please extract the book list from the transcript below

Introduction 
hello booktube the other day I made a video about five non-fiction favorites 
randomly picked five non-fiction books that I really enjoyed that I thought you might enjoy as well that I wanted to recommend to you and Stephanie Cohen 
left a comment on that video saying she would gladly take a list of 100 such books and that if I decided to make such 
a list she would break out the Pinot Grigio in a bowl of popcorn and a notebook 
well get your Pinot Grigio ready because I have decided to do that so here are a 
hundred more non-fiction recommendations we'll start with this one this is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> and Santa Maria this is a 
A Room in Athens 
room in Athens an older memoir couple goes to to the continent in search of a 
new life and while in this is half a century ago while in the con while in 
Greece the the young woman becomes pregnant and has to deal with a totally different 
side of uh an Athens or a picturesque travel Memoir than you ever get she has 
to figure out natal and infant care in an alien world 
wonderfully smart stuff uh then we have Helen Rappaport this is after the romanovs this is the story of the uh 
After the Romans 
the refugees fleeing the Russian revolutions and had ending up in Bella Bella Park 
Paris where your cab driver could have been a university Professor where your hairdresser might have been a 
best-selling author or a philosopher Helen rapperboard does a great job of following their stories telling you what 
their stories are like some of them are famous some of them not uh then we have an older book this is by Marina Warner 
The Virgin Mary 
this is alone of all her sex those you Catholics out there but I would argue anybody this is the story of the Virgin 
Mary the story of the Virgin Mary the myth of the Virgin Mary The Cult of the Virgin Mary the role that Mary plays in 
the Catholic faith and Marina Warner does a great job of 
making that an applicable story to anybody just think of widely reviewed when it came out and plenty of those 
critics were Jewish they didn't have any dog in the race when it came to the Virgin Mary they were merely commenting 
on how wonderfully this is done I'll move on from there to Dorothy Sayers wrote a lot of non-fiction the 
one I want to pick from her just to to make trouble is the book that she wrote Oh God 50 years ago more than that that 
will make more trouble in 2023 than she would ever have imagined more trouble than I would ever imagined when I first 
read this this is her book a collection of essays called uh our women human in which she writes in which he she 
Our Women Human 
attempts to Grapple with that very question this is vintage Dorothy Sayers she was a spiky complicated thinker who 
was not trying to make things easy for her readers and you really get that in this book uh we have Lucy Worsley who is 
a historian I don't always particularly like she did one book though that really worked with me and that is this Jane 
Jane Austen at Home 
Austen at home of course Jane austenance seldom elsewhere this is this would be on the 
small the small bookcase of books about Jane Austen that I would of the millions that there have been but I would say 
deserves a place on that bookcase shelf would be this a very intimate look at what we know of Jane Austen at home then 
we have uh Agatha Christie the great Agatha Christie her autobiography uh this is a big weirdly thoughtful book 
Agatha Christie 
uh that the author always said this is the book The 
manuscript the pages that were in the bottom drawer of the desk these were the book this was the book that was waiting 
when I was done with my day's work when I was done with my deadline worker Christie by Christmas a literary Empire 
to keep going this is the book that she always said I when I'm done with all the rest of the 
stuff I go to this and I work a little more on it and I work a little more and I don't let it go I can't let it go and 
usually when an author says that they're lying they're just trying to to burnish 
something that they crapped out of the last three weeks because they want to make a pool payment or something like that but in Christie's case it was true 
it was also true with there's a great uh romance author called Georgette heyer who had a historical novel called my 
Lord John that she treated the same way it was on her mind all the time when she was generating her Regency romances 
Christy did this and you get a different Agatha Christie here in terms of pacing 
in terms of thoughtfulness than you get in any of her Mysteries baby 
there you go uh do strongly recommend it ordinarily 
author autobiographies are all but worthless uh but not in this case 
I have lots of technical difficulties for this video aren't we it's gonna be long enough as it is uh the next one is 
by uh Lenny Goodings this is a relatively recent book this is called a bite of the Apple 
Lenny Goodings 
uh about the very early days of this this Lenny Goodings went on to become synonymous with Virago books and this is 
for very early days when she was oh my the stories that she tells they are 
wonderful absolutely wonderful this is so engrossingly readable but they'll make you wins 
this this incredibly smart articulate talented young woman going into the offices of Virago press and having 
crusty old men just they would show up an hour later and just assume 
well some coffee might be nice you know it's getting on towards the T 
and that's it they weren't they weren't saying that because they were on their way to the office's kitchen they were 
saying that to her because they viewed it as her job to get that to get that ready get and go and do that 
you know can you believe it you probably can't believe it but uh again A lot of times Memoirs of you know this is the 
shoestring that I started on are fairly tediously artificial not this one uh then we have this is by Laura Claridge 
Laura Claridge 
this is the lady with the borzoi this is a biography but also a working history of Blanche top and what she did for a 
canop publishing and what she did was to make it less provincial a lot less provincial she 
scoured the continent for the latest thinkers the latest writers who might want an American book contract and then 
came up with very attractive ways to package those to an American reading audience that wasn't anywhere near as 
adventurous when it came to reading before blanching off as after 
a a wonderful biography of a landmark figure in publishing genuinely Landmark 
figures she changed the thing she changed the kind of chances that American Publishers took on books let me 
have the great Elizabeth bone of course I'm a huge fan this is Bowen's Court this is a uh kind of a 
Bowens Court 
an affectionate Memoir of her childhood and uh also of the the eponymous house 
the eponymous sprawling ramshackle house wonderfully this author is I'm a big fan of this author anyway but I think this 
book is probably my favorite certainly better than the fiction even though I love the fiction I love her 
short stories but something about this that something about the the personal element mixed in there then we have this 
is by Maja safstrom this is a Whimsical thing an illustrated thing really good if you want uh first of all an idle half 
hour of your own or if you have a kid who's interested in natural history and paleontology this is animals of a bygone 
Animals of a bygone era 
era and Illustrated uh compendium One one animal at a page of things that are 
not dinosaurs basically of of things that are mostly not not even connected to dinosaurs instead they are weird 
animals here you have not only woolly mammoth but an ichthyosaur which were not dinosaurs 
uh really really Charming stuff uh then we have uh a memoir by the New Yorker 
cartoonist Roz chess I saw this being solicited I thought I knew what to expect it's called can't we talk about 
Cant We Talk About Something More Pleasant 
something more pleasant and it is totally not what I was expecting 
it's got wrenchingly moving it's unbelievably beautiful it's her story of living and dealing 
with and being friends with aging parents which is a very old story and it is I 
have never seen it done better than in this book which is full of this is not prose it's full of Raj chess 
hilarious cartoons but they are not in this book doing hilarious stuff there's plenty of laughter in this book but oh 
my God there's plenty that's not funny it was funny that's incredibly Bittersweet where you have these people 
that were everything to you they were your whole world they took care of you and now you have to take care of them increasingly only 
they don't want to be taken care of it this is it is stubbornly complicated and 
wonderful just wonderful if you see it in a bookstore grab it then this I've recommended this book many times before 
this is Margo Kaufman's book Clara of the early years about the world's most spoiled pug 
Clara of the Early Years 
this is the story of of meeting Clara and falling in love with her and having 
