my nonfiction reading list (part 1?)
hello there it is time for another round of tumblr user kendallroy reading lists: nonfiction edition! uh, so, the regular rules apply: can’t write blurbs for everything, but check em out if you like the sound! this list will be less focused on recent releases than the fiction one, but because of that a lot of these titles weren’t on bookshop, so i’m just doing goodreads links with the understanding that if you can buy them somewhere other than amazon, you should, right? okay!
oh, and also, this is very much just skewed toward my own hyper-specific tastes (which you will probably have a strong sense of by the end). i read nonfiction widely and voraciously and have done so for most of my life, so this list is long, but i tried to narrow it down! i took a lot out because i couldn’t really find the right category, so there may be a part 2 at some point. but anyway, consider this a syllabus to learn about all the stuff i really like and think is neat. it was a labor of love and took a really long time to compile. i hope you like it!
if you’re interested in american politics or want to understand how we got here:
political fictions by joan didion
right wing women by andrea dworkin
united states: essays 1952-1992 by gore vidal
the last empire: essays 1992-2000 by gore vidal
buckley vs. vidal: the historic 1968 abc news debates by william f. buckley and gore vidal
open to debate: how william f. buckley put liberal america on the firing line by heather hendershot
what it takes: the way to the white house by richard ben cramer
the queen: the forgotten life behind an american myth by josh levin
team of rivals: the political genius of abraham lincoln by doris kearns goodwin
bringing down the colonel: a sex scandal of the gilded age and the “powerless” woman who took on washington by patricia miller
the power broker: robert moses and the fall of new york by robert caro
the fitzgeralds and the kennedys: an american saga by doris kearns goodwin
the kennedy women: the saga of an american family by laurence leamer
revolutionary suicide by huey newton
stokely speaks: from black power to pan-africanism by stokeley carmichael
chaos: charles manson, the cia, and the secret history of the 60s by tom o’neill
and the band played on: politics, people, and the aids epidemic by randy shilts
odd girls and twilight lovers: a history of lesbian life in 20th-century america by lillian faderman
the brethren: inside the supreme court by bob woodward
the origins of totalitarianism by hannah arendt
stamped from the beginning: the definitive history of racist ideas in america by ibram x. kendi
dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right by jane mayer
the red and the blue: the 1990s and the birth of american tribalism by steve kornacki
the gatekeepers: how white house chiefs of staff define every presidency by chris whipple
twilight of the elites: america after meritocracy by chris hayes
ruby ridge by jess walter
five days at memorial: life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital by sheri fink
dopesick: dealers, doctors, and the drug company that addicted america by beth macy
this town: two parties and a funeral in america’s gilded capital by mark leibovich
assassination vacation by sarah vowell
political suicide: missteps, peccadilloes, bad calls, backroom hijinx, sordid pasts, rotten breaks, and just plain dumb mistakes in the annals of american politics by erin mchugh
if you’re interested in power, media, entertainment, business, tech, white collar crime, or you’re a fan of succession hbo:
disney war by james b. stewart
the house of morgan: an american banking dynasty and the rise of modern finance by ron chernow
doomed by cartoon: how thomas nast and the new york times brought down boss tweed and his ring of thieves by john adler
a disposition to be rich: the greatest swindler of the gilded age by geoffrey ward
billion dollar whale: the man who fooled wall street, hollywood, and the world by tom wright and bradley hope
bad blood: secrets and lies in a silicon valley startup by john carreyrou
conspiracy: peter thiel, hulk hogan, and the anatomy of intrigue by ryan holliday
catch and kill by ronan farrow
the man who owns the news by michael wolff
the loudest voice in the room by gabriel sherman
up all night: ted turner, cnn, and the birth of 24-hour news by lisa napoli
top of the morning: inside the cutthroat world of morning tv by brian stelter
top of the rock: inside the rise and fall of must-see tv by warren littlefield
the war for late night: when leno went early and television went crazy by bill carter
