It could be about any topic, but is there a particular writer (or writers) you’ve found who were just very good at explaining otherwise complicated subjects or topics in a very easy to understand (and preferably enjoyable) manner?
Can you give an example of the author and something they’ve written?
by teddy022
6 Comments
Mary Roach writes on a variety of topics in a humorous way: packing for Mars, death, swallowing, war, sex, wildlife are a few of her topics.
Bill Bryson is another recommendation. History and travel are his main topics.
Michael Lewis. Character driven nonfiction about salient issues. I can especially recommend {{The Undoing Project}} but he’s written a bunch.
Malcolm Gladwell writes about various topics in history, sociology, psychology, business… all very entertaining, interesting and easy to read. Some good ones are “Outliers”, “The tipping point”, and “David vs Goliath”
Walter Isaacson writes fantastic biographies, from Leonardo da Vinci to Elon Musk. Great attention to details, minimum bias/bs.
A lot of the topics he covers in the biographies can be highly technical, such as CRISPR/genome-editing technologies in The Code Breaker, but as a reader I found them easy to understand even intriguing, simply because of the magical way he writes.
Ed Yong for biology books
(“An Immense World” about animal senses is my favorite)
Dan Jones for history books
“The Templars” is my favorite
Carl Sagan – Astronomer and science writer. The Dragons of Eden: Speculation on the Evolution of Human Intelligence (1977); Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science (1979); Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
Terence McKenna – Ethobotanist, wrote about hallucinogenics in relation to spirituality and human history. Food of the Gods (1993)