BookFilter: Gimme Non-Fiction...
July 22, 2015 7:55 AM Subscribe
...preferably about the following subjects: The British Isles, London, food, travel, weird or interesting history in general.
I have access to amazing library system and I realize that wow, I don't really read a lot of non-fiction. I should. I want to! But I am pretty much solely interested in the subjects above (I am open to being swayed by your particular passion, though.)
I am not really interested in military history or American history (I know, I know, I am a terrible American). As for UK stuff, I have read Peter Ackroyd, Iain Sinclair, Christopher Winn, Ian Mortimer, etc.
Help me create a book list, Hive Mind!
I have access to amazing library system and I realize that wow, I don't really read a lot of non-fiction. I should. I want to! But I am pretty much solely interested in the subjects above (I am open to being swayed by your particular passion, though.)
I am not really interested in military history or American history (I know, I know, I am a terrible American). As for UK stuff, I have read Peter Ackroyd, Iain Sinclair, Christopher Winn, Ian Mortimer, etc.
Help me create a book list, Hive Mind!
Best answer: Off hand - Mike Dash. Simon Winchester. Russian Blood by Alex Shoumatoff is a lot of fun.
posted by BWA at 8:07 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by BWA at 8:07 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: Barrow's Boys (although there's a bit of military stuff in there because it's about British navy officers who did some exploring on the side between wars)
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:16 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:16 AM on July 22, 2015
oh oh oh The Year of Eating Dangerously, by Tom Parker Bowles, yes, that's Camilla's son. So you've got a British food travel writer all in one!
And you really can't go wrong with Peter Ackroyd, who has written a ton of nonfiction about England (as well as some relatively cool and intelligent fiction). Since you're into London, I would start with London: The Biography, but his general history books read like novels.
posted by janey47 at 8:29 AM on July 22, 2015
And you really can't go wrong with Peter Ackroyd, who has written a ton of nonfiction about England (as well as some relatively cool and intelligent fiction). Since you're into London, I would start with London: The Biography, but his general history books read like novels.
posted by janey47 at 8:29 AM on July 22, 2015
Bill Bryson's travel books are a lot of fun and typically informative. He has one specifically about England.
posted by xenization at 8:33 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by xenization at 8:33 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Brief popping into the thread: I already mention Ackroyd and I forgot to mention I have read everything by Bill Bryson too.
posted by Kitteh at 8:34 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by Kitteh at 8:34 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: Thought that might be the case with Bryson. Take two: Sarah Vowell's good for a wry look at history.
posted by xenization at 8:37 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by xenization at 8:37 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: Dan Jones' The Plantagenets is a pretty good read. It's comprehensive and entertaining.
posted by youcancallmeal at 8:41 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by youcancallmeal at 8:41 AM on July 22, 2015
Eek, sorry. I'll second youcancallmeal, though. The Plantagenets is great.
posted by janey47 at 8:53 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by janey47 at 8:53 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: The Ghost Map by Steven Berlin Johnson is about the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak. It's a fascinating and gruesome piece of London history.
posted by Specklet at 8:57 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by Specklet at 8:57 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower.
The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine by Tom Standage.
posted by in278s at 9:03 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine by Tom Standage.
posted by in278s at 9:03 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: For food, I looooooved The Third Plate by Dan Barber, especially the sections about how soil works, it was fascinating.
posted by skycrashesdown at 9:13 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by skycrashesdown at 9:13 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: Judith Flanders' Consuming Passions and The Invention of Murder are about the beginnings of the mass market and crime fiction (as related to contemporary true crime non-fiction) in the UK, respectively. ...It's mostly London.
Liza Picard has wrote a bunch of pretty good books about life in London from Elizabethan times to the Victorians, too.
Fanny and Stella by Neil McKenna is about a famous Victorian scandal and its protagonists.
posted by sukeban at 9:26 AM on July 22, 2015
Liza Picard has wrote a bunch of pretty good books about life in London from Elizabethan times to the Victorians, too.
Fanny and Stella by Neil McKenna is about a famous Victorian scandal and its protagonists.
posted by sukeban at 9:26 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: Interesting history with a specific British focus: Dava Sobel - Longitude and
Simon Winchester - The Map That Changed The World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
Interesting food history: Dan Koeppel - Banana
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:28 AM on July 22, 2015
Simon Winchester - The Map That Changed The World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
Interesting food history: Dan Koeppel - Banana
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:28 AM on July 22, 2015
Travel writing:
J. Maarten Troost - start with Sex Lives of Cannibals and give his latest a wide berth
Food writing:
MFK Fisher - try The Art of Eating, which collects five of her popular works.
posted by carrioncomfort at 9:29 AM on July 22, 2015
J. Maarten Troost - start with Sex Lives of Cannibals and give his latest a wide berth
Food writing:
MFK Fisher - try The Art of Eating, which collects five of her popular works.
posted by carrioncomfort at 9:29 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: Would you be interested in a graphic novel memoir about food, like Lucy Knisley's wonderful Relish?
You say you're not much into American or military history. Neither was I until I had to read Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon for a class. It's young adult nonfiction, but it's also brilliant storytelling by Steve Sheinkin about the scientists and spies who worked together to keep the technology for building an atomic bomb out of the hands of Adolf Hitler.
