I had nearly finished reading Jon Krakauer’s INTO THIN AIR on the way to work this morning and I had to resist walking down the street with my nose in the book. This proved to be a wise choice when I was nearly plowed over in a crosswalk by an SUV inattentively making a right hand turn, and was saved by a quick leap backwards and a loud shout. Drivers of San Francisco — please be careful when there are literary agents in the crosswalk! California’s car cell phone ban cannot come soon enough.
But in any event, INTO THIN AIR is an amazing book!! I’m sure many of you have read it, but Krakauer’s step by step chronicle of his team’s ill-fated 1996 Everest expedition is one of the most perfect combinations of subject matter and incredible writing I have ever come across. Not only that, I have it on good authority that Krakauer is an extremely nice person and a pleasure to work with.
Krakauer really proves that it is not enough to have witnessed incredible events, you have to be a tremendous writer. Check and check.
So now I’m wondering: what is your favorite work of nonfiction based on actual events? This rules out general nonfiction, so I guess we’re looking at history, memoir, biography, journalism…. you get the idea.
cslarsen says
I’m thinking Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” was pretty good. A little too creative, in my opinion, but based on actual events nonetheless.
Or was it The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
cate says
ON A WAVE, by Thad Ziolkowski (memoir). After finishing it, I opened up to page one and read it all over again.
Caroline says
Stephen Ambrose’s CITIZEN SOLDIERS and James Bradley’s FLYBOYS. I love WWII history and those are both excellent.
hannah says
Have to second INTO THE WILD. Fantastic.
TWEAK by Nic Sheff was also quite good, and I’m just about to start BEAUTIFUL BOY, written by his father.
I’m in the middle of Brent Runyon’s THE BURN JOURNALS, which is fantastic so far.
benwah says
Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff” is a hands down winner with me. Have read it countless times even though the dream of becoming an astronaut faded ages ago.
Frank Vertosick’s “When the air hits your brain” (half for the title alone).
Krakouer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven” is fantastic.
“The Cheese and the Worms” is a great little book. I was convinced I was the only person who ever liked it.
Mark Bowden (“Killing Pablo”) and Robert Kaplan (“Ends of the earth”) are two great nonfiction authors, but I would say based more on their collected work than any particular book.
James McManus’ “Positively 5th Street” is good, although some of the poker stuff seems lifted from Alvarez’s “Biggest game in town.”
And, perhaps strangely, I really enjoyed “The gulag archipelago.”
Guess I read a lot of nonfiction.
Dave F. says
A few:
A Death In Belmont, Sebastian Junger
Fermat’s Enigma by Simon Singh
The professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
Anonymous says
THE PERFECT STORM, by Sebastian Junger ranks up there with me. I also loved 2 others already mentioned here: Shadow Divers and The Right Stuff. And I will add BLACK HAWK DOWN. Oh, and THE KON-TIKI EXPEDITION. I want to read Into Thin Air, but haven’t gotten to it yet.
Diana says
The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin.
The description on the cover says it all:
“In three minutes, the front subtracted eighteen degrees from the air’s temperature. Then evening gathered in, and the temperatures kept dropping in the northwest gale. By morning on Friday, January 13, 1888, more than a hundred children lay dead on the Dakota-Nebraska prairie.”
A freak storm hit during an unseasonably warm day just as children were walking home from school. You follow these children and their families so closely that you will be driven to finish the book out of concern for their welfare – and you don’t find out who survived and who didn’t until the very end. Laskin also takes a hard look at how an inept fledgling National Weather Service and a general lack of understanding of Plains weather patterns combined to turn a bad storm into a tragedy.
ipgirl says
Roald Dahl’s 2 autobiographical books By and Going Solo, because he really did have an adventurous life as pilot in WW2 and a field agent in Africa. And he’s fantastically funny.
For pure soap opera gushiness I like the Mitfords.They also had funny adventurous lives!
