Best Non-Fiction works
Discover the best non-fiction books of all time! Explore top-rated works in history, science, biography, and more. Find your next great read today.
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Nightmares Echo
by Katlyn Stewart
Even as a young girl she knew she was different, knew she had secrets that must be hidden from view. This story delves into the mind of a child as she grows into womanhood, as she learns to live with and deal with sexual abuse from the hands of her Father ... and the abuse that follows her in the future. More importantly this story is about courage and perseverance, of abuse -- sexual, physical, verbal -- but not just about the abuse, but also the nightmares that echo long after the damage is done. The hiding within the soul, the courage to endure and the countless stories you tell yourself while pushing the pain down below the surface and the struggles through life and love that you must challenge when as a young person you already have a "monkey on your back."
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Name All the Animals
by Alison Smith
A story of grief and secret love, of a family holding on to the memory of a lost child, "Name all the Animals" is an extraordinary memoir about a girl who learns to define herself beyond the death of her brother.
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Goat
by Brad Land
Reeling from a terrifying assault that has left him physically injured and psychologically shattered, nineteen-year-old Brad Land must also contend with unsympathetic local police, parents who can barely discuss “the incident” (as they call it), a brother riddled with guilt but unable to slow down enough for Brad to keep up, and the feeling that he’ll never be normal again. When Brad’s brother enrolls at Clemson University and pledges a fraternity, Brad believes he’s being left behind once and for all. Desperate to belong, he follows. What happens there—in the name of “brotherhood,” and with the supposed goal of forging a scholar and a gentleman from the raw materials of boyhood—involves torturous late-night hazing, heartbreaking estrangement from his brother, and, finally, the death of a fellow pledge. Ultimately, Brad must weigh total alienation from his newfound community against accepting a form of brutality he already knows too well. A searing memoir of masculinity, violence, and brotherhood,Goatprovides an unprecedented window into the emotional landscape of young men and introduces a writer of uncommon grace and power.
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All in Good Time
by Jonathan Schwartz
All in Good Time is a luminous memoir about growing up in the shadow of the golden age of songwriting and Sinatra, from the celebrated radio personality and novelist Jonathan Schwartz. "Dancing in the Dark." "That's Entertainment." "By Myself." "You and the Night and the Music." They are part of the American Songbook, and were all composed by Arthur Schwartz, the elusive father at the center of his son's beautifully written book. Imagine a childhood in which Judy Garland sings you lullabies, Jackie Robinson hits you fly balls, and yet you're lonely enough to sneak into the houses of Beverly Hills neighbors and hide behind curtains to watch real families at dinner. At the age of nine, Jonathan Schwartz began broadcasting his father's songs on a homemade radio station, and would eventually perform those songs, and others, as a pianist-singer in the saloons of London and Paris, meeting Frank Sinatra for the first time along the way. (His portrait of Sinatra is as affectionate and accurate as any written to date.) Schwartz's love for a married woman caught up in the fervor of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and his other relationships with both lovers and wives, surround his eventually successful career on New York radio. The men and women who have roles to play include Richard Rodgers, Nelson Riddle, Carly Simon, Jimmy Van Heusen, Bennett Cerf, Elizabeth Taylor, and, of course, Sinatra himself. Schwartz writes of the start of FM radio, the inception of the LP, and the constantly changing flavors of popular music, while revealing the darker corners of his own history. Most of all, Jonathan Schwartz embraces the legacy his father left him: a passion for music, honored with both pride and sorrow.
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Tuesdays with Morrie
by Mitch Albom
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The beloved book that has changed millions of lives with the story of an unforgettable friendship, the timeless wisdom of older generations, and healing lessons on loss and grief “A wonderful book, a story of the heart told by a writer with soul.”—Los Angeles Times “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live. Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.
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The Five People You Meet in Heaven
by Mitch Albom
Eddie dies on his eighty-third birthday in a tragic accident - He awakens in the afterlife where he learns that heaven is where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it.
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The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd
The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of Black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
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Traci Lords: Underneath It All
by Traci Lords
One of America's most misunderstood stars--the woman who almost brought down an industry--bares her soul in this illuminating personal story that sets the record straight. 100 b&w photos throughout. 16-page color photo insert.