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A mix of non-fiction books about ONE THING -- singular topics. Your favorites; strangely scientific or weirdly interesting...
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A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
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Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
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4.06 avg rating — 235,866 ratings
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| 2 |
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by
Rebecca Skloot (Goodreads Author)
4.13 avg rating — 791,769 ratings
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| 3 |
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by
3.87 avg rating — 106,146 ratings
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| 4 |
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Salt: A World History
by
3.75 avg rating — 75,582 ratings
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| 5 |
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The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
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3.84 avg rating — 120,954 ratings
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| 6 |
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Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory
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4.22 avg rating — 105,711 ratings
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| 7 |
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Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
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3.85 avg rating — 59,730 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
by
4.01 avg rating — 36,645 ratings
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| 9 |
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The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
by
Sam Kean (Goodreads Author)
3.92 avg rating — 55,334 ratings
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| 10 |
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Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
by
3.93 avg rating — 50,879 ratings
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| 11 |
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Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
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3.60 avg rating — 40,290 ratings
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| 12 |
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The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
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3.91 avg rating — 43,767 ratings
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| 13 |
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Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
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3.99 avg rating — 75,441 ratings
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| 14 |
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The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
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4.34 avg rating — 111,981 ratings
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| 15 |
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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
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3.65 avg rating — 194,771 ratings
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| 16 |
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A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
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4.07 avg rating — 438,719 ratings
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| 17 |
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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
by
Erik Larson (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 744,796 ratings
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| 18 |
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The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
by
A.J. Jacobs (Goodreads Author)
3.76 avg rating — 68,796 ratings
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| 19 |
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Framed & Hunted: A True Story of Occult Persecution
by
Edward Williams (Goodreads Author)
4.32 avg rating — 6,722 ratings
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| 20 |
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The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
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3.95 avg rating — 156,083 ratings
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| 21 |
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Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
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3.95 avg rating — 59,680 ratings
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| 22 |
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Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
by
Amy Stewart (Goodreads Author)
3.82 avg rating — 10,973 ratings
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| 23 |
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The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by
Steven Johnson (Goodreads Author)
3.89 avg rating — 55,472 ratings
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| 24 |
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Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by
Erik Larson (Goodreads Author)
4.05 avg rating — 70,745 ratings
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| 25 |
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Walden or, Life in the Woods
by
3.77 avg rating — 201,823 ratings
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| 26 |
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Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
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3.75 avg rating — 206,338 ratings
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| 27 |
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The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by
David Grann (Goodreads Author)
3.90 avg rating — 107,875 ratings
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| 28 |
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In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
by
Nathaniel Philbrick (Goodreads Author)
4.17 avg rating — 116,788 ratings
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| 29 |
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AI Doctor: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare - A Guide for Users, Buyers, Builders, and Investors
by
4.28 avg rating — 7,198 ratings
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| 30 |
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Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales
by
4.22 avg rating — 14,077 ratings
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| 31 |
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The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
by
Michael Pollan (Goodreads Author)
4.06 avg rating — 58,856 ratings
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| 32 |
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Quantum Energetics and Spirituality Volume 1: Aligning with Universal Consciousness
by
4.37 avg rating — 1,506 ratings
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| 33 |
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Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by
4.46 avg rating — 158,050 ratings
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| 34 |
