Books like The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women
12 books with a reading profile close to The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore. Clear-cut; a moderate read.
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1
EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS
by John Green
history, analytical
John Green tracks the history and persistence of tuberculosis, a bacterial infection that has killed more humans than any other pathogen.
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2
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
by Erik Larson
history, analytical
Erik Larson weaves together the true accounts of two men who shaped Chicago during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
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3
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann
history, analytical
During the 1920s, the Osage Nation in Oklahoma became the wealthiest people per capita in the world after oil was discovered beneath their reservation.
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4
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
history, analytical
Patrick Radden Keefe reconstructs the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten taken from her Belfast home by the Irish Republican Army.
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5
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
history, analytical
Yuval Noah Harari tracks the biological and social evolution of Homo sapiens from our origins as a minor African primate to our current dominance over the biosphere.
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6
How Music Works
by David Byrne
history, analytical
David Byrne argues that musical composition is driven by external constraints rather than pure internal inspiration.
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7
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
by Jon Krakauer
history, analytical
Jon Krakauer examines the 1984 murders of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter, committed by her brothers-in-law, Ron and Dan Lafferty.
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8
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story
Also clear-cut · history, analytical
Michael Lewis chronicles the efforts of a clandestine group of scientists and public health officials who spent years preparing for a viral outbreak before COVID-19 surfaced.
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9
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride
Also clear-cut · history, narrative
Daniel James Brown reconstructs the 1846 Donner Party disaster through the specific experiences of Sarah Graves, a twenty-one-year-old newlywed traveling west from Illinois.
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10
This Is Your Mind on Plants
analytical, narrative
Michael Pollan examines the human relationship with three distinct plant-derived psychoactive substances: opium, caffeine, and mescaline.
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11
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
by Bill Bryson
Also clear-cut · history, analytical
Bill Bryson uses his 1851 Norfolk rectory as a physical map to trace how the modern domestic world evolved.
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12
Nuclear War: A Scenario
Also clear-cut · history, analytical
Annie Jacobsen constructs a minute-by-minute timeline of a fictional nuclear exchange triggered by a North Korean strike on Washington, D.C.
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