 | Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $14.00 I wish all scholarly books were this interesting. A thesis on how technology has affected the rise and fall of civilizations.
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 | Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
Buy new: $9.68 / Used from: $2.82 I am a global warming, er, excuse me, "climate change" skeptic, as I actually keep an open mind on these things. Mr. Diamond manages to not come across as a Gore-like fanatic. He does present some powerful analysis on situations where poor environmental management caused societal collapse (see chapter on Easter Island). As a counterpoint, read Michael Crichton's "State of Fear."
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 | Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $2.93 Perhaps it's Jon Krakauer's haunting presentation, because normally I would not be interested in reading about some fool who gave all his money away, walks into the Alaskan bush and eventually dies.
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 | Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.73 Jon Krakauer's bestseller about his tragic climb of Mt. Everest. Pretty much eliminated all those romantic notions of how cool I thought it would be to do this.
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 | Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder
Buy used from: $0.01 A great account of real life treasure hunters.
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 | Night (Oprah's Book Club) by Elie Wiesel
Buy new: $9.95 / Used from: $0.45 If someone ever tells you they don't believe in evil, give them this book.
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 | Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton Friedman
Buy new: $9.75 / Used from: $3.97 An economist who speaks clearly and rationally. Think capitalism is dead and Keynes is the new king? Please read this.
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 | John Adams by David McCullough
Buy new: $13.60 / Used from: $6.85 Certainly elevated my opinion of the second president of the United States. Also presents a great perspective on many key events of the time.
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 | Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose
Buy new: $12.96 / Used from: $0.12 Both a historical account and travelogue of the American west.
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 | The Wild Blue : The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45 by Stephen E. Ambrose
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $0.01 Think being a pilot in WWII was glamorous? Not really.
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 | Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen E. Ambrose
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $0.01 In this world of instant communication and jet travel, it's difficult for some to comprehend just how big a deal this was at the time. Stephen Ambrose just has a way of telling a story that makes it interesting.
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 | Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $8.19 A physicist who is actually understandable.
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 | Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $5.62 When I hear people debate in support of the Japanese internment camps of WW2, I am quite sure despite any reasoned logic they may use they have totally missed the human toll it took.
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 | To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Buy new: $9.20 / Used from: $2.73 Okay, not really non-fiction, but this is one of the few school-assigned books that I found worth reading. Harper Lee's only novel (some question whether she wrote it) is a great depiction of racial tensions of the 20th century.
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 | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Puffin Classics) by Mark Twain
Buy used from: $0.57 Another not really non-fiction, but I can imagine that Mr. Clemens drew greatly from his real life experiences to write this.
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 | The Hunt for Bin Laden by Robin Moore
Buy used from: $0.01 Fascinating account of the use of special forces in bringing down the Taliban.
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 | Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl (Complete and Unabridged) by Anne Frank
Buy used from: $14.40 This is the unabridged version which may not be appropriate for younger children due to passages concerning Anne Frank's budding sexuality. One can take it as a bit of a distraction or as a more humanizing element.
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 | Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish by G. Bruce Knecht
Buy new: $13.22 / Used from: $2.97 How a marketing gimmick got a 80 year old fish on your plate.
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Listmania!
