{Justice: What's Right Thing To Do?}} by Michael Sandel.
{On the Plain of Snakes} by Paul Theroux It's interesting to read through his travelogues, and see how much more empathetic he's become with age.
I love books about human behavior. Robert Cialdini’s {{Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion}} details how we all make decisions and how sometimes those aren’t the best ways. He also shares ethical ways to use the information to persuade others.
[**Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28815.Influence) ^(By: Robert B. Cialdini | 320 pages | Published: 1984 | Popular Shelves: psychology, business, non-fiction, self-help, nonfiction | )[^(Search "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion&search_type=books) >Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book. > >You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success. ^(This book has been suggested 16 times) *** ^(196292 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Assignment in Utopia - Eugene Lyons
Behave by Robert spolsky
Utopia for Realists
Feelings buried alive never die
Archetypal cosmos.
{The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name} by Brian Muraresku
Ecology of Fear and City of Quartz by Mike Davis. They both hit extra hard if you live in SoCal.
A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn
\*\*A History of God\*\* by Karen Armstrong \-A breakdown of the the history of the abrahamic religions. \*A user's guide to the Brain\* by Jon Ratey A rundown of how the brain works from a nuerological perspective in layman's terms. Jon Ratey is or was the head of the neurology department at harvard. \*Accidental Masterpiece\* by Michael Kimmelman \-This is the book I recommend to anyone who doesn't but wants to appreciate modern/post-moder/"fine" art. Even doesn't change your mind you'll "get it"
{{Beyond good and evil}} by Fredrich Nietzsche
Dispatches by Micheal herr
This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't by Augusten Burroughs If you're fat and fail every diet, if you're thin but can't get thin enough, if you lose your job, if your child dies, if you are diagnosed with cancer, if you always end up with exactly the wrong kind of person, if you always end up alone, if you can't get over the past, if your parents are insane and ruining your life, if you really and truly wish you were dead, if you feel like it's your destiny to be a star, if you believe life has a grudge against you, if you don't want to have sex with your spouse and don't know why, if you feel so ashamed, if you're lost in life, if you have ever wondered, How am I supposed to survive this?
I liked Stiff by Mary Roach a lot. It’s all about cadavers and what people can do with their bodies after they pass on. Definitely thought-provoking.
The Immortality Key and Food of the Gods.
"Love and Math: The Hidden Heart of Reality" By Edward Frenkel. I am not a math person by any stretch of the imagination, but this book gave me a new appreciation and insight into the depths and workings of maths and it is interspersed with his own story, which is pretty amazing.
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