Feel-Good Non-Fiction
December 17, 2014 9:42 AM Subscribe
Can you recommend some rousing, feel-good non-fiction?
Looking for well-written non-fiction that makes you feel like the world is wonderful and the theme from Rocky is playing.
In general I have liked John McPhee, lovely dry English Pelicans, and David McCullough, but I'm not sure any of those actually hit my feel-good sweet spot.
Thanks!
(Bonus question: do you like your reading questions to show up in Media & Arts or Writing & Language?)
Looking for well-written non-fiction that makes you feel like the world is wonderful and the theme from Rocky is playing.
In general I have liked John McPhee, lovely dry English Pelicans, and David McCullough, but I'm not sure any of those actually hit my feel-good sweet spot.
Thanks!
(Bonus question: do you like your reading questions to show up in Media & Arts or Writing & Language?)
Best answer: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder and, also, just about anything by Tracy Kidder
posted by dawkins_7 at 10:22 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by dawkins_7 at 10:22 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: "The Good Heart" is about the Dalai Lama attending an Anglican conference, and giving his interpretation of the Christian scriptures. This book somehow renews one's faith in human nature.
posted by LauraJ at 10:29 AM on December 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by LauraJ at 10:29 AM on December 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Agree with Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
Also The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a great story about a mom who submitted jingles and quips for contests in the 50s/60s, and always managed to win something right when they needed it most.
posted by radioamy at 10:41 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Also The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a great story about a mom who submitted jingles and quips for contests in the 50s/60s, and always managed to win something right when they needed it most.
posted by radioamy at 10:41 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
The one book that comes to mind is "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea" It's two stories told roughly in parallel: First, the story of the USS Central America, a ship laden with US Army gold acquired the California gold rush, founders in a storm off the eastern seaboard and its way up from Panama, and many are rescued, hundreds of lives and all the gold are lost. The second is the story of an entrepreneurial engineer who goes looking for the gold, then worth about a billion dollars; he solves technical obstacles and fends off predatory treasure hunters to find and stake his claim.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:52 AM on December 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Sunburnt at 10:52 AM on December 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I love my much-read and dog-eared copy of "The Tao of Pooh." It's an introduction to the philosophy of taoism, using the Winnie the Pooh stories.
Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" has been really inspirational to me recently, and I love re-reading "Cooking Solves Everything" by Mark Bittman every few months.
I haven't read it yet, but "The Secret History of Wonder Woman" is at the top of my list and sounds like it might be up your alley too.
posted by jbickers at 11:21 AM on December 17, 2014
Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" has been really inspirational to me recently, and I love re-reading "Cooking Solves Everything" by Mark Bittman every few months.
I haven't read it yet, but "The Secret History of Wonder Woman" is at the top of my list and sounds like it might be up your alley too.
posted by jbickers at 11:21 AM on December 17, 2014
Best answer: Forgot to mention: Definitely "Life Itself" by Roger Ebert.
posted by jbickers at 11:38 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by jbickers at 11:38 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl - one of the greatest seafaring bad asses of all time telling one of the greatest seafaring adventure stories of all time.
posted by stinkfoot at 1:57 PM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by stinkfoot at 1:57 PM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I loved "Seabiscuit".
"Papillon" is a helluva read, and it's nonfiction at least in theory. ;-)
posted by Sheydem-tants at 3:05 PM on December 17, 2014
"Papillon" is a helluva read, and it's nonfiction at least in theory. ;-)
posted by Sheydem-tants at 3:05 PM on December 17, 2014
Best answer: Rick Steves' Travel as a Political Act; he's enthusiastic and thoughtful about the power of travel to open people to new worlds. I think he has a naturally optimistic spirit.
posted by epersonae at 4:59 PM on December 17, 2014
posted by epersonae at 4:59 PM on December 17, 2014
Well it's sorta cliche but I did really enjoy Eat, Pray, Love.
posted by radioamy at 9:34 PM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by radioamy at 9:34 PM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Eric Newby, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. He's just as dry as any Pelicans and he has (hinted) a really nice relationship with his wife.
