Non-Fiction

This is the story of a woman who buys a cabin in the woods for some peace and quiet... and then neighbors arrive. In short, it is the story of the destruction of one woman's paradise, slightly exaggerated for creative effect and told in a tongue-in-cheek style. The result is a short book that is fun to read, but makes some solid points about our relationship with nature and rural spaces, and how we can sometimes destroy the thing we say we love about a place.

This is a fascinating and well told story about arctic exploration, using the story of a doomed Italian airship expedition as a focal point. It is a great example of the strength of the short ebook format for history: there is enough space to tell the details that really bring the story to life, but no pressure to pad the story to "book length," which would slow it down. As it is, it is an enjoyable one-evening read from which I learned a lot that I didn't know about arctic exploration. I highly recommend it!

This is a good book about a fascinating and inspiring man. It looks briefly at what went wrong for Jimmy Carter in the Presidency, but the bulk of the book is about Carter's post-presidency, arguing that Carter redefined what it means (and what it should mean) to be a former President of the United States. It is also the story of a man coming back from a very public and humiliating failure and building a meaningful "second act" in life that made a real difference.

This is a combination of reporting and personal memoir about the direct care industry. The author worked in the industry for several years, and saw both its limitations and its promise first hand. In this book, she describes her experiences as well as the experiences of a woman injured working in a care home, and then reports on the facts about the industry. I wish she had gone a bit deeper in her reporting, perhaps interviewing former residents of these homes and executives in the companies that run them.

This short ebook is an excerpt from a longer work, but it stands well on its own. The author takes a road trip to visit "land art" in the American west, and interweaves travel writing, personal essay, and art criticism in her account of the trip. This excerpt covers her first stop, which is to see a piece called Spiral Jetty on the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. I enjoyed the way the book helped me understand the art better, but it there is still a fair amount of art criticism jargon. I was able to make sense of it, and I think most other non-experts will, too.

This is a musician's meditation on the meaning he finds in composers' late works, but that description doesn't do it justice. Jonathan Biss has an extraordinary ability to write about music, and help us lesser musicians and non-musicians appreciate how music speaks to him and for him. When I read his writing about a piece I know, I feel I understand that piece more deeply. When I read his writing about a piece I don't know, I want to listen to that piece immediately.

This book intertwines the author's own experiences taking opioids to control the pain from ankylosing spondylitis with a discussion of our current problems with opioid addiction and a look at the role of opioids in the Romantic period. The title is a reference to a book by Thomas De Quincey, a Romantic-period writer who wrote about his experiences with laudanum. Zwarenstein compares De Quincey's experiences with comments from online forums for present day opioid users and her own observations.

This short ebook is a collection of six Ask Polly columns, along with a short introduction. If you like Ask Polly columns, you'll probably like this book. If you've never read one, this book is a good introduction. I enjoyed the columns, but what I really appreciated in this book was the way the columns were selected to look at the various types of problems/worries in our lives. In doing so, they help you examine your own approach to these sorts of crises, and maybe think a little bit more deeply about what really matters in your life.

This is a very short book about New Year's resolutions: it is the length of a short story. It is also really funny, and Irby's honesty about her resolutions and why she failed to keep them might give you a thought or two about our tendency to make resolutions and then immediately break them.

This book is a travelogue, the story of the trip one American Jewish woman took to Israel. She is somewhat ambivalent in her feelings about Israel, and is upfront about that, and one of the things we see in the book is her attempt to form solid opinions about the region and its conflicts. The tone stays one of a slightly introspective travelogue, not a weighty investigation of a difficult conflict, but one of the strengths of this book is how it shows the complexity inherent in any conflict that has centuries of history behind it.

I don't know what made me decide to download this book, but I'm glad I did. It is an insightful exploration of illness, faith, and what it means to really be well. The tone is gentle and humble and one of honest reflection. It does not read like a lecture, but like a conversation with a really thoughtful friend. I am not a religious person, and I probably never will be, but the discussion of faith in this book really spoke to me, and gave me more understanding of the role faith can play in people's lives.

This is a memoir of the author's season living in the deep Canadian bush, hunting and trapping. The story is well-written and engaging, and it alone would make this book worth your time. But this book is something more, too. The author is Anishinaabe, a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation in southern Ontario, and his time in the bush is spent with a James Bay Cree family.

This book is a well-executed blend of history and personal reflection about the end of apartheid. It covers the rise of the student movements that helped end it, and does not flinch from showing the cost paid by the participants in these movements. It is an engrossing read, and a reminder that while determined citizens can fight oppression, some of them will pay a terrible price for doing so.