her do the weird nasal pug breathing on everybody and and be really spoiled and 
take the whole of the Town by storm and you might be thinking you might be worried if you're if you're looking at 
this and thinking well I love dog books but I I avoid them because I'm going to be bawling at the end of the story they 
all have one ending this one doesn't this one doesn't it stops before that ending so you are free to think that 
ending never happens even though this is 40 years old uh strongly recommended there aren't many dog books that I 
recommend a couple on this list then we have something you'll be no introduction for me but I want to recommend it as 
long as I'm recommending non-fiction works I want to recommend Cleopatra by Stacy Chief and I especially want to 
Cleopatra 
recommend it to people who don't think they like history or biography much less ancient biography 
if you have not encountered what this author can do on the page you won't believe it you really need to try this 
for yourself again as I say with all of my strongest recommendations don't take my word for 
it just just give it a try on its own I am perfectly willing to let the author win you over she will 
she absolutely will no matter what you think about ancient history this will not read like anything else 
that you've ever read and you will see how it can be done uh this next one is Ellen Allman this is a life in code it's 
Technology 
a history of the author's connection with technology and how that changes and of course this 
is this is 15 years old so it would change radically after that but accounts like 
this this is a really good one really clear-eyed really unsparing of herself accounts like this are fascinating for 
me anyway we all lived through those of us a certain age lived through the 
introduction of this whole area of this whole kind of technology to our life if 
you're of a certain age you remember when you had no electronic component to your life at all at all 
I do vividly when there were no there was no electronic component to anything that I did at any point in any day and 
now it's all of my life it's all over my life there's Russian nail part of it that isn't technological except for 
walking the bean um this this towels is one on one level it 
is a memoir telling that typical story but really well done and this next one by Laurie carrad I've recommended this a 
few times before this is the coming plague this is a big book of hers on emerging 
The Coming Plague 
new viruses emerging new diseases new threats and the emerging is key here what she doesn't the word she barely 
ever uses in this book that is now the word that defines our life as David quallman said it would is zoonosis 
the leaping of viruses from exotic animals elsewhere in the world where humans have not been and where Once Upon 
a Time if you encountered an infected Pangolin or a bat some god-forsaken corner of a valley of 
a northern Province in China you would get that virus and it would do 
whatever it wants with you long before you came to a center population now I can get on a plane you're in New York in 
15 hours maybe New York's not your final destination maybe New York is where you change planes to go to Chicago 
that's another couple of million people uh this this is the one of the earliest 
and best sweeping accounts of that kind of thing little did Laurie Garrett guess when she wrote this book 30 years ago 
that that we would come to see a worldwide pandemic for the 
first time in a century then we have mfk Fisher this is an author I really like she's someone that 
I would again recommend for her Pro style whether or not you're interested in her subject matter like for instance this is her book consider the oyster 
Consider the Oyster 
which is all about the cultivation and preparation of oysters as food 
and the history of it a little bit and the nuances of it you might think you might look at that 
and think well I'm not interested in that at all but you will be you'll read it and you'll love it you'll read all of 
her books she wrote a whole string of little books that are gastronomically inclined but they are as elegant as 
English Pros gets then we have Blanche and cook this is uh her biography of 
Eleanor Roosevelt 
Eleanor Roosevelt this is the third and final volume uh the War years and later War years and 
after uh this is a qualified recommendation only because I do actually recommend all 
three volumes this is a landmark of multi-volume biography that will really give you if you don't know if you only 
had a hazy idea of why you should be interested in Helena Roosevelt apart from her husband this book will tell you I will give you 
a very clear impression of that it's also a fascinating portrait cook never loses sight of the fact that this iconic 
figure is human so you get just I think that's probably that was probably something along those sides was probably the idea behind the 
American cover design here where she's almost lost in the crowd that is a very pleasant effect of this 
biographical Series so I recommend volume three if you only have time for one but I recommend all three then we 
have Susan Bordeaux this is the creation of amberlin which is a biography of amberlynn enter 
Anne Boleyn 
the ace second wife but also as the title indicates it's very much more than that this is this is a legendarium map 
of Anne Boolean what people have been making of this young woman 
forever since since the moment that she came back to the English Court from France people 
were mythologizing her and they've never stopped doing that including biographers of course so this is kind of a meta 
study and sometimes those get in the weeds they get wonky they get very boring this one is none of those things 
if you're a tutor fan you haven't got around to this book then we have Deborah lipset the great Deborah lipsat this is 
the book of hers called denying the Holocaust this is from 30 years ago thereabouts about the growth of 
Denying the Holocaust 
anti-Semitism in the West again when we were reading when I was 
reading this book originally it never would have crossed my mind the extent to which anti-Semitism would 
return in the 23rd in the 21st century that never crossed my mind that openly anti-semitic comments could get raucous 
Applause at the national at the Republican National Convention that that is amazing to me even now even though 
I'm watching it happen it's still amazing but this is terrific and clear-eyed this author is a wonderful writer and of course this book is the 
pebble that started in avalanche this book is the thing that caused uh her 
massive lawsuit with David Irving but he lost uh then we have Janet Wallach this is her book on Gertrude belt desert 
Gertrude Bell 
Queen penguin Classics has a collection of Gertrude Bell's letters that is very very good very good introduction but 
this is a biography of grocer Bell and Gertrude Bell is one of the rare figures in history that 
actually is larger than life something about this time period produced a few of those she re there's a 
reason why she is shown larger hair than the Sphinx and the pyramids because of the fact that she had on the politics 
and the social understanding of her day in the in the near East this was a bestseller and it was 
universally praised by critics it deserves it really well done then we have uh Avia zornberg this is the 
The Beginning of Desire 
beginning of Desire this is a her very lovely book a meditation on the Book of 
Genesis that has an amazing Insight it's beautiful prose all throughout but has 
an amazing Insight on virtually every page as far as popular exegesis goes I don't know of a better example then we have uh 
Brenda wine Apple who's a biographer but she did she took her a whack at a big sprawling history a huge book uh called 
Ecstatic Nation 
ecstatic Nation which as you can see from the dates there 1848 to 1877 actually includes the 
whole of the American Civil War but lots of other things too all of a very wise approach here it's all of the social 
forces that made the war inevitable and then all of the social Transformations 
that the war made inevitable so you don't get just you know first Bull Run second Bull Run that instead it this is 
the Civil War in magnificently done in context this is just a wonderful writer again an example where I could recommend 
pretty much everything but I didn't uh then we have Betty McDonald I've recommended this book many many times before this is her classic The Egg and I 
The Egg and I 
she and her husband went out to the country try their hand at starting a chicken farm and she told 
stories about their Misadventures to everybody to all of her friends and all of her friends had the same reaction you 
ought to write a book and that stereotypical reaction you ought to write a book she did it became 
a national bestseller sometimes those books will sometimes when all and Sundry are telling you you 
ought to write a book it's because it's a good there's a good reason for it and this is every bit as wonderful now as it 
was when it came out what 80 years ago or something like that then we have Marion Mead this is her 
Eleanor of Aquitaine 