The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming is also captivating. It's about the Romanovs but also talks about the social conditions of poor Russians that led to the political unrest that sealed their fate.
posted by luckyveronica at 9:33 AM on July 22, 2015
You say you're not much into American or military history. Neither was I until I had to read Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon for a class. It's young adult nonfiction, but it's also brilliant storytelling by Steve Sheinkin about the scientists and spies who worked together to keep the technology for building an atomic bomb out of the hands of Adolf Hitler.
The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming is also captivating. It's about the Romanovs but also talks about the social conditions of poor Russians that led to the political unrest that sealed their fate.
posted by luckyveronica at 9:33 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: Non-fiction food writing: Ruth Reichel, Michael Ruhlman, Anthony Bourdain.
posted by cooker girl at 9:54 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by cooker girl at 9:54 AM on July 22, 2015
Response by poster: I own all of Lucy Knisley's stuff! I wish more comics writers did that sort of memoir or travelogue!
posted by Kitteh at 9:54 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by Kitteh at 9:54 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: How about Peter Moore? I LOVE Swahili for the Broken Hearted particularly. He's a comic travel writer and I love everything of his I've read.
I also just read The History of the World in 100 Objects and On the Map, both of which are alternate takes on history - one from the perspective of objects, and one from the perspective of different maps. Both fascinating.
posted by guster4lovers at 9:59 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I also just read The History of the World in 100 Objects and On the Map, both of which are alternate takes on history - one from the perspective of objects, and one from the perspective of different maps. Both fascinating.
posted by guster4lovers at 9:59 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The Dark Side of the Enlightenment by John V. Fleming.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:58 AM on July 22, 2015
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:58 AM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: If you're interested in British social and political history, especially in the twentieth century, I recommend David Kynaston. His trilogy about Britain 1945-1962 (Austerity Britain, Family Britain, Modernity Britain) is incredibly detailed and textured, covering everything from football clubs to social housing policy to sexual morality and the BBC, but it's also compulsively readable. He's got a novelistic turn of phrase and a great eye for detail. I also enjoyed Christopher Hibbert's The English, which is surprisingly rich and detailed for a relatively short book covering the period 1066-1945.
posted by Aravis76 at 11:02 AM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Aravis76 at 11:02 AM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher is based around the true story of a murder (tw murder of a child) in England in the 1860s. It's basically the history of the birth of detective work in England and is great for period details and social insights, but it's also just a really interesting story.
posted by billiebee at 11:11 AM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by billiebee at 11:11 AM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I really love Tim Robinson's writing about Connemara and the Aran Islands, Ireland. It's wordy, deep, and rambling, but he's such a polymath that I find it really delightful. Try the first two of his trilogy: Connemara: Listening to the Wind, and Connemara: Last Pool of Darkness. He mixes place-lore (both myth and history), geology, geography, botany, maps and many other disciplines in his writing.
I also really enjoyed Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 which is about how America finally got involved in WWII - there's a good bit of European and English history as well - it was a shocking departure from the (clearly) inadequate understanding I had from high school and movies.
posted by dbmcd at 11:14 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I also really enjoyed Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 which is about how America finally got involved in WWII - there's a good bit of European and English history as well - it was a shocking departure from the (clearly) inadequate understanding I had from high school and movies.
posted by dbmcd at 11:14 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The annual "Best Food Writing" (link is to most recent edition but there are lots more from previous years) collections are fun to read.
posted by Clustercuss at 12:15 PM on July 22, 2015
posted by Clustercuss at 12:15 PM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: Nthing Longitude (and the dramatization is pretty good too; apparently available on YouTube).
I really enjoyed Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat.
posted by Lexica at 8:22 PM on July 22, 2015
I really enjoyed Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat.
posted by Lexica at 8:22 PM on July 22, 2015
Best answer: I love the abovementioned The Ghost Map and the Liza Picard books mentioned by sukeban. Here are some others I have enjoyed:
Lucy Inglis' Georgian London: Into the Streets
Deborah Cohen's Family Secrets: Living with Shame from the Victoriasn to the Present Day
Ruth Goodman's How to Be a Victorian
Catherine Horwood's Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion and Class Between the Wars
Lucy Worlsey's If Walls Could Talk: an intimate history of the home
Judith Flanders' The Victorian City
Underground Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube
Armchair Nation: An Intimate History of Britain in front of the TV
I have a lot more awaiting my reading pleasure, which I'm happy to share, but these are the ones I have read and enjoyed.
posted by andraste at 9:07 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Lucy Inglis' Georgian London: Into the Streets
Deborah Cohen's Family Secrets: Living with Shame from the Victoriasn to the Present Day
Ruth Goodman's How to Be a Victorian
Catherine Horwood's Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion and Class Between the Wars
Lucy Worlsey's If Walls Could Talk: an intimate history of the home
Judith Flanders' The Victorian City
Underground Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube
Armchair Nation: An Intimate History of Britain in front of the TV
I have a lot more awaiting my reading pleasure, which I'm happy to share, but these are the ones I have read and enjoyed.
posted by andraste at 9:07 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Food writing, I strongly rec Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, both collections of essays. She was amazing.
John Thorne is also great if you like chatty ruminations on food, eating, and food history. I own most of his books, and would blanket rec all of them.
posted by MeghanC at 9:29 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
John Thorne is also great if you like chatty ruminations on food, eating, and food history. I own most of his books, and would blanket rec all of them.
posted by MeghanC at 9:29 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by something something at 8:00 AM on July 22, 2015