Great Nonfiction Reads: Home

Science writer Royte leads us on the wild adventure that begins once our trash hits the bottom of the can. Along the way, we meet an odor chemist who explains why trash smells so bad; garbage fairies and recycling gurus; neighbors of massive waste dumps; CEOs making fortunes by encouraging waste or encouraging recycling--often both at the same time; scientists trying to revive our most polluted places; fertilizer fanatics and adventurers who kayak amid sewage; and even a guy who swears by recycling human waste.

Did you know that jackalopes are real, and their horns are caused by viruses? Read on and be amazed.

"A book about cheating teachers, bizarre baby names, and crack-selling mama’s boys."

Meet the reclusive Tarahumara Indian tribe. Their hunting strategy is to chase an animal until it dies of exhaustion.

"The definitive history of coffee - from its discovery on an Ethiopian mountainside to the age of Starbucks and the coffee crisis of the twenty-first century. Replete with a cast of eccentric characters-all of them suffused with a passion for the golden bean-Uncommon Grounds is nothing less than a coffee-flavored history of the world"

Who knew corn was so insidious?

To err is human. Yet most of us go through life assuming (and sometimes insisting) that we are right about nearly everything. Journalist Kathryn Schulz explores why we find it so gratifying to be right and so maddening to be wrong.

A collection of stories originally published in Reader's Digest, about individuals overcoming adversity.

Based on the National Public Radio series, This I Believe features eighty essays from well known figures such as Bill Gates, as well as from ordinary people with stories to tell.

Each short chapter covers a horrifically bad decision made by the rich and powerful and dim-witted. Learn such lessons as:
1. Never trust Greeks bearing gifts of large wooden horses.
2. Avoid building elementary schools on toxic waste dumps.
3. Even if you use brightly colored paint on the boats, it's quite easy to misplace an entire country's navy.
You never knew history was this humorous!

A story exciting enough to be a movie, told in short 3 page chapters. 98 pages

A pocket sized book with short chapters (some only 3 pages long) describing how the steps we take to "live green" can sometimes have unintended consequences.

A short guide to making your time between relationships the best time of your life.

An easy to read parable about dealing with change in the workplace. 94 pages.

A best selling response to the problem of suffering. Written from a Christian perspective.

A conversational look at the difficulties women face in the workplace and how to overcome them.

Three veterans, a Hurricane Katrina survivor, and a survivor of childhood sexual abuse tell their stories of recovery in their own words. Gripping and easy to read.

"A frightening and fascinating masterpiece of science reporting that read like a detective story."

The autobiography of Nikola Telsa, who immigrated to the US to work for Thomas Edison, and then earned fame on his own as a pioneer of electricity. Conversational and short.

A quick, readable book on time management.