Newby also wrote The Last Grain Race, which is similarly bracing and fun. He is a realist, not a romantic.
And then you could turn 180 degree and have a go at Thesiger, rather a different and more classic sort of Englishman. Lots to choose from.
This is a very good book: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Rather against the conventions of British Polar exploration at the time, Shackleton survived and brought all his men home. Now that's leadership. Proper.
posted by glasseyes at 5:39 AM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
Newby also wrote The Last Grain Race, which is similarly bracing and fun. He is a realist, not a romantic.
And then you could turn 180 degree and have a go at Thesiger, rather a different and more classic sort of Englishman. Lots to choose from.
This is a very good book: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Rather against the conventions of British Polar exploration at the time, Shackleton survived and brought all his men home. Now that's leadership. Proper.
posted by glasseyes at 5:39 AM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: These are all terrific - thank you all very much!
It's tempting to mark all as Best Answer.
I'm still open for any other suggestions, if anyone else stumbles across this thread.
Thank you!
posted by kristi at 8:20 PM on December 18, 2014
It's tempting to mark all as Best Answer.
I'm still open for any other suggestions, if anyone else stumbles across this thread.
Thank you!
posted by kristi at 8:20 PM on December 18, 2014
Response by poster: Oops, glasseyes - the Thesiger link goes to The Last Grain Race. Was there a particular Thesiger book you wanted to recommend?
posted by kristi at 1:39 PM on December 20, 2014
posted by kristi at 1:39 PM on December 20, 2014
Thesiger wrote Arabian Sands (1959) (about traveling there, funnily enough) and I thought he also wrote about the Marsh Arabs in A Reed Shaken by the Wind (1959), but I checked just now and turns out Gavin Maxwell wrote that about a journey he made with Thesiger. I've read both of these a while back. Thesiger himself wrote The Marsh Arabs (1964), I'm not sure whether I've read that or not. I'm also not sure, being aware of news from that area since the Gulf War, whether the people he describes were Arabs or Kurds, or whether he was using 'Arab' as a sort of catch all term.
Thesiger kind of had a romantic view of other cultures all bound up in nostalgia for an earlier, more virtuous world. Eric Newby describes encountering him in the Hindu Kush and a clash of explorer culture is quite evident! Also, it's really funny.
I've also read Thesiger's Danakil Diary, containing the diaries he wrote when he was about 17, I think, attending the coronation of Haile Selassie as a guest because his father was Consul-General of Ethiopia. You can also find an archive of Thesiger's photographs online, some of them are absolutely beautiful portraits.
I don't know if you might enjoy some Gavin Maxwell? Tarka the Otter etc but the devil of it is I can't remember if those books have a happy ending or not.
Well, hope I got the links right this time. Enjoy your reading!
p.s. just remembered, Ernest Thesiger, 30's Hollywood actor, was the explorer's cousin.
posted by glasseyes at 4:23 PM on December 21, 2014
Thesiger kind of had a romantic view of other cultures all bound up in nostalgia for an earlier, more virtuous world. Eric Newby describes encountering him in the Hindu Kush and a clash of explorer culture is quite evident! Also, it's really funny.
I've also read Thesiger's Danakil Diary, containing the diaries he wrote when he was about 17, I think, attending the coronation of Haile Selassie as a guest because his father was Consul-General of Ethiopia. You can also find an archive of Thesiger's photographs online, some of them are absolutely beautiful portraits.
I don't know if you might enjoy some Gavin Maxwell? Tarka the Otter etc but the devil of it is I can't remember if those books have a happy ending or not.
Well, hope I got the links right this time. Enjoy your reading!
p.s. just remembered, Ernest Thesiger, 30's Hollywood actor, was the explorer's cousin.
posted by glasseyes at 4:23 PM on December 21, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by _DB_ at 9:47 AM on December 17, 2014 [5 favorites]