*Thank you for your responses, everyone. I will definitely be checking out some of these.
Never at Rest by Richard Westfall is a comprehensive biography of Isaac Newton. Near the end when he works at the mint it gets pretty boring but otherwise great.
The Making of the Atom Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a fairly definitive treatment of how the US atomic bomb came about. It covers an incredible amount of background info of both the science and history that lead to it.
The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsburg is a terrifying look into the wild west of nuclear weapons in the couple decades after their advent. Ellsburg is famously the person who leaked the Pentagon Papers and he had a front row seat to the insanity that was the early* Cold War. It’s a miracle we survived.
in no particular order:
The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor’s Heroic Search for the World’s First Miracle Drug
The Wave: In the Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean
Among the Thugs: The Experience, and the Seduction, of Crowd Violence
Anything by Mary Roach or Bill Bryson
*I love a good subtitle. Read Stephen Jay Gould, too. The Burgess Shale one in particular.
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Bloom! It’s so good!
I don’t usually read non-fiction but for a reading bingo card challenge at my local bookstore and I was blown away by Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green, it was fantastic.
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
Not as tough as read as the title sounds. Just the introduction will blow your mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_Consciousness_in_the_Breakdown_of_the_Bicameral_MindGuns, Germs, and Steel:
Don’t do the abridged version or watch the movie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns%2C_Germs%2C_and_SteelThere’s some legitimate criticism of Guns, Germs, and Steel. Some of the author’s key assertions are incorrect but by and large a very well informed and exhaustively researched.
Most of the vitriol around it though seems to have missed the point. Diamond uses the book to argue against the idea of euro-exceptionalism but a loud part of society sees it as arguing the exact opposite.
Basically, what I’m saying is, don’t read it as gospel but an exceptional book that examines the way the world became the way it did from a fairly balanced perspective.
I know it really pissed off social anthropologist back in the day.
But I found the part about animal and plant domestication the most interesting. Domestication of animals created slaves you could eat.
Clausewitz, On War, bc I’m interested in military history. I have a bunch of books in storage, and it’s the only one I really miss. The Howard/Paret translation is the best. Handel’s “Masters of War” has a great explication (besides the one that Howard/Paret provide.)
The game engine that Paradox uses in their games is named after him. For reasons
Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer - it explains in detail the biology and evolutionary history of parasites, and some of the incredible science that goes into studying and understanding them.
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan - plain English explanation of what the scientific method is and why it’s our best way of understanding the world. It also explains how to think more critically about the world and how to identify pseudoscience.
Parasite Rex changed how I think about a lot of systems. Really mind expanding
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson and A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold. Hell, I’ll also throw in Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley. I should reread that.
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
A New History of a Lost Worldby Steve Brusatte
Many, but Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber is the one I’ve read most recently.
In order of recall,
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
Why Nations Fail
A Short History of Nearly Everything
God Is Not Great
Gödel, Escher, Bach
The Smartest Kids in the World
1984 /j
But actually it is probably “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom.
Its about someone who learns important life lessions from an old man who is dying from ALS.
Anything by Mary Roach or Carlo Rovelli
Don’t know if it’s my all-time favorite, but I really enjoyed Moonwalking With Einstein. It’s a glimpse into competitive memory champions and the techniques they use. Written in a very casual, investigative style.
Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) by Neil Postman, The Shallows (2010) by Nicholas Carr.
I think about both a lot, both are terrifyingly prescient and the issues they describe only got worse.
Amusing Ourselves is basically how the television age shapes politics (and all the ideas extend perfectly/terrifyingly into the modern internet era) while the Shallows is about how the internet is literally rewiring our minds.
Both are quite short, easy reads that will stick with you.
And on a lighter palate cleanser sort of note, anything Mary Roach writes is worth reading.
