November 2025
    M T W T F S S
     12
    3456789
    10111213141516
    17181920212223
    24252627282930

    For reasons I can’t be bothered to explain, I, an avid reader, have to read a book to a non-reader.

    She doesn’t like fiction so I’m looking for some non-fiction but with a compelling narrative thrust. Can be about anything really.

    by BoxAfter7577

    17 Comments

    1. Particular-School-15 on

      Try searching narrative non- fiction and you should find a ton of recommendations

    2. books-are-a-treasure on

      I’m not a non-fiction reader at all but I really enjoyed I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy and The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

    3. NecessaryStation5 on

      Some really well done nonfiction:

      All Thirteen

      Born a Crime

      Why Fish Don’t Exist

      The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

      Grief Is for People

    4. pm_ur_DnD_backstory on

      Jim Lovell’s Apollo 13 book reads like a fiction book and you’ll learn about physics. I think it’s called “Lost Moon”

    5. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places – it’s the memoir of a Vietnamese woman during the Vietnam war.

    6. Confident-Abrocoma26 on

      The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green has a bunch of bite sized essays, some more fun and some more thought provoking. His writing style is very easy to follow and conversational, while still being deep and profound

    7. DEAD BODIES:

      MARY ROACH –

      “Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers”

      CAITLIN DOUGHTY –

      “ Will my cat eat my eyeballs? : big questions from tiny mortals about death”

      “ From here to eternity : traveling the world to find the good death”

      “ Smoke gets in your eyes : and other lessons from the crematory”

      JUDY MELINEK –

      “ Working stiff : two years, 262 bodies, and the making o

    8. Miracle in the Andes if that kind of riveting is what she’s into.

      I was glued to it. I could not believe a single one of those people survived one second of that.

    9. Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer is a pretty short and compelling non fiction book about the biology of viruses and the history of our scientific understanding of viruses.

      The Sediments of Time by Maeve Leakey follows a woman’s life as a paleoanthropologist working in East Africa, covering all of the major discoveries her team made, falling in love with her husband, raising her children in the field, and shows how our modern understanding of human evolution came to be.

      A Day in the Life of Abed Salama follows a father in the West Bank as he tries to find out where his son is following a school bus crash. Tells you his life story, as well as that of other people involved in the accident. Gives insight into the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on a more personal scale, instead of focusing on broad historical events like most books about the subject do, it puts a microscope on how people’s day to day lives are shaped by borders and conflict. Tragic, but gripping.

    10. bibliophile222 on

      Adventure/disaster stories can be super riveting even with a drier writing style. I’d recommend Into Thin Air, Endurance, or pretty much anything about the Donner Party.

    11. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston – it’s a medical mystery thriller about the very real outbreak of Ebola Reston in Reston, Virginia. It’s relatively short and extremely compelling.

    12. The Day the World Came to Town. About the town of Gander after 9/11 when all the planes were brought there and the people stepped up to help. The musical Come From Away is based in this

    13. A_bookandacookie on

      This is a random assortment of humor and NOT humor! In no particular order:
      A Year in Provence (soothing, will make you hungry)
      The Boys in the Boat
      Bill Bryson’s “at home” or his travel books
      the oral history of Saturday Night Live (“Live From New York”)
      Jeffrey Tobin’s “The Run of His Life” (about the OJ Simpson trial)
      “The Best Land Under Heaven” is about the Donner Psrty, and rather upsetting, but if that’s your jam it is very good.

    Leave A Reply