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    13 Comments

    1. unlovelyladybartleby on

      And The Band Played On by Randy Schilts is the pinnacle of that genre. Impeccably researched, but it reads like a lurid thriller about corruption and incompetence. The author had access to a breathtaking range of sources and actually refused to be tested for HIV while writing the book because he wanted to remain as impartial as possible

      Red China Blues by Jan Wong is another of the greats. She was one of the first female westerners to attend a Chinese university during the Mao regime, stayed, grew disillusioned, then returned as a foreign correspondent and was on site at Tiannamen. The book covers 20 years of drastic social and cultural change and she writes with insight into her own role and self-deprecating humour

      Both authors were journalists

    2. Nine Minutes Twenty Seconds by Gary M. Pomerantz

      It depicts a plane crash in all details. The persons involved, the minutes before and after the crash, investigations and the legal process afterwards. I read it like 20 years ago, but I still remember it as one of the most moving books I ever had.

    3. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow (It’s about Harvey Weinstein and how his sexual abuse crimes stayed hidden and went on for so long. Ronan Farrow is one of the best writers around and this book reads like a thriller novel.)

      Killers of the Flower Moon By David Grann (It’s about how Americans killed and swindled many members of a Native American tribe in Oklahoma. It’s unbelievably shocking. The author does an amazing job of explaining what happened in a narrative style. It also involves the beginnings of the FBI.)

      Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (It’s about Elizabeth Holmes’s fraudulent blood testing company Theranos. She is currently in prison)

    4. Traditional_Run_3637 on

      killers of the flower moon by david grann is an investigation into the osage murders of the 1920s. it also dives into the history of discrimination against the osage and the corruption that enabled the crimes

    5. RegattaJoe on

      Zodiac by Robert Graysmith. Not precisely investigative, but it’s a well told journey through the case.

    6. Past-Wrangler9513 on

      False Report: A True Story of Rape in America by Ken Armstrong and T Christian Miller

    7. **A Fever in the Heartland**, by Timothy Egan. It follows the rise and fall of the KKK in 1920s Indiana and how one woman’s courage helped dismantle its grip on American society. 

    8. **The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America**, by Erik Larson.

    9. NANNYNEGLEY on

      Anything by Rose George, Judy Melinek, Caitlin Doughty, or Mary Roach.

    10. _BlackGoat_ on

      Here’s a few off my list that aren’t recommended that often:

      Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (President Lincoln’s cabinet)

      Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (evangelism in the US over the last 100 years)

      The Billion Dollar Spy by David Hoffman (crazy details on cold war espionage activities in Russia)

      1491 by Charles C. Mann (a tour of the native populations in the Americas just before European contact)

      Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham (self-explanatory, very well written)

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