Need a Non-Fiction Book Recommendation

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

I missed my mom's birthday : and now I need to send an "I'm Sorry" present : She's a book person and I'm a book person. She loves to read nonfiction, especially historical nonfiction. (Erik Devil in the White City Larsen is one of her all time favorites.)

I'm a mostly fiction nut ... so my knowledge of nonfiction is sparse. So:

Any recommendations?

[A&A]

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother.

at Powells:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9781594481925-0


And see, it's even about a mother. So you could write a nice inscription to your mother about the "importance of mothers in our lives" or something.

[robinkate]

I liked the Color of Water too. Another good book I read recently is Sea Captain's Wife, a biography of a New England white woman in the 1860s whose first husband is a Confederate soldier and second husband a black sea captain.

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by robinkate

Another good book I read recently is Sea Captain's Wife, a biography of a New England white woman in the 1860s whose first husband is a Confederate soldier and second husband a black sea captain.

I'll have to look this one up. My Mom loved Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea... hmmm...

[Thalia the Muse]

Nathaniel Philbrick has a newer one out (I loved Heart of the Sea too!), on the Mayflower and the colonists.

Some others I've really enjoyed myself, or heard highly recommended:

Galileo's Daughter
The Orchid Thief
The Professor and the Madman
The Wilder Shores of Love (profiles of several extraordinary woman travelers -- Isabel Burton, Aimee Dubuque Rivery, etc.)
Strapless (portrait of the woman who posed for Sargent's famous painting Madame X)
Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
A Distant Mirror, by Barbara Tuchman -- an oldie but a goodie!
The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci

[zinemama]

Oh, oh! Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea!! Get her this one!

It's the account of a steamship sinking in the 1850's and also the story of the modern-day folks who hunt for its lost treasure. Written with all the drama of a novel, but thoroughly researched, it makes the steamship sinking and its passengers totally come alive, it is a total page turner. You will want to borrow it from your mom when she's done, I guarantee it.

Or, for something completely different and also historical, what about The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald. The hilarious account of a woman who goes (reluctantly) to live on a chicken farm in the 1940's in the Pacific NW. A best-seller back then, and for good reason.

[Amaranth]

How about Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral" ?

[AEZMama]

Anything by Louis deBernieres. Love his writing!!! He wrote "Corelli's Mandolin."

[Valkyrie9]

If we're going nautically-related, I recommend "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson. It is about a group of recreational divers that find a WWII-era submarine in the Atlantic, but no one can identify it. Very, very good!