biography of Eleanor of aquitain this thing is getting this is the best biography of Eleanor aquitain but it's 
getting a run for its money this year I'll I'll report back on that but this is an amazing story 
Eleanor's story is amazing anyway and this is a market Improvement on 
every other Eleanor of Aquitaine biography this is this is a woman who you might know her only from you know a 
bit part in Shakespeare but she she held her own with four or five different Kings at an age when no one else was 
doing that so I and left a pretty good record provided you have the eyes to see 
what you should pay attention to and what you should then we have sherry Lewis's book the enlightened Mr Parkinson 
Parkinson 
and it's that Parkinson it's Parkinson's disease this is a biography of the Man For Whom the disease was named and oh 
it's all about that man and his time which is marvelously recreated here but also all about the disease 
just one of a perfect you know one-two approach to this kind of popular history we have Francis Fitzgerald the the 
American Evangelical Movement 
evangelicals uh this is all about the American Evangelical movement this is five or six years old maybe a little 
more than that I can't remember if I am blurbed on the paperback of this I couldn't praise it highly enough at the time I wanted everybody to read it 
especially every American to read it uh most Americans I think even now in 
2023 are totally unaware of how much of the the countries they live in is shaped 
by radical women-hating racist science denying Evangelical Christianity 
I think most Americans think you know that most Christians are their kind of Christian and maybe that might be true 
numerically but there's no reflection whatsoever on the levers of power and 
this book is it's a great history it's a great history of the evangelicals and it will arm you to know what you're dealing 
with this guy was on every major uh year-end list uh then we have a classic 
this is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> this is her book The Everglades River of Grass this is she was the heart and soul of 
the the Everglades a strong voice for their conservation and also for understanding them and not 
spoiling them if it weren't for Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and a couple of other people acting right at the right time 
we'd have highways through the Everglades it would they'd be in far worse shape than they are now so and 
this is also a beautifully written book a great example of Natural History we have Rosemary Sutcliffe some of you will 
know her I don't know that she's really remembered anymore I I don't know there 
was a Channing Tatum movie but uh she wrote great I guess now we would call them y a 
historical novels and lots of other stuff too terrific writer and she did a memoir blue remembered Hills about her 
childhood and young and young Womanhood that is not saccharine it ordinarily childhood Memoirs by authors are the 
worst thing in the world this is not that I was I was Charmed and carried throughout then we have Debbie Clark 
motoro this is fast Into the Night and as you can tell probably from that 
cover this is her adventures on the Iditarod the great dog sled race across Alaska 
in what used to be horrifying conditions with serious dangers Bears crevasses 
freezing Rivers thin ice uh you would get a team of dogs and you 
would go on that race out into the Alaskan Wilderness and uh this is her 
adventures there are a couple of chapters here on the iditarod's rough beginnings but this is mainly her her 
life on the trail and off the trail and uh I loved it I've read a lot of Iditarod books of course the Iditarod is 
doomed I don't know I don't know if it even happened this year or last year I have 
no idea it's it's currently in the low 90s in Alaska I think it was never really got below freezing too many times 
last year Alaska cannot possibly sustain into the 21st century the snowpack 
necessary for the Iditarod to happen so it's probably a it will probably end up 
being curious little detail of the 20th century uh but it's fascinating I've 
read all the Memoirs of all the great players and this one is is terrific and I should head off any reactions that 
those of you are not familiar with the Iditarod might have you might be thinking well how on Earth can Steve like this 
I not only have read all the Iditarod Memoirs but I had up close and personal encounters with it on a couple of 
different years and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt in fact I'm the only two-legged preacher on Earth who can say if you want a shadow of a doubt 
I absolutely love it they are not being pressed to do anything believe you me 
they are having a blast uh then we have this is by Susan marks what a curious and one and wonderfully interesting book 
this was this is finding Betty Crocker this is a a biography of a person who 
Finding Betty Crocker 
never existed Betty Crocker who was kind of a cooking kitchenware type figure 
show you how to whisk eggs or add Sherry to the steak or whatnot oh at one time I 
don't think Betty Crocker exists as a corporate entity anymore but at one time she was unbelievably popular 
call in programs advice columns books TV shows and this this author had the 
genius idea to understand that unpack it all and find out what that story was and what it meant to the countless women 
who hung on what Betty Crocker had to tell them not just about what to do in the kitchen but about how 
empowering that was I've never stopped thinking about it uh then we have uh Diana at Hills book this 
Travel Memoir 
is her uh her Florence diary so we we started off with a travel Memoir here we have another travel 
Memoir this one's a little bit more conventional but beautifully written just beautifully written wish I had a 
copy of this thing I cannot recommend it strongly enough though if you're if you're ever type there are a few travel logs in here if you have a type to read 
travelogues travel writing of that sort of thing don't miss this one then we have Patricia McConnell 
and this is uh or her book she's written a couple of books on the dog human relationship this is for the love of a 
For the Love of a Dog 
dog about the dog human relationship she's written a couple they're all really good of course I always joke on this channel 
the only person on Earth who is actually qualified to write a book on what dogs are thinking and feeling is me and I 
haven't done it but this will come close this will come very close if you if you are a dog person you haven't got around 
to this book maybe you haven't got around to this book because you're a gun shy of dog books because so many of them have CRP nonsense I hear that I 
understand completely but you might want to try this one then this next one I praised a million times praised in print praise it to all of you 
Fox and I 
this is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> and I where a woman try goes to the Wilderness 
to get away from the chatter of humanity and befriends uh a wild fox just starts 
showing up at her doorstep not looking for handouts it's pretty clear in the course of the book that the fox just 
wants to be friends as well and it's wonderful just wonderful just that kind of nature 
Memoir I I became friends with nature Memoir is very popular can be done very poorly this is one of 
the best versions that I've ever seen if you have not read it you're going to love it then we have uh 
this is by Catherine Smith and this is uh the GateKeeper 
The GateKeeper 
this is a little bit of a niche history but not really this is about the woman who was 
appointment secretary front of the yard bulldog 
all-purpose listening ear to Franklin Delano Roosevelt 
odd figure powerful never had a book written about her before I think she wrote a book of 
her own good luck finding it if she did but this was fascinating and it underscored for me it underscored that 
most modern presidents have had someone like this in their White House someone who was 
completely indispensable and who wielded power far outside the technical description of their job 
you might think that would be the chief of staff but really what we're talking about here is Mrs landingham you West Wing fans what we're talking about here 
is Mrs landingham and almost every modern president had such a figure and she was his and sometimes the 
interest of the figure increases with the power of the president sometimes that happens then we have 
devosobal a lot of you will know uh this author from longitude but this is a the 
glass universe about women computers back before there 
were computers that term was used for people who were just going to do massive amounts of arithmetic huge Columns of 
arithmetic they were called computers and the the Cadre of wives and daughters 
and mothers and women at Harvard University who did a lot of that work and started to Branch out 
to analyzing dots of light on the glass photographic plates of nighttime 
exposures of the night sky hence the title and making some real discoveries about 
