Non Fiction book that made profound impact for you
Like the title says, I’m looking for non fiction book recommendations that had a profound (negative or positive) impact on you and that you can’t not go into deep essay about (if that makes sense)
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. This book inspired me to go into social work.
lady-earendil on
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. It’s a series of essays where he talks about different ways that our planet has been affected by humans and the way we interact with each other and everything around us, but it’s also kind of a memoir about his life. It made me sad but also really really hopeful and caused me to fall in love with life more
peakvincent on
These are very different books, but here are the two that come to mind first:
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. I read this over ten years ago, and it opened my eyes to a level of inequality that I just had never heard of before. It’s specifically about racism in the American carceral state. In addition to teaching me about a deep, horrifying, deliberate inequality, it made me question the way we link punishment and justice. On top of it, because it was about something that’s existed and impacted people but I had grown up completely sheltered from, this was the book that made me start wondering what else I didn’t know.
In a completely different vein, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer has also stayed with me for years, just for being an excellently written nonfiction thriller. It didn’t change my worldview, but it was all I could think about for weeks, and I still get kind of an anxiety stomachache when I think about it.
winter_wickedry on
The Son Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
A southern Black man spends 30 years wrongfully accused on death row. So powerful, and Ray writes with the most palpable emotion. He makes you cry, then laugh, then reflect. Can’t recommend enough.
go_anywhere on
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It’s a basic science book that touches on many basic science subjects. Some of it is not current, it really can broaden your horizons on how things work. I’d recommend the audiobook.
Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Sounds boring, but the real world examples given make it much easier to digest.
troojule on
People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Loyd Parry
Acrobatic_Hair5210 on
“Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer. And the movie
Successful-Try-8506 on
Peter Wohlleben: The Hidden Life of Trees. It changed the way I look at nature. Being an avid hiker, this was no small thing.
zoemurr2 on
The Day the World Came to Town, We Were the Lucky Ones, Empire of Pain
ShakespeherianRag on
*Landbridge* by Y-Dang Troeung. A posthumously published reflection about war, life, death, family, history, and motherhood. Such a powerful read.
astra823 on
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan. Hands-down the best book I’ve read on critical thinking, one of the only books I think everyone should read
Honorable mentions to:
– Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
– Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
– Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch
DreamersNeverLearnnn on
The Myth of Normal – Gabor Maté
hmmwhatsoverhere on
*The dawn of everything* by Davids Graeber and Wengrow
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The autobiographies of Elias Canetti
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. This book inspired me to go into social work.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. It’s a series of essays where he talks about different ways that our planet has been affected by humans and the way we interact with each other and everything around us, but it’s also kind of a memoir about his life. It made me sad but also really really hopeful and caused me to fall in love with life more
These are very different books, but here are the two that come to mind first:
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. I read this over ten years ago, and it opened my eyes to a level of inequality that I just had never heard of before. It’s specifically about racism in the American carceral state. In addition to teaching me about a deep, horrifying, deliberate inequality, it made me question the way we link punishment and justice. On top of it, because it was about something that’s existed and impacted people but I had grown up completely sheltered from, this was the book that made me start wondering what else I didn’t know.
In a completely different vein, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer has also stayed with me for years, just for being an excellently written nonfiction thriller. It didn’t change my worldview, but it was all I could think about for weeks, and I still get kind of an anxiety stomachache when I think about it.
The Son Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
A southern Black man spends 30 years wrongfully accused on death row. So powerful, and Ray writes with the most palpable emotion. He makes you cry, then laugh, then reflect. Can’t recommend enough.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It’s a basic science book that touches on many basic science subjects. Some of it is not current, it really can broaden your horizons on how things work. I’d recommend the audiobook.
Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Sounds boring, but the real world examples given make it much easier to digest.
People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Loyd Parry
“Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer. And the movie
Peter Wohlleben: The Hidden Life of Trees. It changed the way I look at nature. Being an avid hiker, this was no small thing.
The Day the World Came to Town, We Were the Lucky Ones, Empire of Pain
*Landbridge* by Y-Dang Troeung. A posthumously published reflection about war, life, death, family, history, and motherhood. Such a powerful read.
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan. Hands-down the best book I’ve read on critical thinking, one of the only books I think everyone should read
Honorable mentions to:
– Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
– Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
– Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch
The Myth of Normal – Gabor Maté
*The dawn of everything* by Davids Graeber and Wengrow
*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins