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Recommendations based on Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wallby Anna Funder
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick
Exploration of the lives of North Koreans during the famine and repression of the 1990s.
Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the ... (Goodreads)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
by John Berendt
A journalist's exploration of a mysterious murder in Savannah, Georgia.
A sublime and seductive reading experience. This portrait of a beguiling Southern city was a best-seller (though a flop as a movie). ~ Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, ... (Goodreads)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by Katherine Boo
Explores the lives of the people living in Mumbai's slums and the harsh realities they face.
From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the ... (Goodreads)
If This Is a Man • The Truce
by Primo Levi
A memoir of Primo Levi's time in Auschwitz and his journey home. The Truce follows his travels through war-torn Europe.
'With the moral stamina and intellectual poise of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly ... (Goodreads)
The Fall of Berlin 1945
by Antony Beevor
A detailed account of the final days of World War II in Berlin, from the perspectives of both the German and Soviet sides.
The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Reich in January 1945. Political instructors rammed home the message of Wehrmacht and SS brutality. The result was the ... (Goodreads)
McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland
by Pete McCarthy
A humorous and heartfelt exploration of Ireland and its people, culture, and history.
The book describes a series of trips McCarthy makes to Ireland in the late 1990s exploring his past and family history, as well as documenting how Ireland is coping with changing realities. ... (Wikipedia)
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
by Jon Ronson
Exploration of the psychiatric industry, examining the definition and diagnosis of psychopathy.
In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them. The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey ... (Goodreads)
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
by Jeanette Winterson
A memoir of a woman's search for love and identity, and her struggles with mental illness.
"Magnificent . . . A tour de force of literature and love."—,Vogue,",Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, is raucous. It hums with a dark refulgence from its first pages. . . . Singular and ... (Barnes & Noble)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
A gripping tale of a child soldier's journey to survive and reclaim his humanity.
My new friends have begun to suspect I haven't told them the full story of my life.,"Why did you leave Sierra Leone?","Because there is a war.","You mean, you saw people running around with guns and ... (Barnes & Noble)
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang
A family memoir spanning decades of Chinese history, exploring the power of resilience.
The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten ... (Goodreads)
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
by Svetlana Alexievich
A compilation of personal accounts from the last years of the Soviet Union.
From the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich, comes the first English translation of her latest work, an oral history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the ... (Goodreads)
The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins
Scientific exploration of the evidence for and against religious belief.
A preeminent scientist - and the world's most prominent atheist - asserts the irrationality of belief in God, and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11. With ... (Goodreads)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
by Oliver Sacks
A collection of case studies, illustrating extraordinary neurological phenomena.
If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it. Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the ... (Goodreads)
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
by Ben Macintyre
The true story of KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, who became a double agent for MI6 and risked everything to help bring down the Soviet Union.
NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLER •, The celebrated author of, Double Cross, and, Rogue Heroes, returns with his greatest spy story yet, a thrilling, Americans,-era tale of Oleg Gordievsky, the Russian ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
by Hyeonseo Lee
A harrowing journey of escape from a repressive regime and the struggle to find a new life in freedom.
An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world’s most ruthless and secretive dictatorships – and the story of one woman’s terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her ... (Goodreads)
The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
by Norman Doidge
Exploring the brain's remarkable ability to adapt, heal and change itself.
An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country ... (Goodreads)
Mortality
by Christopher Hitchens
Reflections on the inevitability of death, drawing on personal and philosophical insights.
On June 8, 2010, while on a book tour for his bestselling memoir, Hitch-22 , Christopher Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Shadow of the Sun
by Ryszard Kapuściński
An epic account of a journey through Africa, navigating the continent's diverse cultures and politics.
In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. From the early days of independence ... (Goodreads)
Hiroshima
by John Hersey
Tragic account of the devastating atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atom bomb ever dropped on a city. This book, John Hersey's journalistic masterpiece, tells what happened on that day. Told through the memories ... (Goodreads)
Long Walk to Freedom
by Nelson Mandela
A remarkable story of courage, perseverance and hope in the face of oppression.
Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel ... (Goodreads)
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
by Svetlana Alexievich
An oral history of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as told by the survivors.
Written by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. ... (Goodreads)
Just Kids
by Patti Smith
Chronicles of two young artists in New York City, finding friendship and inspiration in each other.
In Just Kids , Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal ... (Goodreads)
The Hidden Life of Trees: what they feel, how they communicate : discoveries from a secret world
by Peter Wohlleben
An exploration of the complex relationships between trees and the environment.
A, New York Times, bestseller,, With more than 2 million copies sold worldwide, this beautifully-written book journeys deep into the forest to uncover the fascinating—and surprisingly moving—hidden ... (Barnes & Noble)
In a Sunburned Country
by Bill Bryson
Exploration of the unique and diverse land, people and animals of Australia.
A CLASSIC FROM THE, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF, ONE SUMMER , Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion along the ... (Goodreads)
Infidel
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
A memoir of a woman's journey of faith, identity, and self-liberation.
One of today’s most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following the murder of Theo van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened that she would ... (Goodreads)
Dark Emu
by Bruce Pascoe
A groundbreaking work that challenges the colonial myth of Indigenous Australians as hunter-gatherers, revealing their sophisticated agricultural practices.
Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for precolonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were ... (Goodreads)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
by Susan Cain
An exploration of the power of introversion, examining the implications of modern society's emphasis on extroversion.
The book that started the Quiet Revolution, At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike ... (Goodreads)
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
by Bill Bryson
An exploration of the extraordinary and often overlooked history of the home.
“Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.” Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has ... (Goodreads)
The Complete Maus
by Art Spiegelman
A graphic novel depicting a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and his son's journey to understand the past.
On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its first publication, here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the ... (Goodreads)
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
by Nujood Ali
A young girl's fight against early marriage in Yemen and her victory in court.
“I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.” Nujood Ali's childhood ... (Goodreads)