Bobbie says
THE SPECKLED MONSTER by Jennifer Lee Carrell was outstanding. My mother shoved it at me for a couple of years before I gave in and read it. I didn’t think a book about the history of the smallpox vaccine would be interesting, but I was so wrong and have recommended it to many people since then.
JES says
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. Not for the faint of heart, though!
The Endurance (Caroline Alexander, 1998), about the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica/The South Pole.
Mostly a photo book with words, but Wisconsin Death Trip (about settlers in the upper Midwest in the 19th century) is hypnotic-scary.
Anything WW II-related by William Shirer.
Oh, and jeez, All the President’s Men.
gerriwritinglog says
I second Black Hawk Down. The book is intense, detailed, and shocking not only in information, but in attitude. At several points, I could only read 2-3 pages of the book before putting it down and walking away to shake. The movie based on it is equally intense, and is probably one of the best war movies I’ve ever seen.
wortschmiedin says
Little House on the Prairie. Corny. I KNow but there you go.
Nick Travers says
Ffiona Campbell’s Walking Across Africa. Facinating access to her warped mind.
Nick
NickTravers.com
Mary says
Perhaps because I read it recently; perhaps because the subject is important to me and there are so few books of this type; my favourite work of non-fiction is “The Book of Boswell: The Autobiography of a Gypsy” by Silvester Gordon Boswell.
Icarus says
Paper Lion, by George Plimpton
Amazon Link: https://tinyurl.com/56wt3t
Plimpton’s a fantastically talented writer, and I loved getting to know all those storied players from back in the day when football players weren’t rich and larger than life.
A Reader from India says
There are many of those, two that come immediately to mind:
“The City of Djinns” by William Dalrymple – An amazing travelogue about the city of Delhi and “Curriculum Vitae” – Muriel Spark’s wonderful autobiography.
Anonymous says
Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl leapt to mind immediately.
freddie says
9 Highland Road by Michael Winerip is another one. It’s not about an event, per se, but about a small group of mentally ill people living in a group home in New York state. The book chronicles the lives of several of the home’s inhabitants, and makes a convincing argument that group homes (as opposed to asylums), where people actually receive some treatment for their mental illnesses, gain some independence through learning life skills, and have access to family, are the humane way to treat our country’s mentally ill. This was something that never even crossed my mind before picking up this book. Very eye-opening.
Anonymous says
Absolutely without a doubt Primo Levi’s brilliant “Se Questo e un’Uomo” (“If This is a Man”), published in English under the much-less-poetic title of “Survival in Auschwitz.”
Anonymous says
Philip Gourevitch’s WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT TOMORROW WE WILL BE KILLED WITH OUR FAMILIES, about the genocide in Rwanda (long before the movies were made).
And yes, definitely, Primo Levi: what about THE PERIODIC TABLE?
Anonymous says
Anything about Arctic/Antarctic expeditions – Endurance, Shackleton’s Forgotton Men – both compelling true-life stories about Shackleton’s failed expedition across Antarctica.
I love this stuff. I have a whole shelf of books at home that cover true life adventure stories: Sole Survivor, about the only survivor of a ship that was blown to bits during World War II and how he lived for days out on the ocean. And Sebastian Junger is excellent with The Perfect Storm.
I received Into Thin Air as a Christmas present about 10 years ago – read it in one night. Beck Weathers did a lot of talks in the area around that time – always meant to go see him because his story is so incredible.
Southern Writer says
Kirsten, I saw the movie. I think it was called Frances, and Jessica Lange played the title role. I was shocked by what could happen to a person who didn’t fit the mold back then.
Jared X says
A common refrain about a good singer is that s/he can sing the dictionary and it would be beautiful. Simon Winchester wrote about the creation of a dictionary (the OED) in PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN and I couldn’t put it down.
pth says
Sins of the 7th Sister
They Cage the Animals at Night
Dibs in Search of Self
The Devil in the White City
Blackbird
The Glass Castle
Taylor K. says
NIGHT by Elie Wiesel (read it long before Oprah ever talked about it). A truly tragic story about his time in a concentration camp that really gets to you as time goes on.
