4 Great Non-Business Books to Read in May
Reading business books is a great way to learn new skills, strategies, and perspectives... but a steady diet of business how-to reading can also get really dull. (I ghostwrite a lot of business books, and even I think so.)
Since I also read a lot and am often asked to recommend books, each month I'll highlight four great books -- but with a twist. Each book was also recommended to me by a writer whose work I respect.
Why? My Principle of Writer Relativity is almost always accurate: If you enjoy reading what a writer writes, you'll also enjoy reading what that writer likes to read.
Here are four great non-business books, recommended by four outstanding writers:
The Forever War by Dexter Filkins. "A great book that's hot to the touch (the line is stolen from Brett Anderson of the Times-Picayune, by the way â€"- great guy, even better food writer). The ending is all the things an ending should be: Blunt, smart, powerful, layered, nuanced, direct. You know when a really amazing rock concert is over and the music stops there's that moment where everyone almost sags and the energy is sucked out of the room, as if it lived only as long as the amps hummed? That's what it feels like when you read the last page of this book." -- Wright Thompson, senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com.
Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner. "One of the most important and lesser known works of modern environmentalism, despite numerous awards and a PBS series about it. Reisner takes the dry, technical subject of water rights in the American West and makes it gripping, almost whodunit material, from how Los Angeles stole most of its water supply from the Owens River Valley to why Glen Canyon Dam may one day collapse because of the very reservoir it was meant to create." -- Joe Lindsey, contributing writer for Bicycling magazine, writes the always-outstanding Boulder Report.
The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon. "National Book Award-winner, and no wonder. For anyone who struggles with depression the book is a godsend. Not only did it compile every bit of cutting-edge data on the disease--something no one had ever done before--it read like a good novel, as Solomon buttressed the information with his personal torment. The magazine publisher Frances Lear said that what we writers do, whether we're Shakespeare or Danielle Steele, is wrap information in entertainment. Well said, and The Noonday Demon does both beautifully. It is also the only book on my lists that is likely to be saving the lives of certain desperate readers every day." -- James Tabor, author of Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth (and others.)
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. "Did not garner as much attention as it should have. It is as good as John Krakauer's Mt. Everest disaster, Into Thin Air, and just as chilling in the deep sea." -- Zach Shore, author of Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions.
Check them out!
Note: If you have a book you would like to recommend, send me an email using the "Contact" link under my photo and tell me why. Or just leave a comment below. If I like the book I might include your recommendation in an upcoming month alongside recommendations from other writers.
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