This is book tells the story of a series of mysterious house fires in a small town in Sicily, and the various explanations that were advanced for them. It does a good job of setting the scene, and a slightly less good job of fleshing out the characters, but it is an interesting story that I enjoyed reading.

The author of this fascinating book is a German who travels to Lviv, in Ukraine, to try to understand its history, and specifically how World War II changed it and by extension the rest of the region. He makes his trip with a copy of the writing of an earlier German visitor to the city, then called Lemberg. The result is part travelogue, part history, and part personal meditation. It is well-written and an enjoyable read.

This is a well-executed example of a genre I have come to love: the short history. This book covers a bit of US history that I suspect most Americans have forgotten (if they ever learned it): the Barbary Wars of the early 1800s. It frames this history within the context of the rise of the US Navy and a rivalry between two of the leading naval officers of the day, Stephen Decatur and William Bainbridge. It is a fast-paced and well-written book, which cites historical evidence to back its points. My only quibble is that it is very much an American history.

This is a solid piece of science writing masquerading as movie reviews. It is a lot of fun to read, and you'll learn some biomechanics along the way. However, you may never look at movie monsters in quite the same way again.

This is a remarkable story about a group of people who hid in the forest from the Cambodian war for 25 years after it ended. The story itself is amazing, and it is extremely well told. Putrill both captures the extreme circumstances that pushed the group to decide to disappear into the forest for so long and makes the story speak to what is common in us all. It is a page turner that will stay with you for a long time.

This book introduces you to the world of Hindi films, commonly called "Bollywood" films. The historical and artistic information is interspersed with stories from the author's own journey to Hindi film fandom. The conversational tone and the personal stories make this a fun, engaging read. If you, like me, have never really considered Hindi films, this book will show you that they are more than flashy dance sequences and sappy love stories.

This short look at pregnancy advice through the ages is an adapted excerpt from a longer work, but it is an exceptionally well done one. It stands on its own as a great, brief look at the topic. If you've ever been on the receiving end of pregnancy advice, or if you're just curious about what society tells pregnant women to do and why, this book is for you.

Mara Altman sets off on a journey of discovery to India... but she's not trying to find herself. She is trying to understand why so many Westerners go to India to try to find themselves. The book manages to take the desire to find oneself seriously without taking itself too seriously, and the result is a fun read that sneaks in some thought-provoking ideas.

This book gives the reader a peak into life in Istanbul in the first half of the 20th century, and specifically into the role of the Bosphorus in that life. It is an excerpt from a longer book, and suffers a bit from lack of context, but it is still a great read.

This short ebook consists of two in-depth articles discussing concerns people are raising about the role of computers and algorithms in our current and future life, with a short essay at the end wrapping things up. The first article looks at the role of algorithms and social media in today's world and the second looks at concerns about the role of artificial intelligence in our future.

This book reads a bit like an excerpt from a longer work, but don't let that stop you from reading it, particularly if you (like me) have never thought much about how animals respond to death. It is a look at a handful of examples where it appears animals are grieving, coupled with a discussion of what science can tell us about animal grief and what the fact that we usually overlook it says about us. All in all, it is a fascinating and thought-provoking book, and definitely worth your time.

This entertaining book about what it is like to be the twin of a famous person is actually a sneakily profound look at identity. It raises more questions than it answers, but it also provides some keen insights from a woman with a rather unique vantage point. It is a quick read, and definitely worth your time.

This is a diverting short read about Agatha Christie's estate. Part history and part travel writing, this book is a fun and interesting read for anyone who enjoys Christie's books, or ever went through an "Agatha Christie phase." The book left me wanting to make my own visit to Greenway.

This is the perfect length book about Hank Williams for someone (like me) who is curious about Williams and his life, but not to the extent of reading a full length biography. Williams played a pivotal role in the development of country music, and this book explores and explains that along with providing the basic story of Williams' life. Fans of country music will probably enjoy this book, but don't skip it just because you aren't a country music fan.

This interesting short ebook looks at the period in US history when divorce was just starting to become acceptable. The laws were still against it, so people in search of divorce would move to the state with the most lenient laws in order to get a divorce. They would need to establish residency before they could file their case, which led to the create of a community of divorce-seekers, waiting for residency. This book focuses on the "divorce colony" in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the early 1890s, using the case of the Baroness Margaret Laura De Stuers as an example.

This book looks at four scientific breakthroughs of the 1960s- telecommunications satellites, plate tectonics, experimental evidence of The Big Bang, and the eradication of smallpox- and traces their transformative impact through to modern times. It is an interesting premise, well-executed, and even people who know the basic outlines of these discoveries are likely to pick up some new information.