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Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
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3.93 avg rating — 74,090 ratings
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| 35 |
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The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession
by
Allison Hoover Bartlett (Goodreads Author)
3.44 avg rating — 13,782 ratings
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| 36 |
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Just Love Her
by
Raz Mihal (Goodreads Author)
4.30 avg rating — 5,807 ratings
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| 37 |
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Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
by
Susan Cain (Goodreads Author)
4.08 avg rating — 468,192 ratings
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| 38 |
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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption
by
4.39 avg rating — 993,363 ratings
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| 39 |
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Self-Reliance and Other Essays
by
4.12 avg rating — 20,256 ratings
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| 40 |
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The Girls Are Gone: The True Story of Two Sisters Who Vanished, the Father Who Kept Searching, and the Adults Who Conspired to Keep the Truth Hidden
by
Michael Brodkorb (Goodreads Author)
3.71 avg rating — 7,201 ratings
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| 41 |
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Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
by
Nathaniel Philbrick (Goodreads Author)
3.89 avg rating — 45,541 ratings
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| 42 |
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The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
by
4.30 avg rating — 28,630 ratings
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| 43 |
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Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World
by
3.92 avg rating — 24,586 ratings
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| 44 |
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Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
by
Erik Larson (Goodreads Author)
4.13 avg rating — 158,433 ratings
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| 45 |
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The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
by
3.98 avg rating — 42,145 ratings
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| 46 |
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The World Without Us
by
3.81 avg rating — 43,060 ratings
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| 47 |
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From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
by
4.30 avg rating — 45,562 ratings
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| 48 |
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How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe
by
3.81 avg rating — 46,517 ratings
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| 49 |
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Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
by
Judy Melinek (Goodreads Author)
4.26 avg rating — 26,916 ratings
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| 50 |
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Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus
by
Bill Wasik (Goodreads Author)
3.72 avg rating — 11,538 ratings
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| 51 |
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The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks
by
Amy Stewart (Goodreads Author)
4.02 avg rating — 10,523 ratings
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| 52 |
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Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions
by
John Grisham (Goodreads Author)
4.11 avg rating — 22,221 ratings
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| 53 |
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Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 27,021 ratings
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| 54 |
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The Strength In Our Scars
by
4.04 avg rating — 13,869 ratings
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| 55 |
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Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World
by
3.81 avg rating — 3,092 ratings
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| 56 |
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Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
by
3.88 avg rating — 21,593 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by
Timothy Egan (Goodreads Author)
4.06 avg rating — 60,600 ratings
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| 58 |
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Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
by
3.84 avg rating — 493,012 ratings
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| 59 |
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
by
4.26 avg rating — 100,322 ratings
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| 60 |
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The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values
by
Brian Christian (Goodreads Author)
4.34 avg rating — 4,625 ratings
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| 61 |
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The Age of AI and Our Human Future
by
3.45 avg rating — 5,059 ratings
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| 62 |
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Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
by
3.91 avg rating — 27,953 ratings
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| 63 |
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Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World
by
Nick Bostrom (Goodreads Author)
3.70 avg rating — 721 ratings
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| 64 |
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The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
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3.94 avg rating — 57,856 ratings
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| 65 |
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A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains
by
4.46 avg rating — 3,615 ratings
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| 66 |
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Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines
by
4.12 avg rating — 1,512 ratings
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| 67 |
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The Poetry Pharmacy Returns: More Prescriptions for Courage, Healing and Hope
by
William Sieghart (Editor)
4.37 avg rating — 1,008 ratings
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| 68 |
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A History of the World in 6 Glasses
by
Tom Standage (Goodreads Author)
3.81 avg rating — 33,118 ratings
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| 69 |
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We Should All Be Feminists
by
4.39 avg rating — 323,179 ratings
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| 70 |
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Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
