It's not the best non-fiction book I have read, but it's the one that I got the most out of...
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
A lot of people hate this book because they think she's just a rich person playing around and has too much attitude. Even if you feel that way - the takeaways from this are eye-opening. I always call out people in conversations who say anything negative about people with little to no money and minimum wage jobs.
Miss Manner's Guide to Excrutiatiingly Correct Beahvior - one of the wittiest books of all time - by Judith Martin, or Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking - a refreshingly honest and extremely funny autobiography.
I've read many, but the first that I remember reading, and that I've re-read many times since, is Thor Heyerdahl's "The Kon-Tiki Expedition".
Enthralling, funny, horrifying, almost unbelievable.
I first read it when I was about 11, and can't tell you how often I've re-read it since.
I am currently reading poetry books, these are all amazing:
Finding Identity by Silenus
Of Yesteryear by Lauren Eden
Peace and Other Radical Ideas by Sasha Temerte
Back in about 1970 I read 'The Naked Ape' by Dr Desmond Morris. It really made me think and provided a foundation for much thought that followed it, not just mine but in academic circles too. By modern standards, the book stated fairly obvious facts but the point is they were not obvious until they were pointed out in the first place by this book.
I once read a book which inspired me to become a lifelong humanist, leftist, and humanitarian. It taught me the dangers of evil right-wing propaganda, and the evil of a philosophy based upon the concept that citizens' only obligation in life was to live and die for the state. It was written by hitler while he was in prison for trying to overthrow the government. If you are reading this, you know the title.
"Nomadland" by Jessica Bruder.
It's about people the "recovered" economy left behind---people who live in their
vans (and in one case, a Prius), and travel to wherever they can get (often demeaning, minimum-wage) work.
At once heartbreaking and inspiring.
You will never look at an unmarked white van the same way again after reading this.
I confess, I read very little nonfiction. The last one was "In the Heart of the Sea," about the whaling ship that inspired Melville to write "Moby Dick"--only part of the story of what happened to those on board.
After reading it, I saw the movie adaptation, which took some liberties, then made a trip to Nantucket, seeing the homes of some of the real men who sailed on the Essex, visiting the whaling museum, and dreading the car on those picturesque damned cobblestones, which scraped the underside of the vehicle and jarred my spine.
Photoshop 7 Bible. I have no use for self help books. I'm OK You're OK was good but obvious and the topic was covered on page one. The Power of Positive Thinking is a classic with good reason. Actually life changing in another way was Joy of Cooking.
i walked around it for a number of years, but eventually read" a study of history" by arnold toynbee. it is much better then i thought. as an old-world type scholar, the professor makes a lot of sense of world history.
Not sure it’s inspirational, but I found the serpent and the rainbow to be fascinating. Yes, it’s nonfiction. Nothing at all like that abomination of film.
I think it's Capital by Karl Marx,although I'm not his fan,because this book provides the simplest explanation of how national wealth is created and distributed, and it also draws the most accessible scheme for creating added value by capitalists.
That would have been an Encyclopedia for many of us born before TV was everywhere.
I have read so many I don't remember half of them and I'm never inspired by fiction.