live from new york: an oral history of saturday night live by tom shales
those guys have all the fun: inside the world of espn by james andrew miller
hit makers: the science of popularity in an age of distraction by derek thompson
powerhouse by james andrew miller
the men who would be king: the almost epic tale of moguls, movies, and a company called dreamworks by nicole laporte
if you want good essays, criticism, or artistic/aesthetic theory:
against interpretation and other essays by susan sontag
the art of cruelty by maggie nelson
amusing ourselves to death: public discourse in the age of show business by neil postman
the white album by joan didion
slouching towards bethlehem by joan didion
notes of a native son by james baldwin
the argonauts by maggie nelson
inseparable: desire between women in literature by emma donoghue
the professor and other writings by terry castle
the queer art of failure by j. jack halberstam
upstream: selected essays by mary oliver
under the sign of saturn: essays by susan sontag
a lover’s discourse by roland barthes
the celluloid closet: homosexuality in the movies by vito russo
bird by bird: some instructions on writing and life by anne lamotte
someone with a little hammer: essays by mary gaitskill
make it scream, make it burn by leslie jamison
white girls by hilton als
in rough country by joyce carol oates
my autobiography of carson mccullers by jenn shapland
the mother of all questions by rebecca solnit
art as experience by john dewey
public opinion by warren lippman
the war against cliche by martin amis
if you’re interested in russian history and politics:
lenin’s tomb: the last days of the soviet empire by david remnick
secondhand time: the last of the soviets by svetlana alexievich
the future is history: how totalitarianism reclaimed russia by masha gessen
red famine: stalin’s war on ukraine, 1921-1933 by anne appelbaum
midnight in chernobyl: the untold story of the world’s greatest nuclear disaster by adam higginbotham
nothing is true and everything is possible: the surreal heart of the new russia by peter pomerantsev
between two fires: truth, ambition, and compromise in putin’s russia by joshua yaffa
everyday stalinism: everyday life in extraordinary times by sheila fitzpatrick
gulag: a history by anne applebaum
if you’re interested in california history:
trampling out the vintage: caesar chavez and the two souls of the united farm workers by frank bardacke
mean justice: a town’s terror, a prosecutor’s power, a betrayal of innocence by edward humes
where i was from by joan didion
the mirage factory: illusion, imagination, and the invention of los angeles by gary krist
stealing home: los angeles, the dodgers, and the lives caught in between by eric nusbaum
i’ll be gone in the dark by michelle mcnamera
eve’s hollywood by eve babitz
complicated women: sex and power in pre-code hollywood by mick lasalle
under the big black sun: a personal history of l.a. punk by john doe
if you’re interested in baseball (yes, my bias is obvious, keep it moving):
the last innocents: the collision of the turbulent sixties and the los angeles dodgers by michael leahy
intangibles: unlocking the science and soul of team chemistry by joan ryan
the mvp machine: how baseball’s new nonconformists are using data to build better players by ben lindbergh and travis sawchik (an interesting read after moneyball, but with a BIG asterisk since it’s pretty heavy on the brilliance of the ‘17 astros and ‘18 red sox, which… yeah)
the arm: inside the billion-dollar industry of the most valuable commodity in sports by jeff passan
the boys of summer by roger kahn
the best team money can buy by molly knight
they bled blue: fernandomania, strike-season mayhem, and the weirdest championship baseball had ever seen by jason turbow
if you just want to read some of my other favorite books:
little failure by gary shteyngart
how to murder your life by cat marnell
finishing the hat and look, i made a hat by stephen sondheim
little girls in pretty boxes: the making and breaking of elite gymnasts and figure skaters by joan ryan
weird: the power of being an outsider in an insider world by olga khazan
not getting paid to do what you love: gender, social media, and aspirational work by brooke erin duffy
the princess diarist by carrie fisher
women and madness by phyllis chesler
in the dream house by carmen maria machado
invisible women: data bias in a world designed for men by caroline criado perez
janainaart
areudirty
origamiaround
gummygunk
prguitarman
germansingergirl
blakekathryn
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
theartofmadeline