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3.81 avg rating — 5,315 ratings
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| 71 |
|
Pillow Thoughts (Pillow Thoughts, #1)
by
Courtney Peppernell (Goodreads Author)
3.81 avg rating — 54,340 ratings
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| 72 |
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Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History
by
Bill Schutt (Goodreads Author)
3.90 avg rating — 6,935 ratings
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| 73 |
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King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
by
4.19 avg rating — 66,978 ratings
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| 74 |
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The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect
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3.94 avg rating — 6,449 ratings
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| 75 |
|
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
by
Lawrence Wright (Goodreads Author)
4.04 avg rating — 44,634 ratings
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| 76 |
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Seeking Fairness at Work: Cracking the New Code of Greater Employee Engagement, Retention & Satisfaction
by
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner (Goodreads Author)
4.38 avg rating — 1,435 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
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3.82 avg rating — 14,002 ratings
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| 78 |
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Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
by
Neil Shubin (Goodreads Author)
4.04 avg rating — 28,300 ratings
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| 79 |
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Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
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3.74 avg rating — 72,357 ratings
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| 80 |
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SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
by
4.06 avg rating — 78,205 ratings
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| 81 |
|
Self Love Poetry: For Thinkers & Feelers
by
Melody Godfred (Goodreads Author)
4.12 avg rating — 3,898 ratings
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| 82 |
|
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
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3.82 avg rating — 5,589 ratings
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| 83 |
|
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
by
Joshua Foer (Goodreads Author)
3.88 avg rating — 93,383 ratings
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| 84 |
|
Co-Intelligence: The Definitive, Bestselling Guide to Living and Working with AI
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3.96 avg rating — 12,442 ratings
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| 85 |
|
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
by
Greg McKeown (Goodreads Author)
4.06 avg rating — 127,328 ratings
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| 86 |
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What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England
by
3.85 avg rating — 5,733 ratings
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| 87 |
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Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
by
4.49 avg rating — 785,434 ratings
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| 88 |
|
This Is Your Brain on Music
by
3.89 avg rating — 67,031 ratings
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| 89 |
|
The Know-It-All
by
A.J. Jacobs (Goodreads Author)
3.76 avg rating — 29,551 ratings
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| 90 |
|
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
by
4.05 avg rating — 43,465 ratings
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| 91 |
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Socialism Is Dead! Long Live Socialism!: The Marx Code—Socialism with a Human Face:
by
Todor Bombov (Goodreads Author)
4.30 avg rating — 7,188 ratings
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| 92 |
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Wild Hope: Healing Words to Find Light on Dark Days
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4.30 avg rating — 1,317 ratings
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| 93 |
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The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
by
4.18 avg rating — 49,789 ratings
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| 94 |
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The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
by
3.82 avg rating — 12,828 ratings
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| 95 |
|
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future
by
Kai-Fu Lee (Goodreads Author)
3.84 avg rating — 5,286 ratings
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| 96 |
|
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
by
3.51 avg rating — 24,794 ratings
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| 97 |
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Money Game: A Wealth Manifestation Guide. Level Up Your Mindset Step-By-Step & Create An Abundant Life
by
Daniel Mangena (Goodreads Author)
4.33 avg rating — 5,945 ratings
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| 98 |
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Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ
by
4.08 avg rating — 54,349 ratings
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| 99 |
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One Summer: America, 1927
by
4.10 avg rating — 54,207 ratings
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| 100 |
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All the President’s Men
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4.18 avg rating — 57,206 ratings
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1957 likes · Like
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.
Alana
1816 books
91 friends
91 friends
Angel
2507 books
115 friends
115 friends
Ken
3 books
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James
1 book
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Kevin
1 book
0 friends
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Kelly
1 book
0 friends
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Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large)
546 books
365 friends
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Bettie
15668 books
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Comments Showing 1-44 of 44 (44 new)
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message 1:
by
Angel
(new)
Jan 08, 2011 04:36PM
Wow, I thought I knew a good number of microhistories, but this list has a bunch of stuff that looks like good reading. I will be looking some of these up. :)
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what a great list! :D can't wait to check this out more thoroughly after midterms. :]
I want every single book on this list....
Haha, great list!Have you seen number 79?
Derek wrote: "I want every single book on this list...."Meeeeeeeeeeeeee Toooooooooooooooo
This is one of my favorite lists! There are so many on here I want to read already or have already completed.Guess I know where my preferences lie!
Daphne wrote: "This is one of my favorite lists! There are so many on here I want to read already or have already completed.Guess I know where my preferences lie!"