This story is ostensibly about a man journeying into the jungle of New Britain island in search of a tree kangaroo... but that is just the pretext that sets the story in motion. It is really a look at one of the last places that can be said to be "off the map" and what drives people to explore it. The description of the island and its history is interesting in its own right, but it is the characters that really make this book a great read.

This book is probably an excerpt from a longer memoir- it feels a bit out of context. Despite the disoriented feeling at the start, I really enjoyed this book. It is a memoir of postcolonial Pakistan, from the point of view of a woman who was at the time a child in a fairly well off household. The writing is beautiful, and one side effect of the way the book just starts without providing any background and then follows a narrative arc that is based more on the author's stream of consciousness than a linear timeline is that you are completely transported into its world.

This book takes you inside the world of pigeon racing, and the South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race in particular. It does a wonderful job of showing the appeal as well as the quirks of this world, and I found it fascinating. It also occasionally attempts to connect to a larger theme of "finding home," and in that regard it is less successful. This is only a minor distraction, though, and on the whole the book is enjoyable and well worth the time to read.

This is a book about slime- sort of. The introduction to this book led me to expect a little more unification in the essays than they delivered, but it was still a really interesting and fun to read look at some fascinating slimy sea creatures.

If you've ever wished you knew the Bible stories better but struggled to get past the seemingly endless "begats," this book is for you. If you've never even considered reading the Bible, you might want to check out this book, too. Afterall, the stories from the Bible pop up in all sorts of literature, and it is nice to be able to understand the references. This book is a humorous retelling of the Book of Genesis that is genuinely fun to read.

This short ebook is part family history, part memoir, and part travel narrative. Bonnie Rough explores her Estonian heritage and Estonia, and produces a very readable story of personal growth and discovery, and coming to terms with our whole selves.

This book isn't really an introduction to the world of viruses, more like a teaser. Zimmer provides a glimpse into the weirdness that is viruses, giving satisfying, complete stories about the viruses he discusses, but making it clear that there is many more wonderful stories out there for people who want to explore more. This is a book that will reward your time, and leave you with an increased sense of the wonderful diversity of the natural world.

This is several stories in one: the story of the endangered Cape Mountain Leopard, the story of the scientist (Quenton Martins) who is trying to save them, and the story of the author's attempt to see one of these rare and beautiful creatures.

If you've always wished you knew more about ancient history, this book is for you. It is a fast-paced and well-executed telling of the story of the waning days of the Ancient Greek democracy. The story opens with the Battle of Aginusae, and then traces the tragic aftermath that led Athens to the brink of destruction. The story will grab your attention, but the book also includes enough exposition and analysis to allow you to think about what went wrong, and to perhaps draw some lessons from the story.

This is a hard book to summarize. It is a detective story about tracking down stolen moon rocks, but it is more than that, too. It looks at the lure of the moon rocks, the motivations of the people involved in selling them, and the surprising way in which the value of the rocks got set. It is also a character study of the detective who is perhaps a little obsessed with finding lost moon rocks, and a cautionary tale of what can happen if you try to take an opportunity that sounds a little bit too good to be true.

This is the amazing story of the birth of a huge music festival in the deserts of Mali, the two men at the center of its creation, and what happens when radical Islam comes to Mali. If you've never heard Malian music, this book will probably make you want to listen to some. If you have, this book will probably make you appreciate it all the more. It may also make you rethink what one "ordinary" man can accomplish.

This well-written and fast-paced book takes the reader through the reign of King Richard II, which was filled with intrigue and conflict. It showcases the strength of the short ebook history- it is long enough to leave you feeling like you really learned something about this period of history, but short enough to avoid bogging down in the deep details.

This is a thought-provoking look at the arbitrary nature of political borders, and the human toll they create. It does not delve into the policy implications of changing our current system, but instead makes a moral argument that we cannot ignore the suffering the system is causing. It is not a book that intends to give answers. It instead forces us to grapple with the morality of our current system, and encourages us to think about what other systems might be possible.

This book is not easy to categorize, but in a way, that is part of its strength. It is about Cerro Rico, a silver mining mountain in Potosi, Bolivia, which has been mined since the time of the Conquistadors. The book looks at the mining operations and also at the tourism industry that has been developed to allow tourists to visit the mines and get a taste of the conditions under which the miners work. Zoellner weaves in a discussion of the larger phenomenon of "dark tourism" (visiting sites associated with death and/or suffering), as well. It is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book.

