Best Nonfiction Books About Horrifying Events
2. 
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
by:
Jon Krakauer
4.26 avg rating — 550,968 ratings 
8. 
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that changed America
by:
Erik Larson
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 739,791 ratings 9. 
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
by:
Richard Preston
4.16 avg rating — 119,585 ratings 10. 
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
by:
Jon Krakauer
4.01 avg rating — 220,440 ratings 11. 
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
by:
Iris Chang
4.24 avg rating — 50,743 ratings 12. 
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
by:
Simon Winchester
3.88 avg rating — 21,501 ratings 13. 
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
by:
Sebastian Junger
4.12 avg rating — 117,721 ratings 
16. 
The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story
by:
Ann Rule
4.14 avg rating — 109,004 ratings 17. 
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
by:
Naomi Klein
4.16 avg rating — 27,262 ratings 18. 
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
by:
David von Drehle
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,586 ratings 18. 
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption 4.39 avg rating — 989,192 ratings
22. 
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by:
Erik Larson
4.05 avg rating — 70,018 ratings 
24. 
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)
by:
Art Spiegelman
4.39 avg rating — 365,581 ratings 
26. 
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus, #2)
by:
Art Spiegelman
4.42 avg rating — 156,030 ratings 27. 
The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy
by:
Stewart O'Nan
3.96 avg rating — 2,772 ratings 
29. 
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
by:
John M. Barry
3.98 avg rating — 42,018 ratings 31. 
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary
by:
Anonymous
4.29 avg rating — 17,074 ratings 32. 
The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg
by:
Helen Rappaport
4.05 avg rating — 6,113 ratings 33. 
36. 
Into Siberia: George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia 3.97 avg rating — 968 ratings
37. 
The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance that Changed the World
by:
Greg King
4.04 avg rating — 1,652 ratings 38. 
Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 4.20 avg rating — 3,015 ratings
39. 
The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire
by:
John Newsinger
4.26 avg rating — 737 ratings 
41. 
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
by:
Loung Ung
4.35 avg rating — 52,424 ratings 42. 
Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family
by:
Miep Gies
4.30 avg rating — 66,127 ratings 43. 
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
by:
Randy Shilts
4.39 avg rating — 28,866 ratings 
45. 
Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
by:
John G. Neihardt
4.12 avg rating — 18,419 ratings 
48. 
Who Killed Bobby?: The Unsolved Murder of Robert F. Kennedy
by:
Shane O'Sullivan
4.14 avg rating — 131 ratings 
51. 
102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
by:
Jim Dwyer
4.30 avg rating — 12,178 ratings 52. 
Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
by:
Stephen Puleo
4.02 avg rating — 5,025 ratings 53. 
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
by:
Douglas Brinkley
4.17 avg rating — 3,064 ratings 54. 
55. 
The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy
by:
James Morcan
3.84 avg rating — 450 ratings 55. 
Tell It to the World: International Justice and the Secret Campaign to Hide Mass Murder in Kosovo
by:
Eliott Behar
4.27 avg rating — 170 ratings 
58. 
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
by:
Olaudah Equiano
3.74 avg rating — 14,418 ratings 
59. 
BLOOD IN ZION: How the Jewish Guerrillas Drove the British Out of Palestine
by:
Saul Zadka
4.08 avg rating — 40 ratings 61. 
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators
by:
Ronan Farrow
4.40 avg rating — 101,061 ratings 62. 
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland 4.47 avg rating — 149,038 ratings
63. 
The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery
by:
Bill James
3.47 avg rating — 9,167 ratings 
65. 
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families 4.22 avg rating — 35,953 ratings
66. 
67. 
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
by:
James L. Swanson
4.16 avg rating — 34,161 ratings 
69. 
The Ship and the Storm: Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome
by:
Jim Carrier
3.92 avg rating — 371 ratings 69. 
72. 
Rising Tide: the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America
by:
John M. Barry
4.22 avg rating — 5,752 ratings 73. 
Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs
by:
Greg King
3.98 avg rating — 858 ratings 74. 
Into the Abyss: How a Deadly Plane Crash Changed the Lives of a Pilot, a Politician, a Criminal and a Cop
by:
Carol Shaben
3.96 avg rating — 9,230 ratings 
76. 
When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace
by:
Le Ly Hayslip
4.12 avg rating — 4,293 ratings 77. 
The love of the truth; sound of the last trump
by:
Doublee
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings 77. 
Shadow Play: The Unsolved Murder of Robert F. Kennedy
by:
William Klaber
4.02 avg rating — 120 ratings 79. 
Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living
by:
Robert A. Jensen
3.84 avg rating — 1,469 ratings 80. 
Blood-red Desert Sand (Cassell Military Trade Books)
by:
Michael Barthorp
4.32 avg rating — 22 ratings 80. 
Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come
by:
Richard Preston
4.42 avg rating — 7,442 ratings 
83. 
The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II
by:
Denis Avey
3.89 avg rating — 8,802 ratings 84. 
Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters (Magic Tree House Research Guide, #15) 4.07 avg rating — 643 ratings
86. 
Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
by:
Tim Reiterman
4.32 avg rating — 2,616 ratings 88. 
Ashes And Blood: The British Army In South Africa, 1795 1914
by:
Alan J. Guy
4.26 avg rating — 23 ratings 88. 
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland 4.11 avg rating — 22,319 ratings
93. 
All the Countries: And the Few We Never Got Round To
by:
Stuart Laycock
3.74 avg rating — 725 ratings 
95. 
The Reagan Casualties: Overseas Atrocities of the Great Communicator 4.10 avg rating — 21 ratings
95. 
Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West: 1846--1890
by:
Larry McMurtry
3.49 avg rating — 711 ratings 
100. 
The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them
by:
Eugen Kogon
4.25 avg rating — 782 ratings