Definitely my favorite list as well. Why not find wonder in unexpected places?
Oh wow... Brilliant. List. So many of these look outrageously good, and I'm primarily a reader of fiction, even. 'The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York' by Deborah Blum. Oh yes, please! I recently stumbled on a book about the history life and times of Ketchup, of all things, but haven't read it yet. ;)
Isn't this supposed to be for non-fiction? Can we delete the fiction books?
Great list! I want to read 85% of books on it.
Deborah wrote: "Isn't this supposed to be for non-fiction? Can we delete the fiction books?"I think that would be a very good idea.
thanks to goodreads, that i stumbled upon this list. it contains many quirky/interesting titles out of which each one of us could find something to read for sure.
If this List walked into a room, I would have told it, "Shut up. Just...shut up. You had me at hello. [sniffles] You had me...at hello."
Fox wrote: "Deborah wrote: "Isn't this supposed to be for non-fiction? Can we delete the fiction books?"I think that would be a very good idea."
Stand up on your pulpit, and preach, Preach, PREACH.
*raises hand and votes Aye*
Maybe I am a bit slow, but what "fiction" books are you referring to?Something you don't happen to believe in? Just found this list, and I too, like about 85-90% of it.
Steve wrote: "Maybe I am a bit slow, but what "fiction" books are you referring to?Something you don't happen to believe in? Just found this list, and I too, like about 85-90% of it."
I certainly don't remember the titles, since it has been almost 2 years since I deleted them.
Deborah wrote: "I certainly don't remember the titles, since it has been almost 2 years since I deleted them...."Maybe it's an idea to mention the books you remove in the comments section, like a lot of librarians do? As far as I can tell, a total of 11 books have been deleted by Spooky, Cindy and yourself, yet no mention is made which books were deleted, which is a bit of a pity really.
If the book never had any business being on the list, I see no reason to document it. I do have a forthcoming list that I maintain (deleting books as they are released) and on that one I post books that have at least five votes before deleting it.
I deleted Clan of the Cave Bear #434, Wuthering Heights #535, and Moby Dick #762. All are fiction.
Elyse wrote: "I deleted Clan of the Cave Bear #434, Wuthering Heights #535, and Moby Dick #762. All are fiction."I've removed Wuthering Heights (#541) and Moby-Dick or, The Whale (#783) again, as I totally agree: They're fiction and as such shouldn't be on this list.
Voter, please read before you decide to add!
Give Melville credit, he wrote a book that was part fiction and part exactly what this list is about. Described in some places as an "anatomy," after The Anatomy of Melancholia, this type of nonfiction writing is an awesomely entertaining sub-genre, especially in the age of twitter. I think maybe someone needs to list out the chapters in Moby Dick that fit this genre because Moby Dick is a classic that uses this style of writing and does it extremely well.
Please remove The Scarlet Letter (#351) and The Octopus: A Story of California (#417) from the list. Items are fiction. (I also wouldn't mind editing privileges if possible?)
You should be able to edit if you're a GR librarian. (There's a little "edit" link at the end of the list description area. Remove books is the bottom-most option on that page.)
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "You should be able to edit if you're a GR librarian. (There's a little "edit" link at the end of the list description area. Remove books is the bottom-most option on that page.)"Interesting discussion about fiction vs. non-fiction. One can learn as many "truths" from fiction as from non-fiction, imo. And, anyway, how much do we now value truth?
LOL Do they all have colons in the titles? :)
As this is a list for non-fiction, I removed the following books for being fiction:Fight Club, Fahrenheit 451, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next, A Clockwork Orange, Invisible Monsters, American Psycho.
You can play semantic games as to what constitutes a truth criterion but the genre of non-fiction is pretty well defined, and explicitly focus on facts, real events, actual people, etc.
