Favorite Non-Fiction Author?

[cristo33]

What non-fiction authors do you like? Who's your favorite? Why?

[readertim109]

James Patterson is my favorite. Although, I got sucked into his series of novels, so I spend so much time reading him that I have to call him my favorite. It's not necessarily that he's the best author; it's just that I don't read anyone else as much to compare. He is great, though. I'm a big fan.

[sleepydumpling]

Well I am a total travel book junkie, so there are plenty to choose from there. My favourite would have to be Michael Palin though.

[Herstory]

Gregg Olsen - The Deep Dark
Gregg Olsen - Starvation Heights

Nathaniel Philbrick - Mayflower

Mary Roach - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers

[NSUSA]

I have read a few books by Noam Chomsky. I like his books, but he is controversial.

[Dori]

David McCullough's 1776 was excellent. He's probably my favorite.

[babypinkcandygirl]

alain de boton, bill bryson, simon schama, nigella lawson... ive been seriously getting into non fiction over the past year. i know it sounds silly but i never really approached factual books in the same way as fiction but i have come to realise they are often beautifully written and just as absorbing. i must be the only person in the world who reads cook books curled up in bed as though it were a novel!

[Dori]

I've read an excerpt from Boswell's Life of Johnson and I'm already a fan. Here it is:

He recieved me very courteously; but it must be confessed that his apartment, and furniture, and morning dress, were sufficiently uncouth. His brown suit of clothes looked very rusty; he had on a little old shrivelled unpowdered wig, which was too small for his head; his shirtneck and knees of his breeches were loose; his black worsted stockings ill drawn up; and he had a pair of unbuckled shoes by way of slippers. But all these slovenly particulars were forgotten the moment he began to talk.

Next chance I get (Christmas!), I'm picking up this biography.

[Mr. Pessimistic]

Richard Dawkins
Michael Shermer
Jared Diamond
Michael Pollan

I just love science based non-fiction.


Mr. P.

[Eric]

Slavoj Zizek! He's a Lacanian-Marxist philosopher and cultural critic from Slovenia. He is an excellent introduction to Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, which can be intimidating even to theory junkies! He explains tough Lacanian concepts like "the Real", "the mirror stage", the "petit objet a", etc. by using examples from pop culture (the "Matrix" trilogy, Hitchcock movies...even the differences between European and American toilets!).

A great place to start would be one of the documentaries he's made, such as "The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema" (scenes from the film can be watched at http://www.thepervertsguide.com/clips.html)

[SheldrakeWriter]

David Starkey. Whatever you may think about his media persona, his writing combines tabloid panache with original historical scholarship that is deeply engaging.

[rachellinn]

Oh my goodness, Robert K. Massie! If you are interested in Russian history at all, especially the Romanov downfall, that tragic story that everyone knows, then you have to check him out. But he's also written other books on Russian history that are great, too. He writes very fluidly and easily, so you don't need to know anything to pick one of his books up. I found myself wanting to jump into his book on Catherine the Great, it was so well-penned.

And, as someone already mentioned here, Stiff by Mary Roach was fascinating. It made me completely rethink death and dying. And I still say if I hadn't gone into my current field, I'd want to check out mortuary science.

[FNAWrite]

I'd suggest Mike Dash.

"The First family" - founding of the Mafia in the US

"Satan's Circus" - crime and police corription in post-war and fin de siecle New York

"Tulipomania" - how speculation in tulip bulbs destroyed a national economy

All were fast-paced and densely fact-filled.

-- 27 Jan 2014, 13:48 --

I'd also comment on a couple of older posts in this old thread:

The first response to "Who is your favorite non-fiction author?" is "James Patterson", a best selling novelist.

Later, it is suggested that a "great place to start" with another favorite "non-fiction author" would be to watch a film the author has made, which in my mind doesn't say much about any books this "favorite author" may have written.

[suzy1124]

Cookbooks, nutrition books, homeopathic medicine, gemology, travel, biographies, gardening, crafts, Art, Political...

Julia Child, Dr. Linus Pauling, M.F.K. Fisher, A.J. Liebling, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Wm. Esser, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, ( Life Extension ) Calvin Trillin, Wm. Fodor, D.H. L awrence, Paul Theroux, Bruce Chatwin....Mark Levin, Charles Krauthammer...Margaret Thatcher...

[ITnker]

It takes a lot for an author to relate to the biggest criminals in the headlines and tell their story.

Ann Rule has written about some of the most gruesome criminals and his or her most shocking acts of crime.