Colorado Writer says
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
Marley & Me by John Grogan
Just_Me says
The only memoir that I’ve voluntarily picked up since I graduated is actually a collection of poems that make a story about love lost and found if you read it in sequence. Amores by Ovid, in either the original Latin or a translation. I love the sentiment, the wanting and waiting for someone and the fore-knowledge of betrayal and forgiveness.
I’ve read other memoirs in high school and college and I might fo pick up some that are recommended in the comments but I do tend to shy away from that style of writing.
Lisa McMann says
I am glad you did not get creamed in the crosswalk.
I’m a sucker for anything David Sedaris. But I also remember reading A WALK ACROSS AMERICA and I loved that book (I was in high school when I read it–not sure if my feelings would remain the same now or not).
Jay Montville says
I’m going to second (or third) THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger, which is awesome.
However, for sheer readability and entertainment, my absolute most favorite is HOMICIDE: A YEAR ON THE KILLING STREETS by none other than David Simon. It was reading this book that made me give the Homicide tv show a chance, which in turn led me to The Wire. It’s, like, the backstory to The Wire. Just a phenom peice of work.
mkcbunny says
This thread makes me realize how little non-fiction I read. The only ones I’ve read in the last year are already listed, but I add my vote: The Year of Magical Thinking and “anything Sedaris.”
And I second that vote for Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was a lifetime ago that I read that series, but it’s both a compelling portrait of a single family and a chronicle of the country’s evolution and expansion.
Melanie Avila says
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert really hit home for me. I didn’t want to read it but it was a gift. Now it may be my favorite book.
I vote for The Glass Castle, too.
GL says
Lost Tribe by Edward Marriott
Adaora A. says
I’ve just thought of another one. I had to read it in first year of uni for a class called LIFE, LOVE, AND LABOUR. It’s ORDINARY MEN by Robert Browning. Based on men of the batallion who were ‘ordinary men’ who carried out raids and killings of Jewish people during Nazi occupation. It made me cry reading it.
Heidi says
My favorite is INTO THIN AIR! I read it first as an article in Life magazine just months after the incident (I still have that magazine!) and ran out to buy the book as soon as it came out. I’ve read just about every book on Everest, including the three or four others about this particular climb, but Krakauer’s is my favorite.
I also love ALIVE, by Piers Paul Read about the rugby team plane that went down in the Andes, and IN THE HEART OF THE SEA by Nathaniel Philbreck about the real whaling ship that inspired the book Moby Dick.
Serenissima says
DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY for sure!
Sophie W. says
Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller will always have that special place in my heart.
Also anything by Erma Bombeck, but she didn’t actually write novels.
Sminthia says
Although there has been some mention of RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, I’d like to recommend a book by Augusten Burroughs’ older brother, John Elder Robison. It’s called LOOK ME IN THE EYE: MY LIFE WITH ASPERGER’S. It’s the best memoir I’ve seen about Asperger’s syndrome. I read some reviews claiming that the events in the book could not have happened, but members of my Aspergian household were laughing out loud in recognition. Definitely nonfiction.
Brian Jay Jones says
Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate. Sure, you know how it’s going to end — they’re gonna get the votes needed to pass the Voting Rights Act — but Caro practically makes it a thriller. And who thought Senate procedure could be so exciting?
Geek check, right? I know, I know: busted.
Anonymous says
Are you tellin’ me WHERE’S WALDO ain’t true?
(Melba… Melba, honey, call Dr. Pepper. I’m feelin’ horrible seldom!)
Haste yee back 😉
spinney says
A FISH CAUGHT IN TIME. Who knew that a book about a possibly extinct species could be gripping?
Anne-Marie says
Daniel Mendehlson- THE SEARCH FOR SIX OF SIX MILLION, which is a beautiful told memoir of wanting to find out what exactly happened to relatives lost in the holocaust.
and
William Sampson- CONFESSIONS OF AN INNOCENT MAN, which is Sampson’s memoir of being arrested and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia.
liquidambar says
I read INTO THIN AIR after I’d been reading mountaineering literature for years. They’re all gripping: Chris Bonington, John Roskelley, Greg Child, etc., etc.