what the men took all the pictures the men generated all of those raw Columns of figures that the women that had to 
compute before calculators before computers they had to just do them do it themselves the women started looking at 
those glass plates and finding things that the men had missed this is leave it to Denver soluble to find a story like 
this and just bring it to life then we have Simon Montgomery Sai Montgomery also will be really familiar to a lot of 
you this is one of assignment company's earlier books the good good pig about Christopher hogwood a giant pig the the 
The Good Good Pig 
a Slaughter hog not a miniature pig but a big 600 pound animal the family takes 
in they learn his ways they learn all about him it does unfortunately have 
that kind of dog Memoir ending you have to just prepare yourself for that it'll be a good cry a very therapeutic cry I'm 
amazingly touching book and also with some really funny things in it and as long as we're getting the tears out we 
might just go on to this next one this is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> book good dog stay 
Good Dog Stay 
which is the one thing they don't do this is about older dogs this is a hymn 
of praise two older dogs at how wonderful they can be how wonderful they almost always are 
then we have uh a famous book that much like Black Hawk Down this was a book 
that was made famous by a movie this is Diane Foster's book Gorillas in the Mist which is really worth a read on its own 
Gorillas in the Mist 
apart from the Sigourney Weaver movie The Sigourney Weaver movie is quite good but this book is stands apart from that 
and is wonderful on its own hard-hitting and wonderful on its own I 
think we have the great Flannery O'Connor this is the habit of being a collection of letters but really 
The Habit of Being 
unapologetically underscores how completely weird Connor was these are 
weird letters they are it's gripping reading I had this was the cover to a poorly made trade paperback that came 
out about 50 years ago I read that thing until it fell apart that didn't take long it was not well made and I've never 
found a really good conditioned copy of this thing to actually you know revisit 
then we have the great Elsa Maxwell who was uh one of the greatest of that 
now almost banished phylum of organisms called the Washington Hostess once upon a time in 
Washington DC Society matrons hostesses wielded a huge amount of power more than 
senators they are the ones who held Gala balls Gala dinners wonderful occasions 
and everybody was invited and they were told to check their politics at the door but of course nobody did that 
so those dinners whether it's also Maxwell's or anybody else's worth so much of Washington to actually happen 
it's where so many deals got worked out you know I was grandstanding on the senate floor today because all of my 
colleagues were watching but I'm over I'm here over cocktails and Elsa absolutely forbids her guests to fight 
so why don't we talk about this what what is possible here all of those sorts of things happen and no one was better 
at it than her and she wrote a book that's wonderfully titled how to do it about entertaining which a large part of 
this is going to be about her own kind of entertaining which is when you're inviting you know the amount of Saint James to come to you you 
won't be doing that but a lot of this is also just very shrewd insight into Human Nature then we have uh Mary Beth Norton 
this is another like Brenda wine Apple this is a figure I could have included almost anything that she's ever written but I included in the devil's snare 
The Devils Snare 
which is about the Salem witch Mania and the trials and all 
is going on back there baby I'm trying to recommend books 
you want to come down here give them some Frida yoga oh 
oh [Laughter] 
she's been doing that on and off all day which is why recovering has gone from 
she keeps getting up and down there have been many many many accounts of the Salem Witch Trials Stacy shifted one 
herself that is really really good this is my favorite can't imagine why uh here let's block 
the the Holy Ghost sunlight then this is a 
another book that I've recommended often on this channel this is a big fat work of history but so good in the days of 
The Days of McKinley 
McKinley by Margaret Leach a big it solid 
sort of solid looking history of of President McKinley and also his times and His White House 
even the dust jacket looks like veined marble and all of that is designed to give the impression of heft and weight 
that I understand the decision to do that when this book was marketed but it 
works against it now if you find a used copy of this in your Goodwill or a yard sale or something you're going to look 
at it and think it looks like the most boring thing in the world it's not it's not at all it is thrillingly eloquent uh 
then we have Elizabeth pisani this is Indonesia Etc kind of a travel guide but also a lot of history here about a a 
Indonesia Etc 
weird reason some weird people some weird encounters she doesn't she doesn't uh 
soften any of that so this ends up being really really uh picaresque writing then 
we have betney Hughes another historian I could have included almost anything that she's written I heard great big book Istanbul 
Istanbul 
is the one that I picked I I think it's immensely winning just a totally 
inviting big fat Book on a sprawling subject now we already we already know there's no real way to do a book like 
this Justice whether it's Istanbul or Athens or whatever this there are always 
going to be more stories so then that author can include in a book like this so you want to go on how well a job the 
author is doing this is a terrific job uh we have another book that I've recommended many times a travel writing 
it's a travel guide but it is fantastic it stands Head and Shoulders about mostly this is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> 
Italian Days 
this is her book Italian days all about Italy but oh my oh my so funny so well 
done it just it just it's totally energetic pros from start to finish then 
we have Vitas West this is Knoll and the sackville's which started out as a sort of dutiful profile of the gigantic 
Knolls Court 
sprawling country home that she was not allowed to inherit because she was a woman it started out that way as an idea but 
it becomes so much more than that it becomes a meditation on the personal element of History the Cycles go way back it becomes just 
it becomes so much more than that this and Bowen's Court are really uh birds of a feather then we have Mallory o'meara's 
Mallory Romero 
book the lady from the Black Lagoon this is very personal Mallory Romero is very 
much a part of this book she includes herself very consciously throughout the book her Misadventures her quips and 
personality and relationships but only to underscore I think she did that only to underscore 
some of the problems that women face in the industry this is about the woman who designed the famous Creature from the 
Black Lagoon and lots of other things too and the life that she led the life that she had to lead that wasn't the 
same with her male counterparts just a terrific a terrific look at a Hollywood 
that no longer resists except maybe some of those elements do exist and then we have Allison Hogan this is a weird thing 
and uh a niche pocket study a couple are on this list that I wouldn't have thought would work as well as it did uh 
there's another example that really knocks that out of the park but even this one is really good this is her book on the log cabin 
Allison Hogan 
a history of an American Image of people that are you know if you that 
if you were born and raised in a log cabin if you were schooled in a one-room log cabin in American mythology it says 
something about your genuineness your trustworthiness and Allison Hogan looks at where all of that 
mythologizing comes from but she also studies the reality behind it and log cabins the reality of log cabins 
themselves she did a lot more with this subject than I thought was possible I was I was gripped the whole time by what 
I thought would be a fairly simple thing when it comes to uh Niche Niche 
histories of something that has a very specific Locale very specific social history this one takes the cake for the 
21st century so far anyway this is Christine courtin's book London Fog about the massive 
Christine Courtin 
life-ending fog that gripped London in the middle of the 20th century the periodic fogs that London had but 
also the worst one of all the one during World War II that 
it got its own episode in the the HBO series The Crown 
and it's had other accounts it shows up in some of the fiction of the data this is a story of that fog how it formed the 
meteorological conditions but also all the stories from what it was like I got the advanced copy of this room 
I've seen it on this channel I got the finished copy and thought that was really really good that I was not I was 
nothing less than fascinated the whole time it's a shame that it's going to sink out of sight and it very much did not every 