This is a quirky little history, focusing on the back story of the classic Cary Grant movie, "To Catch a Thief." It starts with the story of David Dodge, the man who wrote the book on which the movie was based. He was an interesting man who lived the sort of life that many people wish they could live, so this portion is perhaps the most interesting section of the book for the general reader. Fans of the movie are likely to enjoy the behind the scenes look at its filming, too.

This well-written book is part personal essay about dealing with a relative's Alzheimer's disease, part summary of recent research about how Alzheimer's patients experience the world, and part reporting on a new type of care home in the Netherlands. These parts combine to produce a thoughtful and thought-provoking examination of how we can best help Alzheimer's patients.

I had never really thought about how we ended up with the professional fire departments we have today before I read this book. If you're like me in that regard, do yourself a favor and read this! It is a fascinating look at the period of time during which Boston switched from rough, rowdy volunteer fire companies to the modern professional system. It is a well-told story full of interesting characters, so it is a fun as well as educational read.

If you've ever wondered about celiac disease, the serious disease behind the current gluten free craze, this book is for you. But it is more than just an introduction to celiac disease and what life with this difficult condition is like. It is also a well-written and at times funny look at life at the boundaries of modern medical knowledge, and how to remain a happy person even when you cannot become a perfectly healthy patient.

This story is a masterful blend of memoir, history, and a contemplation about how we interpret and understand history. The author's father was adopted into the Tlingit people when she was a child. Years later, she follows that tenuous link and ends up exploring the history of a battle that the European-centric historical narrative remembers as an epic defeat of the Tlingit and Tlingit remember quite differently.

This book may be a little heavy on technical detail for some, but it also provides a fascinating detective story of sorts, explaining what scientists were able to determine from a frozen bison mummy discovered in Alaska and how they determined it.

This is a concise and well-written biography of Alan Turing, perfect for someone who is interested in knowing a bit about Turing and his work, but doesn't want to do the deep dive into the topic that a longer biography would entail

This is a beautifully-written and at times funny story about the unlikely topic of fibroids. The author uses her condition to explore her place in the two cultures of her heritage, and the result is a thought-provoking a wonderful story.

This book is part travelogue and part an examination of what "independent travel" has become and what that means for the individuals travelling and the communities they visit. The travel stories are wonderfully engaging and the wider arguments about travel are thought-provoking and well-presented.

This book is a heart-warming tale of death and destruction- really. It explores the methods required to eradicate invasive species (that's the death and destruction part) and also the motivations for doing so (that's the heart-warming part). It is a well-written and interesting look at what it takes to reverse the damage we do when we bring invasive species to new locations to serve our short term needs.

Mishka Shubaly doesn't think he can be trusted to care for any other living thing. But then he inexplicably decides to rescue a little mouse orphaned by a dog on his sister's property. This book is partly a sweet story of how he cares for the mouse, and partly a story of how the mouse helps him change how he views himself.

This book is a concise guide for academics looking for a job in industry, written by a hiring manager (disclosure: that hiring manager is me). It will help job seekers avoid common pitfalls in the job search process, and provides advice on identifying possible career paths, networking, writing a resume and cover letter, and interviewing. Although it was written with academics seeking to change to an industrial career in mind, other people considering career changes are likely to find useful advice in it, as well.

Starting with the story of Varian Fry and his often overlooked work rescuing European intellectuals from the Nazis, this book leads the reader through a fascinating meditation on the motivations of rescuers, the morality of their decisions, and the limits of gratitude.

This book starts as the story of the discovery of an unusual whale song using technology originally intended for tracking Russian submarines. It morphs into a beautiful and thought-provoking meditation on loneliness, our human tendency to project our emotional needs onto the natural world, and how scientific discoveries can touch people's lives even when they are extrapolating far beyond what the science actually shows.

I love non-fiction that pulls together information from disparate disciplines to give the reader a more complete picture, and this ebook does that well. It mixes scientific information on the effects of radiation and the assessment of the risk of exposure to low doses with historical information about a radon spa in eastern Europe, and the result is a short ebook that left me feeling like I'd really learned something.

This is a gripping and well-told story about an incident in the Golden Triangle area of Thailand that turned out not to be what it seemed and sparked an international confrontation. It takes the reader to a part of Thailand that most tourists avoid, and shows us not just the mystery that unfolded there but also a little bit abou the people who live in the area, and what this incident did to their lives.

This book intertwines the story of Cathy Hutchinson, a stroke patient who can only communicate by moving her eyes, and the story of research underway to try to allow her and other patients like her to control robotic limbs directly with their minds. The story is thoughtfully told, and left me impressed with both the research and the strength of the human spirit.