The Elephant Tree (currently #24) is a novel. As is #25, The Wasp Factory, and #26, Factotum. And #29, Scag Boys. #30, Lunar Park. #72, Gashlycrumb Tinies.
Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the WorldI love these "microhistories". I will add a few.A History of the World in 6 Glasses
The Victorian Internet
Tea: The Drink that Changed the World
Oak: The Frame of Civilization
Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth
The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars
In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules
Fahrenheit 451 (#23) is a novel, not non-fiction, and shouldn't be on this list. Neither should A Clockwork Orange (#29), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (#31), The Catcher in the Rye (#116), One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (#117), The Idiot (#128), Moon Tiger (#140), Slaughterhouse-Five (#156), The Brothers Karamazov (#159), Invisible Cities (#164), The Comfort of Strangers (#170), Dubliners (#177), Ulysses (#186), Brave New World (#193), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (#194), Naked Lunch (#196), and so on and so forth, as they are all fiction and not non-fiction, as the description says... Too many to mention...
Check out all the fiction titles on the front page.
I've deleted the ones mentioned in my earlier message. I urge other librarians to do the same with books they've read and recognize as fiction, maybe together we can clean up this list.
Booklovinglady wrote: "I've deleted the ones mentioned in my earlier message. I urge other librarians to do the same with books they've read and recognize as fiction, maybe together we can clean up this list."Yes, This list has been neglected.... and it's a great list topic. I just deleted one novel off the first page that had 68 votes! So this list hasn't been cleaned up in quite awhile. I deleted a few fiction but there's many more to delete - and easy to find. "Have at it" you fellow librarians.
Elyse wrote: "... and it's a great list topic..."Exactly.
I removed The Martian, Twilight, Outlander, Sourcery, Death on the Nile and Witches Abroad, clearly fiction...
Removed And Then There Were None, 1984, Fifty Shades of Grey and The Raven Boys, also fiction. Clearly the concept 'non-fiction' is hard to grasp for a lot of people...
Yeah, sometimes you've gotta just shake your head.Keep up the good work! Steve M
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.Mary Roach has a number of books that could go on this list.
reminder to myself to look through this when I have two hours to kill
Half or more of these books aren't at all "strangely scientific" or "weirdly interesting," or even nonfiction. They're just the same books that are on every other list, sadly.
Fiction on the list: Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (#848)
Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice (around page 11)
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (#1347)
The Hate U Give (#1527) by Angie Thomas
Five books in a row on page 19 (around #1799)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles #1869
The Paris Wife, there are two other books right below I think are also fiction.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman #2079
The Phantom by Jo Nesbo #2232
Everything I never Told You by Celeste Ng #2274
The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lyn Barnes, the Marriage Pact, Tom Clancy's Dead or Alive on pg. 25
The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson #2627,
The Bourne Legacy by Eric Lustbader #2717
The Road by Cormac McCarthy #3026
I love this list, but I do wish we could delete the novels that keep ending up on it.Fiction that I noticed:
#635: Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
#676: The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade
#700: Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
#749: Glue by Irvine Welsh
#757: Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
#757: Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander
#757: Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
#824: Blindness by Jose Saramago
#849: The Book of Revelation by Rupert Thomson
#878: Under the Skin by Michael Faber
#884: Money by Martin Amis
#888: Her One Mistake by Heidi Perks
#908: Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley
#935: Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
#939: The Crucible by Arthur Miller
#949: Coraline by Neil Gaiman
#963: Darkness Visible by William Golding
#977: The Coma by Alex Garland
#977: Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
#985: The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh
#985: Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
#985: 1984 by George Orwell
#994: The Need by Helen Phillips
#1003: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
#1008: The Grifters by Jim Thompson
#1010: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
#1017: Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis
#1020: The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart
#1026: Crank by Ellen Hopkins
#1028: Piercing by Ryu Murakami
#1028: The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
#1064: Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain
#1072: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
#1074: The Crow Road by Iain Banks
#1085: Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
...
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