Today’s article is going to be the best non-fiction book. I try to divide the ones that are more science-related compared to the ones that aren’t too much. I just wanted to give you kind of the best of the ones that I’ve read throughout my time, it’s been about four years almost, so it is time for me to share a top kind of ten, and then I’m going to add a few more special mentions, and maybe I can add a few books that I’m looking forward to reading that are currently on my shelf. So let’s go through them.
1. The Radium Girls, The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
We’re going to start with The Radium Girls, The Dark Story of America's Shining Women. I knew nothing about this whole history thing I don’t know if it’s because I’m Canadian too young just don’t know a lot about history. It’s not my jam, but I went into this just because I kept seeing the book mentioned in, as you know, best new non-fiction, so I wanted to try it. I did go through it as an audiobook, which I don’t recommend. I don’t see that often, but I feel like the audiobook wasn’t super great. I know like for part of the narration.
There were a lot of saliva noises, which is not very pleasant to listen to so yeah with that said, I’m not sure I would have finished a book without the audiobook because of how gruesome and almost repetitive it started, feeling like which that sounds terrible Anyway, you’re following the story of these women that worked in this manufacturing factory, and when we discovered radium, we didn’t know anything about radioactivity, how it would affect the human body, so these women just knew that this paint glowed in the dark. So people wanted to buy this.
They wanted to buy watches and clocks that were glued in the dark. It’s very practical. So it was just a very exciting discovery, so they would use the paintbrush, but to make them very precise, they would put the brush in their mouth and twist it so radium accumulated in her body. It just tends to accumulate in the bones. So you kind of hear about the horror story that became your life and how a lot of people that knew realize eventually, the consequences were trying to hide it to keep making money, and it’s horrible anyway, just very, very horrifying. Do not recommend this book if you are sensitive to anything gruesome, because, quite frankly, I think it’s one hour through the audiobook there’s a scene where, when the first woman goes to the doctor because she has jaw pain and a doctor, just literally touches her jaw and falls Off so but hearing these stories, which you kind of, have to remind yourself that those are like their true lives, totally horrifying kind of leaves. You wondering also what’s the Radium of our generation, which that’s a little bit like a conspiracy theory.
But when you hear how much effort was put into trying to like cover it up, it’s horrifying and it was interesting. Oh, I don’t like that word for this book, but I feel like I’m going to say that for a few books here and just hear me out, I mean more, like enlightening just yeah, there’s no better word, but you know what I mean. So, if you are into these kinds of books, I highly recommend this book.
2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The next one in the same category would be The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot. If you have any kind of background in signs, you probably have heard of the HeLa cells which were stolen from this woman. In this book you follow Conor her life, her death, then you kind of follow her family and then more about ISIS, which was Super interesting, I didn’t know anything about her, because it’s been hidden and real Alex was a black woman in the U.S who went to the doctor because she was having pain, turns out she had cancer, and cervical cancer and the doctor took her cells without asking permission.
They essentially started using them to do a lot of research because they were immoral. They would just grow very, very fast, which was practical for science and her family never got any recognition or any money out of this and they were used. They are still used to doing so many discoveries like the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and, a lot more, so it’s kind of horrifying to hear her story about how they just you know, never gave her anything and seeing that her family, which there are pictures in the book, still nowadays can’t even afford You know health insurance, but some people have made millions out of you know stealing her cells so also very interesting. I recommend it if you want to learn more about it. I did enjoy that one too one book that I think everyone, but especially women would benefit from reading is the gift of fear which I feel has been well known for a while. How long ago was this published in 1997?
3. The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker
This book, though it was recommended to me a few years ago, and I need to reread this essentially the author reminds us that fear is a good thing and we should listen to that little voice inside of us that I feel like again. Women, especially we’re told to not listen to like to not insult anyone to always be polite. You know like sometimes you’ll meet someone and you just don’t trust them. But to be polite, you don’t say anything, you don’t do anything, and how these things get you killed so. The author tells you to you, know, F-politeness, and everything, but I didn’t feel like some of the advice and examples in there were very, useful, whether to be reminded that you know if you’re on a date and someone is not taking no for an answer: it’s a red flag, be careful, protect yourself, but it also helps you deal with things like if you have a stalker and everything, so I would highly recommend this book. If that’s something you are into slash again, I do think most people would benefit from reading it.
4. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by John Ronson
So good non-fiction to pick up the topic of the next book was fascinating to explore and it is So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by John Ronson. This was published in 2015, but I feel like the example seems almost old, because again in five years on Twitter, a lot of people have tweeted some DB stuff for sure. But the author is exploring like, I was saying people tweeting as you know, there was this woman that tweeted something about HIV in Africa and. By the time she got out of her plane right, she had lost her job and her whole life was a mess and she was exploring the consequences. Like right after what they said and how the way they reacted changed the outcome years later or months later, and I thought it was fascinating to look like.
Oh, if they were defensive or shameless, you know the different reactions from the public, also what the public would do if it was a woman or a man which not surprising how after men, they would go for a job, for example, and women. It would be a lot of threats of violence and sexual violence and I’m going to stop here, so you can, you know, still benefit from reading the book. I do recommend the audiobook because the narrator is the author and for some reason, he’s just a little awkward but in a wholesome way, and it just. I could listen to him talk for hours. He has a couple of other books that I did overall enjoy too.
One of them was about psychopaths. He just uses those interesting topics and just does his research. I would recommend this book or any of his other books, although those are the only two I’ve read.
5. Packing For Mars by Mary Roach
I probably should pick up another one, but yes, I would love it if you did like a second one because again I feel like since then there have been a lot more canceling a culture going on, and yes very interesting topic, something very different from any of the books that I’ve read so if that’s something that you are in to check out this one next book I wanted to talk about, is Packing For Mars by Mary Roach, she’s also an author that takes those like very specific uncommon topics and just goes for It this specific one is about astronomers, which was interesting overall you’re, probably going to learn more than you ever wanted about. How going to the bathroom in space is very complicated, but I’m overall very fascinated about anything to do with space. So for me, that was interesting.
I did say this: was the non-science-related nonfiction article, but you know it makes sense in my head, but yes, I would recommend any of her books. I did read another one about dead bodies. It was stiff which would recommend that one too, the author mentioned, was it a scandal in the U.S that was people leaving their body to signs and then It was discovered that they were used in like car crash tests so like anyway, Yes, again interesting, read, would recommend your books if you are looking for non-fiction that is kind of different.
Memoirs
Let’s go for memoirs, I don’t read a lot of them because, quite frankly, I don’t care about people.
6. Becoming by Michelle Obama
I mean the people that write those books in general, but I have to mention that I did overall enjoy the first one Becoming by Michelle Obama the book there’s like the first part. That is like her childhood, which again is not my cup of tea, but it was still interesting to see where she was coming from and how she was focused on an education which, I’m Canadian. So I didn’t know anything like she was never.
You know my first lady or anything I just knew of her a little bit. So I didn’t know anything about her background and I didn’t know how educated she was, which was impressive, to learn, and how she was never interested in going into politics. She was pretty much against it. You learn a little bit how about how she met her husband. How again she didn’t like him at first, which was funny and just a lot more about her honestly.
It just made me respect and my her a ton more frankly, I don’t know how she dealt with everything that she dealt with. But yes, if you are interested, highly recommend that one I mean it’s very, very popular non-fiction like on Goodreads, there are almost half a million ratings, so it’s a popular book but worth a read. I did listen to that one as an audiobook, which was narrated by her so again would recommend it that way.
7. Born A Crime: Stories from South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Same thing with my next book, which is Born A Crime: Stories from South African Childhood by Trevor Noah. So he’s also narrating his book and I would highly recommend it. Chairman Noah is super charismatic, which translates into the narration of the book. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the book nearly as much if he wasn’t the one narrating it and like by born a crime is that. If they had been found out. I think it was like five years in prison that would have happened for his parents because his dad was a white swiss man. I think, and yeah he’s just making a lot of jokes. You hear a lot about his childhood. His relationship with his mom especially seems to be quite interesting.
8. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Another book that I would highly recommend if you are into those types of memoir books, is one about mental illness. I would recommend Furiously Happy a funny book about horrible things by Jenny Lawson has two different books. I think the first one is: let’s pretend this never happened, which I did enjoy also, but I read this one first, which is the second book and between the two. I think this one is the one that I liked the most. The author explains how she’s trying to deal with a lot of mental illnesses and how she’s trying no matter what to live. You know furiously happy and like it says in the title, it’s like a lot of funny stories about like some serious stuff, and I just could connect with some of the stories and I think, a lot of people that are looking for more information about these topics would benefit from reading that book. I did enjoy it and if you do enjoy that, one again would recommend the other one too.
9. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I also wanted to recommend Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as an author, specifically two books, but I heard that I read and enjoyed the first one being. We Should All Be Feminists, which is technically a ted talk that was made into a book afterward, but it’s just so cute. I need to own it. I would highly recommend listening to her. If you get a chance in an interview or again that ted talk because she’s just super charismatic and I feel like she just has the capacity of explaining those complex topics like feminism in like such an easy, understandable way, and it’s just again very interesting to see so in this one, she explains how she became a feminist and then there’s also dear Eja Willy. I think a feminist manifesto in 15 suggestions, which is a letter that she writes to her friend’s daughter when she was born – and I just would highly recommend both of these if you are someone that wants to learn more about feminism or just you know, enjoy these types of readings, I need to read more about her. I have one of her fiction books on my shelf, which I need to get around to reading, but yes would recommend her books for sure.
Special Mentions
Now, let’s go into the most recommendations slash more special mentions.
10. Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Section first, one I wanted to mention is very famous Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind which is like the title says about humanity. It begins like from the beginning of humanity to nowadays. I know he has the second book that I do have myself about, like the future of humanity, which I have to get to eventually it was a very interesting topic. I feel like especially the beginning blew my mind. To be honest, afterward, it becomes a bit more about kind of politics, religion, and economy which is not my main jam but still interesting. The author, be warned is not afraid of like telling you how he feels about. It is the only complaint that I’ve heard about this book, but yes, it is fascinating. If that’s a topic, you are into anything that has to do with World War 2.
11. Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
To be honest, these books always break my heart. I especially wanted to mention a Man’s Search for Meaning, which I feel is one of the most popular books.
12. Night by Elie Wiesel
On the topic, the Night is also something I would recommend. In this one, the author starts by explaining his experience in concentration camps, which was horrifying to read, and how, having you know a meaning, a reason to survive, helps these people so again interesting, read kind of similar things with this one, the author shares his experience. I believe there are two other books on this topic for him.
13. When Breath Becomes Air
I also wanted to mention When Breath Becomes Air, which is the story of a neurosurgeon that is diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, and it was interesting to see how he dealt with being the patient. As a doctor and be warned most people cry when they read this book, I was okay until the end in the section that his wife wrote. That’s where I lost it, so would recommend it. It’s a pretty short read it’s about 200 pages and again it’s a very famous one, but I do think it’s worth reading.
14. Not That Bad by Roxanne Gay
Another one that was difficult to go through is Not That Bad, which is an ontology about culture. A bunch of different people wrote their experiences and I do feel like you will find at least one story in there that you will personally connect with again very difficult to go through, but I thought was interesting.
15. Educated by Tara Westover
I’m going to start resenting that word, but yes, worth a read. The next one seems to be fairly controversial for some reason, but it’s also very popular and I did enjoy it and it is Educated by Tara Westover. You are following the life story of the author, how she grew up in Idaho, yes, living with a family that was, they were like survivalists, canning and you know preparing for the end of the world and how she went from being home-schooled there to having a Ph.D. Be warned a lot of abuse honestly if it weren’t for the audiobook again, I don’t think I would have finished it because there are specific sections that were just absolutely horrifying to read or in my case listen to so I probably would have put it down and picked it up again. So again be warned, it was still raw, and interesting.
16. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Then last but not least, I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Invisible Women's data bias in a world design for mine. So we all know, women are you know, half the population, but it’s kind of crazy how the world is not made for them in a lot of things. For example, if you go just with seat belts and cars they’re not made for women, usually, it results in more injuries and death. Whenever there are car accidents, there’s also the fact that very often a woman will not be a test subject whenever a medication is being tested, and there are reasons you know, hormones and everything which makes sense, but it still means that often we don’t know the effects On women – and it has happened that there were some pretty horrifying consequences because of that.
Thank You for Reading.