Eclectic Non-Fiction Reads
5. 
The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq
by:
Steve Coll
4.36 avg rating — 2,544 ratings 
7. 
Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of '70s New York
by:
Guy Trebay
3.61 avg rating — 328 ratings 8. 
Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah
by:
Charles King
3.94 avg rating — 746 ratings 9. 
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis
by:
Jonathan Blitzer
4.47 avg rating — 6,891 ratings 
12. 
The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City
by:
Kevin Baker
4.35 avg rating — 707 ratings 13. 
Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order
by:
Yuan Yang
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,322 ratings 14. 
The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War
by:
Jim Sciutto
3.89 avg rating — 1,091 ratings 15. 
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
by:
Jason De León
4.30 avg rating — 2,228 ratings 16. 
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
by:
Hampton Sides
4.46 avg rating — 15,155 ratings 17. 
A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson
by:
Camille Peri
3.93 avg rating — 621 ratings 18. 
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life
by:
Jason Roberts
4.20 avg rating — 876 ratings 19. 
The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor
by:
Ron Chernow
3.51 avg rating — 959 ratings 20. 
The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family
by:
Ron Chernow
4.07 avg rating — 1,634 ratings 21. 
The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
by:
Ron Chernow
3.96 avg rating — 12,217 ratings 
27. 
Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West
by:
William Hogeland
4.19 avg rating — 556 ratings 28. 
The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature
by:
Charlie English
3.73 avg rating — 309 ratings 29. 
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by:
Katherine Boo
3.98 avg rating — 114,821 ratings 30. 
The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore
by:
Manu S. Pillai
4.28 avg rating — 2,067 ratings 
34. 
India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age
by:
Gurcharan Das
4.09 avg rating — 6,290 ratings 35. 
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space 4.52 avg rating — 14,523 ratings
36. 
The Revolutionary Self: Social Change and the Emergence of the Modern Individual, 1770-1800
by:
Lynn Hunt
3.67 avg rating — 18 ratings 
38. 
40. 
Misfire: The Sarajevo Assassination and the Winding Road to World War I 4.04 avg rating — 26 ratings
42. 
Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution
by:
Eric Jay Dolin
3.87 avg rating — 999 ratings 43. 
44. 
Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller
by:
Alec Nevala-Lee
3.66 avg rating — 273 ratings 45. 
Plagues and Pandemics: Black Death, Coronaviruses and Other Killer Diseases Throughout History
by:
Douglas Boyd
3.38 avg rating — 24 ratings 46. 
Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History
by:
Jeff Nussbaum
4.01 avg rating — 882 ratings 47. 
The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East
by:
Nicholas Morton
4.04 avg rating — 428 ratings 48. 
The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor - the Truth and the Turmoil
by:
Tina Brown
4.03 avg rating — 19,652 ratings 49. 
Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela
by:
William Neuman
4.12 avg rating — 979 ratings 50. 
Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World
by:
Peter S. Goodman
3.92 avg rating — 1,343 ratings 51. 
After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War
by:
Helen Rappaport
3.76 avg rating — 1,183 ratings 52. 
Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
by:
Keith O'Brien
4.40 avg rating — 1,848 ratings 53. 
Blood, Metal and Dust: How Victory Turned into Defeat in Afghanistan and Iraq
by:
Ben Barry
4.18 avg rating — 94 ratings 
56. 
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
by:
Candice Millard
3.84 avg rating — 16,069 ratings 57. 
The Normans: Power, Conquest and Culture in 11th Century Europe
by:
Judith A. Green
3.45 avg rating — 111 ratings 
59. 
A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them
by:
Neil Bradbury
4.12 avg rating — 8,908 ratings 60. 
The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy 4.33 avg rating — 3,093 ratings
61. 
Children of the Night: The Strange and Epic Story of Modern Romania
by:
Paul Kenyon
4.44 avg rating — 996 ratings 62. 
The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation
by:
Scott Carney
4.39 avg rating — 673 ratings 63. 
Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire
by:
Caroline Elkins
4.26 avg rating — 1,101 ratings 64. 
The Sasanian Empire at War: Persia, Rome, and the Rise of Islam, 224–651 3.61 avg rating — 31 ratings
66. 
And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
by:
Jon Meacham
4.46 avg rating — 9,392 ratings 67. 
Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War
by:
Deborah Cohen
3.78 avg rating — 1,197 ratings 
70. 
Spare Parts: The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery
by:
Paul Craddock
3.89 avg rating — 694 ratings 
72. 
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
by:
Edward S. Herman
4.24 avg rating — 23,238 ratings 73. 
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
by:
Daniel Immerwahr
4.46 avg rating — 19,122 ratings 74. 
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
by:
Siddharth Kara
4.36 avg rating — 14,150 ratings 
76. 
Three Tigers, One Mountain: A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea, and Japan
by:
Michael Booth
3.89 avg rating — 2,046 ratings 
78. 
The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture
by:
Roger J. Davies
3.73 avg rating — 1,750 ratings 79. 
A Brief History of Japan: Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun 3.75 avg rating — 2,650 ratings
82. 
Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician
by:
Anthony Everitt
3.89 avg rating — 8,070 ratings 
84. 
The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire
by:
Anthony Everitt
3.95 avg rating — 3,350 ratings 85. 
Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization
by:
Richard Miles
3.95 avg rating — 4,528 ratings 86. 
The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors
by:
Dan Jones
4.26 avg rating — 14,100 ratings 87. 
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
by:
Eric Foner
4.18 avg rating — 6,498 ratings 88. 
The Age of Diagnosis: Sickness, Health and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far 4.11 avg rating — 768 ratings
90. 
Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King
by:
Dan Jones
4.42 avg rating — 5,219 ratings 91. 
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire
by:
Jonathan M. Katz
4.24 avg rating — 1,863 ratings 92. 
1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West
by:
Roger Crowley
4.25 avg rating — 6,902 ratings 93. 
The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation
by:
Brenda Wineapple
4.06 avg rating — 1,699 ratings 
97. 
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
by:
Niall Ferguson
3.90 avg rating — 30,147 ratings 98. 
Fire On The Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras
by:
Radhika Iyengar
4.17 avg rating — 204 ratings 