This book beautifully and evocatively describes a series of episodes from the author's childhood in Jamaica. Each episode stands alone, and yet informs the others, as chapters in a single, if loosely bound, story.

This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion of the debate around the reintroduction of the bear in the Pyrenees. Even readers who have never previously heard of the reintroduction program or the debate surrounding it will likely find it makes them re-examine their ideas about wildlife, human tradition, and man's place in the world. It is an even-handed discussion of the issue, which raises questions that are relevant in other contexts.

This book is part travelogue, part thoughtful exploration of the issues around the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. It works well on both levels. The author drives the route of the pipeline, talking to locals and also bringing in his own research about the issues, but also clearly enjoying the excuse to explore a region that most people don't consider a tourist destination.

This is an interesting and thought-provoking look at the economics of information, which, the author argues, doesn't want to be free so much as it wants to be shared. Producing and distributing information is most decidedly not free, and this book looks at the conflict between the fact that information is more valuable when it is shared, but will not be produced if the people who create it are not adequately compensated.

This book provides a fascinating view into the world of instrument making, intertwined with an exploration of friendship and what really matters in life.

This is a fascinating first person account of the onset of a debilitating mental illness, life in the shadow of that illness, and the now-controversial treatment that seems to have cured it (ECT). The title focuses on the ECT, but to me, the strength of the book is really its ability to give the reader a glimpse at what it is like to develop such a severe mental illness.

A short look at the question of why people travel, particularly in a time when we have more options for making connections remotely than ever. Written by a travel writer who has clearly thought quite a bit about what travel brings to his life, this book does not provide a definitive answer to the question but does provide some good insights, delivered in an engaging style.

This is a surprisingly funny book about a near-death experience, which will almost certainly make you appreciate the normal operations of your digestive tract a bit more. Borowitz developed a blockage in his colon which rather quickly became life-threatening. The book he has written about the experience is also about how little control we really have over life, and how delightful life is, nonetheless.

An engrossing and informative story about the NYC police in the early 1900s, and a woman who made a name for herself in that world against the odds and became NYC's first female detective.

An interesting and informative look at the battle over ebook pricing that took place in 2010, and culminated in the price-fixing case against Apple and the big publishers. This is a fast-paced and very readable book that will also make you think about how the price you pay for books is determined, and what that means for the future of book publishing.

Part memoir and part advice for writers, this book was an interesting and inspiring read. Even people who are not aiming to be professional authors are likely to find some useful ideas and advice.

Yes, there are hippopotamuses, but the real allure of this book is the history a fascinating man who embodies so many of our American myths (Frederick Russell Burnham), and the glimpse into the mindset of a time in American history when the idea of importing hippopotamuses as feed stock to live in the Mississippi Delta seemed not only possible, but like the solution to an urgent problem.

A look at the work habits of some people who have successful careers, combined with information from research on productivity and career happiness.

This is a light-hearted but interesting look at why we care so much about beer, with a mix of history, brewing technique, and ruminating on the role beer plays (and has played) in different cultures.

This eBook has two parts. The first is a history of the Attica prison riot of 1971 and its immediate aftermath, told from the viewpoint of one of the men who was brought in to try to negotiate a peaceful ending to the standoff. It is a personal history, but will give the reader an overview of the broader events. The second is an essay discussing what we can learn from that history, and an argument that we should apply what we learn to reform our current prison system.

An engaging history of the haiku form of poetry and the life of Basho, the poet who developed it.

An engrossing look at the discovery of the Pioneer Anomaly and the effort to understand what caused it: was it something mundane or was it a sign of new physics.

A discussion of possible approaches to making weekends as enjoyable- and rejuvenating- as possible, with a focus on the techniques used by some traditionally successful people.

Part travelogue, part exposition of the unusual beliefs of an interesting group of people, part recent history of a part of the world that most Americans probably couldn't locate on the map- this is a thoroughly interesting read.

A fascinating look at the process of making and recording music, from the standpoint of an accomplished pianist who is undertaking a project to record all of Beethoven's piano sonatas.

A look at the habits and morning rituals of some successful people, coupled with ideas about how to adopt those practices and an argument that we should be more mindful of how we use our morning hours.

An interesting look at Gutenberg's life and invention, drawing parallels to modern technology innovators.

Reflections and advice about getting the most from your work hours, so that you can be successful in a 40 hour work week.

This book is both a look at what has gone wrong with United States politics and a call to action to fix it. Lessig traces our political deadlock to the corrosive effects of money in politics, and argues persuasively that the tools of the 21st century gives us, the citizens, the power to fix the problem, if only we'd recognize our power and act on it.