But INTO THIN AIR gave me an eerie feeling because it’s about a lot of climbers coming to a tragic end on Everest in 1996. And I had previously found one of the most gripping mountaineering books ever to be Jim Curran’s K2: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY, about a lot of climbers coming to a tragic end on K2 in 1986.
As for other nonfiction books, GORILLAS IN THE MIST by Dian Fossey. WOMAN IN THE MISTS, by Farley Mowat, is a good companion piece/different perspective on Fossey’s life.
Also have to name Richard Feynman/Ralph Leighton’s SURELY YOU’RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN! And Watson’s THE DOUBLE HELIX.
gawain says
I had a rant here about a page long, but I deleted it. Can I just ask:
Do you really feel the tens of thousands of laws we have on the books in California already are still inadequate? I feel much, much safer knowing that we have all those laws, don’t you?
And the rest of the world is certainly not laughing at all as pass another 5-10,000 laws EVERY YEAR.
Nathan Bransford says
Um. Gawain? Did you get lost and wind up at the wrong blog? I’m so confused.
gawain says
“California’s car cell phone ban cannot come soon enough.”
Yeah I know it’s off-topic, but the whimpering, whining, ‘please pass another law to make us all safe’ attitude is wearing thin. I like you and your blog and the people who post here (obviously, or I wouldn’t be here) but I have to say something when I hear a comment like that. Another (anon) poster noted that a similar ban has actually increased the problem in his state. Studies on the subject have proven that cell phones, while distracting and dangerous in vehicles, are no more so than cd’s, mp3 players, food and beverages. And yet we march bravely forward into NerfWorld, without a backwards glance at the freedoms that thousands of men have spilled their blood to give us.
Instead of putting our money and effort into effective uses like a good, quality rail system that will save lives and the environment at the same time, we lobby around silly ideas that make us feel good and don’t effectively do anything but erode our freedoms and make our money vanish into the pockets of politicians and lobbyists.
I know it was probably just an offhand remark, and one that you certainly didn’t feel would be offensive or incendiary, so I didn’t want to make a deal of it, but I had to say something didn’t I? Obviously, it’s not really you that I’m frustrated with, its myself and all the people who vote along with me.
Nathan Bransford says
gawain-
I’m in favor of personal-freedom as the next person, but in my personal opinion the car cell phone ban is a good law. People talking on cell phones are four times as likely to be involved in a serious car crash. Walking around a big city like San Francisco is really dangerous — I’ve nearly been run over several different times, and every single time someone was talking on their cell phone.
Now, I’m also the biggest high speed rail proponent you’re going to find, but banning cell phones doesn’t really have anything to do with that. If someone wants to talk on their cell while driving down an empty highway, whatever. But driving around a city with tons of obstacles? Hell to the no.
gawain says
I hear ya. We’ve all had run-ins with every type of chatting, smoking,drunken, medicated, and hands-on parenting driver (and all the other distractions as well). I understand your feelings, and I hope that you are safer once the law is passed. I’ve come close to death many times on my motorcycle because of these people. I don’t ride much these days, but I still try to keep my wits about me at all times.
I think the most important thing, which you’ve already demonstrated, is your intelligence and awareness of your surroundings. In my estimation, your odds of getting back to the office safely are much better than the morons who almost ran you over. They quite likely had accidents a few blocks away, and if not, they eventually will. And if it’s not the cell phone, it will be the stereo, the latte, or the lipstick.
Anonymous says
MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS by Gerald Durrell. I’ve read it at least 20 times.
Zen of Writing says
Chronicles is awesome for its insights into creativity. I also like The Color of Water, and Krakauer’s books, and Pack of Two, by Caroline Knapp. Blue Blood, by Edward Conlon. On the Road, too, I guess is based on a true story.
Primo Levi’s memoirs of Auschwitz are amazing.
I don’t know which is my favorite…