single review organ in the Western World reviewed this thing all praising it which is wonderful uh I used to have a 
hardcover full of those reviews I don't know what happened to it uh but I strongly recommend it then we have Laura 
Coleman this is her book The Long Reach of the 60s uh very very stereotypical cover there 
with Nixon and Johnson uh there's a book coming out just this year I think in a month 
that's about the the election of 1968 it also has Johnson and Nixon on the cover but this is all about uh the Tomo not 
just the the rise in the streets and you know all that sort of thing but also the 
political changes and the Supreme Court as well really good a really good wide-reaching book 
does a lot in very few pages then we have Maeve Brennan which is the institution at the New Yorker this is a collection of her columns and pieces and 
profiles and notes and quips and jokes from The New Yorker called the long-winded lady I don't know how in print any of these 
The Longwinded Lady 
things are but this one's had a couple of different editions you should be able to find most of these things 
yeah uh then we have a biography another biography this is a biography of Louisa Catherine Louisa Catherine Adams 
Louisa Catherine Adams 
this is by Marjorie Huffman it's it's wonderful it's absolutely wonderful it's a 
biography of the wife of John Quincy Adams who for 200 years had the distinction of being the only American 
first lady was not born American uh in the history book she no longer has 
that distinction alone because Donald Trump's third wife Melania 
was also first lady and was not born American Louisa Catherine Adams has a couple of distinctions still in addition 
to those yes she was yes Melania Trump was the first lady who was 
not born in America but Melania Trump is also not a legitimate U.S citizen and also she's 
not a free person she's the possession of Donald Trump he bought her from her previous owner and you can't say either 
one of those things about Louisa Catherine this is a book it's not a complete biography it's 
wonderfully wonderfully done I wish that it were longer 
I wish that it were longer it's there have been many books on Louisa Catherine Adams and this is the best one uh then 
we have Megan Marshall's book on Margaret Fuller most uh biographical biography readers 
Margaret Fuller 
that I know don't know who Market Fuller is they don't have any idea who she was they don't have any idea how a century 
ago every single intellectual and politician in the country definitely knew who she was and quoted her 
regarded what she thought about things this goes a long way towards 
establishing what you're missing it's also a hackable biography just wonderfully done and as long as we're 
talking about a heck of a biography how about another old favorite of Steve's this is Antonio Frazier's book Mary 
Antonio Fraser 
Queen of Scots uh about the the vexed life of Mary and how that life 
haunted Queen Elizabeth of England this is dense reading top reading but 
fantastic not the only appearance of this family on this list not not Mary Queen of scots's family but Antonio 
Fraser's family this is it was a mega bestseller this book when it came out it was a mega bestseller again when it came 
on paperback I can't recommend it strongly enough then we have uh Michelle McPhee this is maximum harm 
this is her book on the Tsarnaev brothers who conducted the Boston Marathon bombing 
here in Boston uh one of the brothers did not survive the violence that followed with the police search although 
ironically his fatal wound was delivered accidentally by his younger brother his younger brother did survive and was 
found and was tried and was sentenced to live comfortably with three meals a 
day and as much reading material as he wants for the rest of his life 
and this is probably the best book that could be done on the subject I mean 
the subject is well known I don't know that there are many open questions the only real open question on the 
subject of the one remaining sonnev brother is how long it's going to take him to die in prison for someone to kill him I think he's kept in extremely 
protective circumstances because I'm pretty sure that everyone in the institution where he is kept wants to 
kill him and would gladly take 10 life sentences added on to their already existing life sentence to do that 
considering that he laughed about planting a bomb that caught a little boy into two pieces I can understand that 
not really 100 sure even to this day why the first policeman on the scene of a 
bloodied and weakened sarnaev brother hiding in a topped over boat didn't Pump 
10 Rounds into his left eye I'm not really 100 sure why that didn't happen maybe because the theory goes that that 
cop would have been arraigned and sent to prison I think he'd have been given a parade uh but this is It's brutal reading it 
because it's not just about the violence of that day it's also about the indoctrination the radicalization 
of the younger son AF brother who was a normal person it's just a normal stone or high school kid 
until he was radicalized so it's tough reading but it's really really good then we have next we have an example of 
something that I have often said doesn't exist I often mock the idea of a celebrity Memoir I draw funny stories 
about how the celebrity's not even in the room they barely talk with the writer every once in a while that isn't true every once in a while the celebrity 
kind of does want to be involved there might be a lot of gin involved as well but they will sit down with the writer 
and tell them great stories and maybe help them out a bit now then with the book they once in a while a celebrity 
will want to do that I think I think was one of those cases this is the million dollar mermaid which is by Esther 
Esther Williams 
mermaid Esther mermaid Esther Williams but it's it's dignity deal who did the writing he's the one who did all the 
collating and all the background research and whatnot but I think just from reading this thing I think that Esther Williams probably had a lot to do 
with this those of you who are young will not know who Esther Williams was it's very weird 
Vogue that she had swimming movies synchronized swimming movies you're 
gonna think I'm making it up if you're a 21st Century Kid you're going to think I'm making it up but I'm sure that YouTube has clips of Esther Williams set 
piece numbers of synchronized swimming who knows if you watch one of those clips you might get some of what was 
going on there was a magic tube and also this is she's got a million stories 
about where all the bodies are buried in Hollywood especially if they're buried at Sea then we have Ann Hood's little 
Ann Hood 
book Morning Star this is growing up with books one of a couple of books on this list that's all just it's just a 
bookish memoir I'm sure you've read a lot of those I love them absolutely love them and this that's what this is it 
it's really heartfelt uh example of that it doesn't break the mold any more than this next one does this next one is by 
Pamela Paul whose later book I hated 100 things we lost the internet was just it's dumb the 
worst possible criticism I make in the book is that it's dumb and that book is just dumb but she wrote a book before 
that that I really enjoyed this is my life with Bob and Bob is book of books Bob is not a 
person Bob is a list of books that she's been making about for her whole life of the books that she's read or wants to 
read and what she thought of them I thought this was utterly Charming I reviewed it I loved it I don't I don't 
speak for the rest of Pamela Paul's editorial life or her or her record as 
an employer or her subsequent books but uh my life of Bob was really good then 
we have Gladys Tabor a name who's she's gone now she was a bestseller she had her day in the Sun and she had her day 
in the Sun for a long series of books that could have been on this list the still Meadow books it was even a 
Stillmeadow cookbook I think they were all the rage they did really well and uh 
they're forgotten no one remembers Gladys Tabor anymore but she wrote a book called my own Cape Cod 
Gladys Tabor 
about an old ramshackle house on Cape Cod here in Massachusetts that she came 
to every year if she loved it she ended up spending a lot of time there and there are lots of Cape Cod books and this is one of my favorites and this 
next one is not Cape Cod but the island right off Cape Cod Martha's Vineyard this is by Madeleine Blaze this is to the new owners 
Madeline Blaise 
a bunch of stories that the conceited of the title is the uh the house the old house the old saltbox house is being 
sold and uh Madeline Blaise is telling stories about it all the stories that fill these rooms that informed this 
house and all the locality around it and lots and lots of a particular Martha's 
Vineyard in a particular era of Martha's Vineyard books like this always if they're what if they're done well they 
always capture that kind of an error this does a wonderful job of that uh then we have a classic this is Eudora 
Eudora Welty 
Welty one writer's beginnings slim work but incredibly good on 
basically one brilliant writer's Awakening to the world of books to the 
world of writing away from the world of childhood I infinitely rereadable uh we have 
Catherine White 
onward and upper in the garden by Catherine white I've recommended this thing many times before this is the New 
York Review of Books cover proving that every once in a while the kids at New York's review reports will actually pick a book to reprint that Steve likes so 
that Steve actually approves of it does occasionally happen Shelley the pursuit life and fate onward and under the car 
and every once in a while they pick somebody this is an absolute winner it's it's just a collection of meditations on 
gardening but like a lot of the past books on that are meditations on gardening it ends up being about a lot more than that and proves that she was 
twice the pro stylist of her husband uh then we have this is a little bit uh the the 23rd 21st 
century word would be problematic this is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> and Emily Kimbrough this is their famous book our hearts were young and gay 
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay 
Century old it's sold by the pocket load it was when it originally came out it 
sold by the Buckle though it's just two young girls traveling all over the world having all sorts of Airhead Adventures 
lots and lots of great one-liners in here there are some bits and pieces that are dated 
and that would definitely put this on the radar for some serious the sensors that the literary world has just ceded 
power to would certainly say that you can't reprint this thing but it's all you don't have to read more than 10 pages of this to know that it there's no 
malice anywhere in here there's no bigotry anywhere in here it's purely meant affectionately and fun 
and that's not much of the book anyway most of this book is this is a critical and this was reprinted a long 
long time ago compared it to innocence abroad by Mark Twain I think that comparison is apt it's a shame that it's 
not known anymore then we have uh Rose McAuley this is uh her collection of essays Personal Pleasures there are some 
Personal Pleasures 
real winning pieces in here this also I think had a reprint from the New York Review books and this is not that this 
is a cover from a more recent preprint that I never got I never got this Edition in the mail I'd love to have 
gotten it some of the things in here are wonderful uh some of the pieces in here are wonderful there's one that I go back 
to all the time about uh staying in bed there's one about uh the the rudeness of 
people that you meet when you're vacationing there's a great one about book catalogs just wonderful ruminations well worth your time to get Rose McAuley 
is well worth your time for lots of other stuff but as an entry point to the author certainly then we have a classic 
a towering work of literature any of you have ever read this will agree I don't think there's a naval in the house uh 
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek 
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard nature history nature meditations but 
done at a pitch of prose that oh my don't get it right off uh this is this 
one might be harder to find and maybe pricey this is by Catherine Rudy and it's postcards on parchment it's a study 
A Study of Old Books 
of old books very old books centuries old books and the things that people did 
to them what did you tuck into your book what did you add to your book how did 
you the word we would use now is personalize your book when it was easily the most valuable thing in your house 
aside from livestock what did you do to it I thought this would be dry and I 
loved it just it's a big oversized hardcover full of illustrations I thought it was fantastic a lot more 
personality than it needed I was taking it I was taken up with it completely uh then we have a biography a literary 
biography also a meditation this is By Carolyn Frazier this is Prairie fires which is all about Laura Ingalls Wilder 
Prairie Fires 
if you are a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books and you have never read a biography of her don't read anyone but this just read this one you can tell 
from the circles all over this thing that it was met with universal hosanna's of Praise including me a lot of the 
universal ozanas are praised that he'd got are from critics who would have ignored it if a certain little voice in 
their ear had not said definitely try this you are going to love it and you 
will find it easy to assign um this is all the layers of lowering 
equals wider that you don't get it she purposely made sure you didn't get them in her books uh couldn't couldn't 
recommend it more this next one is a lot like The Blanche recent cookbooks about uh Eleanor Roosevelt this is by Sylvia 
Jukes Morris this is her biography of Claire loose boo Claire Booth loose 
The Price of Fame 
um this is book number two The Honorable Claire Booth loose uh the 
first one is called the price of fame or something like that it's a two volume biography and like with the Eleanor 
Roosevelt books I strongly recommend both volumes I don't know how you won't know this figure at all but if you're if 
you're born in the 21st century you wouldn't under this figure at all but what a story what an amazing amazing 
story if you're at a yard sale or used bookstore you see the two hardcovers get 
them both and just read them both but if you've only got the time or inclination to read one read read the second one 
when she was a figure that again uh like Margaret Fuller everybody in her day 
thought about her considered her a heavyweight then we have Elizabeth Anderson's book private 
Employers 
government this is about uh employers it's not your job 
and all the sorts of the all the elements of what it means to be someone's employee that a lot of us 
don't think about I didn't think about it every page of this thing was a wow 
I've never thought about it that way moment about what employment in modern 
capitalistic societies really actually means what it actually means 
just fascinating absolutely fascinating you won't really step outside this far 
outside the bubble of that subject unless you employ yourself then you'll start to see because all of your friends 
will be employed by other people so then you'll start to see some of the realizations in this book a little bit 
dated or obviously coveted changed a lot of the relationship of employers and employee but still well worth your time 
if your library has a copy then we have Sarah chase this is uh 
uh this is a tough board this is the punishment of virtue lovely cover I don't think that was the 
The Punishment of Virtue 
U.S cover I think that was the UK cover this is about what the war in Afghanistan was doing to 
the people in Afghanistan too I've mentioned before on this channel many times that military histories always talk about casualties and wounded and 
killed on the battlefield and whatnot but the first and most important casualty of any War are the people the individual citizens the civilians who 
didn't have any say in the war happening they don't have any say in whether or not it will ever end they don't have any 
ability to pick up their whole life and move to someplace safe they're they're the ones that are most important this book is mostly about them and oh boy 
nobody comes out looking good but least of all America uh then we have Catherine 
Earthquakes 
miles this is Quake land I think I've recommended this thing on this channel before this is terrific just terrific 
it's about earthquakes you'll learn everything you need to know about what an earthquake is how it works how after 
Quakes work after shocks all that sort of stuff but this is also predictive a large part of this book is about 
super Quakes that are coming earthquakes that are coming and just statistically speaking they are 
unavoidable and what will happen to a lot of for instance America when that happens 
judging by what the past has been like just it won't if you're in an earthquake prone area it won't do anything to calm 
your anxieties but it's a terrific book uh then we have uh Leslie sharp this is amazing this is a wise wise woman and 
that comes through on every page of this book this is the Quarry Fox and this is just a natural history of 
Quarry Fox 
the little animals that live in the Catskills on one level could be called very small scale natural history but 
like Fox and I it doesn't feel that way it feels revelatory you will go back to 
this book you will love it and you will reread it often it's like Fox and I in 
that sense you will reread it often then we have uh Elaine Hayes this is her uh the queen of Bebop this is her biography 
Sarah Vaughn 
of the great Sarah Vaughn uh all the challenges that Sarah Vaughn had 
to face and all of the times when her sheer Talent made whole rooms just go quiet 
all rooms of people knew exactly the kind of jeering comments they were going to make suddenly they just couldn't do it 
there are lots and lots of spielberg-worthy moments in this thing even though it is a completely 
upstanding business-like biography then we have a favorite of mine the nature of Alexander by Mary Reynold this is a 
biography by a novelist Mary Renault was a novelist she wrote a biography of Alexander the Great and this is very 
impressionistic if you took her name off it you knew nothing about her and you just read this book you would definitely know that it was a biography written by 
a novelist it feels that way but that doesn't lessen it at all I it's terrific reading 
in many ways the most terrific reading this author ever did I mean I always say on this channel that 
you know you the reason that we don't have shelf loads of biographies and histories from people like Mary Reynolds 
because there was no money in non-fiction and plenty of it in fiction I don't know if that was true 
here or if she just felt compelled she wrote a Trilogy of books about Alexander the Great novels maybe she just felt 
compelled to write a book or maybe the money the offer was good in this particular case but I strongly recommend it a lot of you will ask me 
have asked me over the years what's really the one Alexander the Great biography that I should read 
depends on should I if you want you know a straightforward exhaustive long and 
occasionally boring thing then there are other people to read but this is none of those and I would say it also is should 
it's a one-of-a-kind reading experience um then we have Marjorie Williams 
who I've recommended on this channel many many times before for a great book called the woman at the Washington zoo 
but Marjorie Williams was a working journalist she wrote a lot and she wrote for deadline for money and there's 
Reputation 
another book of hers this is reputation this is a lot of her long-form political profiles 
uh that she would have wanted to exist she would have wanted these to 
outlive her she would have been probably a little sardonic about the woman at the Washington zoo which is very personal book 
ultimately a very personal book this is not except that it's an it's a miracle that she got a lot of her subjects to 
talk as I uninhibitedly as they did but I think she would have wanted this to live this is a lot of what she of the 
work that she was proud of and we have uh this is by Eve Laplante we go back to the Salem Witch Trials this is a Salem 
witch judge the life and repentance of Samuel Sewell who was a judge at the Salem witch 
Salem Witch Judge 
trials and went on to regret to to regret and also to want to understand what had happened what actually happened 
that made us all lose our minds um you won't get any definite advances in 
this book but it's an amazing portrait amazing just x-ray of this complicated guy then we have the great Lillian 
Hellman she uh was a very very thorny figure but she wrote a book called 
infinitely quotable acid 
scoundrel time that is great it's not a long book it's a great memoir infinitely quotable acid 
dripped in acid but a great Memoir strongly strongly recommended uh another 
figure will be coming up on this list that uh it's a little ironic that they both be on the same list but not yet first we have Christy Wilcox this is her 
venomous 
book of venomous which is a natural history a study of venomous animals in 
the world the cost of manufacturing Venom The evolutionary steps of why you would do 
that and how you would do it of what these creatures alike what the Venoms are like 
just fascinating first of all the author opens the book and closes the book by reminding you or pointing out to you if 
you didn't know it how many animals on Earth are venomous in one way or another it's quite a few it's not the ones you think of it's not just the ones you 
think of I loved it I just love pointed Natural History like this and I had to put a 
buffer between Lily and Hellman who's next person this is Francis Karen's biography of Mary McCarthy uh this is 
Mary McCarthy 
seeing Mary playing a terrific Mary McCarthy has been the subject of a few really good biographical treatments this 
is the best one a complicated not always attractive figure in American literature 
uh a figure in American literature that I love I think she's a towering figure both in fiction and in non-fiction uh 
and this book does her justice which is not easy to do in the ultimate compliment uh then we have Amy Webb this 
is a book by Amy Webb called the signals are talking about uh 
Amy Webb 
I don't know that the phrase is ever used in this book but it's really about the Overton window it really is about 
when and how the ideas the weird ideas from outside the normal discourse get 
their way inside and of course that subject has been radically changed you cannot write a 
book on that subject in America anymore without that being a trump book 
he is the main Highway and the principal Vector of that transformation and will be until he dies in the residence of The 
West Wing in 2047. he is now the only the only thing to talk about when you 
talk about Fringe theories getting into the mainstream the moving of the Overton window you are now you are talking about 
Donald Trump this book came out before that before that phenomenon and 
therefore is a little bit more clear-headed in discussing what that's like and what kind of a danger it represents and then we have uh Sarah 
Wheeler I've recommended this book many times before I go back to a travel book this is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON> her book about 
Sarah Wheeler 
Antarctica she travels all the way down to Antarctica and then experiences it in 
The Limited ways that most civilians can experience it and she's a terrific writer oh my God another author on this 
list where I recommend everything she ever wrote but I think this is the best thing that I've ever read by her uh attract one of those travel guys a lot 
of times we enjoy travel guides because we know we're never going to go through the arter the art the anguish of going 
to the place Antarctica would be strong on that list and so you can just enjoy it through her through her uh you may 
have Susanna Lipscomb this is an interesting tutor history book seen one of those already with Anne Boleyn now we 
The King is Dead 
have the king is dead which starts out as a study of the last World and 
testament of Henry VII but it's it broadens to become a study of a look at 
a very moving look at Henry's last weeks then his last year and the people who are all around him 
and what they wanted and maybe were there a couple who didn't want anything did he did he manage to know what was 
going on around him it just as a book about the death of a king I just thought it was memorably good 
uh we have definitely American Next this is uh this close to Happy really moving study of her dealing with 
Close to Happy 
massive mood swings what what she calls clinical depression 
incredibly touching you won't your heart will be in your throat the whole time for the things that she's going through for the way that her own mind seems to 
be preventing her from being happy uh in ways that she really describes well 
and then we have Rosemary riddle I don't know that this ever had an American release I loved it it's uh to be fair 
it's about a judge it's her Memoir of being a district court judge lots and lots of well-burnished stories stories 
have obviously told many times before but lots of meditations too on the nature of Justice on the nature of the 
judicial system terrific I don't know how easy it would be to find but it's terrific then we 
have uh Martha galhorn this is one book among many that I could recommend by her this is her Memoir travels with myself 
and another it's great this is great literature 
like everything she wrote including her novels which are much much better 
than the novels of her husband Ernest Hemingway and he torpedoed them specifically because he knew that 
the reason why we we have 10 000 commemorative editions of everything that Ernest Hemingway ever crapped out 
and no reprints of Martha Gellhorn is because of Ernest Hemingway it's the longest case of literary Revenge I've 
seen this side of the trollop family the reason that we study Anthony trollope's novels in school and not the novels of 
his mother is because of Anthony trollope same thing here only here you don't even have anything edible here 
this is just a a big blustering a-hole doing his best to bury a competitor even 
though the competitor was the wife of his bedroom despicable so I very much recommend her 
novels but I also reckon this is a great book all alone by itself much better than anything 
uh then we have a penguin classic I've recommended this book many many times before this is what travels in West 
Africa by Mary Kinsey talk about arms traveling she went where no one had gone 
before not men not the hardiest explorers of any kind she did it with a parasol and a meshnet over her Bonnet 
and a whole lot of grit and wrote a book this book was a massive bestseller I 
don't have this penguin classic but you can get it obviously it's depending on us I'm very happy to see that it is make 
sure some terrific reading and then we have uh Svetlana alexovich this is one of many books the first I could have 
liked with a few titles a few figures that we've seen on this as I could easily have included 
lots of her work this is the unwomanly face of War where she interviews and talks with a 
whole bunch of women who fought during World War II as an antidote to World War II books 
that would have you believe that would just tacitly assume that no women fought in World War II but also as an antidote 
to Florence Nightingale style of depersoning human the women who fought 
in Wars as being somehow less Savage less connected less invested than the men terrific terrific stuff I just uh I 
just really really love it uh then we have uh leonda Lynn hopped not sure if 
you say that's how you say her name she wrote a book that I really loved called Crow Planet but that's not the one I'm 
recommending although I could instead of recommending the urban bestiary this is her book about all the animals that live 
with us in our cities all the animals that go through my trash every night this is a book about them 
and how they've adapted and what they're like and all sorts of tidbits like that a fairly common approach to a book but 
wonderfully down here just wonderfully done uh we have Ruth cracknell next this is Journey from Venice I have a soft 
spot for non-fiction about Venice this is her book about her time in Venice and her memories wonderful stuff not a whole 
lot despite the the soft focus of the cover there's not a whole lot of the CRP sentimentality here that tends to ruin 
Venice books so I strongly recommend it then we have Elizabeth Longford uh the mother of the aforementioned Anthony 
Frasier this is her big fat biography of Queen Victoria won the James Tate black prize major 
prize uh wonderful biography of Victoria may very well be no offense to listen straight to but 
this may very well be the best biography of Victoria that's ever been written uh I don't have the particular hardcover 
edition of this that I really want sooner or later I will see it but just terrifically go to long of a fittingly 
long book then we have Susan Casey this is voices in the ocean her study of what we know about dolphins 
from what we can hear rather than a lot of what we can see and it broadens out 
to all the other singing citations that lived in the oceans and what we can learn about them what the the superstructure of those Sonic 
constructions and what they're all about lovely wonderful stuff perfectly done Natural History uh we have Katie 
Fallon's book vulture about an unloved bird this is about vultures of all kinds 
I also perfectly done natural history but these things that you think you know about them you don't know a lot most 
people don't know a lot about the fascinating evolution of biology of vultures their social structure what 
they're like they don't end up being lovable this book never actually makes them lovable but you'll know a lot more 
about them it'll mean a lot more then we have Margaret McMillan I've recommended this author many times she's another example on this list or someone I could 
have recommended everything she's ever written in this case I chose the war that ended peace about uh 
the road to World War One as you can tell on the cover there right because you have the young Kaiser and a 
very young Winston Churchill this is about she resists the construction of the 
world war one was inevitable but this is about in ways the inevitability of world war one terrific well well trod ground 
lots of historians have written about that this is marvelously done she is such an insightful historian just it's 
incredibly insightful uh then we have Carolyn Alexander she wrote a book on the endurance 
probably a lot of you know that book but she wrote a book uh on Homer and the the world of The Iliad the war that killed 
Achilles I can't recommend this strongly enough what a meditation this is not just on the Iliad although there are 
parts of meditations on the alien in this book that are incredibly good but also on warfare 
just in general uh it is after all booktube at War this is just a terrific 
meditation on that a really revisitable book uh then we have another book that 
Hemingway recognized was written much better than anything that he could write he in this case he was willing to praise 
it but only because the author had the good grace to die if she'd been alive he would have made sure that she didn't get another 
contract this is Beryl markham's work West with a knight which is just about as beautiful an adventure Memoir as you 
could ask for it has all of the adventure and the oversized personalities of Mary 
kingsley's work but much better written no offense to Mary Kingsley but prose doesn't get much better than this just 
just wonderful and it always comes with I'm sure that this Edition but every Edition you see it even has a forward by 
Martha California uh every edition of barrel Markham of West with the night always has 
Hemingway's uh famous comment that it's a better book than he ever wrote 
there's a little bit of an edge to that especially when he's kind of forward by by Martha gelhard but we'll move on uh 
we'll move on to uh Hermione Lee who again is another figure on this list who I could legitimately put every book that 
she wrote she was by she's a biographer and her books are great except for the one I got to review which 
I did not like but this is her biography of Willa Cather I could have put almost any book on here but this is just 
terrific at Willa Catherine is an absolutely fascinating figure anyway but leave it 
to Hermione to figure out to find all of the ways that she's fascinating including ways that have eluded other 
biographers uh I'm not 100 sure that this will send you running back to Willa Catherine's 
novels it did me but it might but oh my what a story just doesn't let up 
uh then we have another travel writing book this is the great Freya Stark who's not known anymore this is her book uh a 
winner in Arabia but really this could be any book refers water caustic utterly unblinking unsentimental 
eye for writing what's around here God there were travel writing books about Arabia at the time when she was writing 
this a century ago that just dripped in Schmaltz and she knew that and you you get lots of real Sly humor in her 
writing as a result uh then we have Brenda Peterson's book wolf Nation this starts out as a natural history of 
of the wolf especially in America uh and then it entwines stories with about the 
wolf's history in America and the massive genocidal extermination campaign that was waged against the wolf in 
America but it moves on from there to broader issues of natural history and also lots of Natural History 
conservation and not lots of natural history about wolves comes with one of those all-encompassing 
nature books that it it far exceeds its remit and just does a great job uh then 
we have uh uh let's see here is this going to show up yes it is there we go the writing 
life uh terrific book on the craft of writing on the job of 
meeting deadlines on the the workload involved wonderful wonderful stuff with big fat trade paperback very satisfying 
for those of you like to read about writing uh and I think we're going to finish the list here yes over over an 
hour we're going to finish this with the great Carlotta Gall this is uh dispatches of hers lots and lots of 
deadline pros of The Wrong Enemy America in Afghanistan so we'll end back with 
Afghanistan piercing the good stuff here brutal brutal stuff uh for a woman who went 
where the men were going to get the stories and Gotham and just wrote the hell out of it this is just again I'm 
sorry to end on a grim note I don't this this was all alphabetized by my by my computer so I didn't set these up or I 
would have ended on a happy note but this is this is not a happy book but it is penetratingly good 
uh on what on some of the things that America did in Afghanistan and what it meant for the afghanis on the ground 
uh so we'll we'll end with that with reportage but really really good report really really unmissively good and there 
you go uh that is that is a exactly what 
Stephanie Cohen wanted that is that is 100 non-fiction book recommendation list for your popcorn and your Pinot Grigio 
and your notebook uh also uh just a little bit for someone who sent 
me an email no names at all but an email about the first non-fiction recommendation list I 
made in which this person said hey buddy we'll we're buddies when I tell you we 
are but hey buddy couldn't help but notice that all five of the books on your first non-fiction recommendation 
list were by chicks bet you couldn't extend that list to 10. 
the only comment I'll make here is the next time you want to make a bet let's make sure there's five figures of cash in the notary public in the room okay 
that was a hundred and if you don't think I could make this list a thousand you haven't been watching this channel 
until they have to end on a contention I'm gonna wrap this up for now that's a 
hundred non-fiction recommendations from Steve I will see you soon thank you 
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