As 2009 came to a screeching halt, I was in high-gear with my reading list, trying to out-strip my 2008 score of forty books in a year. I didn’t make it, but I roared off to a good start for 2010.
In September 2012, I updated this list to include affiliate links to IndieBound. If you are interested in buying one of the books on this list, buy it from an independent bookstore. You might get it cheaper elsewhere, but, come on, do you really want to be known as a penny-pinching cheap skate?
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
by Simon WinchesterEiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
by Jon KrakauerThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006
by Briane Greene and Tim Folger (Editors)Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
by Jon KrakauerSalt: A World History
by Mark KurlanskyThe Forever War
by Joe HaldemanFordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
by Greg Grandin1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
by Charles C. MannThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003
by Richard Dawkins and Tim Folger (Editors)The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Tim EganWhat Would Google Do?
by Jeff JarvisSister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences
by Kitty Burns FloreyThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004
by Steven Pinker and Tim Folger (Editors)The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
by Graham FarmeloThe World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
by Daniel J. LevitinThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007
by Richard Preston and Tim Folger (Editors)Best Music Writing 2009
by Marcus GrielThe Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
by Sarah ChayesThe Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic–and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by Steven JohnsonHigh Wire Act: Ted Rogers and the Empire that Debt Built
by Caroline van Hasselt
LEGO: A Love Story
by Jonathan BenderThe Wordy Shipmates
by Sarah VowellDecoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer–and the Century-long Search to Discover Its Secrets
by Jo MarchantThe Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins, Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and the Minimum Wage
by Kirstin DowneyAssassination Vacation
by Sarah VowellThe Ecology of Place: Planning for Environment, Economy, and Community
by Kristi Manning and Timothy BeatleyStuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things
by Randy O. FrostSelf-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man
by Norah VincentThe Beats: A Graphic History
by Harvey Pekar, Paul Buhle, and Ed PiskorOn the Grid: A Plot of Land, An Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make Our World Work
by Scott HulerBusting Vegas: A True Story of Monumental Excess, Sex, Love, Violence, and Beating the Odds
by Ben MezrichUnder the Tuscan Sun
by Frances MayesThe Partly Cloudy Patriot
by Sarah VowellBringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
by Ben MezrichSharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries
by Suad AmiryHalf the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
by Nicholas D. KristofReading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Azar NafisiA Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
by Simon WinchesterO Jerusalem!
by Larry Collins and Dominique LapierreMy Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm
by Manny HowardPacking for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
by Mary RoachBanana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
by Dan KoeppelThe Best Technology Writing 2010
by Julian DibbellJerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
by Amy Dockser MarcusBaby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption
by Scott SimonCahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi
by Timothy R. PauketatAgent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
by Ben MacintyreParallel Play
by Tim PageSmoot's Ear: The Measure of Humanity
by Robert TavernorThe Best American Science Writing 2010
by Jerome Groopman and Jesse Cohen (Editors)At Home: A Short History of Private Life
by Bill BrysonThe Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time
by Jeff DeckThe Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Erik Larson
Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
by Alfie KohnThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2010
by Freeman Dyson and Tim Folger (Editors)God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World–and Why Their Differences Matter
by Stephen ProtheroThe Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America
by Timothy Egan1421: The Year China Discovered America
by Gavin MenziesPlayful Parenting
by Lawrence J. CohenIsaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by Erik Larson