I really want to read something that will shock me. Im looking for a true crime or history book that has dark secrets. Something based on US history maybe? or something based on a real event that will shock me. Im getting bored of the smut and fantasy books. Please and thank you.
by Common_Doughnut6462
18 Comments
I haven’t finished it yet but “No More Tears” by Gardiner Harris is pretty…dark. It’s about Johnson & Johnson and their history. I’ve actually stopped reading because I hit the chapter about how they ruined a little boy’s life by knowingly and intentionally suppressing known life-altering drug side effects. Although I will say the chapter on asbestos was equally jarring.
Well, that and them knowingly giving women ovarian cancer via talcum powder.
Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine. Americas use of natural disasters in resource rich countries to quell nationalistic tendencies. Fucked up shit. Dry read tho.
“A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland” by Charles Lachman fits it I think.
It’s basically, what happens when the Good Man Politically is a sexual deviant and how the scandals affects how the Presidential Campaigns.
I don’t know how shocking it is I guess, but Into Thin Air will definitely blow your mind
Killers of flower moon, Guns Germs Steel
*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins
*Washington bullets* by Vijay Prashad
The Indifferent Stars Above about the infamous Donner Party
Don’t know if it will blow your mind, but In the Garden of Beasts is an inside look at the rise of Nazi Germany. Pretty germane to today’s U.S. Erik Larson author.
Mesmerized: The Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain by Allison Winter is nominally about hypnosis but ultimately a lot about women’s health and the establishment of industrial medicine. I read it maybe 15 years ago and think about it all the time.
Fever In The Heartland is really good for this. Finding out how close the KKK came to having total control of the US government is startling.
John Carreyrou, Bad Blood.
When it comes to historical non fiction, I’m a huge fan of Sarah Vowell. She’s got some real doozies in there. She’s also very funny. My personal favorites are Assassination Vacation and Unfamiliar Fishes, but everything she writes is great.
Flyboys by James Bradley.
Careless People, Stiff, Blitzed
When McKinzie Comes to Town. It’s more or less a list of all the terrible things the illusive McKinzie and Co, the world’s largest consulting company, has done and how they’ve contributed to the deterioration of modern civilization across the globe. It’s pretty astounding.
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
“The Outlaw Ocean” by Ian Urbina introduced me to so many truly mind-boggling things about how people use oceans for crime (slavery, trafficking, poaching, you can’t imagine the iterations) as well as the forces for good using the murky legal status of international waters to help people or ensnare the bad guys. The author is meticulous in his research and details. It’s a series of essays about varied topics and locations, so you can pick up a fresh story in each chapter. Harrowing, memorable stuff.
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill