Ben Mezrich’s book–Bringing Down the House–is the basis for a movie called “21”. The movie stars Kevin Spacey and is about a group of MIT students who become experts in card counting and make millions at the casinos in
Las Vegas.
That is very neat Romani. That book really touched me.
@romanigypsyeyes, Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society sounds right up DH’s alley! Thanks for the pointer.
If you’ve recently read Truth and Beauty, I highly, highly recommend Autobiography of a Face, which is Lucy Grealy’s own account of many of the same topics. It is super fascinating to read them back to back.
Similar theme to Annie’s Ghost is the newest book about the Kennedy sister who was lobotomized and institutionalized in the 20’s or 30’s. The Missing Kennedy: Rosemary Kennedy and the Secret Bonds of Four Women
Maybe I’m the only one…but I really liked the biography of Steve Jobs.
I LOVED the biography of Steve Jobs. My older daughter read it almost as quickly as she read the Harry Potter books. She recommended it to me (and I didn’t read it nearly as quickly but only because of lack of time). I’ve recommended it to coworkers because of the treatment of modern business practices and innovation and to friends because of the insights about Steve Jobs’ complex psychology.
I was talking to my D1 about this, and she suggested that if you are interested in the “voice” of non-fiction writing, try Tracy Kidder. I think “The Soul of the New Machine” is probably closest to “historical” of the books I’ve read of his. Also, she suggested that you listen to the Longform podcast. They talk with people who write longer works (long magazine and online pieces), but also sometimes non-fiction writers of books. They had an interview with Erik Larson as year or so ago where he talked about finding his next idea for books and how he does his research that was really good. I listen to Longform fairly often, and my D and I both remembered that interview as a particularly useful one if you wanted to write historical non-fiction.
I liked the Steve Jobs biography, too, but I started to get bored as it went on–the chapters each revolve around a new product, and Steve Jobs’s behavior around each one starts to get very predictable (or in his case, predictably unpredictable). Towards the end of the book, every chapter starts to feel like it is telling the same story. To me, the insight was that Steve Jobs was a complicated guy–but not really that complicated, since he did the same things in every chapter.
One that jumped into my mind was
http://www.amazon.com/American-Requiem-Father-That-Between/dp/039585993X
It’s a memoir: Dad was a pentagon official, son became a priest: Vietnam Nam, leaving the priesthood, marrying. Very well written and a slice of American life that is very true to its time.
My description is pretty meager, click and read what those who are more literate had to say.
I liked the “Becoming Steve Jobs” biography (not the one by Isaacson, the one by Schlender).
The Generals
Citizens of London
Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy by Ian W. Toll
Hint: the USS Constitution is one of the six, but there is a much bigger story than just “Old Ironsides.”
1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth
Again, there is a much bigger story in that year than just the Battle of Hastings.
I got my next shipment of books today and they’ve taken over the bed.
Mr R got home and just said “So… I’m sleeping on the couch for a while?”
In my defense… he knew he was marrying an academic 
I’ve added these to my now very long list and it seems like quite a few of them are at our local library. If I’m feeling somewhat better by the weekend, Mr R and I will go check some out (if not, I’ll just send him).
I have to read a few “required” books before I can turn to these. Up first on my list: Whose Detroit? Politics, Labor, and Race in an American City by Heather Thompson.
I’ve come late to this thread, so this may have already been suggested:
Anything by Mary Roach. She is hilarious, writes about science-y things, and is just a laugh a minute. Try:
Bonk (about sex)
Stiff (about cadavers)
Gulp (about our GI tracks)
and her others, which I haven’t read.
Also, Polio: An American Story by Oshinsky.
Funny enough, this is one of the books that came in my most recent delivery 
The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen.
It’s a history of Comanche dominance during the 18th-19th centuries in what is now the American Southwest. The book fascinatingly details an important and widely unknown chapter of North American history (US and Mexico). The author is a Finnish historian. If you are interested in Native American history or enjoyed Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove/ Streets of Laredo novels, you will like this book.
Another vote for Thucydides.
Peter Singer “Wired for War” on the dangers of AI and weapons.
Older book, “Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants and their War” by Eric Larrabee (Chapter each on Nimitz, MacArthur, Eisenhower, etc.).
Victor Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
Love Mary Roach! She makes science so understandable. (My quibble: she seems to always have one chapter about the raw edges…for example , in Gulp, about anal sex. This meant I couldn’t recommend her books to my middle school kids)
Medical Apartheid