r/nonfictionbooks

A few I've enjoyed:

• Into the Deep by Robert Ballard - Memoir by the man who found the Titanic
• The Father of Spin by Larry Tye - History of media manipulation and publicity
• A Truck Full of Money by Tracy Kidder - Literary nonfiction about the founding of Kayak
• The Dinosaur Artist by Paige Williams - An international true crime about smuggling fossils

(Feel free to roast me if any of these are secretly mainstream and I'm just living under a rock.)

Imagine you’re tasked with mentoring a 16-year-old whose background you know nothing about. Your goal is to build them into a productive, mentally healthy, and well-intentioned member of society. However, there’s a catch: the only thing you can do for them initially is to give them a book to study for the next five years. After that, you can’t speak to them again until that span is up. What book would you choose to give them?

I recently finished "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson and I feel cheated. The excerpt we went through in class was really gripping and convinced me to borrow the book, but reading the entire thing was... lackluster? disappointing? It was like biting into a hamburger and parting with a mouthful of sawdust.

The main idea behind the book is SO interesting and his interviewees were eclectic (in a good way) but the way this guy writes... maybe it's because I borrowed an e-book and the formatting made some things wonky but i did not enjoy myself.

Does anyone have any book suggestions to fill this Jon Ronson-sized crack in my heart? Preferably non-fiction as well. I enjoyed "Doppelganger" by Naomi Klein so books similar to that would be good. Appreciate it.