How about the Atlas Obsura?
I second Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf. You listen to Seamus Heaney read it also (YouTube).
Did he ever read “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” by Jared Diamond?
Or by the same author “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition”?
One of my favorite books ever was “Nicholas and Alexandra” by Robert Massie.
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”.
“Being Mortal”
“When Breath Becomes Air”
“Above All Things” about climbing Everest.
“The Boys in the Boat” though I guess he could consider it too American history-ish.
Do you think he might enjoy “Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South” by Andrew Maraniss? One of the best books I read last year. S & SIL both enjoyed “The Boys in the Boat” and S & D have raved about “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”
I am saddened and ashamed to admit that I have not heard of most of these books.
I did read “Nicholas and Alexandra” when I was a teenager and loved it. When I was very young, I told all my friends that my grandma was Anastasia. I highly recommend it though I wonder if they have updated to include the discovery of the bodies?
I also found “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” fascinating. I could not put it down. It angered me as well.
OTOH, I just could not get through “The Boys in the Boat.” I kept trying and trying to like it, but it was so dreadfully plodding, IMO, that I just returned it to the library.
Another vote for Guns Germs and Steel. It should be required reading for every American IMO. Everything makes sense after you read it.
He’s been hounding me to read “Guns Germs and Steel” for years – all these recommendations are making me feel bad! Maybe I’ll have to read it myself.
I’ve thought about “Hillbilly Ekegy” but I’m torn - we’re sort of hillbillies ourselves. (He’s a very well-educated Yankee who settled down and raised his family in the very rural South.) I’m guessing it would interest him though, especially since it’s so well-written.
I did buy him a copy of “The Invention of Nature” but I’m still looking for (and reveling in) these suggestions. He can’t get out to the bookstore as often as he’d like, and he doesn’t do computers, so I’m trying to bring the books to him.
It is a well-written book, but like most post-modernists, he totally ignores or diminishes the impact of culture and religion on the advance of human society.
I am a Hillbilly too, as is the author. It’s an excellent example of someone putting into words what we know, but can’t express. Less of a treatise and more of a social history of a place.
Put in me the “can’t finish” column for Guns Germs…I wanted to stab myself with a fork, no matter how much people tell me it’s great.
Does the OP’s dad read David McCullough?
@greenbutton --yes, my father LOVES McCullough!
Has your dad read “The Wright Brothers”?
If your Dad is interested in maritime history, Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea is excellent. Philbrick’s newest book is Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution.
I’d recommend both.
I was thinking of recommending the Jared Diamond books also, but I was afraid he would already have read them. (And the Fussell too. 
) I actually listened to Guns, Germs, and Steel, which to me doesn’t count as having read it, but I read Collapse, which is fascinating. One of the virtues of the book is that you can read it in sections. rather than plowing straight through. @Zinhead Collapse definitely takes culture and religion into account, although probably not in the way you would prefer. B-)
“The Washing of the Spears” is a really super book about the Zulu Wars by Donald R. Morris. It is most likely out of print; a number of years ago I ran into the author in an internet discussion group, and I told him I wanted to buy a copy for my father. He recommended the 1986 Simon & Schuster edition. The events covered in detail in the book include the defense of Rorke’s Drift, which is the subject of the great movie Zulu. I’m sure you could get it online.
“Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea” is one of the most interesting books I have ever read.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/zero-charles-seife/1100315592
Thanks again for all the suggestions! You have given me so many fabulous choices to mull over.
@greenbutton and @ignatius - he liked Heaney’s Beowulf so much that he gave me a copy.
Apologies if this has been mentioned - my biotech buddies highly recommended this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Emperor-All-Maladies-Biography-Cancer/dp/1439170916
History of cancer research. Apparently, the author is an amazing writer. I just ordered it.
^I loved Emperor of All Maladies and highly recommend it. I read his more recent book, Gene, this year – not as interesting, I found it to be kind of a slog.
Not recent, but I really like Control of Nature by John McPhee. And if he likes that, there are times of other McPhee books.
Has anyone mentioned River of Doubt yet?
Try any of Erik Larson’s books. They’re non-fiction but read like a really good novel.
S read Emperor of All Maladies and found it fascinating. PBS did a short series on it (3 parts if I remember correctly) and I cheated by watching that instead of reading the book. Very interesting.