The books contained on this page are non-fiction books that I have enjoyed. My tastes vary greatly by my mood, so I’ve given a little detail on each book and why I enjoyed it. Enjoy!
This is one of my all-time favorite true crime novels. I love Bugiolsi’s writing style and the content isn’t stuck on gore. He tends to get a little procedural at times, but in general it’s a great read. When I tell people this is one of my favorite books I often get weird looks from folks who haven’t read this book. They assume it’s gratuitously violent, which I don’t think it is. When I talk to folks who have read this book, they almost always agree that it’s a solid read. We typically agree that it’s a very respectful and objective retelling.
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Renee Fleming is one of my favorite musicians of all time. She’s a great example of an amazing instrument mixed with someone who is incredibly human. This book is her story of her journey to become the musician she is today. As a singer, I found this book to be enlightening and very funny. Although this varies depending on your “camp”, singers tend to use a lot of imagery early on in their study, but often move to a more technical understanding of their voice over time. I found her discussion of her voice to be apt and I really enjoyed reading her story. I also found it very interesting the opportunities she had by making some of the early decisions she made (i.e., the graduate program she chose, etc.). Many of these early decisions had a great impact on her career.
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Malcolm Gladwell is by far one of my favorite authors (fiction or non-fiction). He’s very entertaining, while still giving you very interesting stories about various things. This book is one of my favorites for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that I am personally a very fast, gutt-type, decision-maker. This book talks about why that’s good and bad and how we learn based on snap judgments. This is one of the few non-fiction books I have enjoyed reading all at once (I typically intersperse my non-fiction reading with very light fiction so I don’t get bored). I have enjoyed all of his other books as well, but this one is the one I recommend to folks when they ask me what to read.
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This was one of the first non-fiction books I read for fun. It’s not a happy story, but it’s a vary enlightening one. Harr’s writing style is very easy to follow and still enjoy. It’s hard to say some of the non-fiction that I have chosen here is “fun,” but this book got me very interested in law and more procedural books. Although it’s a common book for pre-law undergrads, I think it’s a great read for anyone.
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