book time

[lirazel]

Apparently for the first time in my life I'm interested in reading non-fiction. I've always been more a novel-type person and haven't really been drawn to reading a lot of full-length books in the non-fiction genre. But I guess because I'm not in school anymore, I've been wanting to lately.

So I was wondering if any of you have any recs for me, non-fiction books that you really love and/or think I'd enjoy.

I'm not really into memoirs as a genre and no self-help type-things, but I love anything involving history or culture, especially works that explore specific or obsucre moments in history or cultural movements. As a general rule, I also prefer works that don't have a lot to do with contemporary American life. I mean, I live that life; I like to learn about lives that are really different than mine. I'm less interested in biographies of specific people than I am in works about larger groups, events, etc., but if you have an especially awesome one in mind, feel free to let me know.

Anyone?

Comments

[gingerwall.livejournal.com]

I should add that the main reason why I love Crazy for God is because he manages to criticize the politicization of religion (or religionization of politics) without being a jerk, and from a compassionate perspective that is full of insight. Anybody can be a liberal, atheist asshole (e.g., the late Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins), but I found it really refreshing to get the perspective of someone who is deeply religious and spiritual talk about the movement in a way that was critical yet still very humanizing.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have to admit if you hadn't added this, I probably wouldn't have checked out that book, because as a deeply religious person, I get SO SICK of assholes telling me I'm stupid because I have faith. This makes me feel better about it.

Thank you for the recs!

[gingerwall.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realized when I signed up for Goodreads this morning, and it suddenly starting recommending Atheism books as similar to Crazy for God, that I hadn't really communicated the tone/message of the book very clearly the first time around. (Even Goodreads is confused!)

I'm an agnostic who likes going to (a reconciling, socially-liberal) church, but I initially borrowed a copy of the book that belonged to my very religious college roommate who just kept gushing about it to me, so I think the message resonates for a lot of people with different beliefs.