Nonfiction book recommendations?

[Jess]

So part of my summer reading assignment for my English class is to read a nonfiction book. Does anyone have any really great books that you'd recommend?

[Joseph Mogavero]

Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman.

[Nerd Duck]

One of my favorites is "Blue Highways" by William Least-Heat Moon.  It's about a guy who travels all around the United States and writes about it.  It's actually much more interesting than I make it sound.  It's full of fascinating characters and philosophical insights, good times and uncomfortable times.  The writing is spectacular, too.  

Of course, I have many more suggestions than this, but this is good for a start.

[Alena Krone]

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson :)

[Jess]

Thank you everyone :] I'm thinking I'm either going to read The Glass Castle, because I know someone else who read it and loved it as well; 1941, the main idea sounds fascinating; or The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene, which I found online and also looks really interesting. Ugh now I have to choose :l So many books, so little time!

[periphery]

If you want something fun, enjoyable, and learn a little something as well, I'd recommend Ian Mortimer's "Time Traveler" books. Here is a link to his latest one: http://www.ianmortimer.com/books/TTGEE/TTGEE.htm. They are absolutely brilliant, and even better for a nonfiction, you feel like picking it up again and again and again.

If you're not into that sort of stuff, and like things that relate to the here and now, I think my second favorite book has to be "Outliers: A Story Of Success" (link to amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/...).  It talks about what drives people to success, and different myths and more. 

I dunno if it's the type of book you're looking for but I hope it helps!

[Jess]

Thank you, I've decided to read the Ian Mortimer book in the link :]

[Lori S.]

Night by Elie Wiesel is a classic memoir about the Holocaust.

Susan Griffin's A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War is a kind of rambling but really interesting (and IMO beautifully-written) book about violence both public and private.

Chris Hedge's War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning is short and excellent.

Karen Armstrong has a lot of good ones, if you're interested in religious issues, especially A History of God (about the development of monotheism) and The Battle for God (about the rise of modern fundamentalisms).

Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death is a classic.

What kind of stuff are you interested in?   I'm sure you can find some really good non-fiction on it.

[Jess]

I actually read Night in my English class last year and really enjoyed it :]

[Laura Browning]

I'm reading Sylvia Nasar's A Beautiful Mind a the moment for summer work for AP Psych - it's about the mathematical genius John Nash and his fall to schizophrenia. If you're interested in anything like that, I would recommend it.

[Ellen M.]

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.  It's a great nonfiction book that gives background information about pretty much any science field imaginable.  Plus, if you like his style he's written a bunch of other nonfiction books about travel, the history of English, William Shakespeare, AND  a few really funny memoirs.

[Dee Regular]

Diaries - Kafka

On Violence - Hannah Arendt

Eichmann in Jerusalem - Hannah Arendt (Strongly recommend this one)

Anything by Foucault

Metaphysical Foundations of Morals - Kant

Genealogy  of Morality - Nietzsche 

Essays by George Orwell

Utalitarianism - Mill

The list can go on.

[Paige]

Columbine by Dave Cullen or Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America are both very interesting.