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Recommendations based on Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Presentby Peter Hessler
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River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
by Peter Hessler
A memoir of a Peace Corps volunteer's two-year stay in a small Chinese town on the Yangtze River, exploring the culture and history of the region.
In the heart of China's Sichuan province lies the small city of Fuling. Surrounded by the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, Fuling has long been a place of continuity, far from the bustling ... (Goodreads)
The Path to Power
by Robert A. Caro
The first volume of a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, tracing his early life and political career in Texas.
The Years of Lyndon Johnson is the political biography of our time. No president—no era of American politics—has been so intensively and sharply examined at a time when so many prime witnesses to ... (Goodreads)
Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
by Hampton Sides
An exploration of the westward expansion of the United States, recounting the lives of those who lived it.
A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won - a Sweeping Tale of Shame and Glory, In the fall of 1846 the venerable Navajo warrior Narbona, greatest of his people’s chieftains, looked down ... (Goodreads)
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
by Jon Krakauer
An exploration of the fundamentalist Mormon faith, its history, and the power of religious extremism.
A Story of Violent Faith A multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. This is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of ... (Goodreads)
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
A comprehensive account of the history and science of cancer, from its origins to modern treatments.
An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found, here, and, here,. The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer - from its first documented ... (Goodreads)
The Passage of Power
by Robert A. Caro
An in-depth account of Lyndon B. Johnson's rise to power and his evolution as a leader.
The Passage of Power follows Lyndon Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career—1958 to1964. It is a time that would see him trade the extraordinary power ... (Goodreads)
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by Steven Johnson
The discovery of the source of a cholera outbreak in London and its implications for modern science and urban living.
From Steven Johnson, the dynamic thinker routinely compared to James Gleick, Dava Sobel, and Malcolm Gladwell, The Ghost Map is a riveting page-turner about a real-life historical hero, Dr. John ... (Goodreads)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
by Joan Didion
Collection of essays exploring the cultural landscape of 1960s America.
The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of ... (Goodreads)
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
by Tracy Kidder
A story of one man's journey to fight poverty, illness, and injustice around the world.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, ... (Goodreads)
Master of the Senate
by Robert A. Caro
Detailed account of Lyndon Johnson's tenure as the leader of the US Senate, and his rise to power.
The most riveting political biography of our time, Robert A. Caro’s life of Lyndon B. Johnson, continues. Master of the Senate takes Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his ... (Goodreads)
The Romanovs: 1613-1918
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
An exploration of the 300-year rule of the Romanov dynasty, from its rise to its fall.
The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world’s surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world’s greatest ... (Goodreads)
My Beloved World
by Sonia Sotomayor
Autobiographical account of a Latina's path to the Supreme Court, overcoming personal and systemic obstacles.
The first Latinx (Puerto Rican) and third woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Now, with a candor and intimacy never undertaken by a sitting ... (Goodreads)
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)
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization
by Graham Hancock
An exploration of ancient monuments and artifacts, uncovering evidence of a lost advanced civilization.
Could the story of mankind be far older than we have previously believed? Using tools as varied as archaeo-astronomy, geology, and computer analysis of ancient myths, Graham Hancock presents a ... (Goodreads)
My Life
by Bill Clinton
Memoir of a former President of the United States, chronicling his life and career.
An exhaustive, soul-searching memoir, Bill Clinton's My Life is a refreshingly candid look at the former president as a son, brother, teacher, father, husband, and public figure. Clinton ... (Goodreads)
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
by Alice Schroeder
An in-depth biography of Warren Buffett, exploring his career, investments, and life.
Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one ... (Goodreads)
From Beirut to Jerusalem
by Thomas L. Friedman
A journalist's account of the Middle East, from the civil war in Lebanon to the first Palestinian intifada.
This extraordinary bestseller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the Middle East. Thomas L. Friedman, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for international ... (Goodreads)
Paris, 1919: Six Months that Changed the World
by Margaret MacMillan
An account of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and its lasting effects on the modern world.
'Without question, Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919 is the most honest and engaging history ever written about those fateful months after World War I when the maps of Europe were redrawn. Brimming ... (Goodreads)
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time
by Greg Mortenson
A man's mission to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan to promote peace.
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard Anyone who despairs of the individual’s ... (Goodreads)
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
by Atul Gawande
A surgeon's exploration of medical excellence, uncovering the highest standards of care.
The struggle to perform well is universal: each one of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. But nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in ... (Goodreads)
The Great Railway Bazaar
by Paul Theroux
A travelogue of a four-month journey by train from London to Tokyo, exploring the cultures and people encountered along the way.
First published in 1975, Paul Theroux's strange, unique, and hugely entertaining railway odyssey has become a modern classic of travel literature. Here Theroux recounts his early adventures on an ... (Goodreads)
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama
An exploration of the Obama family history, tracing the threads of identity and race.
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New ... (Goodreads)
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
Re-examination of the pre-Columbian Americas, uncovering new evidence of its history.
In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.,Contrary to what so many ... (Goodreads)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
Exploration of the modern food chain, examining the impact of food choices on our health and the environment.
What should we have for dinner? The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire , how we answer it today, at ... (Goodreads)
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
by Marjane Satrapi
Autobiographical account of a young girl's experience of the Iranian Revolution.
Note: The summary of the English editions of the novel is divided into two sections, one for each book. Persepolis 1 begins by introducing Marji, the ten-year-old protagonist. Set in 1980, the novel ... (Wikipedia)
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
A captivating overview of the natural sciences, spanning the history of the universe.
In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory ... (Goodreads)
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name
by Sally Lloyd-Jones
Reimagining of Bible stories to bring the message of salvation through Jesus to children.
If you are a parent, grandparent, pastor, or teacher looking for a way to teach the children in your life about God’s Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love, look no ... (Barnes & Noble)
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
by Jon Krakauer
A gripping narrative of the 1996 expedition on Mount Everest that resulted in tragedy.
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. ... (Goodreads)
The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss
by Edmund de Waal
A journey through time, tracing the history of a family's collection of art and their struggles with loss.
The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost ... (Goodreads)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
Tracing the origins of human civilizations through the lens of geography, technology, and biology.
"Diamond has written a book of remarkable scope ... one of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years." Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller: ... (Goodreads)
